Just Do It!

I'm overtly stealing from Nike here. This quilt was a lesson in "stop thinking so much and just do it".

I struggled a lot with how to quilt this baby. I don't know why. In the end, I'm really happy with my results - I also started reminding myself that this is a gift for a 5 year old - what she is most concerned about is whether there is enough purple - not how great the quilting is.

All my fussing was worth it. I took my first foray into feathers and I'm pleased with my results. I want to practice lots more and my confidence has a good foundation.

Here are some close up shots of quilting

It is actually bound and ready to go. I can't get any photos yet - it's way too hot to be lugging around a quilt. I'll get a few though and post them.

The label:

And an oil update - there were 2 possible spots I marked and treated for oil. Here is what I see now...

...nothing. The oil is gone or so lightweight that it hasn't left a mark, or the baking soda worked, or it was just water and not oil that dripped. I've breathed a sigh of relief.

Now I'm trying to quilt the quilt for my cousin. It's huge and heavy and slow going. Wish me luck.

Keep Calm and Get the Miracle Cure

Have you seen the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? In it, the father or grandfather thinks that Windex is the miracle cure for everything. I kinda feel that way about Neo Citran and blue Dawn dish soap. I'll be testing my cure shortly.

Today while sewing my free motion foot started squeaking something awful. So I carefully removed the quilt I was working on, oiled the foot, free motioned something scrap to get up any extra oil, and put the original quilt back in business. Then I noticed an oil stain on my sewing table - which also got on the quilt. I almost cried.

I put baking soda on both immediately and went off to do something else. Disclaimer: You should follow your own cures for oil stains.

The stains looked much better after. I put a piece of tape over the sewing table and I'll wash (to some degree) the quilt after soaking it in some blue Dawn dish soap (which is what I do when I get some oil on my clothing).

Through it all I stayed relatively calm - and it was nice to text my quilty friend L who shared my dismay. I'm sure it will all work out fine!