paper piecing pain

Monday night's quilting class was rough. I understood just enough of what our teacher explained to be dangerous. Rather, I understood the concepts, if not the exact techniques.

First, there was all this standing and cutting. Cutting through 10 and 12 layers of fabric and then cutting out paper quilt piecing pieces. Way too many p's. This could be a tongue twister.

We spent much of the evening cutting out pieces and only in the last ten or fifteen minutes of class did we haul out the sewing machines and begin sewing. Ahem, piecing. But even trying this so-called "gentle art" my back ached. I crawled into bed as soon as I arrived home.

This class, this project, is way more involved than I imagined. And I roped Laura into it. She's never used a sewing machine before in her life. I planned to loan her one of my Singers, but I took in the circa 1984 one to have it serviced, almost two weeks ago and the guy hasn't called me yet. That means that he hasn't gotten to mine yet. Ho hum. Luckily the shop had an extra machine that Laura could use. It was a Pfaff, and was pretty nice.

My circa 1997 Singer was the loudest machine going. Rat-a-tat-tat. Sounded like a machine gun. I was embarrassed to sew. Felt like I was working-class piece-sewing factory girl, even though those are my origins (fyi: Grandma, Aunt Donna, Aunt Ruthie, and even my Mom did stints as piece-work sewers at Industrial Garment of Erwin, Tn.),  toting in her industrial strength machine. Not that there was anything wrong with that. Just that everybody else's machines were super-subtle and quiet, which I think equates to high-end, expensive machines.  My complex surely lies in my librariaish nature: Quieter is better.

Anyway, the class was supposed to be just this one. Was I naive? Yup. Silly Rebecca thought we'd whip out that table runner in three hours. No way. No how. We stayed until about twenty of 10:00 p.m., believe it or not, just to make it through the rough stuff. I think our teacher was Linda. She said we'd meet at least two more times, possibly a third.

I'll need that help. I tried working on homework tonight and fear I fudged it up real good. I can always start over, with some close supervision and guidance. But ripping all that out, and cutting out more pieces. Sigh. I didn't have enough yardage for one, maybe two parts of the project anyway, and there were other women from the quilt shop who helped me select exact yardage I'd need according to my pattern.

So, lots of cutting. Come to think of it, the cutting was sort of fun. Then we set aside certain piles of fabric into specific plastic bags. That's another new technique I've learned. Is it a technique, or merely an organizational trick? Whatever it is, surely it foretells the difficulty ahead.

Linda said she'd be in Saturday that we could come in for help. Yup, I may very well do that, if the day is yucky and I can stand being inside.

I assured Laura that if she mastered this technique that doing normal quilts, like the simple square pieces in a square block that Traci showed us, would be a snap for her. I can't wait to finish this up so that maybe she and I can take on a really simple one like a Nine Patch or Picket Fence or some such.

Comments

[Mallow]

Well, now I'll be anxiously awaiting the finished product! I have such a love/hate relationship with sewing. Quilting has always held so much appeal, but I've remained intimidated. Please keep us updated on your class!

ps - The Willie Nelson song was "Somebody Pick Up My Pieces" from Teatro. Thanks for reading! Are you still working on the accordian?

[AJ]

I feel you Bekka! I really do! LOL, my old machine is the same. I was so embarassed to bring it in. Another lady had an old Kenmore and was embarassed by hers. The second lady had a Bernina and guess what? She had problems with her machine. I love my new machine just because it's so quiet. It's so nice to not hear the clunking and thinking my machine is just going to die.

I've never done a piecing class but it looks like a lot of work. I'll definitely be keeping tracking of your progress.

[JC]

I never knew how complicated quilting was! But I guess maybe I had an inkling somewhere in the back of my mind.