The last veterans quilt and a Sashiko update

Here are my last finishes for 2023 and it's appropriate that they are veterans quilts. These two quilts bring my number of veterans quilts quilted to 41. Add ot that the 15 that I made and it was a very good year. These were clearly my priority for the year and I expect that to continue in 2024. I love quilting and making these important quilts.

This quilt was made by Glenda (Mom). She thinks that she going to use up all of the strings in her stash. I think it's a Sisyphean task but it's a very worthy goal.

I quilted this one with free form "straight" lines going back and forth across the quilt. I quilted this one with Superior Rainbow's thread and I didn't have one thread break.

​Then I quilted the next one.

This one was made by Peg. I changed to SoFine thread and it gave me fits when moving right to left. I think it might have something to do with the thinness of the thread. But I solved the problem, for now, by only moving left to right.
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Someone gifted her this traditional African fabric and I think she said she has enough to make a second quilt. I also free-motion quilted on this quilt and, even with the problems, it went pretty quickly.
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I love how the quilting pattern looks on the back!
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In other news I took the Sashiko machine to the repair store today. One of the ladies looked at it quickly while I was there and got it un-jammed. More importantly, she showed me how to do it. I wasn't sure if it still needed servicing so she set it up to do some test stitching. She eventually got the technician involved for about 10 minutes and I left with a working machine! The store was All-Brands in Richmond and both ladies were super nice. Unfortunately, they only work on Babylock so I wouldn't be able to take any of my other machines there. But I'm looking forward to playing with this some more.
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