Practice makes (Almost) Perfect

I am happy to report that my machine is back in working condition - the bobbin winder works as smoothly as it ever did!  She just needed a little drop of oil.  The repair company didn't even charge me!

There have been a lot of projects in the works in my basement workshop. 

Maybe last week, you'll remember I was working on the Prayer Shawl for my sister, practicing with feathers. Just when I was happy with the practice, my machine decided to stop winding bobbins.

This week I was able to finish the quilting! I started out with the feather wreath in the center using a color that matched the backing - oh mistake #1...

The picture doesn't show it, so hopefully nobody will notice all the little green dots here and there.

I wanted to carry the feathers throughout the piece, but I didn't like the way it was turning out - so out came the seam ripper.  After 2 days of ripping out feathers, I thought I'd never want to do them again...

 I decided on an all-over loopy flower-stippling design for the braids....

 

and back to feathers in the border.

 

I'm loving the way it turned out.

 

 



Now all that is left is the binding, and slip it in the mail for a quiet surprise.

The flying geese are for a quilt I'm making for my father-in-law.

 

 

For him, I wanted to do something fun!  My original thought was some kind of I-Spy design and gathered up fat quarters for many of his favorite pass-times, camping, cars, snowmobiling, fire department, fixing things, and collecting yardsticks. There are many stories of various things shown here, like the ice cream cones.  When our son was little, they'd let him have "a thousand scoops" ice cream cones, "but who says we know how to count". 

The flying geese come from a story he tells about how he'd watch the geese every year and as he tells it, geese mate for life.  One day on the road he passed a goose sitting on the side of the road next to a goose that had been hit by a car. The rest of the flock had gone on their way.  The next day he passed the same spot, and the goose was still there, sitting next to his fallen mate.  Every day for about a week, he'd pass the same spot, and see the same sight. On the last day, both geese were down.  The second goose had died of a broken heart.

My in-laws have been married for 55 years, and have one of the strongest marriages I've ever seen.  I hope in 25 years, our son will say the same thing about us.

Linking to Leah Day's FMQ Friday Linkup.  I wish my work looked half as good as her 'mistakes'...