FMQing Blues

I'd finished the red and green FMQ on the primary colored large stars of my Whirligiggles quilt  (post dated 9/5/19) and the third bold color left to do was the royal blue. I would follow the same pattern I had on the red and green threaded ones. The blue star was central. I'd left it until last because my FMQ gets better with more muscle memory so I'd started nearer the edges.

I started out great. Here is the back of the first point of the six pointed star. I work my way clockwise around the six outer points and inner points. The three lobes came out pretty smooth and my lazy loops within the half of the inner points behaved themselves... that is until where the point of the seam ripper is showing for reference. My machine started making a different sound but everything looked fine on the front so I forged on. I remembered though that I need to listen as well as look. On closer inspection the top stitching line seemed just a tiny bit wobbly so reluctantly I stopped and removed the quilt in order to look at the back side.  This star I was stitching was in the center so removing it was non-trivial.

Yee gads! There most definitely was a problem. All those loops of blue thread on the back side in the second and third lobes (counter clockwise from a back view) would require removal! Aargh!  More picking out! Again!

It had started in the lazy loops of the first star point when I first heard the sound change. 

I did not know the source so I did an entire lint reconnaissance mission, checked my tension and proper threading path, made sure the bobbin was threaded correctly and had no lint lodged under the leaf spring, and did a trial sample. Never did find out the cause. Perhaps I bumped the tension dial, loosening the top blue thread,  when maneuvering the quilt? Whatever it was, it was fixed. Now to deal with the  mess on the back. At least this loopy stuff would be easier to remove, I thought. Not really. Those loops got tangled within themselves and so pulling one thread did not quite do it. Every time I got a long thread to release I gave a little cheer.

  

I wound up clipping off the loops with curved scissors and picking out the remnants with tweezers. These were the tools of my trade. Snipping and extracting made a mess, so I wound up using sticky tape to clear up the shreds so I could see what I was doing and what I had already done.

All the blue fuzzies reminded me of a magnetic hair game I had as a child called Wooly Willy. See the resemblance?

After about an hour or so of picking (in two sessions – I needed a break) I was ready to try to FMQ again. This well confined fiasco taught me a couple things. I will alway listen to my machine as well as just looking. Also, I am typically afraid of FMQing a quilt for fear of ruining it. I have learned that just about anything can be picked out. It builds patience and leads to meditation time. The quilt is not ruined. But I think it may be bordering on more time to quilt than it did to piece! My friend dubbed it my "quilt of woe".

I finally succeeded in putting in that central blue star. Here is what it looks like. The tri-lobes show up in the outer points as do the arcs in the red inner point halves. Those lazy loops in blues on blue do not. I will need to photograph the finished quilt with light at an angle to show up the texture. I still have the edge inserts to FMQ in blue but this was enough for one day. All's well that ends well.

It is reputed that social media can be depressing because people post only positive events and folks who read them can feel their life is inferior. I am not guilty of that sin. I have shared this process so some of you out there do not feel alone. I just had an awful thought! What if it is just me having these mini-disasters? Nah... can't be...