Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Un-quilting!

Let me preface this post with a disclaimer-It is about 10 years now that I have been a longarmer, and to date had never encountered my current problem! So either I have been extraordinarily blessed or just dumb lucky?
Without going into details of how, when, where and why, I will simply tell you that I am un-quilting this large and very pretty quilt.....and needless to say it is a great deal of work that will keep me occupied and away from more interesting/fun activities for a week -or two?!
This huge job has me searching for faster and easier ways to "frog" [rippit-rippit] my quilting.
I began with the quilt on the longarm but after a while when I realized I would probably want to remove all of the quilting, I unpinned the quilt and took it to the couch, more comfortable than sitting on the saddle stool at the LA.
Above is the commonly known Dritz seam ripper, quite effective, but I thought perhaps another brand or style might work better so I purchased this one with it's "ergonomic" handle. So far I have not really noticed any difference in how my hand feels as I work at this but if I do I will let you know.
Another handy tool for removing stitches, the hemostats-when did you ever know a nurse- no matter how long retired-who did not have at least one pair of this handy tool! I have several and for this task they are absolutely mandatory for saving my poor hands extra stress.
The quilting you see in these pics is a view of the back of this quilt, the stitches are fairly small and in the sashing and corner blocks there is a lot of backtracking-two rows of stitching one upon the other-making the chore even more tedious!
I am whining a lot [not wining LOL] to anyone who will listen so you can be sure I will be celebrating to all and sundry when it is finally done!
One final tool, a pair of tiny, fine pointed scissors for snipping knots that defy removal!
I will be frogging daily most of the day, with breaks for something more rewarding, like putting the borders on the NYE Mystery quilt.
The borders are all cut and ready to sew......
this is the order of application, the small blue stop border then two more additions to use up most of the balance of these fabrics.
I plan to intersperse the frogging with other activities, blogging, walking Button dog, going to the gym , sewing and perhaps even quilting to make the whole process more bearable. We are expecting another new baby at our church and I need to quilt the baby scrap quilt I made a few weeks ago, so that might be good therapy for an unquilting break!.
You can be sure that I will be celebrating right here once this chore is finished and I can put the top back on the LA to begin anew!

7 comments:

Lindah said...

Ugh! I can't imagine that chore. You have more fortitude than I have.

Jackie Russell said...

UGH! I feel your pain. I have never frogged a whole quilt before and I hope to never have to. I wish I had some help to send your way. When I frog small places I try to clip the stitches every inch or two then pull the thread from the other side does that make any sense?

Anonymous said...

Ros, you might Google for a U-Tube video or something on "skinning a quilt". Ferret in GB posted about it once on her blog and had a link to it. I don't have the link saved, but if you are taking ALL the quilting out it might save you some time.

Hope it goes quickly!

Bari

Gari in AL said...

You didn't say why you are ripping out the quilting out of this very large and beautiful quilt. But we know you have a very good reason to put yourself through all that. With you in spirit.

Linda said...

I, unfortunately, had to rip a whole quilt once and I ended up working from one edge between the layers. I used a seam ripper (and occasionally a scalpel like ripper) and cut the threads underneath. Probably would be very much like the skinning mentioned above. Good luck! Lurking Linda

Khris said...

ohhh myyyyy...nooooo...is that really necessary? Surely there has to be something drastically wrong for you to have to do that? Sorry to hear you are doing that and not something more enjoyable...hugs your friend, Khris

Miri said...

I don't envy you that job-its times like that that I just love listening to a good audio book-it keeps me entertained while I rip! Interestingly Karen at Quilts etc. blogged about seam rippers today too-she has the ergonomic...I have the dritz! :)

Have fun!