I've also gained another degree. I got the exam result for my second Level 3 module the other day quite unexpectedly (I thought they were due out a bit later than this) and that made me eligible to claim my BSc. My OU studies aren't totally finished as I can take another two modules to get the Honours part of the degree but I'm going to see how it goes - there isn't a lot of time with working full-time, the kids, teaching workshops, going to workshops, etc. but, being under the transitional fee arrangement, it's a lot cheaper to do it now than leave it until later.
With all that I hadn't had much time for sewing but I forced myself to baste the two quilt tops I finished in May's quilting class. I was then able to take the first one to Monday night sewing and get it quilted, the other I took to yesterday's quilting class and started the quilting. I finished the second one last night while Alan watched the football.
The granny square quilt above was quilted with diagonal lines in a green thread. This was made from a very badly cut jelly roll and is definitely far from my best work!
The other quilt is hopefully going to be a Xmas present for someone. I took some time to decide how to quilt it. I didn't want to do straight lines that went through the green triangles. Equally the diagonal lines created by the green triangles didn't work as the angles would have caused the lines to cross into other green triangles (does that make sense?!?). I also didn't really want the hassle of going around all the hexagons and lines with my walking foot as it's quite hard, slow work turning the quilt around lots and the blocks were a bit large for just quilting the edges of the blocks.
So, I decided it was time to get over my fear of the meander. It's one of those free motion quilting 'patterns' that looks so simple until you try to do it. It's basically a squiggly random line. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the problem is that I don't really think in a random way when I have to fill a quilt top with it. I start going along a side to make sure it's filled or I start going left to right so as to not leave any gaps. I have to really focus on not doing those. I think the end result was pretty good. I could definitely improve as my stitch length is a lot more uneven than I'd like but it has definitely got that random look to it.
Here's a close up of the quilting:
My next job is to make the binding for these two quilts and get them finished.
