Satisfaction of a project completed.

It's finally done. Jana has been working on a quilt for a dad since January. She designed the quilt. She decided on red and black, and blocks of Ohio Stars and Friendship stars. I don't know how she managed to keep it a secret from her dad, but she did. This week we got the quilt back from our longarm quilter, we trimmed it up, added the binding and Jana made a label for the quilt. She could hardly wait for her dad to pick her up on his way home from work.

A nice surprise after a long day at work.

This weekend was not without challenges. This was the first time Jana applied binding to a quilt. She was nervous she would ruin the quilt. I assured her she could not, and even I made come goofs along the way. Any problems can be fixed. She used her machine, the needle down function and her walking foot. I did help when she got to the corners so she could have that mitered corner. She was nervous, but it was not long before she got the hang of it and figured out it was actually pretty easy to do.

Miss, "I hate to hand sew...I can't hand sew...I don't want to hand sew"...decided to try giving  hand sewing a try. She wanted to be involved in every part of this quilt. She actually did a nice job. She makes small stitches, but does not have the patience to stick with a project this large.  After about 20 minutes she was done with it. We wanted it completed today, so grandma helped finish the binding. We thought about sewing it down by machine, but I like a hand sewed finish, so Jana agreed, as long as I helped.

"I am getting the hang of it, but still don't really like it"

All done!

Our second project is still a work in progress. Her bear crossing the mountain is becoming a bear of a quilt. I plead temporary insanity since I decided to quilt it on my home machine. Bad decision.

First problem was with the beautiful King Tut variegated I choose for the top.  My machine didn't know what to do with such nice thread and this caused problems. The tension needed to be changed, I also had Coats and Clark in my bobbin, which I learned from my dealer is a no-no. So after days of playing around, and some cussing. I took it to the dealer. They oohed and aah-ed over King Tut and looked pale and shook their heads when they saw my bobbin thread.  New thread for the bobbin solved the problem.

Pretty King Tut thread.

Even though this is  lap quilt size. I struggled with it on my sewing machine. I loved to piece. But quilting on my little home Janome...not so much. I know there are sewing wizards out there who even do full size quilts on their home machine. I hold you in high esteem. I have decided my sanity is more important. Unless it's a place mat or mug rug, I am sending my quilts out.

What's the problem. I can't roll something up and sew a straight line. And it is hard to sew with a budding photographer shooting close ups as you sew. But it is really just me. It is a pain. I get grumpy!

I also could not figure out what to do with this sunset border. I tried some free motion meandering. That was a disaster. I had to take it all out. I also ran out of the "good" bobbin thread. That meant no more using good old King Tut.

We did use the variegated thread to add depth to our bears fur. It actually looks better in person than this picture.

So it is kind of together. It still needs to be trimmed and have the binding added. This quilt won't get a lot of wear and tear, so I am considering no quilting in the sunset border. I am sounding like Jana, but I am afraid I might ruin the quilt.

Time to stop while I'm ahead and the quilt is still presentable.

We've had a long day of sewing. Jana is home with her dad. He is happy with his present. I've folded this quilt up on my sewing table until I can get to the binding. The cat has taken over. I think he is saying that's enough, we are done for the day. Time to rest. I think he knows what he is talking about.

"No I'm not giving it up ..I am resting"

Good idea. I think I'll go to the same... Have a good week all.