Happy New Year!

Just taking a moment to wish everyone a happy, healthy, merry, crafty and quilty New Year!

And to show you the two left hand blocks on this, made when I stole a few minutes earlier to ensure that my Round 6 of Kate's Stay At Home Robin was completed in time for the end of the month.  It's turning into a cheerful little quilt, but the circles on it I can't really lay claim to - I've borrowed them from others in the group - thanks guys!

Happy Holidays!

I'm still playing catch up, but that doesn't mean that I think that I've left it too late to wish everyone festive greetings and all the best for the New Year (and you may notice in that some acceptance that sewing and blogging over the holiday period does slow down a bit!).

The post title also refers to my happy holidays - I've managed a little stitching (and planning more now that I've cleared some space in the craft room - I can see the cutting mat again, hurrah!) and been the recipient of some lovely quilty gifts.  Not only my star from Avril, but lovely coasters from Benta and super egg cosies from Lesley - as well as some fabulous fabric from my brother Paul (and sort of a metre of bright fabric from my family, although that was a bit of a re-wrap job as technically it came free from Clothkits when I bought kits for the girls).

Why was I buying kits for the girls?  Lovely retro, nostalgia making kits for the girls?  Because my Dad and stepmother have relinquished the Frister and Rossman that I learned to sew on - the family sewing machine - to them for Christmas.  Actually 'relinquished' makes it sound more of a wrench than I think it was.  It was more a showing a way to the wardrobe where it has been kept, unused,  for the last twenty something years with a degree of relief that someone else was going to lift it out and take it away!

It still sews well, although the needle position seems a little off to the left - probably forced into unnatural positions whilst I was a teenage sewer making clothes and accessories.  The manual isn't with it, so I really need to look on-line to try and find out what the different feet are for.  I never was much good at understanding how to use different feet, and the only thing that has changed is that now I recognise a 'hopping' foot for free motion quilting, and a walking foot...... 

The girls are VERY excited about having a real machine of their own, and even more excited about having a machine that does zig-zag.  Lots of fun on the trial pieces changing the size of the stitch, both length and width.  Soon it's going to be time to get busy with their kits, with more charm squares, and with the fab sparkly fabric and threads that their Uncle Paul bought them......

Finished in time for Christmas!

This post should have been made last Wednesday, as it relates to sewing on Tuesday evening.  Guess who's playing catch up?

No, this post isn't about anything else that I'm sewing, but my lovely friend Tracy has finished this beautiful little quilt for her girls to play with.  Admittedly it didn't take long in sewing hours, but in elapsed time it's taken about 7 months.....

She made a fabulous job of it, and I hope that she's proud.  Is this just the first of many, Tracy?  My sewing room is always open to friends who'd like to do some sewing if anyone else feels inspired by Tracy's lovely quilt, so long as they don't mind a bit of untidiness (or creative stacking, as I like to think of it)!

Comfy Cushion

I've made the most of G being off sick for most of this week.  When I haven't been a human sofa (well, a 7 year old needs her mum when she's poorly) I've been making this cushion.  The personalised motifs that I was asked to include were an owl, a rainbow and some flowers.....and this is how it turned out.  The winner of the silent auction is very pleased - so I am too (although I won't be rushing to make any more fused rainbows in a hurry - lots of wobbly thin arcs!).

Just a little bit of hand stitching on the go at the moment, before I pull out the tumblers and Dresden plate that I was making before I swept everything aside to make the cushion cover.

Christmas is Coming!

I can tell this, as sewing time has become Christmas card writing time and wrapping time, and blogging time has become on-line shopping time - or at least, that's how it feels!

Despite this, last week I enjoyed a 'quilter's play date' with Avril, Lesley and Benta.  We played with fusible scraps and nattered merrily. 

Avril gave me a wonderful Christmas star with her trademark impressive stitching. 

I was inspired to have a go too, but need to stitch a shape that is rather more generous at the points, as mine looks too skinny, and to add some more stitching in the centre where it looks a little bare.

I carried on with the cream and red theme to knock up a few more Christmas decorations though - swiftly made with fusible ironed on to the red spotty fabric before the shapes were cut out and applied to the 'postage stamp' squares.  I made them with the Brownie bazaar stall in mind.... now I'm tempted to make some more padded squares like these but plain, so that the girls and their friends can decorate them with fabric pens as a fun activity.

Projects getting ever smaller.....so I feel very lucky to get an award!

Hardly any sewing at all this week - in fact, no 'proper' sewing at all.  I've covered a synthetic handbag strap with cotton (in an effort to stop it chewing up my clothes), patched over patches on one of the sofa cushions, and spent a fun evening making jewellery and bag clasps with friends (no photos as I gave them all away the following day without taking any snaps first, sorry!).

I've promised a personalised quilted cushion cover as a silent auction lot for the school fair, though, so at least there is a chance for some more sewing this side of Christmas, which is ONLY ONE MONTH AWAY - and is, of course, the real reason why not much sewing has been happening - too much buying, wrapping and prevaricating!

But an award!  How lovely, thank you Benta (and I'm looking forward to meeting you in person for a quilter's playdate next week!)

The 'rules' are that I have to share 10 things that you don't already know about me - hard for me to guess whether any of these will be new to you or not, but I'll do my best to think of 10 things.

Despite being 1) born in Birkenhead, I have discovered  2) through family tree research that I had both map engravers based in London and a bookseller in Twickenham (where I live) in the mid 1800's.

When I was a child the only pets I had  3) were ducks.  As an adult the only pets in the household  4) are hens (that really belong to my two girls).

That 5) the best explanation I've found of what it is like to have ME / CFS (as I do) is actually written about Lupus.  Read what Christina Miserandino has to say - and then thank Sally Bramald for linking to it earlier in the year.

That 6) in an effort to mitigate the symptoms of ME / CFS I have tried all sorts of remedies, including (look away, scientists) magnets, crystals, patterns of red dots, magnesium injections and a macrobiotic diet to name but a few.  The only ones that have had a substantially beneficial effect so far have been 7) pregnancy and cranial osteopathy (I still see my osteopath every three weeks, but have no plans to have more children!).  I'm sure that one day there will be something else that will sort out ME / CFS and I continue to donate money to research into it in that hope.

That 8) I have never had any desire to go pot-holing but that 9) I have tried lots of other activities including parachuting, para sailing, paragliding, micro lighting, hot air ballooning, bungee jumping, climbing, white water rafting, driving a double decker bus, riding a camel, kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, snorkeling, and scuba diving (and I should really try and scan some of the photos!)

Finally, 10) I am lucky to have some very good friends, but my best friends of all are my husband, my brother and my sister who get me through the bad times and share the good times.  I am fortunate indeed to have them.

So, ten things that you may or may not have known about me before?  Fun to play along anyway, and to think just a little about what there is about me that helps make me the person I am now. 

Even more small projects

Still not making progress on large quilts, but I've made a little bag (containing a beginners crochet kit) for a friend, and another nine or ten mug rugs (these ones in 'traditional' reds and greens ready for Christmas), and some more jewellery.

I'm planning on making a few fabric post cards next, so there is still lots of 'stuff' happening, just nothing on the flower tree or anything else of a larger size than A4!

Getting Ahead for Christmas

Not in most areas of my life (where I'm later than usual in printing Christmas lists and labels for envelopes....and yes, I do know that it's still fifty-something days to Christmas it's just that I like to be prepared) - but in making sewn Christmas decorations.

First of all the little house that I'd talked about the other day, inspired by the magazine cover and my own plump trunked trees.  I've added some beads and charms (and no, tiger tail doesn't poke through two layers of fabric and some wadding very easily for anyone who was curious).  I think that I'm going to re-do the window dressing, though, as the longer bugle beads didn't allow me to echo the shape of the window as I'd wanted to.

The second is a little decoration made like a paper snowflake (you know, folding the paper, snipping away, reopening it - you probably spent time doing this at infant school, even if you haven't done it since).  Instead of paper I used fabric with a fusible sheet on the back, so after snipping I could just iron the motif onto fabric before finishing the little quilt off.  More opportunities for adding beading and extra stitching ,of course....

I made another hanging decoration with an angel stitched last night at the Richmond and Kew Quilters meeting - a workshop led by my friend Lesley, and using one of the designs (and the threads) that she provided. The little wreath beside it is a starched fabric version of this.  It's fast to make, but slightly fiddly.  As it was fabric, rather than just leaving the holding together to chance, I ran a line of stitching around the central opening.  I think that more practise would help even up the outer 'petal's on it, although I was quite happy with the evenness of the inside gap!

Inspired to make your own snowflake?  Surely you've seen the virtual snowflake snipper by now?  If not, and you've got five minutes to waste, click here and you'll be able to snip some snowflakes to get you into the winter mood, without needing to clean up small diamonds of paper from the floor afterwards!  It might be useful to know that the scissors only work when the button on them is green, not when it's red - so you have to pay attention (and not suffer red/green colour blindness) to be able to play. Have fun! 



Want a chance to win this beautiful quilt?

Isn't it gorgeous?  And not only does it look lovely from a distance, but the detail is fantastic too, and it's been quilted by award winning quilter Ferret.  Money raised from raffling it will go to help cover the costs of the 'Quilts4London' project.  You'll be seeing some of the pennant quilts that I've made for this project in another post....

So how can you win it?  You can have a chance at winning this king size quilt by sending a £1 for each ticket that you'd like to buy to Quilts for London.  Go here to get the details, then grab your cheque book and buy some tickets!  Go on, treat yourself!

More distraction

I was going to have another go at the flower tree quilt, but was too distracted by the idea of 'mug rugs' - as brought on by this tutorial by Jodi of Pleasant Home - and popping up here amongst other places too!

Unfortunately I chain pieced four of these before I realised that the trunks were a bit wider than one might hope for.....but not wanting to waste time with nimby-pimby unpicking I finished them anyway (sorry in advance to anyone who receives one of these - but as someone who rarely has a hot drink and would never think to protect a surface from one, I'm pretty sure that these won't be staying at home, fun though they are). 

Of course, they did remind me a little of the houses that I'd seen here


So I went ahead and made a cute little house - but can't show it as Blogger has taken exception to the photo!  Maybe it's a hint that it would like to see some embellishment on it....I'd better get busy with the beads, I think!  It will also give me a chance to see if I can poke 'tiger tail' through fabric, and secure it each side with a crimp bead, for those times when it's easier to keep busy with the jewellery pliers than to pick up a sewing kit.

Small liberated sewing!

Just two little blocks to add to my stay at home round robin this month.  I'm happy as the small blocks from last month look like a ladder to my new house!

Jewellery Japes

It was the last class on my short jewellery class yesterday.  I've made impressive amounts (impressive to me anyone, perhaps not to anyone else) especially since I've made very little outside of the ten hours of class time.  I showed you the first pieces on the blog here and here , but would urge you, if you wanted something lovely to wear to look here and either buy something or pester Raquel to run more classes! I just wish that I was better at photographing my pieces!

 This set is made with lilac tiger tail, silver crimp beads and clear 'crystals'.

These show my first attempts at stinging beads - very fast! 

We tried both cotton and faux leather.

This set used multiple strands of black tiger tail and experiments with leaving some 'loose loops' to add additional interest.

And this necklace is actually a set in itself - there are clasps at each end of the chain, allowing you to choose one, two, or three strands of different lengths.  I really like this idea of giving the wearer more choice, and would be tempted to go a little funkier on the longest third string in the future.  I think that this is my favourite so far, but I've enjoyed learning the basics of this craft, and thinking about how to put other ideas into practise in the future.

Now I need to tidy the surfaces in my craft room, and get to work with fabric and thread again - I'm still struggling with 'Megs Garden' (my lovely flower tree with the unlovely saggy areas).  I thought that I'd managed to get a solution by hooping it on an embroidery hoop, gathering bagginess into circles, and was then planning to FMQ around this areas before making them a 'feature'.  This has proved to be a bit tricky, though, as I can't get the quilt and embroidery hoop under the machine needle, and if I take the hoop off and loose that lovely tension over the surface, it doesn't act as I want it to.  Grrrr!  Time for another try, or to perhaps work on something else whilst I ponder another approach!

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Autumn 2010

This is my entry to the current Bloggers Quilt Festival.

This quilt is one of the woven fabric quilts that I've enjoyed making over the last couple of months.  Small - it's only 9" x 11" - it's portable, simple, and lovely!  I couldn't think of a nicer destination for some strips of my old linen shorts and calico.  The hand dyed silk that I used for the quilting is lovely - a real treat to use.  It's been lovely to enjoy the simple fabric and stitch combination, and I'd like to make more quiltlets exploring this a bit further.  I will learn to try and make things that fit within 'standard' frames though.  Just a little narrower and this would fit into a ready made  A4 frame, rather than making me wonder about the cost of custom framing versus attaching this to fabric covered mountboard!

I've been taking a jewellery course - just five weeks - and wanted to incorporate some of the materials and techniques that I've learnt to give this quiltlet a little more sparkle.  I'm in love with tiger tail and crimp beads (and thus my jewellery pliers too) although I'm not sure that the different fixings for beads are entirely appropriate in such a small scale.  I'm looking forward to using them again on different quiltlets though.

Right, can't stop here blogging.  There is a whole virtual quilt show that needs exploring - and only limited time before two small people start demanding breakfast!

I hope that you are having quilt show fun too!

Liberty Jack Bandwagon

I've been keen to try my hand at a 'Liberty Jack' type design since seeing Janey Forgan's in the V&A exhibition earlier this year.  My dear friend Kate's moving to Australia and asking for a similar cushion cover was a handy excuse to choose a few 'Liberty style' prints (and I can thoroughly recommend the stall on the Cattle Market site in Kingston on Mondays if you, too, are looking for cotton or lawn prints at a reasonable price).

There are any number of tutorials about how to make this type of design, but I didn't find any (at a quick look) who incorporated the counterchange of the saltaires (or for those who haven't been reading the Observer Book of Flags, making sure that the white of the St Andrew's diagonal cross is dominant over the red diagonal cross of St Patrick, by having more white showing 'higher' closer to the hoist, or pole side).  I notice that Janey Forgan's does, and I wanted mine to as well.  Easy enough to achieve, technically accurate, but I'm not sure that I'd do it next time, as the diluted 'even placement' is easier on eye, as this reads quite lop-sided to me, despite being square (and yes, I know that flags aren't usually square either, but checking with Kate she'd wanted a square cushion).

It's 16" square, and made with raw edge applique.  To keep it soft I didn't use any fusibles - but I have 'pinked' all the edges to reduce the amount of fraying - I love my wavy edged rotary cutter!  Another quick project completed.

In the nick of time.

I'm usually quite organised and like to get things done well before the deadline - but it doesn't always work out like that.  This card is due for a birthday in two days time (part of the BQLPC birthday swap), so allowing time for it to be posted, today was the last chance to get it done.....so it was made today!

Do you recognise the fabrics?  Guess who is being thrifty with her tiny scraps of pre-fused fabric left over from the flower tree project?  Yup - I started cutting some of them last night to make this little garland.  Fused and stitched it today, and all I need to do now is to write the address and message on the back, and walk it to the pillar box.

I did have a good 'quilt clearing' weekend, though - I managed to give away four quilts - always a good feeling.  The decks are now clear and ready for me to re-start work on the flower tree quilt, which still needs to have it's baggy bits sorted out before I can carry on quilting.

Watch this space - but don't hold your breath, as I think that this might be a slow stage in the project!

Phew!

Got there! (well, ok, I still need to add a label and wash it, but I'm saying that it's near enough done to post about).

For once I added up the hours that it took.  I'm quite impressed with what one can achieve with 17 hours of free time, some fabric and some wadding.  The result is a 60" square quilt.  I really hope that my second eldest nephew will like it - although I'm a bit concerned that it's a bit too stripey.  At least all the stripes are going in the directions that I'm expecting, and the 'arms' of the stars are all spinning the way that I was expecting too!

It would have been quicker to make, but I like to make oversize half-square triangles and trim them to size, which actually turns out to be more time consuming than I'd thought.  I did save time by trying (for the second time only) a binding style where you leave the backing over sized, fold it, and then stitch the folded side down to the front.  On the plus side you can make sure that you don't cut any 'points' off your triangles.  On the down side it doesn't feel as firm as the binding that I usually do, and the corners are much trickier to get right.  Or at least, I think that they must be harder to get right, as in eight corners there is maybe one that could qualify in terms of  'rightness'! 

Onwards and upwards, I'd better get on with printing out a label or three (I've got - the shame of it - other quilts that still need labelling too) and the domestic chores which have been shunted to the side pending the big finish.  Just 50 minutes until the end of school, but ha! a mixture of school clubs and hired help mean that I don't have any childcare responsibilities for another 90 minutes - so plenty of time to do the chores and prepare for the four small people who will descend at that point......

The Race is On!

I've made this quilt for my eldest nephew (and Shhhh!  anyone who knows him, unless they think it's too girly, in which case speak out loud and clear and tell me) from lovely Amy Butler fabrics and calico. The pattern template is simple - a CD!  I also used some text fabric (thank you, Avril!) on the central circle that's a bit like 'Janet and John' - overall my homage to his Media / English studies.  I finished it this morning, when DH kindly took the girls to the supermarket so I could have a little sewing time. 

Now the question is this.  Can I make a quilt for his younger brother from scratch in the five days that I have until I need it to be finished, so that I can given them quilts when I see them, instead of waiting until Christmas?

I've decided on a simple pattern (although I say it's simple, the only time I made it before, I got some of the pieces turned in the wrong directions - a surprisingly large number of them, it turns out!).  I like the idea of the friendship stars and how they link to create a secondary pattern.  Now I just need to check which fabrics I might have enough of, cut them, sew them, cut them so more, sew them some more, add wadding and a backing, baste it, quilt it, bind it and sew the label on.......

I'd better hope that DH is going to take the girls out again tomorrow so that I can get a bit of a start, and then really get to work on it when the girls are back at school on Monday!

Ready, steady, sew!

Fragments IV and my busy girls.

I've started! I've started a few small embellishments for my latest woven strips quilt (cunningly named Fragments IV - I can see a series and understand the nomenclature!. OK, so at the moment they look a little like glamorous safety pins, but I've got some other ideas to try, honest!

This week at my jewellery class we learnt to extend the techniques learned at last week's class by making bracelets. I've already done a little extra by making kilt pin brooches. Actually, I only planned and made the one on the left, F made the one in the middle, G made the one on the right (and made some surprisingly tasteful choices!). I can see that jewellery making could easily become a shared activity for the three of us. Good for our fine motor skills and patience, I'm sure!

The girls also enjoyed making postcards to swap with a very kind friend who'd sent them fabric cards. I'm quite proud of the girls for knowing that if you get a special card through the post it's nice to 'swap' and send one in return.

Frankie started one with a picture of Alfie the dog on a beach, but changed her mind and asked me to start a doodle pattern for her to colour. Georgie went straight for icebergs, polar bear, penguins (yes, we've told her that they won't meet, but she says that she knows that but they can in her picture) and dolphins. I didn't help with the composition but I did help with stitching the elements down.

I'd like to get some more quilting done this week. Projects seem to be slow moving at the moment, rather like me.....

Stay at Home Robin - October

Not quite as early as some months, but this morning I've sewn the fourth part of my 'Stay at Home Robin'. I've left the ends of the block slightly extended so that I can trim them along with the blocks that they are joined to when I add more to this piece. I'm trying to ease away from the 90 degree angles used when I joined the first three blocks!

You can see all the other lovely pieces coming along on the dedicated blog here.

It's all about the loops.....

I decided to sign up for a five week long Jewellery Making course at my local library. An unlikely choice for someone who wears a stone wedding ring (not very tolerant of metals, which make me very itchy and sore)and can't remember when she last wore jewellery. Still, I thought that I might be able to make some interesting embellishments for quilts (!) or cards.

I've revised my opinions. I now think that I can make Christmas presents and small bits of loveliness to give away to all sorts of people. Based on my one lesson so far I've seen what lovely items there are, and have purchased some bits and bobs from eBay - mostly charm bracelets and kilt pins, but some extra beads, crimp beads, tiger tail and findings too to supplement the fabulous kit that we were given.

The lovely Raquel was both friendly and patient. She took us through the basics that had been provided in the kit, showed us lots of examples of her work and then let us loose to start making, whilst staying on hand to answer questions as soon as we had them. We could choose our techniques, and I made three pairs of fairly even earrings: one pair using tiger tail and crimp beads, two pairs using pins. The key lesson this week was forming lovely even, tight loops that won't fall off the earring findings.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the course!

Leonard Hugh Picken

Leonard Hugh Picken
7th Nov 1918 - 1st Oct 2010

He was a lovely uncle, an interesting person, and will be sorely missed by us all.

More Simple Sewing

This is a quilt that I have made for my uncle. When I heard earlier this month that his mobility was deteriorating, but that he still wanted to sit in his conservatory so that he could see into the garden, I thought that a fleece backed quilt would be a good idea, as both 'impaired mobility' and 'sitting in the conservatory' sound chilly to me in a British autumn and I thought that fleece would be lighter and easier to pull over yourself than a normal three-layer quilt.

I wasn't quite fast enough with the construction and quilting, and my uncle has now gone into hospital, where I can't imagine he will need a quilt. I'm trying to decide what the best destination for this quilt would be. I don't think that I can give it to Dorothy House or another care home (as it's fleece backed and includes some poly-cotton shirtings in the quilt top), but perhaps one of his grandsons (my second cousins) would like it....time to cogitate.

Now it's probably time to go and tackle some more of the Infant school embroidery thread supply - looking more like The Clangers blue string pudding than a sensible collection of threads, I've been waiting for more cardboard bobbins to arrive (bless you, eBay!) so that I can carry on winding them into order. Of course, I know that it's a job that will need to be re-done at least every term, but I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that it will be a temporary improvement.

(and yes, looking at the photo again, one might wonder why I didn't put the top of the quilt furthest away from me, but off to the side instead....!)

I know......

.....that this is shameless marketing for a mobile phone company - but it's fun and cute and appeals to anyone who liked tiny things when they were young - or not so young!

A Little Sewing

Whilst pondering the flower tree quilt, I've done very little sewing (in fact, very little of anything), but I'm delighted to have been back behind a sewing machine again for the first time in over a week.

In about an hour and half I'd whipped up a little baby quilt (using my own 'free pattern') for a new cousin to two of my nieces (family, but not genetically entwined with us!). Unfortunately in my enthusiasm I managed to scorch it :-( so now the scorch mark is in iced water and I shall hope that it's gone in a couple of hours. It isn't time critical, though, as I'm not exactly sure which day over the weekend she was born (the perils of letting DH take a call with the news!) and I'd like to sew the date as well as her name onto the quiltlet.

I've also made this little piece couching some threads over a non-woven stuff, which was over some of my favourite batik. Just a small piece that will hang on my wall as a place to keep quilting badges.

Not tough, not big, not clever, but manageable and fun!

Un-quilting ;-(

I started off the quilting on the flower tree with high hopes that were met - and the micro-stippling around the central 'tree' went well, with sufficient fabric 'eaten' to satisfy me.

I always knew that the wide open areas were going to be trickier, as there was so much more fabric, but I set off with gung-ho enthusiasm and thought that it might be OK.

It wasn't. I think that it was Ferret who said '8 minutes quilting = 8 hours unpicking' - and she could well be right. I certainly had a lost day with only this handful of thread fragments to show for it.

Now I need to tackle the excess fabric some other way. My sister suggested pulling the fabric into a bunch and twisting it into flowers. I thought that she might be joking, but it's up for serious consideration (and I've just found Jacquie Harvey doing almost exactly that, but setting off with the intention of making roses, in an old Fabrications magazine). Erica on BQL suggests either starching and shifting the fabric about until the fullness is lost, or placing additional wadding behind it that will be unnoticed when the area is quilted. The trouble is, my areas are bloated and bulging rather than merely full. I'm wondering if I can combine all three. Pull, fold, starch what is left, stuff the (by now smaller area) bulge, and then slap a small butterfly on the top of it.........?

I've started by spritzing the top with water to get rid of any lingering blue marker. I rather think that my second move might be to leave the top to one side and get on with something easier while I think about it.

Progress on Meg's Garden (Flower Tree)

I'm finished sewing on the flowers, I've stitched the green grass or vines, and I've spray basted the top and wadding onto the backing..... and I'm quite happy with the progress so far. I just wish that I'd sewn down just the flowers on the tree, then re-basted, and then sewn down the flowers around the border. I'm concerned that I have an awful lot of spare fabric in the open areas (just look at it in the photo!) that I'll need to 'eat' somehow in the quilting.

I think that I'm more concerned that I don't know why it's there. Obviously I know that one would usually quilt from the centre out to the sides, but this looks like it's stretched in the open areas. Either I didn't baste sufficiently or I shouldn't use 'linen mix' fabric bought from a previously untried source on the web or....I'm not sure? Wish me luck with the quilting!