weekend sewing

It was an unusual weekend.  I was so absorbed in Hurricane Irene that it was very difficult for me to wrap my head around the idea that it was not going to get dark and rainy and destructively windy at MY house this weekend.  We did experience higher than usual breezes this weekend, and a few raindrops on Saturday, but were far out of the path.  Luckily my dad decided to weather the storm at home (despite the mandatory evacuation order) rather than on his boat, and the storm surges there were not very bad so all was safe.  However, there were trees down everywhere, and although my Honey had his daughters with us this weekend, he did not take them back yesterday because there were large trees felled on either side of their mom's house, on top of power lines.  Their school was canceled for today so they stayed one more night and he'll take them back tomorrow.

On Saturday we all went downtown for some sidewalk shopping and lunch, but spent the afternoon at home.  I went to the basement to sew, eventually my Honey joined me, and then the girls began congregating there as well.  So I put them to work arranging my Drunkard's Path blocks into a quilt top.  As you know, there are hundreds of different ways to arrange these blocks (and if you didn't, Inklingo drove that point home with their newest collection's design book consisting of 203 pages!).   I have an easier time deciding what to do with these blocks when they are in two colorways, not four, so their taking over was a relief.  And this is what they did:

I kept this the way they did it and sewed them together.  I have a small bundle of coordinating fat quarters that I will probably do something with in the way of a border, but I count this as a finished quilt top. 

I finished another as well, rather unexpectedly.  I've been challenging myself with something new for one of my Honey's high school friends who designs gorgeous jewelry.  We'd agreed to trade crafts and so I'd put together the basic top some time ago but was trying to brainstorm borders.  Once I decided to showcase quilting in the border rather than applique, the top was finished.  I want it to be a surprise to her, so no photos yet.

Anyway, I was looking forward to having the house to myself Sunday afternoon/evening when my Honey took the girls back, and didn't get that, so I retreated into my sewing area.  I put on the Winona Ryder movie, "How to Make an American Quilt" as I pinbasted the two Hoopla baby quilts.  I HATE basting so it really helped pass the time ... which wasn't that bad for quilts as small as those.  After dinner, I began machine quilting one.  The tension is not that horrible, but my Bernina seems to skip a stitch on occasion, leaving a loop of thread on the top, and I'm not happy about that.  Both my machines have had MORE problems since taking them in for tune-ups than they had prior, so I'm hesitant to take them back ... especially with paying $100+ for each one.  Not to mention that they had Old Sally for over a week the last time and didn't even know that she was knee-operated, so they called me to bring in the foot pedal.  It doesn't inspire confidence.

By the time I was quilting at night, the battery on my phone was too low to take photos, so I'll have to see if I can get a few tonight.  You know, I'm still toying with the idea of buying a "real" quilting machine but if I can't handle the creativity of free motion, there's no point!