Good morning everyone, once again I don't ride the train and lots of finishes happen.

Rob, loving your two finished completions of one gorgeous quilt. I am following your lead of blending two different tops to make a quilt for my oldest daughter

Retireteacher, congratulation on the new little one, love him to pieces

Grann of 6, it's good to have a goal

Motorcyclemad, glad to read that you mastered the challenge of the pix download. That February finish is great, congratulations

Ckcowl, that double Irish chain with stars looks great also, congratulations

Happy sewing day everyone

cherryb

I'm entering this in as a potential February finish. I was given someone else's UFO with request to "do something with this!" It is a hand-embroidered fifty state blocks with thin navy sashing. Have it longarmed, trimmed on Saturday, made binding Sunday, binding is attached to front, started hand-stitching binding to back last night and decided I either needed more light or new eyes! I need encouragement on completing the binding because the back/binding are dark blue. Have a great day UFO people!

Nice finishes, everyone! I loved those little fishes!

I started out gangbusters this year with two big finishes, but now I've hit a major roadblock: My faithful machine started acting up while I was quilting my latest piece: thread breaking, bobbin thread getting all weird underneath the quilt, top thread shredding and snapping. At first I thought it was just being finicky about the relative thread weights, so I tried some different combinations, no change. After grinding my teeth and pulling out lots of fried quilting, I tried vacuuming and oiling the machine, no change. I think there's something wrong with the tension discs. I can feel some "stickiness" when I pull thread through.

So, it seems I'm at a stall until I can take the machine in and get it serviced. It's been a while since it's been in for maintenance, so it's just as well, but the timing! I was really on a roll!

To be fair, I do have a little Gem Gold that I use as my portable machine, and I could break it out and work on UFOs that are at the piecing stages. But it just feels like a real blow to my momentum.

Please send "Don't get discouraged" vibes my way!

Don't get discouraged, Quossum!:) I know it's frustrating when machine problems occurred and you can't figure out how
to fix them yourself. But I hope the problem is easy for the pros and not terribly expensive. Get that little Jem out and
advance your other UFO's to the next level. It'll all work out.

Quiltmom, whenever I had dark hand-sewing or unsewing, I would find it easier to do in the bright sunshine. So if it is too cold for outside, I would try to put my chair right by a window. Or get a really bright light and shine it right on the fabric.

Well, maybe i am succeeding in posting a couple pics. First pic is the pineapple quilt. if you look close in the upper left you will see a tennis ball my helper strategically placed. Second pic is what I am using for the backing.
Attachment 622350Attachment 622351

That’s gorgeous Grannnof6!

Sending good vibes your way Quossum- working on the ones that need piecing sounds like a great way to keep the momentum going while waiting for your machine to be fixed.

Rob

Gran of 6, what a lovely piece! I Like the colorful pot-a-dots for the back. Keep the bright and fun theme going!

Grann of 6: Pretty top and backing.

Quossum: Please don’t get discouraged. You can do this!

Thanks everyone. My husband is taking the machine to the shop today. Though it feels awful to set the basted, tiny-bit-quilted top aside, I do have UFOs that need piecing attention, too, so guess that's incentive to fire up the mini-machine and give them some attention!