Boxing Day

As a child I couldn’t understand what was meant by Boxing Day, I thought it was about the sport. Being of the non-sporting type, I dismissed it and looked at it as the day of after Christmas sales. Fast forward and I have a British neighbor who explained it to me, and I still don’t really get it. I think it’s like Guy Fawkes day, or Cinco de Mayo, you have to be there to appreciate it. Meadow Mist Designs is hosting a Linky Party for the Best of 2024 to share your top posts and accomplishments of 2024. I think it is a nice idea, but I’ll be looking and not linking. I used to do a bunch of Linky parties, weekly but most of the hostesses have stopped or moved to Instagram. I do attend a few when I remember, like Small Quilts and Doll Quilts “Design Wall Monday”.

I had a major victory/break through yesterday. All week I have been frustrated by the quilting of a quilt, the 5th of my custom order. The pattern is Plaid Trees by Lori Holt and the fabric is the Winterly collection from Moda by Robin Pickens. The troubles began with the very first row, big areas of skipped stitches. I chose a relatively simple Snowflake panto with no back tracking, I wanted to use a thicker thread, 40wt, on top so it would show up a bit. I ended up frogging the second row about 3/4s of the way through as it was skipping more than stitching. I went through the check list of remedies, and still skipping occurred. The machine stitched fine on test areas off the quilt, so timing wasn’t a factor. I then changed the top thread to a fifty weight, still skipping. I did notice that all the skipping was occurring when the sewing went through the white on white fabrics. I thought that I could try a non-stitch needle and that would help. Of course I didn’t have a 100/16 size so I took a ride to the LQS to get some. All they had was 90/14s, I also asked for help, but they didn’t have any ideas or methods for me to try. I had already spent many hours on this, and actually thought about taking the quilt off the frame and replacing the WOW fabric – Crazy desperate talk! I searched through all the LA chats and lists I belong to, and finally saw a video by Mark Henderson on FB about how the needle works to make a stitch on the Bernina Q24. AH HA! moment when he spoke about fabric friction and how the thread makes a loop for the hook to pick up. I quickly went to my LA journal and looked up the threads I had used for the other Winterly quilts. I had used Isacord poly, not cotton – like the King Tut, Sew fine, and Aurifil I was trying to use. I switched to the Isacord and was able to finish up the quilt yesterday. Take away from this “experience” use poly thread with WOW fabrics for best results.

I have one more quilt to make for this order, to hopefully use up more of the fabrics. I want to do a pattern called Merry Christmas Darling, by Cotton Way. Simple piecing and cutting, they used folded corners, but I am employing the folded corners ruler and saving a bunch of fabric. I need to be efficient as I am making 100 – 8″ blocks for a 80 inch square quilt.

I haven’t started the annual Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt “Old Town” yet. I am thinking maybe in February, as the custom order will be finished in the next two weeks and then I am away for two weeks. So February is wide open for projects. I signed up for another monthly BOM with Whole Circle Studio called Starry Signs. I have a bolt of black fabric and plenty of solid scraps to complete this paper pieced quilt. I also have the BOM Blooming Beauty starting in February. Being as I am behind in the last two BOMs, ( Message in a Bottle – 2023 and Simple Days – 2022) why not add two more? I didn’t start any new ones last year and I did work on MiaB and SD a bit.