Some sewing

Let's see...  What shall I start with?

I decided to get my old sewing machine repaired and not splurge for a new one...  In some ways I'm rather disappointed in that decision but I got bogged down in the choices available and in the end threw in the towel.  Tetsu and I weren't on the same page about whether to buy from a shop or from Internet and though his intentions were good, he jumped down the rabbit hole looking for the "best" machine for me, whether I wanted to spend that much or not.  He kept reading reviews and finding online deals and reading every little tidbit aloud to me and my mind finally overloaded.  He was making me tired and told him and the repair man I'd prefer to opt for just getting my old machine fixed.  I think I missed a chance because I'm probably not going to need to think about a new machine for another 5 or 10 years and by then...  

So... in the meantime, I'm hand quilting into the long cold evenings and have actually finished a lot of feather work that'd I'd worried about.  I had traced lots of feather wreaths with chalk onto the dark squares of my latest quilt but I was afraid the markings would brush off if I let the quilt sit too long.  I skipped over all the pieced blocks and applique parts and went straight to the feather work and though the markings were barely visible at the end, I was able to finish all the wreaths.  That's the good news.  

The bad news (but not unexpected) is that all that quilt work hardly shows on the dark patterned squares!  Ah well, maybe if you look closely.  I am ready to start some stitch-in-the-ditch quilting.  

M-san has more to show in the patchwork department than I do.  At some point at the end of last year I showed her how to make a simple Around the World quilt buy cutting up strips and piecing them, and she got her quilt made and then set out to do some slow stitching in embroidery thread.  I suggested she just quilt as she liked without much marking to guide her and she came back with a very ethnic feeling quilt...  where the quilting doesn't much show up...

The back really shows off her quilting though maybe we shouldn't have pieced the backing.

So pretty!

For our next project, M-san and I decided that we wanted to make some Happy Villages and so last week we chose fabrics and began cutting and setting them out on a background.  Neither of our projects look much like a village yet.  Unfortunately, Omicron Corona has hit Japan suddenly and quite hard and we've decided that it is no longer safe for us to meet for any length of time for the next month or so.  M-san came over yesterday and picked up her Happy Village and the extra fabric she will need to make roofs and windows etc.  She took home Karen Eckmier's book too and will do what she can on her own this week and maybe we will be able to meet up briefly in person or online for the next step.

This is my Happy Village so far.