WIP Wednesday

My second WIP Wednesday.  This week I have been working on boxers:

For some reason, the brown thread (from Connecting Threads, on a plastic spool) is making my machine glitch up something terrible: breaking threads, grinding noises, unable to sew at speed AT ALL.

But then when I switched to white Star thread (same size spool, but on a cardboard base instead of plastic) to sew the big long seam on this quilt back, it was fine. 

It's the backing for this quilt, my mother-in-law's Japanese Lanterns, that has been the hobgoblin on my back and the source of a lot of quilt guilt for almost 2 years.

I'm loading it onto the megaquilter, folks.  I WILL conquer this thing.  Do I have a clear plan for the quilting pattern? Um, no, not exactly.  There will be a little curlicue design on the center bands of the lanterns, and I'm trying to come up with a simple fan-like pattern for the big white areas.  But it has to be in multicolor thread.  And "it has to be a masterpiece," according to my MIL.  But no pressure or anything!  I welcome suggestions.

I'm using pink thread in the machine now, making these cute jeans into capris using this tutorial for Tertia.  Her Down syndrome means pants that fit her around the waist need about 10" lopped off the bottom, so capris are pretty much what I buy for her.  Unless I find some regular jeans at the thrift store, like these and the second  pair I'll do next week.  I like the ability to dress up the hems simply, and Quarta can wear them as real capris after Tertia's finished with them.  The pink thread, also on a cardboard spool, is also Star brand but not quite as glitch-free as the white.  All of the threads are giving me trouble in the bobbin winder.

Of course my real WIP this week is the Tour de Fleece.  Here's yesterday's progress.  I've been taking my wheel out onto the back deck and spinning there, in the lovely breeze.  Smudge jumped up on my lap while I was working yesterday, but unfortunately no one was there to take the picture.