My (apparently) Monthly Post

My goal really is to post at least once a week, not once a month!  And yet again, once more I’m saying… can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted anything!….

So, what have I finished while I haven’t been blogging?

Jessica’s quilt!

It’s a super cool modern scrappy quilt that I just love, but I can’t post the photos of the finished quilt until she sees it first…that’s only fair!  But here’s a preview, as I loaded it on the frame... I loved it the moment I saw it, and I can't wait to share it!

While I was working on Jessica’s quilt, I had a lot of trouble with a cone of YLI cotton thread.  It’s the second time I’ve used this cone, and I thought that it was the new batting I was using the first time.  This time was very difficult also, and I was not very happy with the tension on the back.  And then…I was almost finished, only 1 1/2 rows left to go on the panto and the thread kept shredding, every 3 inches or so!  Not only that, when I checked the stitches on the back of the quilt, they were almost railroad tracks in some areas….oh, great….NOT!!!  So, I decided the easiest way to remove almost an entire row of stitching would be to remove the quilt from the frame and work on it while on my lap.  Not only that, I didn’t want to take a chance that something else might happen on this quilt.

Note to Self:  do not remove the quilt from the frame and expect to be able to line it back up properly later.  Yes, Self, even if you have a trick for it.

I ended up retiming the machine, then ran into more trouble, and eventually the machine jammed on me!  I mean HARD!  The needle hit the metal casing and everything!  Of course, it threw it out of time again….so that made me REALLY nervous about putting Jessica’s quilt back on so I decided to test it out on another one instead.

Lynn’s quilt!

This is a quilt that our small group put together when one of our members had been having health challenges.  I made 2 of the 15 blocks, which I’d mistakenly thought I’d posted photos of because I thought they turned out so darn cute!

Once we got the top together, I quilted it using freehand echo quilting around each of the 12" blocks.  There are feathers in the borders and a heart motif in the sashings.  Feathered hearts with cross hatching are in each of the four corners.  Quilted with Wonderfil's Tutti Frutti thread on top, So Fine in the bobbin and Warm and White batting.

Lynn absolutely loved it, as did I!  If you’re interested in getting a closer look, I’ve posted photos of the individual blocks on my website.

Tracey’s quilt!

I was lucky enough to receive another modern design to quilt in a lovely pink, yellow and zebra stripe.  It got a large overall meander, and I used Brytes 30# in hot fuscia pink in the bobbin, which I’d never done before.  This was after all of the jamming and tension problems, so I was nervous that would be a problem, but it wasn’t.

The back was made specifically so that the quilt could be turned down to coordinate with the sheets and other bedding.  The blocks weren’t perfectly centered in the back, but I liked that they could make a coordinating trim at the top, if desired.

Crafting Related

As if I didn’t have enough to do, I joined Dishcloth Mania, which is a knitting forum on Ravelry.  I’ve been hopelessly behind on that challenge ever since!  But talk about some beautiful patterns!  Since I’m not big on applique, I take this with me to work on at lunch or other down times.

On the spinning front, I bought some Corriedale wool roving and started practicing, and think I might have figured out the motion!  This was after one of the great gals at Puffy Mondae’s took a few minutes to show me how to use a drop spindle, and it was very easy to apply the motion to my wheel….enough to fill a bobbin full of a strand of various thicknesses!  Now I’m considering having them tune up my wheel and glue the sides onto two of the bobbins that have come unglued.  They also had a large bobbin on consignment when I went in, and I’ve been wondering if I should snatch that up…hmmm?

Techie Stuff

…and sidetracked, yet again, by another project, which is that my website needs updating…again…