Thursday, August 28, 2014

Getting Reacquainted

 As we have been traveling for most of the last 4 months I haven't been using my quilting machine recently. In fact before that I was quilting my two quilts for exhibitions using my domestic sewing machine. Consequently  she didn't want to play nicely when I loaded a quilt top to be quilted. We have found that machinery needs to be used on a regular basis or things don't work as well. This time when we returned we found DH's computer refused to work and our second car's battery had died, and now my quilting machine kept breaking thread. I persevered and she's working well again but it was frustrating getting both of these tops quilted. They were very kindly donated by my lovely friend, Marijke, of The Netherlands and I wanted to get some more quilts finished as I was meeting with the lovely Lesley to hand over some more donated items for Needy Stitches. I'm sure the recipients will love their new quilts so I was very happy I finished them in time.
 While we were traveling this time I crocheted 3 blankets. Two of them were finished and I ran out of time to join the squares for the third so they will have to go off for donation another time.
 It's surprising how many squares you can crochet while sitting in the car on long trips. I had started to work on my hexies but the roads were too rough to be able to stitch them nicely and crocheting is easy as I don't need to watch what I am doing. I'll keep adding to the pile of squares as time permits.
 I'm also spring cleaning and decided to clear out some more scraps. I have started using 2.5 inch squares in a Split Nine Patch top and love the easy effect you can get just by using light and dark fabrics. This time I wanted to make the blocks a little quicker for a donation quilt so I'm using 3.5 inch squares so the blocks are 9 inch finished instead of 6 inch.
 I will probably add borders and hope to finish it soon. I know it's not really tidying as I seem to be making more mess with the leftovers but it's fun to do some mindless sewing again.
Check back for the finish soon- I hope.
Hugs, Jan Mac

2 comments:

Maria said...

Welcome home Jan. I enjoyed following your travels.
How annoying when things don't work. Pleased you got the machine working and the quilts look great. Lovely warm crocheted rugs too. I am sure they will be appreciated by the recipients.
Your blocks are growing nicely too.

margaret said...

you have certainly been busy since you came home, lovely quilts and good to see plenty of crochet was done too