Loopy

Finally managed to escape from the clutches of the internet and got some things done. I forced myself to do a bowl of washing up and cleaned out the fish tank before getting on with some sewing.

I tried a different way of pinning the various layers to the leaders which seemed easier but then I re-read all the instructions and yes, I had put it all on the wrong poles again. Took it all off and re-pinned it all. Something still seemed wrong, realised I'd now wound everything onto the poles the wrong way. Undid them and wound them to right way. Yay ready to start. Doodled all over the practice strip and everything looked great, moved over to the real quilt and off I went, doing kind of a wandering meander with little loops. After a little while the machine didn't feel quite right, sort of catching on something. Stopped and looked, I forgotten to put the presser foot down. Lots and lots of birds nest to rip out. You've got to laugh!

After that it seemed to go much better, I only forgot the presser foot twice more :( I think I need a big sign or something.

The string quilt is now squiggled all over in an amazingly short time. I can definitely see a difference in the first half compared to the second half and right towards the end I seemed to be getting into a rhythm with it. I do keep quilting myself into corners though, I need to be more aware of the limitations of my available space.

I whacked the border on straight away, if I don't do it immediatly then I get distracted by other things and it never happens. I'm having a go at mitred corners this time. I'd alway thought they were really difficult but MIL got me a copy of Machine Quilting Made Easy by Maurine Noble and as I was looking through it the section on bindings caught my eye. Certainly it wasn't at all as hard as I'd always assumed, silly me. I just need to get on and hand sew down the back.

We didn't get to finish E's quilt last night. Even though it was the first day back at school he had a ton of homework poor kid.

So far today I've walked the dogs... and that's it!!!!! Oh, and taken delivery of a huge pile of fresh veg from my Dad's allottment. Not exactly constructive. In my defence my husband has just got back from Germany and we've been chatting and planning the Disneyland Paris holiday.