All Quilting, All the Time

The day started as usual yesterday with a little slow stitching. I'm just getting started on December's heart.

After that I got to work finishing the quilting on the Quiltemala quilt. Of course, I need my furry furriends to help speed things up.

Walking on a quilt being free motion quilted is purrticularly helpful. Just keep those toes away from the needle, sir.

And with so much help, it seemed as if things dragged. After a couple of hours of solid stitching, I quilted to the southwest corner and off, and it was finished.

That went fast. I've used this motif before, and I really like it. You might remember that I used it to quilt the Block Party quilt, which was a guild challenge.

When it was finished, I took it downstairs and laid it out in the light of the living room window. It always gives me good contrast so the quilting will show up. Here's how it looks from the back.

It barely shows on the front except where the lines of stitching cross the gray homespun.

After that, I took it downstairs to square it up and sew on the binding. Smitty helped with that too. He was an excellent helper yesterday. Finishes are his specialty.

While I was sewing on this binding, Matthew showed up. He's been on a little excursion from Las Vegas, and driving north through California. He visited a friend in San Francisco, and spent a few nights along the way just sight-seeing. It was nice to have him show up for this portion of the finish.

With the binding on, I took it upstairs where it underwent its final inspection. Matthew and Smitty took some time to walk around on it, giving it the footsy test.

Matthew asked Smitty if it passed inspection, and Smitty had strong words about patience.

Do not rush me, if you please, Sir. There are strict purrotocols that must be followed when testing quilts for snuggleability. With your patience and purrmission, I will continue.

And I'd say that's a look of appurroval, although I could be wrong. What do you think?

The quilting motif made it easy enough to sew on the label. I just stitched right through the quilt, and I can't even see it among the quilting on the front. I found those "PS I love you" tags in a visit to a quilt shop many years ago. I only just rediscovered them in a drawer recently.

When I left the quilt yesterday, it was clipped and pinned and ready for hand sewing. It's draped over the arm of a chair downstairs, awaiting my return.

Smitty was completely worn out after his contribution yesterday. He practiced his yoga moves in order to relax.

Today is a CSA pick-up day, but aside from that, it's going to be nothing but slow-stitching. I want to get this finished. I'll spend some more time on the December heart. It's unlikely I'll finish this binding today, but it's going to get plenty of attention. Also, I want to finish up the zebra quilt, and so I'll probably spend some time on that today too.