My last post was pretty obvious. I was showing Sherry her quilt before I put it into the mail. I started to put the photos into my web shots.... oops! The web shots software wasn't there. I haven't taken the time to reinstall it yet. I gotta do that really soon. I'm running out of room on my camera.

Well anyway I quickly loaded some of the photos onto the blog so she could take a quick peek before she had to leave for her guild meeting.

Today I'm putting a few more pictures here to show the finished quilt.

This is the left side....



This is the right side....

This top "had" to have black thread for the quilting. A guild rule, not mine. My challenge was to use the black thread without overwhelming the colors and design of the top.

The theme of the top was friends quilting together. So what do friends do when together? All the things from the words Sherry sent me to put into the quilting.

Quilting usually means lots of thread and needles all over the place. In this case meandering seemed appropriate to represent thread.

and there is coffee mugs, pin cushions, scissors,

and of course even more needles and thread....

I've got another top on the machine. I was going along really nicely quilting it yesterday. I got the quilt stabilized almost to the end without any problems. Then I started getting skipped stitches. I was able to backtrack a couple of stitches to fix where it skipped. As I kept quilting the problem got worse. So I had no choice but to stop quilting to track down the problem.

I dusted and I oiled.... still skipping. I tweaked tensions and tweaked the bobbin case..... still skipping. I shut off the air conditioner in case it was drawing current from the machine..... still skipping... thank goodness cause it was hot in the studio. I checked stitch regulator wheels.... still skipping.

The only thing left to check is the thread. The thread I use will be fine until I get about half way through the cone then it starts to act up. I think its a terrible waste to only be able to use half a cone before opening another.

Anyway, I pulled thread with one hand while watching it move through all the guides.... it seemed to pull unevenly to me. Yes, it must be the thread. So I go to find a new cone of that color.... you guessed it..... don't have anymore. I decided to call the store to ask if they have another cone in that color. Oops! The store is out of business. They closed last week.... I remember that... it was on the news.

I have no other choice. I must finish this top with the thread I have. It means I will be spending lots of extra time fixing spots where there are skipped stitches. One or two... now and then... would be fine with this customer.... but the skips happen much too often. It looks half quilted.

OK, enough blogging and procrastinating.... time to face the problem.