Finally finished the clean out of my townhouse on Friday. There’s still stuff to be given away and put in the trash, but the big purge is done!

So yesterday I was able to resume quilting. This quilt was about half done – I had 16 design repeats left to embroider; I did 10 after fighting with my embroidery machine for an hour: it was refusing to sew with the cotton variegated thread I had been using without breaking it repeatedly. 

I did the usual things: rethreaded both top and bottom thread, change the needle, cleaned lint from top thread path, cleaned out the bobbin thread area…. I even tried straight stitching on scraps with the cotton thread, with polyester – the problem was the cotton thread, perhaps a weak spot, because eventually I was able to embroider/quilt with it and was able to complete the quilting. Trimmed the excess and bound the quilt.

This is Quilt #8 which I’ve completed for the show in Parrsboro end of August. #9 (shadowed blocks) is pin basted and ready to be quilted. I set up a block design and a border embroidery last evening – I’ll begin working on that today. 

I am hoping to create a 10th quilt before the move. I won’t have access to my machines for three weeks and will be busy setting up the apartment early August. I know what I want to create for the top (still pondering what to do with the back). So I’ll get started on the quilting and do the prep work for #10 in the next few days.

Happy to be sewing again!