Just keep quilting

Just keep quilting, just keep quilting, just keep quilting.  Because thinking is just too awful to do. 

I spent 11 practically non-stop hours in the sewing room on Saturday.  And, it was productive. 

I got the last rows and the borders on the red and green quilt. 

I have a back now, and this one will be ready to sandwich and quilt.  After a lot of starch and ironing.  Those 1/8" seam allowances don't want to lie down, so at the last minute, when it's ready to sandwich, I will starch and iron those down.  Now, I know why quilters chose the quarter inch seam allowance.  Much easier to work with.  But, this is going to work too, it's just going to take some extra effort.  I almost didn't blog about this one today because the inside photo makes the colors look washed out.  But, I missed my chance on Saturday and on Sunday, it was raining. 

I also got my Dresden Plate wedges cut and put together.  I took a closer look at the pattern and found the wedge shapes that were included with it.  So, I was able to figure out what length to cut them.  But, their wedge was narrower and would have given me 24 wedges for the circle.  My wedge shaped ruler was only 20 wedges to make the circle, but it was so much easier than trying to cut from a paper template that I decided to go with it. 

This is going to be the center of a baby quilt.  This will be mounted on a white background and surrounded by pieced borders from white and reproduction fabrics, and then a border.  I know the baby is going to be a girl, so this will give me a chance to move out some pinks.  But, the final border is plain with quarter dresdens in the corners and I'm going to need a pink repro print for that and for the back.  Now that a couple things have gotten to good stopping points, I will be able to focus on this one.  And, as soon as this is done, I need to make another for a baby due in May. 

And, the last picture is a very small quilt that has taken more work than a much larger counterpart.  This quilt does not want to be quilted. 

I had the center quilted...and I hated it.  There is a 1/2" finished sashing between the blocks and I originally quilted the blocks, thinking some brilliant idea would come to me about the sashing.  But, it never did.  A half inch is too narrow for just about anything.  So, I picked all that out and used these feather shapes to quilt over the sashing, making the sashing disappear.  That took care of that.  Now, I'm out in the dark green border, trying to quilt feathers.  But, I can't get my tension or my thread color right to make the stitches disappear on both the front and the back.  The back of the quilt is mostly white and if I use dark green thread on the top and white thread on the back to match the rest of the quilting, I either get little white dots on top or dark green dots on back where the thread tension is just a little bit off.  So, now I'm toying with different thread colors that are closer to neutral that will work on both the front and the back.  But, holy cow, I'm tired of picking out quilting on this little quilt. 

Everybody have a great Monday.  Thank you so much for your support last week during my little rant.  This week, I'm just going to keep quilting and do my best not to think about what is going on in the dysfunctional government.  But, I can't help thinking about how it was brilliant to hide the deplorable changes that the orange is causing and his affair with a porn star behind a full on shutdown of the government.  No wonder he doesn't want to make a deal on immigration.  He needs this distraction from his dirty deeds. 

But, I'm still paying attention.  Still taking notes.  Still keeping up with all the things we will need to undo when we put the trash to the curb. 

On a happier note, we had lunch with LD yesterday.  My daughter nearly made me cry.  As we were leaving the restaurant, she walked next to LD and let her hold her arm.  She kept her steady and walked her out to the car.  She played my role.  And, she played it perfectly.  And, I could tell she's been paying attention.  And, what could make a parent prouder than seeing their child imitate the best of what they've seen the parents do? 

Nothing.

Lane