The hard part

The whale is the last of the seven images, fish, eagles, and a frog, that are going on the quilt, in the orange "frames."  I am really pleased with the way all the fusing turned out. It was labor intensive, but worth every minute.

That's the good news. 

The bad news is that I still haven't gotten very good at machine quilting, and that part is frustrating.

Read on.....

This the hard part for me - the machine quilting. I am doing  part of the quilting on the background before I fuse the images on in the "frames."

But it's not going well.

I used thermore batting, because it's light, but the fabric doesn't cling to it. The backing is a light cotton, and I'm getting some unpleasant puckers and tucks on the back. 

I know I'm not the first person this has happened to, but I have had so much fun with everything up to now on this quilt, and this is just a little setback.

 If necessary, I will buy more of these two fabrics, and start this part over. Hope it doesn't come to that.

 So far the front looks good. And since it is a wall quilt, I know the back won't show. However, it is a gift, so I want it to look as good as possible.

I couldn't sleep last night, so about 1:30 I started sewing this, but I spent more time with my little ripper than I did at the sewing machine.

Hope it goes better today!