Still cleaning

Cleaning is not nearly as fun as quilting.  As great pastimes go, I really cannot recommend it.  But, I'm still doing it.  I got through all the kitchen cabinets except 2...and one of those is the cabinet under the kitchen sink, which I've been saving for last.  And, the other has a bunch of stuff I plan to say goodbye to and have been procrastinating because of that. 

But, I still got some quilting in.  I started the "Have a Jolly Little Christmas" BOM at Sew Fresh quilts.  This is my second BOM this year, but it is so cute!  So, I can do two. 

This is my "focus" fabric.  I've had this piece of paisley fabric for years and years.  It reminded me of Christmas, but all my other Christmassy fabrics were the traditional dark green.  And, this is an olive green, so it sat, waiting for the right project.  And, this is that project. 

And, I worked on quilting the Dresden Plate quilt.  See the small grid?  This quilt has been sitting for a couple weeks.  I didn't know what to do.  That busy print border was not going to show quilting like the rest of the quilt does.  I was seriously considering taking the border off and replacing it with a less busy print that would show quilting better.  Then I saw this post by Natalia Bonner where she quilted a woven pattern in a quilt.  I didn't even try to reproduce that beautiful work, but I decided to do something similar.  Plain grid work to frame an accentuate the quilt center without in any way competing with it, and allowing me to quilt the entire quilt evenly.  I've put in this 1" grid and I'm going to come in and echo it on quarter inch on one side of each line, so it will break it up a little smaller.  But, this has gone so well that if that doesn't work out, I won't be crying about it.  This would work just fine. 

I did the long seams that parallel the border seam with the walking foot.  Then, to avoid puckering on the crossing seams, I wanted to use the free-motion "hopping" foot.  But, that meant marking the lines.  And, masking tape was the right way to mark that on this busy background. 

One set of tape strips has done three sides and is going to do one more, but it's losing it's "sticky" so the echo work will get a new set of strips to mark the lines.  Here are the tape strips waiting. 

I love the contrast in quilting patterns from loose and moving to rigid and blocky.  It's delicious!

Okay, that's enough for today.  Time to get ready for work.  Everybody have a great Monday!  I think my dishpan hands have recovered sufficiently.  I've gotten rid of a couple large boxes of things from the kitchen, but the real profit is in just cleaning it up and organizing it.  Of course, now Sydney will say she can't put away dishes because she doesn't know where they go. 

Any old excuse will do, right?

Lane