Quilting Round-About

It was another day of mostly quilting yesterday. I didn't get as far along as I'd hoped, but close. Still, I think this will be finished by Saturday. My friend Andy lives about two hours north of us, in Olympia, Washington. He wanted to come down to pick up the quilt when it's finished, and he suggested meeting for dinner. Andy is a professional musician, and he's playing in Seattle until the 15th. He said any time after that. And since we're heading south toward the end of the month, it's a slim window for us to meet up. Thus...the push to get it finished. And binding awaits...all 378 inches of it.

For yesterday's effort, I started with the "paperclip" in the red border.

This motif was first seen on Lori Kennedy's blog. It might not be original to her, but that's where I saw it. It's simple to do, once you get the insy's and outsy's straight in your mind. Also, it looks really good on the quilt back, and so it's a favorite for border quilting.

When I'd gone all the way around, I took a break and caught up on the Tiny Tree blocks. These finish up at 2-3/4 inches. The first is a tiny friendship star. It seems friendship stars are taking over my life for the time being.

I went digging through my Christmas fabrics and my tiniest greens for these. Briefly, I wondered whether I could use fabrics with bits of red, and decided yes. Since I'm paring them up with the tiny embroidered trees I did last month,

the red will go just fine. Tiny Tree #2 is a broken dishes block. I've never actually made this block before, and I was surprised at how easy it was. It's just a four-patch of half square triangles.

There's a new one out today, and so I'll probably do that one first. Really, I want to keep up with these. Hopefully, I'll have time left at the end of the month to finish up this little tree top...or treetop, if you prefer...so that it can travel south with the rest of the small projects.

Sadie has been a meowarvelous helper cat. Yesterday, she answered the phone and took messages so I wouldn't be interrupted by telephone solicitors. Those are the only calls I get these days.

It was time for lunch when those were finished, but then, I got back to quilting. The two narrow borders were left open, and I moved on to the wide flag border. This is the largest section of the quilt. For this, I'm using a loopy star motif...two loops and a star...and then meandering back and forth across the border's width. I'm hoping you can see it in the image below.

I'd hoped to finish up this whole border yesterday, but the time grew late, and my body grew tired. When my audiobook finished and my bobbin thread ran out at precisely the same time, it seemed like a good place to stop for the day. I was halfway across the third side, and so the rest of this border will be finished today sometime.

Today will be broken up. I'm getting my monthly pedicure this afternoon, rescheduled from before Thanksgiving. Also, I want to make a very quick stop at the grocery store on my way home. But first...slow stitching. This morning should see me finishing up the current hoopful. When I move the hoop again, I think I will encompass the last of it. Snowmen are next.