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]

Oh, yeah

I just counted the projects written in the ledger, and there are really thirteen - I was just slingin' mud when I pulled fourteen outta thin air, but it wasn't a bad guess. And this number does not include all of the smaller ongoing items, like the crazy quilting projects and smaller wall quilts.

Thirteen's plenty, but my brain is still spinning, and there are liable to be a few more added soon enough.

What does your quilting list look like?

The ledger

Armed and ready.

The pump is primed.

Locked and loaded (shouldn't that be 'loaded and locked?').

However you say it, I am rarin' to go! The cats have been fed (and may be content for a little bit); I've cleaned and oiled the machine once more; wound the new color on a bobbin and threaded the works, and; I've got my glass of chocolate milk nearby.

Let's quilt!

Bud has an early shift at his store today, and plans to play after work, so that just leaves Karl and me to worry over - and let's face it, that boy is about as low maint as they come.

I began a book (a ledger, if you will) to keep myself on track and on task with the quilting projects, because let's face it - quilters and fabriholics need reigning in from time to time in order to keep it real.

Oh, I know. Boo, hiss, no fun.

Well, being unemployed has cast a rather harsh reality light on the business of buying fabric "because it's pretty and I'll be able to use it in that quilt, you know the one, someday." Or, "if I don't get it now, it might not be here when I'm ready for it." Or, "it's on sale...I have to."

Yeah, yeah. After the other four (or fourteen) projects already in the works are finished, you'll get right to it. Ri-i-i-i-ght.

I hear ya. I've been there.

I'm still there, and that's why I am trying to keep it real with a ledger. Keeping track of everything on the written page keeps me honest with myself, and I have the added beauty of keeping all of my notes and little sketches about my little beauties in one place! Not pinned to a wall, scribbled on the back of an envelope, or in a folder in a desk drawer (or, worse yet, on the desk somewhere covered with mounds of other stuff). Nope, it's easily transported to any place around the house or to the car, etc. I keep it with me when I change locations and/or tasks, that way if I have an idea - poof! - I can write it down and then relax.

My list is long, too long in fact, but it was longer and with the help of the ledger I have been whittling away at it.

I gave myself permission to start (and work on) this current project out of turn, but it was for a very good reason. Now that it's almost done, I am ramping up to get back to work on the items listed in my ledger. Toughest decision there will be to figure out which project to work on first, but that's something I have been giving some thought to these past couple of weeks.

Do I work on those quilts closest to completion, or the pieces that have been longest in the pipeline (in various stages of quiltedness), no matter where they are in the process of becoming a quilt?

Maybe I should start a section in my little notebook for "decisions." Ha!

Well, however you do it, here's to your list of tasks and quilting promises. Let me know where you're at and what you're working on.

Has it been that long - really?

How did you spend Friday the 13th?

Three weeks since I last posted in here, wow! Well, time does fly.

A lot has happened since my last post: Christmas, the new year celebration, another lapsed deadline, the first Friday the 13th of 2012, and I cleaned up and put away all of the unused squares from my project! That was quite exciting.

I have been diligently top stitching the latest quilt, and every time I stop to look at it and admire how well it is turning out and to strategize about the next direction and how not to work my way into a corner, I realize just how. much. more. there. is. to. do! The idea to hyper-accentuate some of the motifs (by re-quilting lines 3, 4, 5 times) was just what was necessary to make sections 'pop', but it also added a good deal of time to the overall bulk of the project that I feel as though I am never going to finish.

The elation of finishing a section and then realizing 'oh my gosh, I have another two-thirds to get through' is sort of a bubble-bursting extreme to say the least.

At any rate, I do feel a little bit of pressure off my shoulders, and I am enjoying the process a little more than I have been, just regret having missed another opportunity to, well...win.

When I think of the fact that I have been working on this quilt since September (with the month of October 'off' due to a Scripty job), I just become crestfallen. I know I shouldn't, but I do. Perhaps if I hire a maid to manage all of the housework which has fallen by the wayside, and find a boyfriend and take a trip to Greece, I might be able to elevate my mood.

Hmmm.....

Quilting with Tourettes

I think you folks who like to FMQ, and have a regulation-sized machine - the average-sewing home owner's-type machine - will understand what I meant by "quilting with Tourettes."

Trying to manipulate your target area under the needle (to stitch your intricate design) while also navigating the bulk of the material (to the right of your working area) through the small space between the sewing bed and the motor of the machine will often sound like an orchestrated series of: thrumming machine, the steady kehrthwip-kehrthrip-kehrthrip of the needle rising and plunging through the material, and the intermittent expletives of madness when the bulk gets hung up on something making your stitches cramp up or jump in size when you least want it to.

@!*#%$!

Terrorfication (cont.)

I was looking SO forward to topstitching - to the quilting process - had it all thought out (or so I thought).

I had my templates cut and at the ready, and even had a game plan for which portions to tackle first, second, third and so on.

So WHY did it take me until 6:31PM tonight to put that first stitch in....to plant the needle for the first time and begin the quilting process?

I don't know either! I really don't, but once I started moving, and I took a deep breath and jumped in, it went fairly well.

It's that darned terrorfication I tell ya.

So now, I am taking a break to get some dishes washed (holy cow, do they stack up quickly when you aren't paying attention). I knew we were in a heap o' hurt when there weren't any more clean teaspoons for a yogurt or cup of tea yesterday.

8^P

Tomorrow is a whole new day and I am excited at the prospect of making a huge dent in the overall project, finishing up the portion I began tonight and moving on to more of the design.

Anyhow, the terror I was feeling a few hours back has abated, and while I would like to continue to quilt further into the night, I do realize the importance of knowing when to say "when."

Just because...

Some people have been on 'pins and needles' waiting for a glance at the project under wraps.Due to the fact that it is almost Christmas I am feeling a bit charitable...but just a smidge.

Here are two photos to replace the last one (that horrible angle of the pinning process), and I hope they give you a thrill.

Oh, yea!

Pinning.....ugh.

The day has finally arrived!

Oh yeah, baby! The piecing is at an end.

THE PIECING IS AT AN END!!

Of course, I still can't divulge the entire top just yet, but I am ready to move on to the backing and - perhaps tomorrow - stretching and basting. Wouldn't that be wonderful!?

Pssss-s-s-s-s-s-t! YES, that would be wonderful.

Here is a small sampling of what was accomplished today. Yup, the final block!

It's a "small" sample because this final block is one quarter the size of the full blocks.