Happily Regressing

 Lately it feels like I have regressed in my quilting journey as I am now back to using templates for hand piecing, pinning quilts for quilting on my sewing machine instead of loading it on my short arm machine, and planning my next projects around lots of precision hand piecing. I guess after quilting for so many years the need to make lots of quilts quickly is not as pressing. Don't get me wrong, I still love to make lots of quilts to donate as well as making quicker ones to give as gifts where people love the fabric but don;t necessarily appreciate how much time has gone into the project.
  Now I'm spending time working on my long-term UFOs which consist of vintage quilt tops and blocks that I've bought with the intention of finishing them off into quilts. Some of them need to be recut and sewn as they have seams which have come undone or there were problems with the piecing. I love to re-make these and make them something lovely I can enjoy so today I pinned my 1940s vintage star quilt top and I've started the quilting. It was funny to be pinning a quilt again as I used to pin up to 6 in a day and haven't done that for probably 6 years since I bought the quilting machine. I'm enjoying that stage of quilting again as well as it gives me time to enjoy the vintage fabrics in each block.
  The mail also brought some lovely books for me- more blasts from the past, with two older books by Edie McGinnis from the Kansas City Star book publishers, and one by Susan Jenkins and Linda Seward. All three contain lots of lovely patterns for antique quilts to make using templates and hand piecing for accuracy.
I'm planning a big weekend of stitching and  hope to have at least one quilt finished by Monday, after being called in for work with my paid job yesterday.
  Have a great weekend of stitching everyone and  check back to see my progress when you have time.
 Hugs, Jan Mac