Monday, November 24, 2008

On a roll....

After finishing up Jan's Family Gems last night, I was still raring and motivated to go when I got home tonight. DH was home nice and early, and since the Packer game is on tonight, he had no problem hanging out with the girls. So, after an early dinner (4:30), I was downstairs by 5:00.

A few weeks back, I finished piecing Andre's Out of this World." I hadn't planned on quilting it until Wednesday, however I figured I would at least prepare the backing tonight and get everything sandwiched so that I could jump right in Wednesday. Well----as with many things, one thing lead to another: Backing was cut and pieced....taped down. Batting was cut to size.....top laid atop.....and pins (OVER 100 of them!!!!) were used to baste it. I wanted to make sure there weren't ANY puckers with this baby, so I think I went "over the top" with the amount of pins used.

It was 5:45 by the time I wrapped up all the "prep" work. I stood for a few minutes looking around my quilting area to see what to work on next. Naturally, I have Scot's Camo waiting for some border layers; I have Derek's Storm at Sea that could be prepped for quilting; I have Ron's Old Tobacco Roads that need some touch-ups on the corners, and then a large handful of other UFO's waiting patiently for me to finish up the Christmas lists. BUT, rather than work on any of the projects begging for my attention, I decided to go ahead and start quilting Andre's.

By 7:15 (girls early bedtime tonight), I was half completed with the blocks, using the simple and classic medium-size stipple. At 7:30, I turned the game on the radio, and decided to continue. Again, one thing lead to another, and all the stippling was complete. I plopped on the walking-foot and changed thread to filament for some in-the-ditch work along the border's edge. Then, placing the FMF (free-motion-foot) back on and changing the thread back to eggshell, I went to work in the borders. NATURALLY, it only made sense to use some random stars to follow the theme of the quilt. By the time 9:00 rolled around, I was finished. WOW! I definitely did not have that planned for tonight!

So, I schlepped the quilt upstairs to actually WATCH the game, and besides, it's easier to cut the edging scraps on a wood floor rather than carpet. Finally, by 9:30, I was able to fold it up after removing all the pins and snapping a pic. So, it's now waiting patiently for binding, which I have yet to decide on. I have plenty of the blue star fabric left, but I think I want to use RED!. I will be sure to wait on the binding until Angela (SoScrappy) has a chance to give her tutorial on binding. I'm tired of messing up!!!

It's nearing 10:00, so time for me to do a quick check in on some other blogs.
I am working the girl's BB game tomorrow night, so I don't expect to be home much before 9:00 pm. But then---ALL Wednesday off to myself. The girls all want to go to Daycare since there will be a party. So.........*sigh*........a whole day off!

Happy Monday!

10:10 update I just peeked over to Angela's site, and she has the 1st and 2nd part of the binding tutorial up. Her pics make it look soooo easy! I never understood what "pivot and fold up binding strip" meant before because I'd never seen pics. THANKS ANGELA!!!!

3 comments:

scraphappy said...

Wow Wow Wow. There you go again making me feel like slacker. I just love the stars in the border. They really look great, and they fit into the theme so well. Let me know how the binding goes, I'm crossing my fingers for you.

Julie said...

Your free motion stars look great! I can't wait to hear how the binding goes either. Angela's tute is fantastic. Such good explanations and photography. I have an old Sunbonnet Sue that has languished for months waiting for its binding. I guess I can do it now and try out this method.

Amanda said...

I just don't know how you have that much energy left in the evening after a day's teaching. When I was working I was just ready to crawl into bed by the time I'd made dinner, prepared for the next day and overseen the boys' bomework. The quilt's looking great, love the stars/