Binding!

Oh how I love to hand stitch binding!!!!   Actually I don't mind the process at all - I am just slow and because it is pretty much the LAST step to complete a quilt - it takes me a LONG LONG time to get around to doing it.  Well not so lately.

This past Monday, I took a couple of quilts that needed to have the binding hand stitched down.

Binding DONE

I do have to make a label for this quilt, but NO TIME.  The quilt is going to be hanging at the quilt show this coming weekend - Quilts at the Creek.   If you are around - pop over - it is going to be a fabulous show and it is all outdoors. I heard there is a good forecast!   Don't worry - there is a small label pinned to the quilt, but for the life of me, I could NOT remember what name I had called this quilt when I filled out the entry from.  DUH!!!!   I usually make a copy of that information, but where it is - who knows?

I started the hand stitching on this baby quilt.  I am about half done!

Half done the hand stitching

The baby quilt needs to be done for the end of August so it isn't a priority. The girlie John Deere ones are!!!

I took the remainder of the made binding and started to stitch on the next quilt.  OH OH - not enough binding!!!!

Ooopsie - missing some binding

Somehow when I was in the fabric buying frenzy for these quilts - I did NOT buy enough fabric for the binding.  I needed 1.25 meter. That is a BIG miscalculation!!!!   When I was at Sew Sisters on Saturday, I thought I would zip over to Len Mills (where I bought the original stuff) and get more.  NOPE - timing didn't work out - I had to be back home to get to the Pan-Am games by bicycle.

Sunday seemed like a good day - well the day with the least amount of traffic so I went on Sunday afternoon. Got stuck in traffic both ways - on the way there - two cars stopped on the side of the road with three people standing BEHIND their cars - IDIOTS.  That slowed the traffic down and why they were stopped???   Who knows.  On the way home - there was a bad accident on the opposite side of the road, but that slowed my side down and well - it was a mess.

However - I asked the sales people - did they recognize the fabric.  Yes - but we could NOT find it anywhere.  We searched all the aisles - found the blue and the yellow, but no green.   Crap!!!!   Now what?????   I did buy another fabric which looked good against the one John Deere fabric they had in the store, but when I got home - what the heck was I thinking??????  

This combination is pretty hideous!!!!

Now what??????  AH - as part of the July Shop Hop - I had to go to Kitchener on Monday afternoon and there happens to be a Lens Mills on the way home.   I stopped in. Asked the sales people if they recognized the fabric - NOPE!!!!    Oh dear - that place is huge.  I scanned the long wall - I could not tell you ONE fabric that they have, but I can tell you that the green fabric I coveted was NOT on that wall.

Then I started in the shorter rows - I looked up, I looked down, I looked under other bolts. I am working my way back to the front of the store and NOTHING!!!!!    I think I was in the second to last short row and I spotted the yellow version.   Great - I don't want yellow, but when I moved the yellow fabric - guess what was underneath -- the GREEN one.  Yeah - I did a happy dance in the aisle!!!!   This is how a quilter lives on the edge - those quilts need to be completed by this weekend!!!!


I even took a picture of where the quilts were sitting however - the "GOOD" news is that while I now have good access to the internet - e-mail doesn't seem to be working this morning and I had e-mailed that picture to myself.  I will try to post it later.  I have no idea what is happening with the e-mail but my life seems to be one big technology fiasco after another and I am getting tired of it!!!!

I bought 1.5 meters just in case I had screwed up the calculations again!!!!

More binding fabric!!!!!!!!

I didn't figure out how many strips I needed - I still have two quilts to put the binding on and to finish off that second one so I just randomly cut 10 strips and made more binding.

More binding made

Binding on the second quilt

The last two quilts are trimmed and I started to sew the binding on the third one this morning and of course - I was short again!!!!    I need to cut seven more strips (I have loads of fabric) so will get that done later tonight.


The hand stitching will be done later.


And I have this mess of cut offs from the quilts to deal with - but that will have to wait.

Cut off trimmings to deal with

Our backyard is a feeding frenzy.   The mommy robin and the daddy robin cannot keep up with those three hungry birds.  Yes - there are three of them and the adult robins are constantly back and forth, back and forth trying to feed those babies!!!!!    The mommy is still very suspicious of us, but she is more comfortable and won't fly away as soon as we open the door.

Mommy robin feeding the babies

Here is my row by row feeding frenzy for the day.  Look what came in the mail yesterday. Colleen is going to freak out!!!!!!!!!!!!

Return address

2 kits, 2 plates

 A HUGE thank you to Jenny who is a relative of a friend of a friend (thanks Anita).  Jenny went into the store and picked this up and then mailed it to me.   Whew - no need to drive all the way to Cochrane. However there still is New Liskeard.   That is for another day. Oh yes - I have a story about that one, but I can't seem to get it out of the person involved.

We had embroidery club yesterday. Great to get together with everyone and chat.  I am making good progress on my embroidery even though I can't see the stupid pattern very well.   But I am managing. It is going MUCH faster than those little ornaments so there is hope that it will get done this year.  I told Claudette that she had to dig out six UFOs. One for each month for the rest of the year.  I dug out six and am going to make every effort to get them done. This Winter Wonderland quilt (my current embrodiery project) is one of them.

In the afternoon - it was off to the long-arm.   This quilt is HUGE - 114 square so each row takes a long time. But I am making good progress on it and it should be done tonight.  Well maybe tomorrow night.

Look at the backing (on the roller in the back) of the machine.

Quilt on the long-arm

She pieced it on the diagonal with three different fabrics. Interesting.  Interesting to load but the edges were serged - it seems to be OK.   Oh yes - I am up for anything onn the machine.   Plush, bias backing - why not!!!!!


On that note - I had better get dressed.  It is going to be a busy day today - a little road trip planned.

Have an awesome day!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!