Yesterday I had a moment when my sewing machine stopped working, mid seam. Slight panic ensued as I went round the house trying to find out which fuse had blown – Nothing. Back to the machine, still not working. Was it time to get the replacement I had been thinking about for a year? Unfortunately – No. When setting up the studio for teaching on Thursday, I had moved the machine slightly and the power cable had become loose. Such a simple fix and I was back in action. I wish all fixes were so simple.
As we have not been able to meet in person this year, I have been teaching via zoom. It has been a whole new world of technology to get to grips with. It has been an eye opener to how we can all remain connected even when distance and a pandemic keep us apart. I have been working on a new version of the Ambleside Quilt alongside my students, demonstrating sections using screen mirroring. This lets me zoom in on sections and show close up sections of quilting and piecing. However, I upgraded my equipment and am now experiencing lag between them. I have spent quite a long time at the computer trying to find a solution but the explanations seem to be written in a foreign language. I am sure though with a bit more research I will find an answer.
Sometimes we need to let a problem percolate in our minds to come up with a solution, and this has been the case with the blocks for the Ambleside quilt. It is a large quilt and so I have decided to divide it into sections and quilt as I go. I debated, with myself, whether to have a coloured backing so that the quilting would not be obvious on the back of the quilt, but finally decided that I would embrace the quilting patterns that appear. I could have used a white thread on the spool and the coloured thread on the bobbin, but this may have given pin pricks of either colour on each side.
These are some of the blocks I have been quilting this week. Usually when I have finished piecing a quilt my mind moves on to the next project, almost forgetting that there is as much work to be done to quilt it. Quilting as I go, completes the quilt in sections and my mind won’t wander onto the next project – I hope.
Now to join the sections together and add the borders. Much more fun than trying to sort out computing problems.
Happy Quilting
Bev