I think I've mentioned before that I usually quilt my quilts in two phases - once the quilt top, batting and backing fabric have been pinned together I ditch-stitch the quilt (i.e. sew along all the seam lines).
Then I bury all those thread ends before carrying out further quilting. The second phase of quilting generally involves stitching images or text into the background and adding texture where necessary.
This week involves burying threads from phase 1 on a number of quilts so that I can continue with phase 2 and finish them.
When you have about a hundred million threads to tie off and bury, it helps, psychologically, if you take some beautiful photos first.
Above you see a snapshot of life here for the past three days, as documented by our faithful computer (hence the poor quality, back-to-front photo). A little obsessive perhaps, but I am pleased to report that, exceeding my initial expectations, the quilt is quilted AND the house is (at least superficially) housecleaned. Not a trace of the madness of 'easy living' left. Maybe Phil won't even suspect a thing when he returns in a few hours time. Or maybe he knows me too well. (And I'm not sure I would be able to explain away a newly quilted quilt anyway - he'll never fall for "it magically quilted itself while I faithfully did my housework" ...)
I should clarify about the quilting, though. Only the ditch-stitching is completed. I always quilt in two phases - first the ditch-stitching and then extra stitching to created pattern and texture (most often in the background areas of the quilt). Ideally the thread ends get buried between the phases but I don't always (OK, hardly ever) have the patience to do that before finishing phase two of the quilting.
The 'school' quilt is pieced! That's a major milestone. Now it's quilting time. This has timed rather nicely with Phil being overseas for a few days. My goal is to finish the 'ditch-stitching' (stitching over all the seam lines) before Phil gets back (for no particular reason other than that I like to work to goals). So the kids and I are in easy mode - easy meals (i.e. little cooking), easy housekeeping (i.e. no cleaning), easy routine (i.e. sewing all day). That's something I can only live with for a few days, and only when I'm completely caught up in a project like this, but we'll enjoy it while it lasts!
My plan today included showing you further progress on my 'school' quilt, but I didn't get around to taking photos while there was still daylight. Instead, far too much time was spent doing battle with Blogger. We made a bit of headway this evening, so now I can tell you that at the top of my blog there is a new page titled 'How I Make My Quilts'. People often ask about my quilt making process, and this new page gives a general overview of the various steps involved - designing, cutting, piecing and quilting. Maybe one day when I'm not quite so mad at Blogger, I will upgrade the images to a larger size, but I'm afraid these smaller ones will have to do for now!
I gave the sewing machine some extra TLC the other night (using this helpful guide) and it's working beautifully again. Usually, when it plays up like it was, I figure it's time for a service, and bring it away. But I already had my other machine in for a service and wasn't ready to be machine-less for two weeks, so there was no other option than to do it myself. I'll certainly be doing this more often now! Thanks to a happy, healthy sewing machine, the latest quilt is now completely quilted and waiting to have its threads buried.
With every quilt I make, I bring all the thread beginnings and ends to the top of the quilt as I am quilting, so that once the quilting is completed, the surface is a mess of threads. These are then tied together in pairs, threaded onto a needle and threaded between the layers of the quilt, to give a neat finish. Although this takes a long time it is relaxing to do.
