The Quilted Apple Clock That Gave Me a Hard Time

The post that describes how the apple was made is here. Basically, it consists of a 1/8" piece of hardboard covered with quilted fabric. How hard could it be to make it into a clock?

Clock parts are readily available in craft stores. While they come with a plain set of hands, this fork and knife pair was irresistible for a kitchen clock. The only hard part would be to drill a hole in the hardboard large enough to fit the gold threaded shaft through. This one is 1/4" long.
So, after marking a good position for the hands and making an entry hole in the fabric with an Xacto knife, I started to drill. In nanoseconds something strange gripped the bit. I switched the drill into reverse and backed it out.



It appeared to be a batting volcano. It’s hard to see in the photo how big it was, but it was a large, hard lump that bulged up under the fabric at least an inch. Where did this thing come from? It was too huge to be a few wisps of the stitched quilt batting. Slowly a memory surfaced... wasn’t there an an extra layer or two of loose batting under there, meant to plump up the apple? Oops. Clearly, it had to be removed somehow. Tweezers? Too wimpy. Only pliers had the gripping power to perform the needed surgery. 1,2,3, pull!


This is what came out. It was some fluffy synthetic batting that I wouldn’t normally quilt with, so had been trying to use up. Oh well!






As you can see, the battingectomy left quite a large tear in the fabric. Hey, at least the shaft fit through the hole in the hardboard (after putting a larger bit in the drill.) Now I only had to figure out a way to patch this mess.




The patch is a donut of fusible-backed fabric. It seems to blend in well enough; nobody’s going to look that closely. After attaching various pieces I could fit the very delicate clock hands on it and finish this project.

Oops, again. Because the shaft is only 1/4" long, the clock hands were hitting the puffy quilted surface. What to do...? Delicate being the operative word, I gently bent the clock hands upwards so they wouldn’t hit the clock or each other.
It’s about time this thing was operational! Any lessons?
• Drill the hole in the wood first.
• Don’t drill loose batting.
• Buy a longer clock shaft in the future.
• Even though this project ticked me off at times, it was worth it in the end.
• Time flies when you’re crafting puns.