Susanquilt '07 Report #6 - a few words on quilting, plus binding pix with felines

Really this is a misleading post since as of about 25 minutes ago the quilt is all done! I'm so excited I could just about pee my pants if I weren't so pooped. (Susie Scatology...) Andy is up late working on a paper and so we motivated each other to keep at it - I on my quilt and he on his paper. I finished all the machine sewing last night (Sunday), making the binding and attaching it. Tonight was handstitching the second half of the binding process (bending it around the edge of the quilt and stitching it to the quilt back). Seriously I never would have stuck at it all in one evening if I'd stayed home on my own. Near as I can tell it took me the better part of 6 hours to sew it all. Suffice to say my hands are kind of achy! It is worth it tho, to be finished and see how fun it is. I can't hardly wait to send it to J&H.

It was much easier to use the handmade binding (made from one of the fabrics in the quilt) than the regular store-bought binding last year; the handmade variety is much less stiff, plus you can control how wide it will be. (Note to self, make it another 1/4" wider next time so maybe my corners will look better :)

Anyway here is Sammers helping with the pre-binding yesterday


Note the edge where Sammers is sitting - I then trimmed the backing and batting and here is a close-up of the binding, all done (the vertical blue stripe with pieces of birds showing)...


And here is a 1/4-shot of the finished product this evening (full view pix with better camera and operator to follow in a couple days), complete with Sammers, mid-quilt-inspection...


Here is the beginning of a cat tussle, which is neither here nor there, quilt-wise, but is a mainstay of our lives nonetheless...


I've realized the only bad thing about making a dark quilt is it's next to impossible to get pix which display the quilting... maybe I'll get inspired to draw a diagram one of these days, or maybe the quilting will show up better on the pix to come.

More words on the quilting later; I'm getting more pooped by the second and I want to get up slightly early to take the quilt to the front-loader at the Thach Hut for de-cat-hairing before I have to tutor. Once I get pix, I should be all set finally to ship it off to ol' Virginny Thursday or Friday at the latest. Woo hoo!

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