Thursday, December 04, 2008

To re-baste or not to re-baste?


That is the question. I was so excited to be moving on with this project. I finished the quilt top and carefully basted the three layers together. Or so I thought. I moved the rug out of the way, I taped the backing and batting to the floor. I got down on my hands and knees. I basted every two inches. I really thought I did a good job. Now, as I'm quilting it I realize I must not have done a good job because I'm having to take out the pins and really re-align the top as I go along. I've done over a third of the quilt and it seems I will have to rebaste most of the rest. Extremely extremely frustrating. I want to push through it but I've spent so much time on it-- choosing the design, picking the fabrics, cutting, sewing, aligning, trimming, picking out backing, laying it out, basting, choosing a quilting design and all the teeny tiny steps in between. I MUST rebaste it. The whole quilt will be second rate if I don't and I'll never be able to think about it or look at it if I don't. I definitely feel guilty when I think of other projects where I didn't take the time to fix mistakes. Quilting is a true love of mine and I want to be proud of my work. So, back down on the floor I will rebaste the quilt. There's a few hours I'll never get back...
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2 comments:

Nancy said...

Love the quilt! Can you tell me what fabric line that is? I have a new baby coming into the family (niece) and love the brown and blue together....

I baste on my long dining room table using huge clamps from the hardware store. Too hard for me to get down on the floor and the clamps hold everything down real tight....

Nikki said...

Thanks for the comment. The fabric comes from all different sources. Let's just say my stash is pretty big! Some come from a set they had at Joann's in the spring and some come from my local quilt shop. One is from a bed sheet fabric I bought about 8 years ago! If you have a specific one you're interested in I'm sure I can figure it out! I want to try the dining room table thing but I'd really have to get the basting done in one shot since we use our dining room table for every meal...