free at last

I took the last stitches in the three commissioned quilts yesterday at about 2:30. I knew that I wanted to get a picture of the T-shirt quilt and had a batting roll to deliver to the church along with our hanging pole set up so off I went to our meeting place. OH OH. Something was going on in the fellowship hall but some cars were leaving as I pulled up so I thought that I had come 12 plus miles and wasn't going to turn back around. Of course, I was not dressed for company--sweat pants and an old baggie shirt, ponytail, no makeup--I hadn't really planned on leaving the house, after all.

They were all busy taking group pictures by that time and I snuck into the closet with our supplies so I don't know that anyone spotted me coming in. The first person I talked to said they were celebrating someone's 100th birthday and pointed me to the one in charge. Could I lay out my quilt since I had already driven that far and get a picture quick?? Sure, she says. Unfortunately, my batteries had just run out-----argh. I gotta start either carrying a new set of batteries in my purse or get a 2nd set that I can recharge. One of the fellows there took pity and took a couple shots of it for me (bless you, Mike!!) and emailed them to me this morning. Some of the ladies came over to see what I had laid out on the floor. See below.

Judy asked what the problem had been that I had to re-do sections of the t-shirt quilt binding sewn on by the longarmer. First, I don't know if this is standard practice for a long armer but it was trimmed off right to the edge. When I machine quilt I leave at least an inch of the batting, backing all around before I put on the binding. Then I don't have to worry about the two layers shifting as I stitch around the outside. She is in the habit of putting the binding on the back and pulling it to the front and machine stitching it down so I had to tell her how to do the mitered corners and have her apply it the OPPOSITE of what she normally would feel comfortable doing. SO what happened, there were several places were the top pulled away from the edges and the binding did not catch---raw fabric exposed. The biggest problem was the big pleats one side. I was taught to do this with the walking foot on--makes sense to me as it "quilts" the edge. She did not but as I said, she may have had a machine with the differential feed built in. I had to cut the binding apart and add in a section to make up about an inch to inch and 1/2 of the quilt---just wasn't good BUT it is fixed now. All three of the quilts will be delivered Tuesday at 10.

Today I took the day off from any stitching, hand or machine, and concentrated on doing my Home Extension and Bama Belles treasury job. Push a little paper around and deal with the piled up mail. Stayed up way too late last night reading a new to me author Jennifer Crusie Bet Me Our public library has a couple other titles by her so I'll track another book down when I go in for quilt delivery date. Just going to kick back and spend a quiet evening--maybe give DJ that haircut I told to NOT even think about with all that binding hanging over my head last week. Errands tomorrow and maybe get busy on finishing up my Santa redwork piece---or not, LOL.