Men and Boys in Easter Suits, with Ties!

Father and Sons in Easter Finery

Don't my menfolk clean up nicely for Easter Sunday?  Now that I see the pictures, I think the boys' jacket sleeves were too short.  Ah, well -- I got a full year out of those cute little suits, and Anders will be wearing Lars's next year!

Lars & Anders at Church

This one is my favorite.  What more could I ask for?

Well, the boys are back at school, and it's the first day of the last marking period.  We're in the home stretch of the school year, with summer beckoning from just around the corner.  Where did the year go?!

I managed to sneak in a little quilting time yesterday afternoon while Bernie was fiddling with his bushes in the back yard.  I finished the "straight" lines with the walking foot.  The quotation marks are because it came out looking like graph paper drawn freehand, without a ruler.  You get the idea that the lines are INTENDED to be straight and evenly spaced, but you wonder if the quilting wasn't done during a mild earthquake.  Also, despite the anguish and care that went into starching and basting this quilt, the dreaded evil pleats have been cropping up all over the back of the quilt, like this:

"Straight" Quilting with Stitched-Down Pleat

It's not as if that's the only place it happened, either.  There are so many places where I've got stitched-in pleats, it's almost like it's an intentional design feature.  You know, the way the ubiquitous clumps of dog fur dust bunnies all over my house are an intentional design feature, not an indication of slovenly housekeeping.  Ahem!

Where did I go wrong?  I honestly don't know.  Maybe I didn't starch the backing enough.  Yet the stiffness and stability provided by the starch seemed to wear off gradually as I handled the quilt, rolling and unrolling, folding and unfolding it while I was quilting.  Now it doesn't even feel starched anymore, but there's plenty of quilting left to be done.  Should I have used MORE safety pins for basting?  Was I tugging and pulling too much as I was quilting?  This thing is monstrously huge and heavy, and the table that I set up to the left of me does absolutely no good whatsoever.  I'm really struggling with the bulk of this quilt.

Well, the good news is that I NO LONGER HAVE TO WORRY THAT I'LL RUIN A PERFECT QUILT WITH POORLY EXECUTED FREE MOTION QUILTING!  It's definitely NOT perfect anymore, by any stretch...  ;-)

I packed away the walking foot, cleaned out the lint and oiled my machine, put in a fresh #60 sharp needle, and wound up several bobbins.  Next time I go in my sewing room, I'll be doing some free motion practice with the BSR foot in preparation for quilting those circles "in the ditch" of the circular seams.  Since it's not exactly a cake walk to stitch in the ditch along a straight seam line, with the help of the feed dogs, I'm VERY NERVOUS about how this is going to go, but I just can't see any way out of it.  That line needs to be quilted and there's no other way to do it.  I just have to know that it won't be perfect, and be grateful that I chose the invisible thread so my mistakes won't jump out at me from across the room!

Wish me luck!