Quilting a week away

Last week was one of those that had me reaching for snacks I swore I was off two years ago. By Thursday I was in a really bad mood which doesn’t happen very often, and all I could do was to work my way through some of the things that were piling up on me, one of them making class samples.


I am preparing for a new class in April, and I’m so fortunate that I’m allowed to pick and choose what I want to teach at this class. This time it will be a free motion quilting class; trying out quite a few ways to quilt and using them for making shapes. You see, I kind of lost the joy of free motion quilting quite a while ago (think free motion Scrooge) and have been going through the motions for ages, using the same old quilting techniques over and over again. Now I am determined to get my free motion mojo back and have, amongst other things, signed up for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge at SewCalGal’s.

However, I needed to get my own ideas onto cloth before I started on the challenge because I don’t want my class to copy other people’s work and ideas.


So I have been quilting

and quilting

and quilting

and quilting

and I love working with these bright and pretty colours

even the cutoffs.

The only problem is that both my machines are in dire need of tune ups. I have some real issues with the thread tension on the one I’m using now and it’s particularly noticeable in the straight line quilting.

Oh well, never mind, I’m on a roll.


I am happy to tell you the bad mood has vanished and I have spent a lovely weekend with the men in my life.

Today we drove up to check up on our cabin so grandson could have some quality snow time, and he sure did.

The snow on the trail was too deep for him to walk (I barely made it there myself and my legs are looong), and on the way back I was pulling him on his sledge while husband carried the old sewing machine I keep at the cabin. Oh man, he was laughing so hard that he kept falling of the sledge as I was fighting my way through the snow falling this way and the other every few yards. I may have been a bit cold and I may have been a bit wet, but I enjoyed myself just as much as he did.

Now the old machine is set up in my studio, and hopefully I’ll be back quilting again tomorrow afternoon. First I’ll be spending a few hours with daughter making invitations for the baby’s christening and thank you notes. I was afraid I had her all crafted out while she was growing up, but she has been taking up scrapbooking during the last year. Who knew scrapbooking offered just as many shopping opportunities as quilting. My studio is full, but scrapbook supplies do not take up that much space; especially when they are at someone else’s house…