Crosses and Cauliflower

I had a piece of batting that was the perfect size for the Crosses.  Almost!  I had to patch it in one corner but that was easy to do.  I did a ladder stitch holding the batting insert in there and it worked nicely.

However.

That said, I need one of two things to happen before I can continue to quilt this one.

1.  I need to get a walking foot for the Janome machine.  It is a frustrating machine.  I can see why someone donated it to the Flood Cause.  It does not like to switch out of a zig zag into straight stitch.  Which is annoying to the Nth level.  It must be worn in that area.  And it does not like to keep the thread in the needle even if I hold it when I start sewing.  I have rethreaded this machine a million times.

or

2.  I need to finish the quilt on the longarm so I can put them on the frame and use the Avante.

Either is not immediate.  I am working on it.

Today I decided to  pull out an old UFO and get it to the top stage.  I just about got it there. It is  Thimbleberry Block of the Month from like 2005.  I hand stitched  all the centers of the blocks following the little lines.  I actually got pretty good at it too.

And I groaned as I pieced all those tiny pieces!  The Modern Movement was not even a twinkle in the young girl's eyes yet.  Looking at it now, i think it would look great in Improv Style!


 The problem was that the blocks had been washed in a commercial washer with a lot of bits of fabric!  At some point I had to decide that "done was better than perfect" since the blocks were frayed and stretched out in all kinds of ways.

I was able to find two small pieces of the black and the tan material to fill in the blank spaces.  But I had to audition fabrics from my stash.  these two looked good and a chose the purple-ish one.

I am thinking that I need to give this quilt to one of my neighbors.  It has been through the flood, had new pieces added to repair it and is frayed and out of shape!  Just like we all are trying to recreate our houses.


In the construction news, Frank was able to build out the laundry room for me.  He even got it pained this morning. 

 For lunch I made some okra boiled in shrimp boil and some of the oddest looking  cauliflower.

I wonder how they do that?