A weekend of finishes

Hello and welcome to the eclipse post...not really.  I'm sure we will all hear all we want to about eclipses today...and probably more than we want to about Afghanistan.

It was a busy three day weekend for us.  Rob and I both took Friday off.  We didn't do anything, except relax and enjoy being together.  We spent the cool part of all three days in the yard, cleaning up and watering.  That's August for you.  I think we've had nearly 40 days where the temperature was over 100* this summer, so dealing with dieback and keeping things watered is about all we can do.

During the hot parts of the day, I was inside.  Relaxing.  And, working with needles. 

I got the quilting finished on this little quilt.  And, I learned something.  It was something I ran into on the last quilt I was binding and I tested it on this quilt and it was true.  I guess it's true that an old dog can still learn new tricks. 

The trick I learned is going to be most relevant to left handed quilters.  I am left handed, but sewing machines are right handed.  Or at least right hand oriented.  I have struggled with bindings as long as I've been quilting.  And, this weekend, I learned a better way.

I bind my quilts the traditional way, with the traditional fold at the corners.  You know the one that's supposed to guarantee a perfect miter.  Well, it rarely ended in a perfect miter for me, but I'd tug and pull and stretch and make it look like a miter.  This weekend, I figured out that I'm folding it the wrong way for the way I sew.  A right hander would sew the binding to the front, then turn it over and sew it down on the back by hand, from right to left.  But, I sew by hand from left to right.  That meant those corners were turned the wrong way when I'd fold it to the back.  This time, as I approached the corner, I folded it the other way, folding the side I was approaching over and pinning it down, then folding the side I was working on over and pinning a perfect miter in the corner, then sewing it all down.  That gave me a perfect miter in all four corners.  It's something about the way the fabric is folded that it can't fold over the bulk if I sew it down from left to right. 

Sorry, that was kind of complicated to describe, so you might have to close your eyes to envision what I'm talking about.  What I'm trying to say is that those folded corners that Eleanor Burns showed me how to make work best if you sew the back down from right to left.  And, if you sew it from left to right, there's an easy way to make the fabric act like you're sewing it down the other way that works better.

I also finished the needlepoint piece I've been working on.  Yes, it is a parallelogram instead of a rectangle.  That's going to need some major blocking.  But, I am not going to feel bad, considering this is only the second piece I've done.  I am pretty darn happy with it. 

 

 

Ok, that's it for me this eclipse Monday.  Tomorrow, I'm off to New Orleans for one night of business.  I'm not even taking a hand work project.  I'm just not going to be there that long.  But, I have to make sure I pick a book to take with me. 

 

Everybody have a great day and a great week!  Enjoy the eclipse if you can see it.  We're going to get about 65% and we have our glasses.  I expect to walk outside after lunch for a little while with them to see what I can see.  It's the last one here til 2024.

 

Lane