16 patch quilt finished!

The days certainly do go by quickly.  We're already nearly at the end of the month!  The big news around here is that we have made reservations for going to the States early next month... less than two weeks away!!!  More about that later.

I finally have another quilt finish to post about.  This is my 16 patch quilt sometimes known as Arkansas Crossroads or Goodnight Irene.  I started this to show M-san what can be made with Leaders/Enders and the full bins that I have of 2 inch squares and 2 1/2 inch squares.  I have plodded along with the 2 inch squares and a couple of weeks ago M-san took home the 2 1/2 inch square bin.  I have finished up while she is now busily making X blocks.  M-san is going to make her base color dark blue.

Although I have other projects to get done, I really wanted to try out my new Juki sewing machine and see how it does with free-hand machine quilting.  I'm very happy to report that except for one time putting in the bobbin wrong and breaking a needle, the quilting went smoothly despite the fact that there were a great many layers to quilt through at all the corners.  

I'm not overly thrilled with the quilting I did in the X blocks but this was all more of an experiment than anything and I've learned that I can quilt fairly nicely with my new Juki machine, the thread did not break nor even pull much despite a lot of shifting and circling.  

I used decorative thread on the top and white thread on the bottom but even that didn't cause a problem with a bit of bobbin adjustment.  I still will have to see how the machine handles monofiliment thread but that will be for another quilt.

I am now ready to cover up my sewing machine for awhile and start using my sewing room as a "packing room".  Tetsu and I will be flying to Indiana and will spend a week with Leiya and Tony and Luka and then all of us will fly to California to attend my niece's wedding and visit with Takumi and Julieta.  Tetsu and I will spend a little more than a week there and then come back to Japan.  This is actually NOT a great time to be traveling though the Covid numbers are going down in Japan.  But the cost of flights!!!  The yen to dollars conversion!!!  The fees for PCR testing!!!  Whew!  But we've put off this trip for so long that we decided we'd better go while we have the chance.  If you remember my post a few weeks back about our digital challenges and multiply that a few times you will get an idea of the frustrations that Tetsu and I have been having.  With all this energy spent, we HAVE to go now!!!

The majority of our luggage is actually going to be quilts!  I have quilts for Luka and Takumi and Julieta, for extended family members, of course for my niece...  I've been afraid to mail any of these off for fear the postal service on one side of the ocean or the other, would lose them.  I am putting my trust in the airlines!