Working without pain

 Yesterday, I took  my new and improved back out for a spin by quilting a big quilt free-motion. Two and a half hours of standing and guiding the machine had little negative effect on my back! I felt sore and my muscles were tired, but there was no severe pain! Yippee! The reason I did free-motion was the thickness of some of the blocks. The maker used her husband's jeans for some of the blocks, and left the pockets on. Its a nice look, but the hopping foot wouldn't clear the bulk in the sewn corners of the pockets. Oops. I rectified the problem by doing a meander on the quilt and stitch in the ditch around the pocket blocks. I echoed the pockets to keep the blocks a bit flatter, and it turned out fine!

Here is the quilt. It is all flannel with the denim squares and pockets sprinkled in.

I did a medium meander with denim colored thread.

Pocket block

More flannel on the back. This quilt is pretty heavy!

I finished the repair on the string quilt last night. I took these photos with three small pieces left to do, and I finished sewing them in the evening. The quilt is in the wash right now!

Before washing. No, the dark blue strips were not part of the fix...they were original to the quilt.

After I finished the repair, I re-quilted over the original grid of machine quilting that was broken in many spots. I did the four inch grid over the entire quilt with the Bernini domestic machine. The quilt is way more stable now.

The binding is a tiny floral print. After trimming the edges, I applied  a nice wide strip to mimic the original edge.

The backing had some splits in the fabric that were easily repaired with ladder stitching them closed, no patches required! The quilt is in the washer right now! Fingers crossed that it comes out fresh and clean, not needing more repair!

Outside, the garden is beginning to show some color. These flame azaleas are really a bright spot under the dogwood trees.

They grow wild here in the mountains, but we got this specimen a couple of years ago in a nursery.

The pink dogwood got a bit of a cold burn when the temp dropped below 30 last week, but is now blooming.

My breakfast companion. No, dogs don't eat oranges. I tell her that, but she doesn't listen.