It's going well

It's amazing how quickly things come together when you're happier with what you're making!  I've been cracking on with Erin's birthday quilt which is going to be a Double Irish Chain quilt with stars in the plain squares.  My design has 17 stars so I'd like to add four more.  The easy option is to put them on the back!  But I have been weighing up putting them in the border.  We shall see when I get to that part.

This is the kind of mindless sewing that's perfect for retreat.  Particularly when you're drinking wine!  You can of course do a more complicated quilt whilst drinking wine but you're more at risk of needing to use the seam ripper!  Unfortunately, my next retreat is in March so that's too late for this quilt.  But I have to start thinking about what I'm going to take this time.  That part can be harder than packing the car!

So with all this mindless sewing I've been thinking a lot.  Or rather remembering a lot.  I don't have any close family left and because I live in Australia I'm not close to any other UK family members so sometimes I feel really sad that I'm the only one left who remembers my life when I was young.  There's no one to share those "Hey, do you remember when..." moments.  And I do wonder if half of what I remember is even accurate.  But there's no one to ask...

So the solution to this kind of problem?  Make sure you sew your mindless sewing at retreat!  Or with wine.  Hmmm now there's an idea!

I moved my machine next to my quilting frame.  The rails are a very handy sorting system.

This is how my fabric is coming off the roll.  Don't you hate that?  Arghh!  I brought the fabric back to the house to press with the Tefal iron because my Oliso iron, that other quilters seem to love is rubbish.  I hate it with a passion but it just refuses to die!  The Tefal iron did a great job with the fabric and I now have a nice smooth piece to cut out my next strips.

Oops I stitched this piece with the wrong sides together!

Ta da!  These are the blocks I've done so far.  

I suspect the star blocks will take me a bit of time but I'm happy with how it's going.  I also need to decide what star I'm going to sew.  Something easy I think ha ha!