I have yet again been super busy in 'Mum life', but I just keep plodding on one day at a time, and sewing when I can. I had a lovely day on Wednesday this week, as hubby went into the office for the first day in months, and all the kids were at school, so I had the whole house to myself in absolute silence! It also meant that I could spread out into the lounge and kitchen too with no one else using them, so I made the most of a whole day of sewing, pressing, basting and just generally making a happy sewing mess everywhere :-) A good friend has recently had a beautiful baby girl, so that was the perfect excuse to go all out on the pinks and purples for a super girlie quilt, and another chance to practice my free motion writing. I have been working on other words, but some letters still need perfecting before they are quilt-worthy.

I also finished the quilt that I started timing myself on a few weeks back with the wonky stacks look. So although it has taken me weeks, technically it only took me 19.5 hours ish, so I am really pleased with that. It has gone to a lovely friend of mine, and it is a design that I will definitely do again, as I love it. In my head, I can see something similar with lovely stacks of plain solids and embroidered book titles on them so they look like stacks of books, but my head is always full of so many ideas, it's a bit pot luck as to which ones ever make it to the actual quilt stage!

Do you ever find out something that you think you probably should have known, but didn't, and it's actually a game changer? I actually found out something really interesting recently, which I genuinely had no idea about, but that actually makes a huge difference...I love my sewing machine, and it quilts beautifully, but every so often I have a project which it doesn't seem to like, and the thread keeps coming un-threaded and/or breaking. I was sure that this was just human error on my part, and I usually change the needle, check that the bobbin area is cleaned out, re thread the machine etc. but none of it seems to make a difference. Well, I have now found out that batting actually has a right and wrong side to it! I am sure I should have known this, but I didn't, and once I read the article explaining how to tell which is the right side, I have been doing it, and guess what, no problems with any project since!!! In case there is anyone out there that doesn't know this either, this article is very helpful https://www.apqs.com/batting-has-an-up-and-down/#:~:text=Batting that has been needle,formation has a right side.&text=You want your machine's needle,are tiny balls of batting. I have now been vigorously stabbing all my batting with a pin on each side, and you really can tell, as the wrong side periodically has resistance to the pin going in, which I am sure is why my needle/thread were being thrown off so often. I'm guessing that I had a few upside down, hence why the machine seemed fine on one project and temperamental on the next. Hopefully that problem is now sorted for good! :-)

In other news, I've just been binding everything in sight, and I hope to get quilting on my tumbler quilt over the weekend. I'm thinking some kind of leaf pattern would really tie in with the fabric patterns, but am I confident enough to go for it...?