Out of the ballpark

You guys know that I do not mind singing my own song, right?  Telling you about how proud I am of some accomplishment?

My friend LD asked me to finish a quilt for her.  She was working in a craft shop in the early 90’s and the owner decided to change to a quilt shop, so she made everyone learn to quilt.  LD stuck around long enough to get some really good bargains on needlepoint supplies and decided she didn’t care for quilting. 

Which is a shame, because her hand stitches are phenomenal!  It was hard to imitate the precisely spaced hand quilting stitches. 

I quilted in the blocks, following the piecing and using the templates she had with the quilt. 

I tried to applique some pink on the lower right, but ended up removing and re-cutting and hand piecing the block.

And, then putting it back in…not a trick for the impatient!

And, then, it was finished and washed, and I pinned it to the floor to dry.  

  

It was a fun little project.  Now, when I decide I want to hand quilt something for myself, why do I only pick queen sized projects?  This was really easy to knock out, in almost exactly a month.  Of course, it was already pieced and a good part of the border quilting had been done. 

I also got started on my project for vacation.  I’m doing that Hawaiian quilt I bought the kit for last year on vacation.  No need to rush on anything, right?  Anyway, it’s “pre-basted”, which was enough to get all the pins out for travel.  Next, it will get basted, and then appliqued.  That’s a project for the drive into the mountains.

And, the binding is on my red/white/blue quilt and I’m hand sewing that down. 

I muslin-ed the union suit that I showed last week.  I tried to use a light weight cotton sheeting, but it was pretty dry-rotted and as I was assembling, it split from the crotch as I tried to ease two seams together.  So, I picked a newer sheet and tried again.  I fitted the muslin to him, and then I added some pieces to the side seams…for me :-(  and I’ve cut the pattern from tissue and used that to cut Rob’s suit.  It’s actually more comfortable than I thought it would be.  We won’t be wearing them every day, so I’m not that worried about the backside, but it does give me a new appreciation for what people had to put up with before elastic. 

Everybody have a great day.  It’s Monday.  Countdown to vacation.  I’ve started putting food away and making lists of things that need to go.  I can hardly wait. 

Lane