Sunday, August 29, 2010

I'M SEWING!!!

This might seem like such a small victory for all you accomplished piecers.....but every time I piece a quilt I gain new respect for that art. Basically, I don't enjoy sitting at the machine doing repetitive sewing. And....I'm getting too dang old to do anything I don't like!

I pieced these blocks from antique batik fabrics that had been in my wonderful MIL's stash. It was to be only large enough to become a couch quilt in the man cave.....but then 'the husband' suggested I enlarge it to hang on our stairway wall.

Okay....so now the darn thing is sewn together....yikes it's big 73" x 90". Of course I'm now going to have to piece a backing.....a lot of piecing since I have no biggish yardage in these colors. Then, the dreaded basting....but the major hurtle will be the quilting.

I still love to hand quilt and do so on my big pieces mainly because I haven't yet conquered free motion quilting and am too much of a perfectionist to learn on anything I like. Which in itself is the problem! Because so many of these batiks are dense.....hand quilting isn't an option. I might just take the easy way out and quilt in the ditch following the black sashing.....KNOWING full well.....quilting in the ditch ain't easy on a home sewing machine while cramming all this fabric in such a small space. Or the really easy way out and find someone to machine quilt it for me....now there's a thought!*!

The final part I actually like.....putting on the binding.......oh dear....maybe I'll just fold this up and 'think' about for awhile longer. My fingers are truly twitching at the thought of all the bead designs I want to play with. I've been traveling so much with my teaching duties this summer that I haven't been creating. I'm determined to get stitching again....know many of you feel the same.....there's never enough time.....

So with this said....I'm now going to open my fabric closet and start digging for backing choices....hoping the tall stacks of material don't suffocate me as they tumble down.


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