Analyzing

I have been analyzing my quilt and my work area. There is always room for improvement.

I remember this top. It was a pattern that has a cut, sew, recut and turn all about and resew. Not doing those any more!!! It is well nigh impossible to control what goes where. So I spend the time saved ripping! I'm very happy putting patches in place and then walking back and forth to sew and keep things as best I can where they should be. But the most frustrating thing is the chopping off of corners. I can clip off points rather easily without actually doing them on purpose. :(

Then there are all the bias edges which if you look at the edge of the first picture of the quilt are significant. So significant I decided to remove some excess surgically. It would have been easier before I basted but I figured the grief of the puckers would be more than the discomfort of the operation. Aghhh!

Then I did my primary quick basting around the perimeter to see how flat it would be. Not too bad. I always use straight pins on the edge because I always do the edge first and it is quick and easy with relatively no loss of blood! ;^)

I also shifted my sewing cabinet to the side for better positioning. Nina's bed is flush with the cutting table. Then I dragged up the leaf on the table to get some more level surface on my left. My cutting mat makes for better sliding. I'll be getting the Rooster to help come up with a more permanent and larger work area sometime in the future.

I did end up putting my stool under the quilt that hung down as I feed the quilt. I think the ideal is a large square work surface with a cut out on the corner for standing. That would be just about perfect.

But that might take a bit more analyzing and I need to just quilt right now!