People Fish

I I got this sarong (rayon) from a friend that was living in Hawaii at the time. Because of the lines in the design I thought it would make the perfect piece to practice machine quilting. I backed it with flannel and machine quilted the lines in the design. I didn't want to border it with anything so I made the edges wavy and rounded the corners. It is my lap quilt, but I'm not using it much since the cat thinks any time I sit in the chair with a blanket I'm there solely for her comfort! It's nice to get something else finished.

I've also finished the child's quilt top I started about two years ago! Tomorrow I'll get the batting down from the garage rafters, and get it ready for quilting. Pretty soon I'll have caught up with all the UFOs I intend to finish, and I can think about starting new things. There are some UFOs that you just know you're never going to be in the mood to finish.

Practical sewing

A lot of quilters I know feel it's beneath them to mend clothes or sew other than quilting. I have no such qualms. I started sewing making my own clothes, and I like to make practical things for my home and family. My husband needed some gaiters for his newfound hobby of snowshoeing. I made them like the gaiters I had had for downhill skiing. Well, they didn't stay over his boots, and so I had to add the lower part which also has elastic that goes under his boot, but isn't fastened in this picture. They were a big success and he didn't get any snow down his boots and come home with wet feet like he did on his first trek. Luckily I had some rip stop nylon that I had bought to make a kite with. (The kite had long been on the back burner after seeing some wonderful kites in Galveston on the Texas Gulf Coast.)

That got me sewing again after a rather long, dry, sewing spell while getting settled into a new home. After I came home from a quilting retreat in Arizona, I've been fired up, and have lots of completed things and have made quite a bit of progress on some long standing projects. It feels good to be inspired again.