Harvest Time

It's a farm quilt right? When it's nearly finished, it would seem appropriate to start the harvest. And when it's all finished, the harvest will be in, right? It makes me think of that old church hymn, "Bringing in the Sheaves." So, yeah. I'm so old I've actually sung that song in church. It might even have been the day it was written, or certainly when it was still listed in the Top Ten.

So the quilting is finished. YAHOO!! I can't even tell you how much I dreaded this project. Now that it's finished, I'm wondering why I thought it would be so awful. Of course, my little quilting cat was by my side throughout, and I'm sure that made it easier. Certainly it made it slower.

I needed to finish quilting the sashings and borders. I used this motif I found on Pinterest:

It was easy to do, and it made me think of rolls of wire used for fencing. When it was all finished, I took it off the machine and laid it out on the floor.

Here's a peek at the back:

Smitty was exhausted after that effort. He needed a neck massage.

Finishing a big quilt like this always kills my sewing ambition for the remainder of the day, but I did take the quilt down to my work table and square it up for binding. The binding strips are already cut.

I sorted through the remaining scraps left from the quilt and put those away. I had some nice sized pieces of yardage that I can use in another quilt, and I had lots of little pieces left. 

While I was at it, I took a look at the embellishments. They aren't as involved as I thought they would be. I'll be adding apples to the apple trees, and a bell to the cow.

Also, there's a handle for this "bucket." It doesn't look like a bucket to me though. It looks like a bushel basket, which wouldn't have a handle. What do you think? 

I'm seriously considering leaving the handle off. Besides, I'm not sure how to sew it on. A zig-zag stitch over the ends might work. Now here's a question: how many of us learned the measures of a bushel and a peck in about the second grade, only never to see them ever again in life? 

Also, I'm going to add some black beads to the cat's eyes where I couldn't keep those little black pupils attached. And, point of reference, cats' eyes do not have round pupils. They are elliptical in shape. Sadie was extremely offended by this.

So today's sewing effort will be to get the binding sewn on by machine, and then begin the long journey of hand-stitching it down. This might be a good project to take along on our camping trip next week if I haven't finished it before we go. For sure, I'll be taking along some slow-stitching.

Speaking of camping, I need to make a short trip to the grocery store today. Saturday...I know...a person could die out there among the English. Like I said, it will be a short trip. And then, I'm still hoping to get a start on the pattern for the Sonora Desert Landscape. It still sits where I left it days ago.

Also, I brought out my next quilting project, and it's draped over my sewing chair to relax the wrinkles from it. Here's a picture I took as I was sandwiching it for quilting in December of 2018. Consider that for a moment. That was a full year before the pandemic started. Good grief. It's been waiting its turn ever since.

These panels were created by Hoffman, and they come in many different colors. You can see more of them at this link. I decided to buy one while watching others quilt them on a Facebook free motion quilting group. It seemed like good practice, and that's all I'm doing with it. I've seen some others that were all fancied up with borders and quilt blocks. Mine will end up a nice sized lap quilt or a wall hanging when I'm finished with it. Mainly, my goal is practice. It'll be at least a week or two before I get started on it. 

So aside from grocery shopping, I'll get back to my quilt binding and my slow-stitching. It's a day to relax, I think.