Saving the World One Stitch at a Time

It started out a day like any other. The cat woke me up at 4:30 wanting to get under the covers and snuggle. Of course, that meant  my night of sleep was over. So I got up and checked in on Facebook, read my email, and then got to work stitching on the latest Gingerbread Square block. After stitching for a while, it was time to move the hoop.

So, I fussed and fumed and adjusted and slid my hoop, but it soon became clear that I could not fit the last of the design within the hoop. There was just that little tiny bit at the top that refused to yield.

Look at that! Just that little bit in the image below was left extending outside the hoop.

Well. Don't you think that started an OCD sh*t storm of epic proportions? I think I actually felt the earth tip on its axis. And if you didn't know I was OCD, then you've sadly overestimated what passes for sanity around here. I mean...just look at my cat!

So I had to get back to work stitching. That clearly could not be allowed to stand in this age of climate change and everything else. My problem was that I had these little gold metallic floss French knots to contend with, and so I had to stitch enough that when I moved the hoop again, I wouldn't smash them between the rings and squash them. They don't like it.

After stitching for quite a while longer, I was able to safely move my hoop and capture the remainder of the unstitched portion inside the hoop. Thank goodness!

As an added precaution, I stitched that little bauble on top too. In my experience, one can never be too careful about such things.

While you were sleeping, the world nearly came to an end because of this. Not to worry, however, I have stitched it all back into place. It's as if this never happened. You're welcome.

* * * * *

So when we left off yesterday, I was just about to start bringing the Quilting Snowladies embroidered blocks together to make a whole quilt. The first thing I had to do was decide what size to trim the blocks. The background pieces were cut to 11 x 14 inches, and I'd never trimmed them when I finished stitching them. I considered whether I wanted them square or rectangular, and how big, and finally settled on cutting them to 9 1/2 inches square when I realized I had a ruler that size.  I first checked to make sure the embroidery on each block fit inside the boundaries of the ruler.

No problem at all, and so I cut away.

I've been thinking about how to set these blocks since last summer. The tea-dyed muslin background gives them an antique look. On the other hand, they're whimsical and fun. I wanted to use some kind of snow fabric for the quilt back and borders. Also, it needed to be something fun, but not too fancy. With so much color in each block, I wasn't sure how to make the transition. Finally, I decided to first frame them with a brightly colored border. There are 12 blocks altogether, and so I framed three each with one of four colors: green,

gold,

red,

and blue.

So, imagine a configuration of 12 blocks, three in each color.

From there, I gave them a second border using the same tea-dyed muslin that I used for the block backgrounds.

I sewed all afternoon yesterday, and that's as far as I got. Today, I'll be adding their third and final border, this pretty aquamarine blue.

Then, I'll use that same blue for cornerstones and sash them with the fabric you see to the left of the image below.

I'll use that same fabric for the quilt back, and I'll be using the blue for the binding. I have some ideas about how to quilt this too, but I'll talk about that later.

Since sitting down here, I had to go through my blog picture file and delete somewhere on the order of 9,000 pictures. The folder was so big and full of gigabytes that it simply had to be pared down. That took forever, and the computer got tired. I had to restart it a couple of times during that process...who knows why, but I have this effect on all things electronic. Occasionally, I have to ask the Resident Engineer to just come give the computer his "Look", just to get it to straighten up and fly right. It works every time. He lays not a finger on anything, and yet, it starts working again.

So all of that to say that this has taken me far longer than I ever thought possible. I'm spending some time baking this morning, and then I'll get back to the Quilting Snowladies. I can hear them in the basement chattering away at the excitement of joining together into one whole quilt.