Sewing Before Quilting

Good morning, my friends. Before I could do anything else yesterday morning, I had to fix that dratted block for the Kittens in Teacups quilt. It was bothering me even though we were in separate rooms. 

Phew! I feel better now, don't you?

Okay, and so then and only then, I could do some work on my slow stitching. I stitched my usual amount of floss.

And then, I decided to move my hoop to the right to encompass the rest of the opening to the bridge. Where so many lines intersect, I like to do all the lines in one direction before stitching the lines that intersect. It makes it easier for me to get a nice smooth line of stitching when I'm not trying to slip my needle under the intersecting line. That's especially true when I'm doing a stem stitch, as I am here.

Okay, so I wanted to get in a Bowflex workout, and I had one housekeeping chore to do. When that was all finished, I turned my attention to the Sashiko piece. It was sandwiched and ready for quilting. The quilting is lightly done. I snuggled my machine needle right up next to the hand-stitched line and followed the design.

When that was finished, I sewed on the binding. Now it's ready for hand-stitching, and my Sashiko piece will be finished.

Usually I would do the quilting first. My quilting room is right across the hall from our bedroom, and Mike was napping. I was trying to be quiet. When the coast was clear, I went to work quilting the horizontal sashings. Starting at one end, I put dots every two inches, and then zig-zagged my way across.

When I reached the far side, I zig-zagged back the other way. It was tempting to fill in those diamonds somehow, but I kind of liked them just the way they were. Also, I didn't want to gild the lily.

All the horizontal sashings are finished now. Today I'll start on the vertical sashings. I expect to have this quilt finished within the next few days. I'll spend one more day (tomorrow) on the outer border, and then it will be ready for binding.

There was no kitty help yesterday. I'm not sure where Sadie was hiding out, but the Stanbro Men were occupied watching Furrmula One. Smitty recognizes this as an excellent oppurrtunity for chin skritches.

There's not much on today's agenda. I'll just continue on with my quilting, and I'll finish hand-sewing the binding for the Sashiko piece. If I run out of things to sew, I'll start sewing together the quilt top for the Merry, Merry Snowmen.

Here's the picture from the pattern, showing what the finished quilt will look like.

I've already selected fabrics for the borders and cornerstones, but I'm doubtful I have anything for the back. We'll see.

Okay, so it's a pancake morning, and then I'll get in a walk on the treadmill. After that, it's going to be a mostly sewing day.