When good stitches go bad

Well, I know I said I was going to get on with that big Denyse Schmidt quilt for this week, but wouldn't you know, the scrappy quilting bug has bitten me good and proper.  I finished off that boy's quilt and got stuck into a girlier one straight away - it's too much fun watching all those little squares tuck up neatly against one another!

Isn't it pretty?  So far so good, eh?  Except... look a bit closer...

Yeah.  That stitch.  For some reason, when I came to quilting the rotten thing, my machine decided not to play.  I fiddled around with needle size, tension, thread weight, cleaned out the bobbin case - still no dice.  I had the same issue with the boy's quilt but didn't notice until I was already finished, and none of the skips on that one are too big - look:

There on the yellow flag is about as bad as they get (sorry, that photo is terribly out of focus...)

So the boy quilt can go in the shop, at a discount, and the girlier one is sitting waiting to be unpicked, and for the Sewing Machine engineer to call me back.  Ohhh the frustration!

Positive Procrastination

For about a month now I've been working on a slightly ambitious quilt using fabrics from my most favourite designer ever, Denyse Schmidt.  It's mostly Shelburne Falls with a bit of the reissued Flea Market Fancy range, and some odds and sods from my Fabric Cupboard of Shame.  I had it in my head that I would finish it today and blog it, to make sure I started things off on a high note.

...instead my eye fell on the scrap-quilted top I have also been fiddling with for about a month, and I realised that was a lot closer to finished and REALLY needed backing, quilting and binding so I could draw a line under it.  I dug out a piece of yellow polyester fleece which came from a scrap bin somewhere - goodness knows what I was going to do with it - and realised it was just the right size to back my scrappy top, and I could dispense with batting entirely!  Serendipity.

So here is my scrappy blanket.  It's only wee, just big enough for a cot blanket or to go on a buggy.

Perhaps I should try a properly "bloggy" photo of it:

Oooh, yes.  Now, having used up all those scraps (maybe a metre or so at most) I had clearly cleared a space for more fabric, right?

Just as well, since I ordered the entirety of Denyse Schmidt's new range, Florence, from the Village Haberdashery in their pre-order sale the other day.  Hee hee!  Now where am I going to put it...

Meet me back here next Wednesday and I'll try to have my big exciting Denyse Schmidt quilt finished.  Wish me luck!

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