One More Top Finished!

When I first started sewing the strips together, I kept stressing that the finished quilt top would be too narrow for the length.  The stress was definitely not warranted.  Yes, it is a long quilt (I haven't measured it yet, but I will), but it is also wide.

I mixed up the strips, unfortunately.  It doesn't look quite like what I was picturing in my mind, and too many of the frogs wound up in one half of the quilt, but in general (and with all things considered), I'm fairly happy with the way this one has turned out. 

Now, I just need to take the batting and the backing (and, I'm really hoping that the backing fabric is large enough after seeing how big this quilt really is!) and put everything together.  I'm going to have fun with the machine quilting.  This is definitely larger than anything I've tried to machine quilt to date. 

Yesterday, I went to a quilt store that I haven't been to yet.  A number of quilt stores have closed recently it seems.  I didn't feel up to driving all the way down to The Creative Needle on South Broadway, so I used Google to find one closer.  (I also discovered that the home computer needed some work as a result of the Google search, but that is an entirely different story!)

I will definitely go back to the Quilt Store again.  In addition to buying some thread for machine quilting, I also had five fat quarters that begged to come home with me. 

Picking It Up Again

July is swiftly approaching, and the charity quilt is not yet done.  Between being in a bit of a creative rut and a having my sewing machine act up, I've been using the "I'm too busy at work" excuse not to make progress on the quilt. 

Being in a creative rut hasn't meant that I've stayed totally away from crafts.  I have two crochet projects underway (there is sure to be at least a post on each in the near future), but sewing just hasn't interested me lately.

That changed tonight.  I am still not exactly sure why the sewing machine started working again, but it did.  I know that when it acted up a few weeks ago, I tried changing both the bobbin and the needle.  But, when I tried to zigzag around the frogs, well, it just wasn't working.  The yellow thread that should have been on top was just a solid line, while the white bobbin thread sort of made hash marks over the yellow thread.  For whatever reason, changing the bobbin for a second time appears to have solved the problem.  I was able to finish appliqueing on the ninth frog and sew four of the strips together (shown in the photo) before my back said "no more for tonight!" 

Now that the machine is behaving, I hope to have the quilt top finished by the end of the weekend so that I can start machine quilting during the evenings this coming week.