A Good Day

 Today was a good day! I got the jobs done that I wanted to for the house AND I got to sew. Win-win! Plus, I still plan to get bills/banking/records done yet tonight :)

My sewing today was all about the machine quilting of the sampler quilt I made in 2017, under the guidance of fellow quilter Ena Reitveld (if you Google her, you'll find some articles and pictures of her and her work). Ena was a teacher for her career, and she continued that passion by helping/teaching others who wanted to learn the craft....her next passion. So lucky to have had her guidance!

Anyway... I had 3 blocks left to get quilted. I managed to get one done while video chatting with my neighbour and another quilting friend of ours, Vicki Brigden. Amazing how quickly time passes when you're chatting while working. In no time, I was on the last block!

For those who are not quilters, the form of quilting I was doing was called "stitch-in-the-ditch". What that means is that you are sewing directly in the seams of each block. Done correctly, you hardly see the stitches on the top side...

...but you see the pattern of the block on the reverse side.

Once I finished quilting the blocks, it was time to begin work on quilting the borders. Because the blocks were very linear in design, I decided to keep the border the same. I had previously cut-and-paste a design, and then made multiple copies for use on the border. Allowing for the part of the quilt edge that would be covered by the binding, I centred the papers, pinned them down, and began stitching. 

As I was sewing, I was reflecting on the free motion quilting class I had been a part of on the weekend. This pattern would have been so much easier if I was confident enough to free motion quilt it. I'm not good enough with my stitches as yet. It takes some time...and lots of practice... to become good enough in controlling the movement of the quilt to have your stitches consistent in length. I think I'll wait until a future quilt!

As I approached the first corner with the pattern, I realized that I could probably overlap the pattern to continue around the corner.

Hmmm! My first run was positioned so that the points of the squares were 1" away from the stop-border. 

When I checked the measurement around the corner, I discovered that it was 1-1/2" from the stop-border.

Could I live with that? I think I could. I was ready to move forward when it dawned on me.....Where would the pattern finish on that run? What if it isn't in the same spot to turn that next corner? THAT could be a real problem....and, while I'm very happy I have "Jack-the-Ripper" (my seam ripper), I'd rather not set myself up to have to use it. I decided I would rather stop short of the corner and do something else right in the corner.

Here's what the reverse looks like so far. I'll have to decide if I want to add in the other overlapping squares in the pattern. We'll see :)

Wahoo! Blogging done before Jeopardy tonight. Another win!!!

And on that note, I wish you all a very good night!

TTFN