Heart Strings Table Mat

This is my heart strings table mat that I made from some of my 3" string blocks as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at Soscrappy blog.  The color for January is red, and it will finish at 18".

First I drew the design in EQ5.



I have a great red and white stripe fabric to make bias binding.

I started to machine quilt using a paisley heart design.    I was having a great time quilting when.......

the cutting mat that always sits next to my machine somehow ended up underneath the quilt and then underneath the presser foot.   The machine stopped suddenly, and it nearly took a pair of pliers to remove the sewing machine needle from the quilt because it was stuck in the cutting mat.  You can see where the needle pierced the mat in the photo below.  My machine wouldn't sew again after that even though I changed needles, bobbins and thread three different times and worked on it for quite awhile.

So on Saturday instead of finishing the quilting and binding on this project, I took my machine to the quilt shop to be picked up by the repairman.  The repairman picks up machines to be cleaned and repaired on Mondays, but he is on vacation this next week.  So he won't even get my machine until a week from Monday.  He will have it for a week after that unless he has to order parts, and then it will be longer.

I still have my Featherweight so I can piece but finishing UFOs will have to wait for awhile.

While I was at the quilt shop, I picked up a few things to console myself.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today and that your machine is in good working order.  It is probably a good idea to take it in for a cleaning and check up when you are on vacation or when you have a hand project to work on.

Next time I'll post a string block tutorial for the two color blocks and show you how I chain piece string blocks.   I will also show you a string block alternative so you can make the heart table mat without doing string blocks.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!