DQS 7 Progress

I feel like a slacker... I have a month before my swap quilts are due in the mail, but I haven't gotten nearly as much work done on them as I've wanted to. It's just been so incredibly hectic, as I've been stupidly busy building furniture for my mother-in-law, helping her get more of her stuff moved in, and getting my own home in order. We've got a new bed arriving this Friday and have been trying to get the whole house reorganized and clean in anticipation of this.

Above is the sketch I came up with for the DQS 7 quilt. The inner yellow circle will be echoed with a yellow binding. Below is the image of the top in progress:

The outer border evolved from simple wedges into paper-pieced triangle-thingies. The yellow isn't nearly as distracting as I thought it would be. I'm very glad for that - I just wanted the yellow as a "zinger" fabric. I'm pleased as punched so far :) It's turning out better than I expected.

Tomorrow, I'll finalize the outline for the phoenix that will be going on this. On Friday, I'll pick up fusible webbing, so that I can attach the bird to the top. I'll also get some red thread, to satin stitch the bird down. I seriously debating doing some beaded embellishment.

Well, I should say I hope to be able to satin stitch it. My sewing machine is sick, and the top tension is way too tight no matter what I do. I've changed the needle, re-threaded the thing at least a dozen times... Nothing.

If my machine doesn't get fixed in a timely manner, I might have to reconsider my plans for this quilt... Maybe do some embroidery in the white area. Let's just say that I really, really pray that my machine gets fixed. If the repairs will cost more than $75 though, I'm just going to junk the thing and look for a new machine. The Brother CS-6000i got me through almost three years without a problem, and I love it, but it only cost $150. I can't see spending almost half the purchase price to get it fixed.