A while back, I made a list of the tops I've got assembled and ready to quilt. Last week I actually counted them. There were fourteen, and then I finished another one. Only a handful are little wall quilts -- the rest are throws and larger.

There are excuses. Mom's only around six months out of the year (and is fifty miles away when she is home), so my access to her long arm is limited. If I had the extra money to pay someone else to quilt my tops for me without giving up other things, I still wouldn't want to. If anyone is going to mess up my quilts, it's going to be me.

There's only one reasonable solution. I'm going to have to learn to quilt on my Janome. I've done it before. Grandma's quilt came out okay, even if I did rip out more stitches than I left in and was reduced to tears a couple of times. That purse I stippled and then never finished came out really well.

And then there was that disaster yesterday, which almost put me off free motion quilting forever. I like the quilt a little better now that I've picked out all of the stitching and tied it with embroidery floss. I laid awake last night trying to decide which of my tops I could get away with tying.

Working on the theory that I've done it before and can probably do it again, I put the darning foot back on this afternoon and quilted this little wall quilt that's been gathering dust in my sewing room since 2006.



I can't say that I'm satisfied with the results, but I'm going to bind it and finally get it hung in my kitchen. Done is better than perfect.

What I really want to get finished is One Thrifty Quilt, and I'm attached to that one. I really want it to come out okay. Not to quilt show standards, but a whole lot better than the teapots.

So I worked up my nerve and dug out the walking foot that came with my machine and tried to teach myself how to stitch in the ditch. The walking foot has intimidated me just because it looks ominous, so I've never used the thing.

This little quilt had been gathering dust for slightly longer than the tea pots.



I can do this! I like the looks of free motion meandering better, but I can DO this! And I've got a couple of quilts that actually SHOULD be quilted this way.

Now I'm wishing I had a couple of boards and some tatting thread. Go watch Sharon Schamber's You Tube video on handbasting a quilt to see why.