Back to the routine

It was so nice to get back to Monday sewing and back into somewhat of a routine. Not that life is ever routine, but I like my mornings to be the same. However, I think it'll be a while before mornings are totally routine again as we have company now. And he plans to stay for a couple of weeks. If you want to check out who is staying with us, Lexi has some comments about that. You can read all about it here. 

Let's just say that even going for a walk is interesting.

No Farmer's Wife to work on at Monday sewing because all the blocks are completed. Yeah! So I took my three scrappy quilts to work on. I have to say that I only worked on these quilts and well, we had a lot of distraction yesterday at sewing, but I managed to get some work done.

I had to add two borders to this quilt. I had to piece the last one in several spots as my fabric was running low, but that's OK. The border is on and the quilt top is finished.

The scrappy quilt top - one of three to be finished

Then it was on to the backing. I had grabbed some fabric from my stash and I was determined to make the backing from that. Actually, I had grabbed three pieces of fabric that have been around here for years. Many many years. It's Debbie Mumm fabric. I think we all had or still have some of it in our stashes and we all probably bought yards and yards of the darn stuff. I know I did.

Anyway, I had to finish up the backing at home and I needed just a wee bit of the third fabric that I had pulled to finish the backing. The backing is not pressed, I'll do that just before I'm to load it on the long arm.

The backing for the first scrappy quilt - DONE

This is all that remained of that Debbie Mum fabric that I used for the border. I put the big triangles in my box with the other big triangles. When there's enough variety in that box, I'll sew them together and make quarter square triangles. There's just one strip of the blue fabric left. Did you have any of that fabric???  This strip is now in the blue scrap box.

Leftovers from the border

 The nice thing - that fabric is GONE. Done - never to be used again except in a very scrappy quilt.

I made the binding from the fabric that I used in the backing to make that dark blue insert. There's still a decent sized piece of that left, but it's a newer fabric. I'm good that it hangs around for a bit.

So here's the quilt top, the backing, and the binding. They are now residing in the "to be quilted" pile and I've added this to the list. I believe that makes 211.

Quilt top, backing, and binding - now in the "to be quilted" pile

This is all that's left of the hunk that I used for the backing. It was also a Debbie Mum. I "filed" this scrap in the blue box. And another fabric bites the dust! I'm thrilled. Let's hope that there's going to be a lot more fabric that gets used up in the coming year. It's a nice feeling to know that I'm finally using up some bits rather than adding to the mess.

Leftover scrap from the backing

I had to rip the second quilt top in half and reverse the bottom two rows as I had made a goof when I sewed the rows together. That is now fixed and needs two borders added to it. The border is going to be piano key so that'll take a bit more time to piece. And the third quilt top is almost together. The rows are together and half of the rows are sewn together. Getting both of the tops and the first border on will be my focus for next Monday. Everything is in the sewing bag and prepped. OH - I just need to pop in some binding scraps to make a scrappy binding for those next two.

Now here's a dilemma. I made this table runner years ago. It was quilted and had the binding sewn to the front of the quilt meaning it needed to be handstitched in place. That was never going to happen so Diane offered to take it and stitch it down for me. Sure - why not. So now the binding is stitched in place. It does need a label, but then who gets to claim it as a finished piece? Diane because technically she finished it? Or me because I'm going to finish it by putting a label on it? I think we'll call this a moot point. I'm going to mark it on my list, but I'll give her a free point as well. I think Diane is at 60 or 61. Well, by the end of the day, I hope to be on par with her again.

Table runner - FINISHED - well almost

I'm sure Diane was cursing me for those sharp points when she got to hand stitch those two corners down.

A bit of a challenge on these corners to hand stitch down

I'm out this morning, but then I'll be hitting the studio this afternoon. I've got loads of projects that are very close to being done and I really want to finish them rather than move them (yet again) before the next sit n sew which is NEXT WEEK. How the heck did that happen???  OK - it's heads-down this afternoon to accomplish some serious sewing.

Oh - a bit of good news on the magazine front. There is ONE more issue of QUILTY magazine that will be published so my quilt will be in that magazine. The other quilt (that I have yet to make) will be repurposed for a different publication. Yeah!!!!

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!