Slow Stitching and Sew Forth

The binding is on the Gardener's Journal quilt, and I've wasted no time starting to stitch it down.

It's always so gratifying to start stitching a binding, and then to flip it back to see how it's going to look when it's all finished.

I like to start near a corner so that I can turn the first corner right away and then announce, "Wow! I'm really making progress!" In all honesty, I've actually stitched one whole side, and two corners. I can only say I'm 25% finished with the binding, but I'm 50% finished with the corners! At this rate, I'll be finished in mere hours!

Oh, but then I'll have to stitch down the sleeve. Since this one is destined for at least two shows, I was smart and sewed the hanging sleeve on when I stitched on the binding. I can see at least two drawbacks with this method: First, if I want to remove the sleeve, it will be no small task, and will require first removing the binding. Second, it's important to take my stitches rather deep to be sure I'm anchoring the binding into the quilt back, and not just the quilt sleeve. I'm afraid a the act of hanging the quilt would put too much stress on the hand-stitched binding otherwise, and it might pull out. Nevertheless, it's going to save me some time to do it this way...not to mention a row of stitching across the top of the sleeve.

I'll still have to stitch across the bottom, however.

Also this morning, I created a label for the quilt. I still need to print it off, but this is what I came up with:

So it's going to be slow stitching all the time this weekend. I'm also working feverishly to finish up my latest embroidery piece. I need it by next Saturday. The embroidery is only half the job because I'll need to back it and finish it off once the stitchery is completed. Still, I'm off to a very good start, and I should have plenty of time to get it ready to go.

For now, I'm putting my Quilting Snowladies aside. I imagine that has their carrot noses a little bit out of joint. I'll get back to them soon enough.

Tomorrow I'll be linking this post to:

It's a dark and stormy day out. We, here in Oregon, are the glad recipients of a Pineapple Express weather system this weekend. It's going to be raining hard and blowing all weekend. I just took this picture out my office window. It's noon, and dark, dark, dark from thick cloud cover.

It's a good day to stay inside. I'm going to take a little break from my sewing now and bake some Gingerbread Biscotti. We are both coffee lovers, and biscotti is such a nice treat with a cup of espresso in the afternoon. I gave Mike the choice between biscotti and Cranberry Bliss Bars. Of course, it's easy for him to choose because he knows the Cranberry Bliss Bars will just get baked another day. Here's the picture of the biscotti I baked last year:

They have crystallized ginger baked into them which gives them the nicest gooey chewiness. They are supposed to have their ends dipped in the white chocolate, but I opted for drizzling instead. I've never had much luck dipping them.  The chocolate seems too wet and clingy, and it takes too long to harden afterward.  If you like biscotti, I can recommend this recipe with the changes I made; i.e., use slivered almonds, roughly chopped, and drizzle rather than dip the chocolate. Aside from those changes, I made the recipe just as you see it here:  Gingerbread Biscotti.

So with all of that going on, I'd better get going. Biscotti waits for no woman.