Wednesday check in

Completed Children's Book Challenge quilt.  Oscar went outside for a bit Monday afternoon and I got to go finish up the binding. Oh yippy.

 I had decided to sew the binding on to the backside and fold it over to the front.  I Elmer's Glued it in place so I could stitch it down as required by the organizers.   NOT my idea.   I have been quilting since 1988 and trust me, I do a much better job stitching the 2nd half down by hand using a close applique type stitch.  I know, I know--- I complain about having to do that part too but at least I do it well.  My complaints there are mostly I am just tired of looking at the same project and am so ready to move on.   BUT why would I want to deliberately do a method that I frankly do NOT do well, by machine?  Because I was told I had to---only reason.  I will not participate if I have to again.

I hung this quilt for its glamour shot over the one that is currently occupying this space to if you see something peeking out around the edges, that's it.  The quilt IS square.  Pattern is BQ2 from Maple Island Quilts but the scaled down version.  The pattern calls for like 18 inch blocks BQ stands for BIG quilt.  I have no desire to do huge simply pieced blocks.

This picture shows the backing fabric but worst, the poor job I did in stitching this binding down.  While I went right on the folded edge on the front, there is an obvious "miss" for landing in the ditch on the back side. Had I stitched in the ditch from the back I would have just missed the edge and it still would look bad and leave a black line on the light background border.   It just looks sloppy to me.  No point in taking it out and trying to do better sloppy, ruined my quit, not going to do it ever again, not good.  It does look a little better now that the quilt has been laundered, I will say as it is a bit more disguised.  SIGH

Inside, because it is raining, here is the view in the kitchen.  Oscar could go in the living room as the gate has been moved back from the kitchen entrance but I'm at the kitchen table.  He drug his blanket out and decided to nap near my chair.  He's got his rawhide bone one with him.  Amazingly, earlier he did "ask" to go out to do his business in the rain and then crawled into his dog house.   I was expecting him to bark to let me know he wanted back in.  I just checked the rain gauge and it looks like an inch collected.  Worms are slithering out on the carport only to dry up.  We'll go walk once it clears up a bit.

There is not a lot going on around here.  Bama Belles met yesterday though I was about a half hour late getting there.  Bev and I usually arrive around the same time and she also has a key so I gave her a heads up that I had overslept/actually slept.  For the last week I have been having troubles getting to sleep until after 1 or 2 a.m.   I then wake up around 7:30 so do get some uninterrupted rest. Then we changed the stinkin' clocks and I am all messed up. Now I can be awake till 3 a.m. instead---yippy!  Now add having to get up to an alarm.  At 4:15 I removed Skyler from the bed and his morning bath complete with claw cleaning, shut off the alarm and closed the door. I slept till 8:15 when Skyler's meowing and pawing the door awoke me.  I knew he would get me up as he is pretty vocal when he is waiting for his treat bite in the morning.  I put it in high gear once up.

Because I am between projects I had grabbed my embroidery bag to take to the meeting but didn't touch it.  There were 6 of us present and Lois had 4 tops to pin.  We would have helped Teresa pin her projects but she woke up not feeling well and missed the meeting.  Aline had finished her blue Fiddlesticks top from our last meeting so that got pinned as well.  My Fiddlesticks top stayed home--maybe pin it next time.   Then we called it a day and went out to Cracker Barrel for breakast/lunch.

One of Lois' tops was what she, Bev and Teresa were working on at the sew-in day.  Got to find out the right name as it makes use of a lot of bits of fabric, 2 1/2 inches.  We were picking out bits and pieces from our stashes, LOL.   She had also made a fallish type Bali Sea Star, that is the cover quilt of Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Surprises.   Probably the one she had done that drew the most comment was her pastel version of Emily's Wedding Quilt from Fons and Porter that alternates a 54-40 or Fight block with a simple shoofly block.   (There is a free pdf file for a similar quilt as well as a digital download).    I forgot my camera so you will see these all quilted down the line.  The 4th quilt was a scrappy 16 patch with stars pieced into the sashing.

I think Oscar and I can make a trip up and down the lane now.  It is staying warm in the 60s but we are in for varying degrees of rain through the weekend.   Possibly some storms.  We are in the first tornado season now so anything is possible.  Till next time-------