The finishing touches of "Wheel of Fortune"

A few days ago, I picked up the Island Batik quilt at Elly Prins at Zoetermeer. I thought a quick drive to her place .... well..no. There was a lot of traffic with a lot of maniacs ..... and no, I'm not one of them, I really like the speed limit ;) Yet I find myself at times driving 150 km p/h with my new car ..... and that goes quite nice and fast, I can tell you that!

Okay, the quilt. Back home at 19.00, I immediately make some coffee and then return to the centimeter, ruler and rotary cutter to work and measure the quilt. I love the final process to finish the quilt. Amy, my greyhound is on her blanket in the room, the radio on and only sewing.... What do you want more in life.

The quilt is almost ready for the photoshoot, in Driebergen at Pieter Bas. There is no pressure on my shoulders, oh no…

Unfortunately, it's a big quilt and it always takes more time than you expect. At the start you’re thinking: mmm, just a few hours, at 22.30 I’m probably ready. But in the end, the figures of the clock crawl to the early hours, when I’m finally finished and ready to hang the quilt. With risking my own life, I balance on a way to small ladder to hang the quilt at the wall and then you see it ... the big picture.. or the quilt ...

To my dismay, the quilt does not hang flat or like a royal banner on the wall, noooo, this quilt hangs like a sea storm with huge waves, like a potato chippie, on the wall! Full of bumps and lumps. She laughs mean and false at me, and believe me 1:00 at night I cannot smile back. I turned out the lights just not to look. But each time I woke up at night, I saw the quilt with strange bumps, full of dark shadows hanging on the wall.

After a sleepless night in a fetal position, I woke up at 7.00, and the first thing that I do, is ripping the quilt from the wall. What has gone wrong ? When I sewn the several parts of the quilt and when I stitched them together the quilt was pretty tight on my work tables . No bump or bulge was there to see.... And now? The Alps were little hills compared to my quilt....

First we measure again. The measurements were good, the borders were paperpieced, so they were the correct size. The last borders were cut on the base of a pattern part. Then the sleeves and bindings have to go and undergo the fate of the little grim scissors. 6 Hours of work. Each stitch was cut and torned out.

Then re-measured and put the bindings and sleeves again to the back of the quilt. Arghhh, what a #@*”#^# job.  Now back to the wall and the too tiny ladder, stretched as far as possible on the little stairs and now try again to hang the quilt on the wall. It seems to fit better. It is not perfect, but it's a little better.

In the sleeve at the bottom, I slide a metal rod (read 20 pounds ) and yessss, now the quilt hangs tight :) The suspension hooks are trembling in the concrete wall, under the enormous weight of the quilt and the rods, but... it’s hanging....

Strange things were happening with this “Wheel of Fortune”. 

Love, Jacqueline