Creating a ‘Miss Su’ Laundry Wall Hanging: A Journey Through Challenges

The idea of crafting a ‘Miss Su’ laundry wall hanging has been on my mind since two years ago. The designs were sketched out, but I hesitated to start, feeling my quilting skills were too novice to do it justice. As 2023 draws to a close, I decided procrastination was no longer an option. Miss Su’s life is vibrant and varied, encompassing not just laundry but also reading, gardening, and leisure. If I couldn’t even attempt something so simple, how could I begin with the rest? Thus, I spent a week completing the wall hanging, also known as a wall decoration, which is hung on the wall. I am largely satisfied with the final product. Even if I weren’t, I would say I am. The process was indeed mentally exhausting, and at times, I was utterly speechless. Let me recount the journey.
First came the design sketch. Undoubtedly, it was a rough draft. During the subsequent creation, I had to make some reluctant changes. I pieced together the entire fabric and then transferred the specific patterns onto the fabric using tracing paper. I began the applique process. This part was simple yet tedious; each piece of fabric took a long time to sew. The order of applique, which fabric to sew first and which to sew last, was entirely up to me, and I made mistakes easily, leading to a cycle of un-sewing and re-sewing.


After much effort, the patterns were finally sewn. The most painful part came next. After the applique was completed, the back needed to be hollowed out. One careless snip and I had cut in the wrong place! This was a situation I had always feared in my craft—ruining the fabric and undoing all my previous work. Despite my caution, it happened. It was a perfect example of Murphy’s Law: whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.


I was so frustrated that I laughed at myself and sighed, feeling like crying but with no tears. At that moment, I wished for a time machine to go back just a few seconds to save my work. I had already completed the entire pattern. If it had been only half-done, I could have started over. After my frustration, I had to patch the hole with a piece of fabric not on the original sketch. I didn’t know what it was; as long as the hole was hidden, it was fine.


The beautiful work had undergone an uncontrollable change at that moment.



The next step was to layer it with batting and quilt it. Having worked on quilting for so long, I mostly used tight batting for convenience, but it resulted in a flat appearance. Many find it unattractive. This time, I used fluffy batting thicker than 5 millimeters to see how the puffy effect would turn out. The fluffy batting I bought did not come with adhesive, so I used the traditional method of basting. After quilting, the dimensions shrank a bit. My sketch was 22*23 centimeters, and upon measuring, it had shrunk by 3 millimeters.


Due to the erasable nature of heat drawing, it allows for corrections and redrawing, but I did not opt for the original size. The final step is edge binding, with a seam allowance of 0.5 centimeters.


Finished Product Display: Does it feel a bit too floral? I really like the image of ‘Miss Su’, who is always busy and always happy. This is the life I aspire to, so my creation of Miss Su will never cease, just like creating beautiful dreams. I hope everyone will like it.



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