Happiness is ♥ shaped

My favourite quilting spot, with Happiness making itself at home

Well, not the whole thing. Just the quilting.

I’m pleased with how my Happiness quilt is moving along. The hearts are looking good! The more eagle-eyed and anal among you will have observed that I’m quilting the hearts in white, rather than the teal thread I’d originally planned. This is because I found I didn’t like how the teal stitches looked on the pastel colours of the back. So, back to white and all is good.

I haven’t been able to give it much time in the last few days, so I’ve only done 16 hearts out of the 100 that have to be done, but they aren’t at all troublesome to do, the shape is small so it’s easy to pick up and put down without stopping in the middle of some complicated pattern, and I love the simple, clean shape of the hearts. And it’s so pleasant not to be wrestling the thing through the measly 5″ throat on my Janome to machine quilt it.

Now that my sewing machine’s back, I’ve also got ready the first two lawn hankies to send off. Three more are cut out and I just need to do the slightly fiddly job of mitring the corners. If I’ve promised you one – or even two – I haven’t forgotten, they’re getting done slowly. The machine is running beautifully, nice even stitches, quiet, the needle threader is mended and the tension is correct. Something else to be  happy about!

The shops are closed today for Anzac Day, otherwise I’d have been down at Spotlight, shopping for white bias tape and cotton lace edging and narrow ribbon for the nightie I’m going to make. Perhaps tomorrow, when they have 40% off all yarns and I may also find myself involuntarily stuffing balls of wool into my basket… My haberdashery impulse control is very, very poor.  It’s no good telling myself I have to finish Woolly Thing first. If it’s there and it’s beautiful, it’s mine!

I should be out there weeding my desert garden, which is bristling with uninvited guests. But sewing is so much more fun than stooping…