All Ahead Slow

Good morning, my friends. After writing yesterday's post, I was asking myself if I could get all the sewing finished that I was hoping to finish in a single day. It seemed like a tall order. There was still a little over an hour remaining before I needed to get ready to leave the house. Then, duh, it occurred to me that I could give up my slow-stitching for a single morning and spend that time at the sewing machine. And I'm a quick study when I suddenly toss off my single-mindedness, so that's exactly what I did.

The Joyful Journey was already squared up for quilting. I just needed to sew the binding strips together and sew them on. Of course, the quilt first needed to be subjected to rigorous kitty testing.

It passed with flying colors, and so I went ahead and sewed on the binding.

With that one ready for hand-stitching, I turned my attention to the Kitchen Herbs quilt. This is a small quilt at just 22 x 24 inches. I quilted straight lines in the blocks. Easy enough.

It was there that I ran out of time. Driving into town, I first got my haircut. If you've been reading a long time, then you might remember my hair and hairdresser woes of some years back. I'm happy to say I found a hairdresser along the way who consistently makes me happy. Also, she's younger than I am, and so I'm hoping she'll be my hairdresser for the rest of my natural life. 

There were a couple of other errands I needed to run in town. When I got home again, I finished the quilting on this piece. Just the outer border was left, and I did a flowery-leafy motif there. Pretty simple. As usual, it's hard to see the quilting on the top.

It's not much easier from the back either.

But then I could square that up for binding.

It too had to undergo a rigorous inspection before I could take the next step.

Sadie wondered why there was no catnip included among these "kitchen" herbs since everyone knows that a kitchen herb supply is incomplete without catnip. Sheesh. Humans. What are you going to do?

Nevertheless, it was appurroved for binding, and so I finished it off.

Now it too is ready for hand-stitching. And that brought to a conclusion the sewing I most wanted to get finished before we left.

This morning we'll get breakfast somewhere, and then we'll drop off the sewing machine for service while we're traveling. I called last week and was told they could hold the machine for me until we return. I'm hoping that's still the case. And that leaves me with all slow stitching for the time being.

Of course most sewing is going to be put on hold over the next ten days or so. There is much to do to get ready. I'm pretty well settled with my packing lists since nothing new has popped into my head for the past couple of days. Also, I brought in all the bedding and quilts yesterday. I'll get started washing everything this afternoon. I think the push is on to finalize our preparations. Up until now, most preparations have been going on inside my head. It's time to put thoughts into action. For now, dropping off the sewing machine is just one more waypoint on our journey north.