I had been toying with the idea of leaving the trusses unquilted (apart from the stitching around the edges to prevent bits becoming dislodged).  I REALLY want to finish this quilt soon!

But I found an alarming development of wobbles and woofs in the quilt (due to uneven density of quiling) and I feared no amount of ironing would fix it.  So the decision is made for me.

And I'm so happy it was.  It seems impossible for me to capture with my late night photography, but I have been able to really accentuate the truss directions.  For the first time in the quilting phase of this piece I am pleased with the direction I've chosen to take.

So, I'm zooming along feeling pretty good about stuff and my thread starts shredding and breaking and generally being a pain.  So I inspect my (recently changed needle) and find that there is a nasty coating up the shaft... so I change to a new needle, and the shredding continues and I see that this new needle has the gunky stuff too.

So I changed from a microtex to a quilting needle to see if the larger eye would make a difference to the shredding (I normally don't like them, too fat), and the same thing happens.I tried sewing slower and it seemed to fix the problem.  So I'm now wondering if Vliesofix has a tendency of gumming up needles.  Any Australians have this problem before? I never have and I'm sure I've quilted faster than this before.

Other technical problems which have become apparent:

• The gummy needles have dragged tiny fibre filaments from the batting (Matilda's Own wool/poly).  In certain light this is visible against the dark blue.
• My beloved bobbin thread is white... Sometimes I get some of it coming up to the top of the quilt, like when I do a sharp corner GRRR!   I have a cunning plan though.  I am not above using a permanent fabric marker to mask them out.   There isn't a lot of it, but it does contrast with the dark blue.  In future I'll use a matching bobbin thread - lesson learned.

Quilting has commenced on the trusses.

Cooling Tower

Bird

My art has been lacking a lot of colour lately and I think it is sending me a bit loopy.  And boring you guys into silence too (comments are scarce these days and I'm feeling a little lonely).

I was just set to go to bed when wildly grabbed my little box of chalky pastels and some prepainted sheets.  Plunking myself on the floor and using my thread box as a 'table' I started smearing charcoal and pastel all over the place with a frantic sort of haste.  Bird is my favourite, but here are some more:

My friend Monica is getting married in less than a month.  The wedding will be held at St John's Catholic Church in Richmond,  Tasmania.  This is from a drawing I did today. I altered it in Photoshop to give it a more graphic quality, which I prefer.

It could display a better likeness... for example, the front part has a much more solid bearing than my teetering drawing.... however, I think I give the church a real feeling of being perched on top of a hill, which is the case with this building.

Monica may prefer a better likeness, in which case, I'll have another go.  Otherwise I have a back up which is a drawing produced through the various magics of photoshop (and the cutout filter which is the darling of the moment).

I am currently frantically carding wool for the big spinning marathon over the coming fortnight... I must have enough yarn to finish the jumper during my holiday in Tasmania.  MUST

I love Limoncella.

An old friend, Monica, from University is getting married in less than a month. The wedding will be held at St John's Catholic Church in Richmond, Tasmania. This is from a drawing I did today, I altered the drawing in Photoshop though to give it a more graphic quality, which I prefer.