Time to catch up (again)

Here's my April UFO... completed - Glide Cream thread on top and Ivory bottomline in the bottom.  It's the one for my granddaughter and almost matches the one I made for myself... her's has a pink background and mine has white.  I had some issues when I started quilting it and ended up ripping out stitches from the top inner row across and up to the top - arghhhh.  Got the tension fixed ( simple to do) then Mo'e decided that he didn't want to go any further.. I'd stop to adjust the ruler or move to get my body in front of Mo'e's head and hit start  - he wouldn't move until I went around to the back and turned the wheel... he wasn't stuck like can happen when you're at an intersection that has lots of fabrics... he just refused to move.  I called Jason at Gall to 'pick his brain'... he talked to Mike and they thought that MAYBE there was some dust caught inside back by the wheel and told me to use canned air to clean it out.  Well, I don't have canned air here at home ( I don't think helium counts) and I didn't want to get dressed just to go to Walmart to get some; I was going to wait until he stopped again and then I'd get dressed and go.  You know what.... it didn't happen again.... until today and just a gentle shove got him going again this time.  I will get some canned air when I go to get groceries on Wed.  I wouldn't be surprised if he's full of not just dust but probably some cat hair, too.  Finished this one up on Saturday and made & stitched on the binding & label before going over to family in Grand Ledge for Easter dinner yesterday.

Got home last night and loaded this one onto Mo'e.... It's my March UFO... yes, it seems like I did them backwards, but I had a lot to do to get the March one to the quilting stage, so started on the April one in the meantime.

I went to the sew in at the library on Friday afternoon... just for a couple of hours.... I thought I took a pic of what I did, but can't find it so I guess I didn't... what I did was lay out blocks for another quilt... not space here at home to do it and it had to be laid out in a certain pattern.  I used up a large packet I had of 5" squares... beautiful colors and the prints are kind of a mix between Stonehenge and Batik.

 Once back home, I started sewing the blocks into rows and then joining the rows together.. I have three sections of rows and then the side borders to do yet... bought a beautiful purple/blue fabric from The Hen House for the backing and binding... I was hoping to have it done this week, but the March UFO is going to take longer than I had thought ( and I'm pretty stiff and hurting so it's slow going).

I wasn't going to start quilting on the current quilt until today, but I couldn't wait and started last night... it's slow going.... after working on it for about 4-5 hours today this is as far as I've gotten...

the three borders and the outer sashing ON ONE SIDE.... maybe I shouldn't be doing such dense work around the applique' but I'm having fun 'winging it'.  Pretty pleased with it so far.  This was a good place to stop because I still haven't figured out what I want to do with the stars in the center.

It's a dark pic, but best I could do this time of night...

and on that note, I'll say

TTFN


next morning:  as I was trying to go to sleep last night, I decided that I don't like all the stitching around the applique' and that I should really 'frog' it out and start again with less dense stitching. Maybe I will; maybe I won't... will decide in a little while when I get off this computer and out to Mo'e.