I quilted and cobbled

My big accomplishment of the past 2 days was getting Groovy 3 quilted. It took 8 long passes and I only had one thread break. Now I just need to trim it and get it bound and I can take in on vacation. The fabric for the binding is soaking but I will be able to cut and bind Monday.

While Groovy 3 was the biggest accomplishment, my proudest accomplishment is that I did a little cobbling in the old fashioned sense of the word.
These are my favorite sandals. I've had them several years and, because of last year's foot injury, I didn't get to wear them at all. Now I can wear them and the last time I did the strap broke on both shoes in the same place. (See the red arrow.)
ANNOYING. 
I could take them to have them properly repaired by a real cobbler but I wouldn't get them back before vacation so I decided to see if I could fix them myself.
First I got some old sandals and some upholstery thread and experiment to see if my Juki machine would sew through them. It worked brilliantly with a Jeans size 16 needle.

Next I was off to Hobby Lobby for a $4.50 spool of dark upholstery thread and in 15 minutes I had them sewn back together. It's not a perfect match but no one will notice.

You can see on the inside how the original seam failed. Hopefully the triangle stitching will be strong enough to hold it for another year or 2.

Mom finally got her birthday card yesterday so I'll have that to share with you tomorrow and then we will head to the river for the weekend.