Finish

I have finished a UFO butterfly quilt. It was quilted by hand and bound in black.

I also made a utility quilt for my DGS. I wanted to use fabric I had but just wasn't happy with any of it for a young boy so I bought these two patriotic fabrics. It went together easily and looked nice. Then I looked through my stash for something for the backing or fabric I could sew together to make a backing. Nothing. I went to Hancock and discovered their selection of St. Jude fabrics. They are just wonderful and a dollar of each yard is donated to them. This is such a wonderful place to donater to anyway. I really loved the pokadot fabric so bought it for the back - and extra for the stash. I also bought some coordinating fabric from this collection. See the bottom picture. Sorry the color is still not good. Enlarging it helps.

The quilting of this quilt was a disaster. I put on my walking foot and the sample looked fine. But when I went to reverse, the stitches were very short. So I ended up only going forward and turning the quilt. Ugg. With most of it done, I left it and went to bed one night. The next morning, everything was wrong. I broke needles and got thread messes. For the next hour I worked on it. I finally decided that the plastic area where the bobbin case goes is somehow broken. This is an inexpensive machanical machine. I got it when the needle of my even older and cheaper one refused to move from right to left (couldn't make an accurate 1/4 inch seam). I bought it for Florida and didn't want to spend much money as I figured it would be damaged with the high humidity when I went north for the summers. I found this machine in the back of the closet and used it to finish the quilting and putting on the binding of both quilts.

Now I need to think about getting another machine here in Florida. When I put in a new heating/cooling system, I got a control that regulates the humidity when am gone. I also keep a dehumidifier set up and draining into my kitchen sink. These work well and I haven't had any machine damage. So now I guess I need to start shopping. Well, after looking at my finances again.

Kipper was in the bedroom and had something in his mouth. His jaws were locked tight and whatever he had was falling out of his mouth. It was definitely wet and looked furry. I asked him what he had and he crouched down and pleaded with me to keep it. Oh me. Did he have an animal? And inside my house. I told him to leave it and he begged to keep it. I insisted and out came a large gray glob. It least it didn't move. What was it? A well chewed spool of my gray quilting thread. You know, one of those big cone ones of cotton thread. I remembered dropping it and not wanting to crawl under the table to get it. Then I forgot to pick it up. That will teach me.

Kipper and I are going to my DD's for the holidays. Hope everyone has a happy, healthy time with families. See you next year.