Home Stretch

Today I was able to take two projects to their final stage of completion.  But first, I finished up the embroidery for the July Promises & Borders block.  I'll still need to add the borders to this one, and then sew it to the other blocks I have finished.

With that finished, all my embroidery projects are up to date.  I like to always have some hand work to do, and since I still have a week left in the month, I decided to tackle some of the other hand work projects that have been sitting around.

For one thing, I made a label for the Winged Dreams quilt I want to give my friend Sue for her September birthday.  I used to label all my quilts, but then started labeling only the ones I give away.  I used Printed Treasures fabric sheets for ink jet printers to make the label, and then sewed a border around it using the same fabric I used on the pieced back.  You can't see the frame around it in this image because it blends in with the fabric behind it, which was kind of the point.

It says, "Quilts age with you, but never lose their warmth."  It seemed appropriate for a birthday.

With that finished, I decided to machine sew the binding to the Home is Where the Heart Is quilt.  This quilt came back from the quilter long ago, and I've been putting it off for a while.  For one thing, it's a very large quilt, and I hate sewing the binding on by machine.  I feel as if I'm wrestling with a bear trying to manage all the bulk.  Further, the buttons on the gingerbread people had come lose, and so I needed to sew those on again.  It's much harder once it's been quilted, let me tell you.  Also, one of the appliques had come loose during the quilting process, and so I had to fix that as well.

With those repairs made, I set about machine sewing the binding onto the quilt.  I'm happy to say that it's ready to have the hand-sewing done now and then this project will be FINISHED!  Honestly, I feel as if I've been working on this quilt my entire life!  I actually do think I've spent more time on this quilt than any other that I've made.

When it's completely finished I'll break out the tripod and take a picture of the whole thing with Mike's help.  It's quite a production to hold up a quilt of this size in our little place.  There really is only one place in the whole house where we can set things up, and it requires moving furniture around to accomplish it.

Hm.  I wonder if I have any other quilts that need photographing.  (Thinking.  Thinking.  I should be careful or I'll set off the smoke alarms.)

With all that done, I'd had quite enough sewing for the afternoon.  Time to water my babies tomatoes in the greenhouse.  Mike will be home soon, and let me just say that the tomatoes and me . . . we like our privacy.