Reverse Sewing

That expression still makes me smile but not the actually doing of it! Today I did miles and miles of reverse sewing, taking out as many stitches as you can do with one bobbin of cotton thread...

Yesterday I bought a bright green polar fleece to back The Lorax Quilt with, and in a strike of genius (or so I thought) I put it on my John Flynn Quilting Frame - thought I would cut out the basting that way (always one for the quick fix...). I set up my new smaller portable sewing table DH had made me for the retreat and happily stippled pretty much all over the quilt. I had quickly checked the look from the back, seemed fine, but when I had to take the quilt out of the machine to change the bobbin, I realised there were more tension problems than I could stand, so my 30 min happy stippling took 90 min of unhappy ripping... Well, it could have been worse I suppose...

Hmm, doesn't look too bad on the photo, wasn't like that in reality unfortunately...

I have now spray basted it (see, still looking for a quick fix!) and I will just fmq it without quilting frame :-) Hopefully with a satisfactory result this time!

Last week I sew a neat pattern in the Kiwiquilts Newsletter for the Caddy Pad (Iron Tote and Ironing Pad in one) from the Sister's Common Thread. It arrived in the mail, and yesterday I put it together:

I am not sure how often I would be taking my iron anywhere to be honest, but I think I might use it as ironing pad close to my sewing machine (once I have moved all the stuff that's there already...). However, I think with a few alterations it would make a neat handbag, so watch this space...