Day two: binding

Okay, I did NOT get much of this done yesterday but I tend to procrastinate with the more tedious aspects of quilting.  It is well documented here, LOL.  I am maybe 3/4 of the way across the first bottom edge but the label is sewn down and about 9 inches on the adjacent long edge at this point?    Also my mind tends to wander to other matters---dreaming of the next quilt projects or solving the world's problems (not!)

December is here tomorrow.  I want this on my bed!!!  I guess I have to get with the program???  Norma, have you finished quilting your lovely quilt so  you can join me in the endeavor this weekend?

I may have gotten a little further on binding but my hands were cramping up a bit by last evening.  I guess between lots of mouse work on the computer lately and knitting the right hand especially was squawking at me by 9 p.m.

A couple of notes on binding.  I do a blind, applique like stitch and I always keep the bulk of the quilt away from me, working left to right with the stitches.  I do it very close together to bury the stitches so you can only see the effect of the stitching, not the stitch itself.   I call it binding, not hemming.

Why do I make that distinction??  You would be surprised how many people think binding a quilt IS hemming.  Like you hem a skirt hemming----with a tack stitch and then a long thread length to the next tacked stitch and sometimes with double thickness of thread.  Of course, they work right to left and in their laps and every blessed stinkin' stitch shows.  Little fingers and toes will get caught in there plus it looks bad.   When you make every effort to use the best fabrics, pick a lovely pattern, execute that pattern to the best of your abilities I do not see why you don't try to do better on your finishing.   Fast is not always better.  If you have good light while you watch TV and "love" to do binding, go for it.  I don't so I have to set up a situation where it is not on my lap and light sources from two directions.   Done is good but try to do your best in that area too, okay?

Normally too, I match the thread to the binding, not the backing but how do you match the stripe?  I tried it with a darker green and I was still seeing stitches so switched to a color that matched the backing.  So far the only spot where I have remotely seen any thread is the bits of red stripe concentration.

Off my high horse----and back to Christmas

The  little town Christmas parade is tomorrow.  Fa-la-la-la Lifetime Christmas movies (DJ watches that cr**, I don't)  or those sappy Hallmark Channel movies are probably playing incessantly from now until the end of the year.  Christmas Carols are playing in every shopping venue.  Ready or not!  It is coming.

I'll switch out the seasonal wall hangings tomorrow but I don't know how much other decorating will happen.   We got rid of another of my surface areas for putting anything out---hall way book shelf---earlier in the year.  DJ has started painting the lower part of the kitchen cabinets and the boxes will just be in the way.  He won't want to put the tree up for another couple weeks anyway.  The Nativity set always goes up even if the rest of it stays packed up.  I still don't have Christmas stockings made though I plan to every year.  The ones I currently have were some I picked up at a church bazaar.  (Unfortunately one of them is cut the reverse of what it should be so the stocking points backwards but I knew the maker) I have plans to do some from the Nancy Halvorsen's  book The Night Before Christmas.   I have no wreath either since the two bedraggled looking ones from years past were finally tossed BUT I have a neat one on one of the tree skirt patterns I just got recently, a quilty looking one.

See my bloggy friend alefthanded quilters recent post and comments about giving quilty gifts  HERE.   Basically know your audience before preceding in my opinion there!  I offered to make a tree skirt for my niece/godchild because she let me know she was looking for one.  I asked her opinion about the style and have a second email out about the fabric choices----traditional or is a more contemporary look okay?  I can go either way since I ordered some stuff from Connecting Threads.

Well, still in my jammies and Aline just dropped off the quilt I am going to quilt for her and her sister that will be a guess what, Christmas gift.  Guess who better get cracking if all that is ever to get done.

And sew it goes-----