wip - ing along during staycation

my kids are taking a summer musical theatre class every weekday for the next two weeks. for this homeschooling mama, it's rather like what other moms experience on a regular basis. there's the chaos and rush to get out the door, then it's just me and baby. we do this every year and i always look forward to it as my own mini vacation at home - a staycation.

 i have this glorious daydream of being able to complete the 4 quilts i have in the quilting que. monday was all about getting arrangements made, so i mostly just got unpicking done on pom pom de paris.  tuesday was different. i started quilting romance in the garden.  it would have been a fun quilt to play with different patterns or to do some creative straight line quilting, but i need practice with the stipple before i tackle taite.  so stipple it was. the deciding factor was that the long strips of prints (sashing, really) look a bit wonky to me. and not the good kind of wonky. you know how fabrics aren't always printed perfectly straight? well, when you cut a long, narrow strip of a print that's very linear, it looks crooked on the quilt! i'm hoping the stippling will lessen the effect. straight line would only have emphasized it, i think.

 one small gaff so far: a bit of the backing turned under and got sewed in the quilting. it's only a wee amount, right at the edge so i hope it'll be an easy fix. i didn't want to stop and mess with it yet. saving it for later.

i began having tremendous trouble with thread breakage. after about the 6th time, i decided to change my needle even though it was pretty new because the tension looked perfect. that didn't help. i scoured the machine's manual, which is very basic. it's a good thing i'm a reasonably intelligent person, even after giving up brain cells to each child. (i do believe after 7 children that babies are made from brain cells, not the egg and whatnot.) i was able to piece some ideas together and decided to try loosening the bobbin tension and adjusting the top tension to match. scary! but it worked.

 i do love seeing my pin jar refill itself as quilting moves along. big smile! it's nothing fancy (or "flash", liz), just a plastic jellybean jar leftover from a gift. but it works brilliantly for the intended purpose. i figure someday the label will look all cool and vintage, too. oh, who'm i kidding. it's just plastic. but it works and even has a nice hexy shape. i like it.

quilt folded in half to prove to myself it's half done!

i was able to complete half the quilting yesterday! moving right along but not showing the quilting too closely. i'm definitely getting better, my curves are rounder and there is less sharpness, but i did get myself into some tight spots so there are a few skinny fingers in there. i broke my self-imposed "no fmq  after 9pm" rule so i could make it to the halfway mark and it shows. still, i can not believe i'm so close to the binding phase with this. what an exhilarating feeling.

almost done unpicking this mess. what a project! but i think it will be worth it. if it isn't, i'll just lie to myself that it was. pressing forward.

linking in with lee at freshly pieced