Slow and steady

Well, it's been a busy week celebrating my birthday and with concentrated family time.

How am I going for the Project Quilting challenge reveal tomorrow? I think I have kind of given in to being late with this one. My sewing machine has been sewing a bit tenderly since it gave my son "Moving Soup". The bobbin case was jumping everywhere!

The seams were all loose on the bottom. I used a different bobbin, changed the tension, cleaned out the bobbin race, changed needles and re-threaded top and bottom numerous times. And frog stitched (rippit) quite a few seams...

Then I googled what it might be (it's only just had a blooming service!), and I didn't know I could oil my machine. In the manual it says not to. Well, this is a warm, humid climate. And so I oiled it, then let it soak in, and oiled it again.

Ok. I pieced the quilt top.

And the scraps are in a zip loc bag.

Uh-oh. Not enough batting. Between running to the shops on a Saturday afternoon with three children in tow, I just didn't fancy going out, then spending the next day and a half quilting a panel to death just for a challenge deadline. I prefer to spend more quality time with the children, and I think my machine needs a bit of nursing so that it doesn't start spilling the soup again.

And so, I have been making progress with the first applique block of Esther's Diamond Hill.

Only some flower receptacles left to go, and some circular knobs on the stems. I am not going to complete the baskets until later. I am not sure if we are meant to do that yet.

This has left me a little bit of time to dream about the first block of Esther's Secret Garden. While I was in the zone, I think I've come up with these colours and fabrics for the first block.

It is not a centre block, but a side block, which means I don't have to choose the main fabric themes with this first piece. I really like the "clashing" look, but it's still about balance. Some parts of the quilt are going to be more muted than others. But as there are 4 background blocks in this size, I think these appliques can all be bright.

The background is looking more grey here than it does in real life, where it's kind of a taupe/mauve.

Linking up to Friday Night With Friends.

Maybe you'd like to see what the others got up to?