Decision's made........nearly

Much as I would like to begin an entirely new quilt - top to bottom - I am curbing my enthusiasm, and have decided to quilt and bind that pink and brown Ohio Star beauty I completed and sandwiched last spring. Just about this time of year, come to think about it.

If I leave it go much longer I know I will be sorry. Soooo......

And it really shouldn't take forever since the quilt patterns are large and simple, and will be a more traditional one-pass quilting style. The competition piece was over-quilted (to the max); once I feel safe enough to post photos of it you will see what I mean, and will then understand how many hours went in to just the quilting process!

After I've quilted and bound the P&BOS I will feel 100% justified in starting something new, and can also work on something else already in process - oh, like Karl's quilt, or the pretty navy Flower Baskets.

Ha! I think I have told myself this same thing for the past two years....but I mean it this time! [*as I do every year*]

Ah, this would be a great time to bring up Lesson #9: Never have too many projects going at one time.

The fact is, there are enough quilts in my project pile to simply finish off that I could be busy with sandwiching, quilting and binding quilts for the remainder of the year! There would be no need to start anything new, but we all know that would give me itchy palms. Staring at the stash and having no creative juices flowing, just planning and scheming in my head and on paper. That would drive me insane!

Anyhow, I am off to do something, even if it is to just stand and look at the projects and eeny-meeny-miney myself into a concrete decision - for the moment.

What next?

Oh, my goodness, what's next, eh?

I suppose it would only be fair to work on Brian's Renaissance costume piece, and then perhaps an interviewing outfit for myself.

Yes, yes, those are perfectly acceptable (reasonable and completely common sense) things to work on, but I am in that quilt-mode.

[wondering if quilters ever make it out of quilt-mode]

Brian has been patiently nagging (and unsuccessfully trying to guilt) me into working on his item next, so perhaps I should simply get to it and get it out of the way. Again, seems plausible and smart. Hmmm.....

I do have my list written down in that ledger, and those are all needful things, and in the queue, and should be tended to in short order, but then there's the cleaning and putting away of all of the material I unearthed and used and stacked around for the competition project.

Of course, I will need to get the sewing area and lower level in order and rearranged (as I have been craving to do for some time now) before I can think of putting away the displaced materials. And it's not that I don't want to put the fabric away - I DO, I hate the chaos and disorder. But...I mean, you can't (shouldn't) really put away that which you are going to have to move, and move again, to move the furniture, right?

That's what I thought, too!

I'll let you know what's up next, shortly...I hope.

Binding is going on!

For the last two days I have been cutting and configuring the binding, sewing it onto the trimmed quilt, and/or turning and blindstitching it down. As of Friday morning, I will have that portion done, and will be able to finish the bits of top stitching and apply the sleeve for hanging.

The process would be going much faster, and the binding would have been a one day affair had I not been trying to make such a chameleon of it. But the results work and are (almost) exactly what I wanted.

Sewing it on, then turning and stitching it down (always by hand) usually takes me less than a day, but I have been engaged in homework for two new classes which has been taking up an awful lot of my time.

[sigh]

Can't tell you how marvelous it feels to be so close to the finish line and how excited I am at the prospect of having it done! Of course, quilters will know this, so I don't really need to explain it all. ;)

Oh......happy day!

Wahoo! Background quilting finished!

This day felt like it would never get here. For weeks, it seemed to elude me, but....
  I managed to complete the background quilting yesterday, late in the afternoon. What a relief!
All that remains to do is a bit of quilting in a few large-ish portions (within another design incorporated into the quilt), and to make and apply the sleeve....but that can wait until after I have washed the dishes. ;^)
I am currently enjoying the feeling of success (to a point) in the major work having been completed - it's been a long time in the making.

To congratulate myself, I'm going to bind the quilt before moving on to the incidental quilting, since the incidental stuff is located so far to the interior that applying the binding won't be a problem. Besides, the binding only helps maintain the integrity of the quilt edge, and I am so tired of working around the bulk of the backing (rolled to the front and stitched in place) to keep the edges from abuse. It's a lot of extra bulk to keep shifting - and now....I don't/won't have to!
Party with me - the background is finished. Phwew! [wiping my brow]