Works in Progress

John is posting his WIPs today in hopes that it will spur him on to finish. I figured that was a good idea--plus I haven't had much crafty to show lately, and show and tell is always fun.

I haven't been sewing/knitting as much lately because I've been tearing through library books as fast as I can.
I'm hoping to finish the Inkheart trilogy before the end of summer--the movie is being shown in August at the free movies. I just have to persuade the kids to come with me. They were terrified by the preview. After I finish this, I'm going to read Peter and the Shadow Thieves. It's the second book in that series. Don't despair--I did read two novels by Jane Austen before starting Inkspell--it's not all kiddie lit around here! I tell you, that Mr. Darcy is something else...but I digress.

Here is an unexciting picture of the back of my disappearing nine patch quilt. I decided on straight lines again--my sewing machine does not like to free-motion quilt. I'm having a devil of a time, though. The thread keeps breaking. But when I loosen the tension, I get the loops on the back, and the thread keeps breaking! What kind of thread do you use for quilting? Do any of you have problems with the thread breaking?

I'm hoping to finish this quilt in the next week or so. I'd like it to be our picnic quilt, but it has an awful lot of white on the front--I'm not sure I want to be laundering it all the time...

And I'm finally knitting with normal sized yarn again! After abandoning my own lace shawl, I decided on a stash-buster blanket.

Now my hands will have something to do while we watch Season One of Mad Men.