Happiness is... and a bit of catching up too...

Happiness is having your sewing room back....a month and a half ago my youngest stepson moved back home and into my sewing room. He was in between places to live. He moved out this weekend and I've been busy getting my space back to normal!  

 

In the meantime I have been still sewing at least a bit. I spent quite a bit of time with my dad this past month so I set up my Featherweight in his front porch and enjoyed piecing this Bear Paw quilt.

 

 

It was from a very old American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

 

 

It was so much fun to sew. It is just 31" x 43"!

 Now it goes into my pile to be quilted. (more on that later)

 

 

 

I tried the new Clover mini iron on this project and although it was 'ok' for pressing seams in the single components ( such as triangles) it was disappointing when pressing assembled blocks. It wasn't hot enough or heavy enough to do a good job.

I'll do a bit more testing though. It may be work well in paper piecing.

 

And I've been cutting for a 'far into the future' quilt...a scrappy Pineapple!

 

 

I am making a bed sized quilt with 14" blocks. The lights are cut all from my scrap bin. I think I have settled on blue scraps for the other color but I may yet change my mind. I'm not in a hurry.

 

I have lots of projects in my pile. And here is another pile - quilts that need quilting.  I have 7 quilts that need to be quilted. 2 are small wall sized, 4 are lap sized and 1 is huge (104" square).

 

 

Since my hands started hurting I have come to realize that even free motion quilting will hard on my joints so I am about to get way more skilled and creative on machine quilting with a walking foot. Pinterest is a great place to get inspired! And I have a good selection of quilts to practice on.

 

And slowly I have been continuing my hand quilting. I can do about 2 thread lengths most days before my hands give out. It is sad knowing that this will more than likely be my last hand quilted project. Still I am hopeful that occasionally I'll be able to big stitch a small wall hanging or table runner sized project.

 

 

 

Today will be a great day to finish cleaning up my sewing room and get back to the tiny nine patch.

 

Happy Stitching!