I'm so relieved - Hedgehog has posted this week about finishing a quilt that has been on her design wall since May 2007. I've always thought that I'm not really the wall-hanging type, but lately I've been looking at this quilt on the design wall, and I've come to the realisation that I 'have' a wall hanging. Yes it has been there since 2007, last blogged about in August 2007 (the shame). I quite like it you know, and often think about its direction, but there it stays. So I'm not the only one, thanks Jen!



As for other sewing, I've been stuck to the computer lately, and not doing any. Motivation has been low for a few weeks now, for everything, not just sewing. The house, the yard, walking and so on. But I was emailing my blogging friend Bonny today, saying that as the weather is turning a bit toward Autumn I should be finishing my niece's Christmas Present Quilt. So, I turned off the computer, marched myself up the stairs and got going on it. I don't really look forward to the quilting part of it as I'm not too good at it and find it fairly difficult. Like how do you quilt the border that is at the end of the quilt when the whole quilt has to be rolled up in the machine? I've done basic straight line quilting before and seem to have managed. Plus the bar on the walking foot only works 'one way' for doing straight lines. Maybe it's the thicker batting.



Anyway, today for the first time I have broken some needles and I couldn't figure out why. Finally it has come to me after much fiddling around, that the needle isn't going far enough up inside the bit that holds the needle. I have a slide-down needle threader on the machine, and it isn't working as the little bit that goes into the eye of the needle can't reach. It's very odd. Perhaps it's something to do with the walking foot with the bar sitting on the needle screw? You can tell I'm not too good with the technical names of everything. I'll have to look for the machine book (it's a basic Janome).



Otherwise I'm planning some sort of curtain to cover the shelves in the bottom of my pantry. I have a walk-in pantry and the shelves at the bottom are open and collect a lot of dust.  I've been thinking about it for quite a while, and finally bought some denim (same as the curtains for the sliding doors) and some red hessian. It looks a bit tomato-y in the photo, but it's really a bit darker. I thought I'd have a panel of denim along the top with the hessian hanging from that, with slits here and there as opposed to gathers. I did consider a big piece of 40-50s style kitchen fabric that I have, but decided against it.



Sometimes it really pays to not rush into things. Take for example the picture that has been propped up against the bookshelves on the floor for a few years now. I've changed my mind about where to hang it so many times that I think maybe it should just stay there. Anyway, I've been thinking on the idea of the Japanese sashiko-style big stitching that I've been looking at here and here for a few weeks now. And the cherry blossom sashiko kit that I haven't started. Then I was thinking about how easy it would be to do the big stitching on an open weave fabric - like hessian - then I thought that it would make it too exact and not natural looking. Then I had a re-think of the whole pantry curtain idea... I do have some fabric Mum brought back from Japan that hasn't been used. Maybe that could go on the red? I'll have to think on it some more. No need to rush these things. Any ideas?