Well, it’s been a couple of weeks and the Boxes of Colour quilt isn’t finished 😞 My sewing machine — specifically the bobbin case — decided to go north for the summer season rather than continue the quilting process. The bobbin case wrenched itself out of its foundation, not once but twice. Mike was able to get it back into place the first time, but we decided the second time to get a new bobbin case. Amazon came through in a couple of days and I installed the new case — and the same thing happened with the new case. Razzlefracket !!!!

I found a sewing machine repair person with very good ratings (what did we do before the Internet?) and this past Wednesday I brought my machine to him. I expected to pull out my old machine, but lo and behold, the guy, Daniel, fixed it while I was standing there. A little stopper was slightly out of alignment. which allowed the bobbin case to leap out. He was a bundle of tips and tricks about the machine. He oiled some places I didn’t know about and now my machine runs as smooth as silk.

I’ll finish the Boxes of Colour very soon and show you a picture in my next post.

My block swap partner and I mailed each other our Old Italian block. On the left is her block and mine on the right. They complement each other very well and I assume they’ll be incorporated into the mystery quilt.

Speaking of the mystery quilt, the above are Clue #1 block. I’m loving the colors. . .

While my machine was out of commission, I started cutting fabric for my next quilt “Standing Strong” pictured below. This is a Quilts of Valor (QoV) quilt and I’ll be donating it to the Quilts of Valor organization. You can see more here. Since QoV are on the larger side (minimum of 55” x 65”; maximum of 72” x 90”) I’ll be sending this quilt to my longarm quilter.

This quilt checks a couple of boxes I’ve had on my list: a donation quilt to QoV and a bargello quilt. More about bargello here. This is the first quilt kit I’ve bought; based on my experience with counted cross stitch quilts, I was concerned that I wouldn’t have enough fabric in the kit and would have to purchase more. But so far I’ve had extra fabric when I’ve finished the cutting.