Christmas QAL - Dec pt2 - Oh, I give up!

Well, there are times that you just have to walk away from something, and tonight has been that time!

Two days, three needles, more unpicking than I care to mention, and more thread breakages than I can hope to remember later, my Christmas Challenge piece is not completed

I have no idea what the heck is going wrong there, but go wrong it most certainly has - it's only a small piece, for goodness sake, how hard can it be to manoeuvre it under the machine smoothly? (Ans: today, impossible).  Here's a bit of the stippling that has made the cut - and that's far less even than I'd like.

I guess a cooling off period for both me and the machine, and a good oiling for at least one of us will do no harm, I'm sure.  Here is my non-red-or-green-not-bigger-than-96" entry for the QAL, nonetheless.

Despite me wanting to throw (a) the runner and (b) the machine across the damn room tonight, I have had a fabulous time on our Quiltalong weekends this year!  Oh yes!

I've had a hoot on hostess duty, and had so much fun when it's been Joanna at the helm!  Thanks to her, to QuiltSue, of course for the wacky Challenge - and everyone who has been along for the ride!

Have a very merry Christmas, one and all!

Christmas QAL - Dec pt1!

Good morning, good morning!

Here in the middle of England it is a beautiful December morning, and quite warm for the time of year.  I am not complaining as I will be going out shortly to buy the CHRISTMAS TREE!  How exciting!

Then I will be going through the Christmas box and decorating it, and putting up the cards, and playing some Christmas music, and there may be a small glass of sherry involved.

And THEN I need to do some last minute finishing of my entry for QuiltSue's QAL Challenge, and get it posted up onto the Linky party!

Busy, busy - see ya later...

A Step Forward, A Step Back...

Can you believe it?  In a couple of weekends it will be the final session of the 2013 Christmas quiltalong - where did the time go!

We're all having a grand parade over at QuiltSue's place, so I'd better get a wiggle on and get my Challenge project finished!

I had a good decision making session today - however, as you can see from the pic here, my brilliant idea has only, at this point, translated into a string of unpicked-thread holes in the fabric.  

The idea's still good though, despite my lack of ability to execute it - I'll have another pop at it tomorrow...