sewing machine...fixed!

Hooray! Apparently the problems I was having were due to a) a broken darning foot, b) a wrong size of bobbin, and c) a misplaced needle. So I was lucky enough to drop it off yesterday and get it back today. I've tested out some free motion quilting on a small quilt sandwich (I didn't want to risk messing up on my quilt again) and so far so good!
Tomorrow is going to be a good quilting day.

sewing machine broken... again

So it appears that either my sewing machine wasn't properly repaired when I took it in a few weeks ago or there is something else wrong with it. It skips stitches when free-motion quilting, and the needle occasionally hits something metal that definitely shouldn't be there. Luckily the shop that repaired it last time guarantees their repairs for 60 days, so I'm covered. It's super frustrating to be without my beloved machine, though - especially because I was part-way through quilting the black and yellow baby quilt!

quilt top two for quilts for kids

Today I finished a second quilt top for the Quilts for Kids charity! This quilt top came together pretty quickly in an evening, but I just added the final borders.

It's an adorable black, yellow and white mixture of prints I bought in a charm pack (don't you just love charm packs?). I used this pattern by Katinka Brusselsprouts. It was so-o easy, but it looks complicated. The quilt top ended up about 35" by 42" - perfect for a baby quilt! I've never made a quilt this small, and I'm loving so fast it came together.
I didn't make any sort of pattern for the blocks - I just made sure each set of three had no repeating fabrics, and then tried to make sure that the same fabric didn't touch anywhere (you can see one spot where this sort of nonchalant planning did not work out in the favor). Overall, I think this quilt is an refreshing take on a baby quilt.
I have several more charm packs in the same variety of prints, and now I'm scouring the internet looking for more cute quilt patterns so I can use them up.
Now I have two completed quilt tops - and still no batting, so I can't finish the quilts. Got to make the long trek to Jo-Ann's to pick up some nice low-loft batting!