July: one monthly goal

This is beginning to get tedious, but my goal for July is the same as for May!

To finish my version of Bonnie Hunter's 2016-17 Mystery Quilt, "En Provence" which I had to stop quilting during the second week of May because my machine was playing up! Since then it's been back to the dealer twice, and I've been on holiday.

My machine is now back from the dealer who replaced the BSR section of the machine's wiring. The fault has been ascertained: the wiring in the BSR foot itself. We are now trying to convince Bernina that it was faulty within the guarantee period, even though their technician failed to find anything 2 years after purchase. Rewiring the foot is impossible so the choice is: buy a new one (about €600.-) or learn to quilt with the darning foot (like thousands of others.) The dealer gave me some hints about positioning the BSR plug to give the fewest problems, but I still have to try it.

Now I'm all set to go again!

I'm linking to

just click on the button to see more July goals from other quilters.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Blogger: no way to answer comments!

This is super frustrating!

I hadn't posted for over a month and now I discover that I can't reply to the comments my friends left on my post of yesterday.
Perusing the Blogger forum reveals that I'm not the only one; this issue has been around for over a month, and, as far as I can see, Blogger/Google seems to think it's been fixed!

I'm seriously looking into the options for changing to another blog provider. 

0-0-0-0-0

Update 29 June 16:45 CEST

The issue is solved!

I just received some email notification of comments to this post. So I'm no longer thinking of moving my blog. Everything seems to be as it was.

I'm very grateful to the people who helped me with this today. All the useful answers came form other bloggers. The authorities at Blogger were not at all helpful.

0-0-0-0-0

Here is my reply to your comments of yesterday:

I'm grateful for your comments and have seriously considered your advice.

Circles it is, but with a change of scale.

And so to sew, but first rip off that plain white border and then add more print border. As the weather is beautifully warm I shall be appliquéing circles while sitting outside on my balcony this afternoon.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Teal and aqua Squared Away.

June's colours in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are teal and aqua. These are two colours that give me problems: I have difficulty deciding if they aren't really blue, or really green. Hoping for the best I made two blocks for the Squared Away Sampler:

 This block, chosen by Mari, is called Country Lanes.

 

Further this week I added two sides to the Round Robin for the Kingfisher Quilt Bee which meets in The Hague. I took fabric with me when I was on holiday and hand-appliquéd solid circles onto a print background. When I got home I added the strip with circles to the centre block made by another bee member. More rainbow bear paws, but not mine this time!

And now I can't think how to go on! I've had lots of ideas and rejected them all. I added a 1.75" off-white strip around the other two sides, intending to add two chessboard rows. Now, however, I've gone off that idea and think I should continue the circles theme. Do you have any brilliant ideas for me? Asymmetrical is OK as the Kingfisher is part of the Dutch Modern Quilt Guild. I have another ten days before I have to pass it on. I would really appreciate some help here!

30 June: Update on the bear paws

I've decided on more circles but with a change of scale.

I'm linking up on Saturday to

so click on the button above from about midday Saturday 

[Central European S.T. (U.T.C. +2)]

to see more rainbow delights. 

Happy sewing

Marly.

Quilting "En Provence": problems!

Finally I started quilting my version of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt well over a year after I finished piecing the top. I really love this quilt whose colours remind me of La Provence district of France. 

Layering and starting quilting was my One Monthly Goal for May which I posted about here.

Well, that was done in the first week. In fact I had quilted about two thirds of the quilt and thought this will be finished this month. The photo below of the back shows how far I got.

But then my Bernina Stitch Regulator started playing up. The BSR suddenly lost contact with the rest of the machine. The BSR no longer registered on the display screen and (this is the worst) the machine continued to run, at full speed. As the feed dogs were lowered the needle just went up and down about a hundred times before I managed to switch everything off. I tried to fix it myself: unplug and then reconnect the BSR, unplug and clean the plug with a piece of fabric, twiddle the plug a bit in the socket (you realise I'm grasping at straws here) and yes, there it was again - connection made and off we go again. For about five minutes. Then repeat ... several times!

It spent a week at the dealer's and the result was: a service and nothing wrong with the BSR! OK, maybe the service had fixed whatever it was that was causing the interference.

 No. This morning I tried to continue and after about 10 minutes it happened again. This time no cleaning plugs, no twiddling; first thing tomorrow morning it's going back to the expert.



 
 I met my goal for May as I started quilting my "En Provence". I'm frustrated as I'd hoped to have the binding on by now! 
As I probably shan't be able to post until the middle of June I'm sending a link to this post to Patty at Elm Street quilts, but won't be able to post a goal for June.

To see more May achievements click on the OMG button on my right hand side bar on or after 26 May.


Happy Sewing

Marly.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2018 halfway summary

Each month, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Angela chooses a colour and Mari chooses a block and gives the instructions for the Squared Away sampler. This month's block is Baton Rouge Square  in pink; I posted about my pink blocks here. As the RSC is running for 10 and not 12 months this year, May marks the half way point. It's time for a summary so here are my blocks so far.

 And here are my squares with wonky stars:

I just finished the yellow star, and the green one I made a couple of months ago. The others I made last year. These started as leaders and enders with 2" squares, and when I have enough of one colour I make them into a big square with the wonky star. Last year I had cut a lot of red squares apparently! Some months I just haven't accumulated enough 2" squares to make a square.

I'm liking up to:

Click on the button to view the display of RSC pinkness.

Happy sewing

Marly.

May pinks

Each month, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Angela chooses a colour and Mari chooses a block and gives the instructions for the Squared Away sampler. This month's block is Baton Rouge Square  in pink (with that name it sounds as if it should be red!).

I have done more pink sewing in the last month:

My starting block for the Dutch MQG (district West) bee round robin. I really made it at the end of April, and it's due to be passed on this Tuesday. I posted more about it here.

Soon I shall have more time for sewing as I have now finally retired. My first task, however, is to sort through, and largely throw away, my teaching materials accumulated over the last 43 years! It really doesn't seem that long. For most of that time I was working from home and visiting client companies which is why my materials occupy 4.5 metres of shelf space. Just imagine how much fabric and how many project boxes I can stash there! Even so, it feels like I'm taking my life to the paper recycling bin; so much effort went into those 4.5 metres!

Sewing has always been my hobby, and quilting since I officially retired 6 years ago. Everyone needs a retirement challenge: mine was to be patchwork and quilting. Unfortunately a few days after my "retirement" my boss asked me to return. It's nice to be thought indispensable, but I was finding the pressure increasingly difficult to deal with. Hopefully now I can pick up where I thought I would be six years ago.

I'm linking up to  

Click on the button to see more pink delights.

Happy sewing

Marly.

My May One Monthly Goal

By the end of May I hope to have the my "En Provence" (Quiltville Mystery 2016 - 2017)  layered and to have begun quilting.

 At the beginning of April, the pieces I wanted to incorporate into the backing still looked like this (minus the bears' paws):

 
At present the backing is pieced and looks like this:

I'll cut the extra off the side while I'm layering. For now the first task is clearly a good pressing!

Good luck to everyone else setting goals to achieve in May; may your plans work out well!

Click to see other crafty May goals

Happy Sewing

Marly.