The Joy of a Slow Sunday

The Wonder Clips at the top of this photo tell the story of my day today: slow stitching binding on Falling Leaves.

When the calendar flips over into September I'm always on high alert because it's time to get some Holly Bazaar projects under way. But this year it also means finishing up this raffle quilt for the church.

The binding was cut and pressed yesterday and I managed to get it sewn on before hitting the sack (it's a large quilt - 88" x 100" - so there was a fair bit of gratuitous wrestling to get that job done). And that put me in good shape for today. This is the beautiful backing fabric.

That's what I'm binding it with, and it's looking really nice against that piano key border. It's currently about half finished so I'm happy with that. Linking up with Kathy and the slow stitchers who are joining her today...M

My Need For Speed

You know me, I rarely work on one project at a time, often motivated by the last thing I pass in the sewing room or see on my TO DO list, and often by the need to feel that progress is able to be made more quickly somewhere else. Well, here is proof positive that I am consistent.

To break up my date with the pincushion in assembling the Miss P blocks (so close!) I started another Quilts for Survivors project. I'd been mulling this one for a while as an experiment for how to use this cute autumn-themed print with funky little turkeys, 

pumpkins and leaves,

and a nattily dressed squirrel.

It's fairly simple but I think it does a good job of showing off the fabrics. I raided my 2.5" remnants and also cut several additional 2.5" squares - many of which are remnants from the Falling Leaves charity quilt - for scrappy 16-patch blocks. 

Once I had pairs sewn together I set out sets of 8 so that I would be sure to get the colour distribution that I wanted and then it was easy to work through the pile.

And then I framed 4.5" squares of my larger print with a tiny polka dot in coordinating colours. Very fun, I must say.

The framed blocks came together very quickly and the 16-patch blocks followed a few days later. I am loving the combination of prints - very autumnal, which is timely as our weather has suddenly turned cooler. 

It's not together quite yet but it's now time to return to my pins and finish getting Miss P together....M

There's Gonna Be Pinning

Final assembly on Miss P has begun, and true to form for this pattern, it's slow going for me, but it will be so worth it.

There are 6 seams along each side of of each block that are not conducive to nesting so use of the pincushion is in full swing. By the time I sew the rows together there will be 36 pins per row!

Because the blocks have been sitting around for so long, I've been giving each a good press to help re-establish crisp seams and hopefully make for better joins along the way. That includes pressing the corner seams open so that they lie flatter.

It's been so much fun revisiting every block.

And coming across wee surprises like this little bee (I'm easily entertained).

And even more fun to see actual progress. The two rows to the left are together now but not yet sewn to each other....M

Finally!

Well, Miss P's time has finally come. The blocks have been sitting at the end of the small ironing board that is to the right of my sewing table, most of them for the better part of a year, and I've had a few on a small design wall behind it to enjoy as I worked on other stuff. After the Homespun stars came down off the wall I wasted no time in putting them up before some unsuspecting squirrel butted into line.

There wasn't a lot of thinking, I just wanted to get them up and then see what might need to be moved around. LUV. My design wall is wider than it is tall so I've been having to crane my neck to imagine what it will look like vertically, but I am really liking what I see. And it also received high praise from The Official Cookie Tester, so that was good too.

It has had a bit of time to 'steep' which has allowed for the odd block twirl or switch-up to ensure that all of the darker backgrounds are well distributed. The one block that is giving me a bit of grief is the deep purple in the upper right corner, and it has since the day that I sewed it. I feel that it's just too dark. In hindsight, I probably would have been smarter to make the background on it in a lighter fabric so that it didn't carry so much weight. I'll live with it for now but if it really starts to bug me I might just make a replacement.

Time to start stitching!....M