Where to Start?

A friend of mine asked what would I do now that the big quilt is finished.  I laughed.  Are you sure you wanted to ask me that?  I rattled off at least a half dozen projects that have been queuing up over the last several months.  

I was so excited putting my sewing room back in order late last week.  The sewing machine had been up against my cutting table to handle quilting a big quilt.  Now it's back over by the wall.  In addition, when I work on a big project all scraps get chucked in a corner.  Wow - the black and white quilt generated a lot of scrap.  There were quite a few bits from a mystery quilt and Project Quilting, too.  Sorting through that will keep me busy for several evenings this week.  

My sewing machine needed a good cleaning and I have to fiddle with the thread tension again.  As soon as I do that, I have piecing to do!  

Finishing the mystery quilt is top on my list.  It needs borders and then I can quilt it.  The baby-quilt size left me with two extra blocks I didn't want for my wall hanging, so I think I'll make them into mug rugs.  

The Last Few Fixes

While binding the quilt I found a few more spots of uneven quilting.  Can you see the four and a half sunrays I ripped out?  After restitching the quilting, I went over the whole quilt a few times, worried I missed a spot.  It would be so easy to miss a line or two over all that space!

It's so dangerous to do close inspections... if I keep looking I'm sure I'll find a few more places that aren't quite perfect.  So I gotta call it done.  

Friday or Saturday may have good enough weather to photograph.  How exciting!  Fingers crossed.

 

I Like Thursday: Getting Stuff Done

I have some real odds-and-ends to share with LeeAnna and friends for I Like Thursday.  I never know what will catch my eye or tickle my fancy.

I drove by this pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago and was struck by the color, but didn't get a chance to photograph it.  I was so excited last week when I saw the pumpkins were still there, plus a rainbow in the blue sky!  

I Like Thursday: Fall Finishes

 

October is flying by.  I finished up a few things.  

Our little foster Echo found a forever home!  This little pig obtained some serious chill while she was here.  I hope she's happy with her new friend.  We'll miss her.  Finishing with a foster guinea pig is often bittersweet.

Binding

When I first started writing this post about a week ago, all I had was this big roll of binding.  Therefore the title was "Binding" as a noun.  

Since then I've fixed a few bad spots of quilting, finished burying threads and trimmed the edges.  I got a chance to attach the binding.  I've now moved on to "Binding" as a verb.

Ahh, I do love binding a quilt.

 

Echo Apple Streamers

It's apple season - time to make crisps and pies!   That leaves a lot of apple peelings, which means Echo (our guinea pig foster from Dakin Humane) gets what I call "apple streamers."  I hook pieces of peelings around the cage, then Echo has to find them.  

Not too many - I don't want to give her a tummy ache from eating too much apple.  I tuck a few around the top edges of the cage.  I've done this enough times that she runs right to the usual places I hide them.  Occasionally she needs to follow her nose to locate them.  This last time was tricky - I put one in the corner where it usually goes and hooked another from a binder clip nearby.  Echo quickly found the one in the corner and could still smell the second apple peel.  She kept looking in the corner... but it wasn't there!

Echo Fall Photos

Echo endured a photo shoot.  We needed some glam-shots for her adoption page at Dakin Humane.  

She was a little unsure of her surroundings.  A little red pepper was enough to keep her facing the camera rather than hiding behind the pumpkin. 

Echo

We have a piggy in the house! 

A bunch of guinea pigs came into Dakin last week.  I had my eye on a couple of pairs and thought I had missed out on all of them.  But it turns out one little piggy, Echo, was still available.  Sadly, she had just lost her cagemate.  

Echo is calm and curious.  Took the car ride and the new surroundings in stride.  Wheeks every so often and I've seen a popcorn or two.  

She's an expert at hiding.  Within hours she'd discovered the cozy on the third level, dragged the hay over to block the front of it and snuggled in.