NOoooooooo..........

 

as you can see --- that's what you get when you work when you're tired and work in bad light! i never realised the back was looping and bunching ....until it was too late.....

the good news .... a couple of hours of patient unpicking has cleared all the bits of thread and the fabric isnt marked. so it's ready to go again ...but i'm not. ;-(

quilt back

i decided on a simple block pattern - with some of the front patterns. the colours really do complement the front - i definitely wont be quilting in cream thread.....but what colour for all??

 

quilt top together

quilt top assembled.....

 

maybe a plain maroon border.....but i have no idea what to do for the backing or what colour thread to use for the quiliting

textured quilt

this is a departure in colours - much darker than my usual palette. i settled on the graduated colour rather than a total random look

 

this was the alternative scrappy pattern

 

I used the sample fabric books that I found back in March.

strippy pillow

I have discovered strip quilting!!!!!

 

i love it!!!!!!!!

i even ventured out to new quilt stitches - i really like the cirlces ....but they take an AGE ..I think i will reserve this for smaller projects because you need to be able to manoeuvre the quilt freely to get nice circles so i may not be able to on a full size quilt?

 

back to meandering on one side - after the circles i actually enjoyed it and kept the paths close together.

 

and the full side view..(i think that's my shadow on the photo as there are no dark areas)
 

i am thinking of planning a Quilt now as i learnt so much doing this small project. we shall see.

quilts

And finally - the rising and setting sun quilts together

front


and back...

  

Setting Sun nearly finished

I have all finished except for my favourite part of hand sewing the binding (no really i do love that part!)

 

The matching Rising Sun quilt has a differnt back - I used off centre squares for the quilt blocks here, set randomly in 2 rows. I'm not sure which I prefer but they make a lovely pair of quilts.

how strange

 
i have no idea what they are -but they are sort of pretty....even for bugs...

quilting again

i have started to quilt my 2nd strip quilt - similar to the rising sun - by that i mean the same front but a differnt back! i will have to take photos - i'm just slogging with the quilting = little and often.....

why i haven't been sewing

How lovely is this....

 

Flower Pillow

inspiration from 'don't look now' blog and tutorial for flower pillow

Front
 

Back
 

and strangely this herring bone stitch is my favourite part of the whole pillow! ( you have to look closely at the seam/binding edge - but it just goes to show it's the smallest of details that make the difference)

 

i reallly enjoyed the appliqué - but i'm not so sure that i can cope with the raw edges - after i had sewn on a few flowers i changed my ideas and i did try and satin stitch so the edges weren't quite so raw...... still i learned alot about what i do and dont like to do, so all is good..

Finished

 
 

This is my new bath mat !! went with the wavy line boxes for the quilting as this matches the mosaic type lino pattern in my bathroom. can't decide which side i like best - started with the small squares as the favourite .... but now like the bigger squares too!

pretty in pink

 

New mini project - I just fancied something a bit brighter

branching out from stippling!

 

I am feeling adventurous and wanted to try something different.

So I decided to try this sampler. I'm pleased with the results - I like the wavy box lines and the circles in particluar - but I have realised it will depend on what the piece is that I want to quilt - and stippling is the easiest of all - so we shall see...

baby robins

 

three little hatchlings - the mum and dad are feeding them non stop - i wish i had their energy!

new bag

back to the old style - i think this looks a bit retro - a bit like a carpet bag. its made from the wrong side of an old curtain sample - like upholstry fabric - which gives it a great texture, i really enjoyed making it and its going to my friend - winging its way via Royal Mail as i type!

 

another doorstop

Between quilting I have to complete small projects to get that hit from creating something

 

This post is titled another doorstop - and then i realised maybe i haven't posted about any others- i'll see if i have any photos.. they are a lovely quick project

Rising Sun Quilt

Remember way back I pieced these lovely strips for the bargello quilt?

Well I didn't cut and it ended up like this

 

I'm rather pleased with the way it turned out - not sure about the cream stitching on the red - but it's a change -and it's still wating for the binding to be hand stitched ...i just love hand stitching the binding

I made 2 quilt tops at the time so I will quilt the other one differently - eventually

Where have I been?

1. On holiday – HURRAY
But
2. Broken computer and
3. Broken machine

I have had 2 weeks away – travelling round the UK ending in camping in Dartmoor. Travelling in our new (to us) open top MG. it’s a 2 seater so I have called it my ‘empty nest’ car Me and husband in a tiny 2 man tent ( the car hasn’t got much boot room!) Thank goodness for good weather – for a change. Anyway felt really great and rested been though we were really active and ended up aching all over!
But
When I got back my computer had broken – thankfully only the power pack and thank goodness for eBay! I managed to get a replacement part so I’m back on the road

I was obviously over optimistic with my fix for my needle plate as it started catching again. I have filed it down again and it appears to have worked. So I’ve been really busy – photos will follow. However I cannot find a replacement part on the internet that will post to the UK only delivery in the US – ah well I will keep searching

Meanwhile here’s me camping by a river

 

Machine Trouble

Where does the time go? it doesnt seem that long ago since i blogged!

Okay so I've had a couple of problems (not just the sewing – but hey at least that’s straightforward) – here it is

The underneath sewing line had loops every so often – there appeared no pattern – so of course the first thing was to clean out of my machine of fluff (hang ones head in shame – that’s only a bit of it on the photo! I did mean to keep cleaning out the fluff regularly honest!)
 

Anyway I did several more test runs – no change mmm? Maybe start to disassemble the machine – see the tools – and yet more fluff and gunk came out – more test lines…..no change... oh dear.
 
Changed the needle, changed the bobbin, changed the threads – surely now? No change – the only thing that helped was to lengthen the stitch – why? I looked like a tension problem – but I cleaned and tweaked the top tensions – still no change

 

Feeling defeated I asked my husband to see if he could take it apart – see if it was the motor or hook race sticking? Anyway coz he is great he took it apart, cogs and everything, and got YET MORE gunk and fluff out from underneath. Each bit of fluff made me think .this time it will fix it...

Well all reassembled – a couple of times as we had to line up the cogs for the timing of the needle and hookrace – (forgot to mark where it was when we took it off) this time …. But no still the same

 

Desperation now kicking in – and he says ... have you changed the foot? Duh!!! No!! So I changed the foot and lo and behold …fixed…HURRAY ….. Or so I thought ….after several sewn lines I saw just a couple of loops and started to worry it wasn’t really fixed – and anyhow how had the foot fixed it. So we look at the old foot – hence the magnifying glass and it was a bit bashed where the needle had hit it – so maybe it wasn’t tension just catching – eeerrr why is the loop catching on the bottom though ?

 

Checked the plate and it too had been bashed by the needle and had a burr on it – sanded it off and hey presto fixed!!!! Really HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Funny how I remember now that I broke a couple of needles and why didn’t it occur to me earlier?…oops but hey my machine runs with a purr now – it’s been serviced and its LOVELY so a BIG THANKS to my lovely man!!!