Labours of love

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A year ago I was IN LOVE with Kawandi quilting. Hand-stitching thoroughly grabs me, and this was a way to make the quilt top WHILE quilting, what could be better?

I actually thought I'd give up machine sewing, lol. Because I was delving into a method so THRILLING, as well as making my Heart English paper piecing quilt top; it was like hand-sewing heaven.

By early summer, my right shoulder was achy. I kept hand-stitching. By late summer, I was nearly done with a Mandolin EPP quilt, and I had a second Kawandi quilt underway. Yet that shoulder....

An X-ray in early October showed no visible issues with the shoulder, WHEW! I had cut WAY back on the hand-sewing however, finding myself in a routine of using my sewing machine every other day. Why every other day? Because even when using earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones, my ears would ring if I used my machine daily. Talk about FRUSTRATING. As well as not being able to get any PT for that right shoulder, sigh.

Fast forward to 2026.... I've had some PT, but the issue isn't the shoulder, rather my neck. The lower trapezius muscle is very tight, and while there's no compression, I still have to limit the hand-quilting/stitching. So I've been indulging in as much machine sewing as my ears can take. After finishing the medallion-Minnesota project, I put more squares on the design wall, stitched a couple of rows, then....

I started another medallion quilt, LOL! I am pretty bad in adding new shinies, yet this one, oh my goodness.... This shiny has stolen my heart, making me sew a few days in a row, and tonight my ears are buzzing. Yet I can't stop adding strips to the edges. I'm using a scrap pile that has been accumulating for a while, then today I rummaged through a tote associated with yet one more EPP quilt. I pulled out several WOF strips that aren't too wide, and most are shades of blue, haha. Yet I am at that stage; width of fabric will get me through a few more turns, then I'll turn to some widebacks and maybe cut into some Specked fat quarters, sewing strips together to make a nice long row to affix to this truly marvelous, not as little as it looks in the photo above project.

I need more low volume prints, methinks. And not to immediately start another until I get the design wall project DONE.

It's been soothing to meander with this quilt; using scraps, not needing to walk back and forth to the design wall, sewing long strips, then pressing open the seams. It's fabulous to employ fabrics I haven't used in a while, solids too. I'm not a big user of my solids stash, but we'll see how 2026 goes. Not sure I'd like to make one of only solids, but I could make one of MOSTLY solids, with the random flower print for good measure.

I have no plans for these.... Quilt tops, backs, who knows? Never before have I accumulated finished tops/backs, but why not? If I can't machine quilt (TOO LOUD) and cannot easily hand-quilt, well.... Maybe one of these days my neck muscle won't ache. And I could consider having some of these projects long-armed. If nothing else, I'm enjoying using my machine, which sat under its cover for MUCH of 2024. I should get it serviced, LOL, poor thing. It's been, um, more than a few years since that last occurred. We'll see how that can be squeezed into the schedule. Maybe tomorrow I'll only sew the row currently pinned, then I'll hang it out for a quick photo session. I don't know how large I want it to be; I am having too much fun constructing it to consider size.

The squares on the design wall might be the last patchwork square quilt for a while. I'm in medallion-mood and happy to be there! 

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