I Think There Will Be Time to Quilt This Weekend

A little bit of everything going on in the quilt room! I have one quilt out of the hoop with binding attached by machine. Luckily I had three fat quarters of suitable fabrics to use so I didn't have to go out and buy special. Next up will be hand stitching the binding to the back of the quilt, something that shouldn't take very long at all. Just need the motivation!

Scrappy Tulips with binding ready to stitch down

Hey Grandma! now has the smaller part of the flower applique attached to the larger flower pieces. Once I get the stems stitched down, then it's time to stitch the flower and leaves down to the background. I'm a bit worried about the leaves because they are very, very small and they might, possibly, probably, definitely? be too narrow to completely cover the stripey stem ends. What was I thinking?*aghh!  And they're all cut out of course. Will have to start from scratch too because that was most of whatever amount was left in that fabric....

Applique prep for Hey Grandma!

Since Scrappy Tulips is out of the hoop and on its way to a real finish, it's time to get another one back in quickly. Can't stand to have that hoop sit idle you know! I chose this scrap bin Improv. quilt for 'next up' as I was hoping it could be a fast finish.

Cherries & Improv.

The plan is to machine quilt the inside of the quilt in a basic cross-hatch grid, probably with those forgiving organic, straight lines, and then hand quilt the outside applique very simply with Perle Cotton. I love how the inside is straight out of the scrap bin and together with the outside fabric, it has that slightly old fashioned look. All together it makes me very happy. Possibly the colors? The scrappy bits? The vintage pops of red? My kids are like, 'Yeah, it's nice mom', but I am positively dreamy eyed over the various bits of pink and butter yellow. It just feels happy and cheery to me.

Lots of scraps

Anyway, it's starting to get a few lines of stitching this weekend and I'm crossing my fingers all the quilting {both machine and hand quilting} can be done in a week! Just keeping it very simple!! Hey, there are drawers and even a couple shelves full of completed quilt tops around here. If I don't make progress with completions, then I feel terribly somewhat guilty about working on current quilt projects. My kids and I have actually had conversations about what to do with those quilt tops if for some reason I die unexpectedly. Don't you dare throw them away! lol  I will come back and haunt you! We might be a strange family. I'm hardly in the best position to judge.

A little machine quilting

But yeah, that guilty feeling that pops up occasionally? Most of the time it's not a real and present problem 'cuz I just brush it off like a pesky little fly. Quilting is good for me. The truth is, because I am primarily a hand quilter, the quilt tops and true-blue finishes are a wee bit out of balance. It's a fact. One I'm dealing with it in my own way. Like, now that Folksy Flower is actually a completed quilt top? I've already made plans for the next medallion quilt. This time no applique. At least I waited...