some progress

Shortly after I posted on Thursday, my friend Nancy came by to pick up the borders and binding I had cut for her Civil war quilt. Her friend Shawnee was with her. I had met her recently at one of our quilt meetings last month so it was fine to have unexpected guest. For the 2nd time this week, someone wanted to see my quilts, particularly the 30's ones! My friend Teresa was over on Tuesday and wanted to see my stuff too. I obliged---on both counts, LOL.

I knew Nancy was a real animal lover so I pulled out my Amy Bradley Kitty City quilt and her Dazzling Dog blocks that haven't made it into a quilt --yet. Also, like me, they both do "redwork" so I showed them my Bird Brain Santa's too but I forgot about the calendar cat top in the closet. They might have been on quilt overload by that point anyway. Even I was! Of course, not all my quilts were made by ME personally. My mom is responsible for a few of them too.

I don't know how well you can see it in the picture above but I did get most of the Overall Bill button hole applique done yesterday. Just the fish still needs to be stitched down along with a few accent buttons. I'll use some black perle cotton and hand embroider the fishing pole and black floss for the line and hook.

BUT, and you knew there was a "but" with me, one of the things on my quilting "to do" list was to pre-wash the most recent patriotic fabric acquistions. It evolved and I ended up just washing the whole lot of it-- crammed in a 20 qt tote's worth. My mom had given a good bit of this stuff some time back and she probably DID pre-wash and press it. Me, anymore I don't. This is red and blue though and notorious for bleeding so an exception had to be made.

Shown to the right is the pile of fats and such that I washed and pressed yesterday till my back was begging me to "sit down, will ya??" I take that back, that pile of lighter blue stars that I am not sure where it came from is cut into approximately 16 inch squares. While the Cardinals and Cubs played ball last night, I pressed all that blue stuff and the smaller pieces I had washed in an lingerie bag--- while seated, LOL. (Cards won, thanks to good starting pitching from our new to us starter Edwin Jackson and Albert Pujols got his 1999 and 2000 hit, both doubles.)

Here is the pile I had to press this morning. 1 yard and longer pieces. Two fans blowing, the thermostat reads 81 in the hallway and I am standing over a stinkin' steam iron. HOT, HOT, HOT! I have been growing my hair out for about a year now and thank goodness, the top and sides are long enough to yank up and out of my face now, just sayin'!

And, here we are---I've been up since 615 so that job is done and packed up for now. (Yes, the lid does close. ) I want to cut some of this for my birthday party project, the red for knots on QOV bowties but just not today. Button hole applique needs done first. On the list, finish the Overall Bill above, do the other one and their hand embroidery, then it is "Summer" and the July Button Up--last seen HERE waiting for the last two weeks.

I did do a bit of the embroidery on "Biscuits and Honey" basket block as I planned but detoured slightly when I swapped out the July wall hangings for August's. This was the only one that I did not fix the tabs on when I did the other 11. Now they all can be snapped on and off the closed hanger rather than sewing them on! I finally wised up, LOL. (shown, Nancy Halvorsen's July "Be Attitudes" quiltlet)

Have a good weekend and thanks for stopping by!