Now, where was I?

Back, at least intermittently from an unintended blogging break.  Sometimes it seems life just takes precedence and everything else needs to give way.   I've been under the weather for a couple months now, nothing major, just nagging issues like the worst spring allergy season in over 40 years, intermittent sciatica, and an annoying carpel tunnel issue, all of which have interfered with getting a good night's sleep that in turn just made everything worse.  But enough of that, this is still a quilting blog after all!

So, when I left you last I had just put the finishing touches on one of the latest Opportunity Quilts of 2017, and now the machine quilting is very nearly finished.

The completed top

Before layering and pinning the quilt, for the first time ever I marked all the stencils onto the alternate blocks and the outer border, and some general guidelines for the setting and corner triangles. I always hated to take the time to premark since I love seeing the quilt begin to assume some loft as soon as that top is placed on the batting and pinning begins. But premarking  sure does save a lot of time in the end, and I'm glad that for once I had the patience to "get 'er done."

Quilting begun.  Amazingly, though it shouldn't have been, those straight lines in the patchwork blocks took a LOT longer to quilt than the stencils in the alternate blocks.  The carpal tunnel issues have meant having to limit machine quilting time each day to just a few hours rather than the extended periods I used to be able to do.  But I'm very thankful that hand quilting does not seem to bother my wrists or hands, and I've been able to hand quilt for an hour or two most evenings - yay!

Simple spineless feathers in the setting triangles.

The outer border stencils are now all quilted, and all that remains when I get back to the machine is to fill in the center 4 inch squares in those patchwork blocks.  I'm planning a simple freehand flower design for those.  Then I'll get the binding on as soon as possible so I can get the entire quilt in a cold water rinse to erase all those blue markings.  They always make me nervous even though I test the fabrics before marking.

Meanwhile the sewing room is dormant this week, all the machines and quilting hoops packed up and put away, as this is the week for company and lots of it.  We had 11 family members and 4 dogs join us over the 4th for an overnighter.  Lots of grandkids and activities!  Thankfully the weather was great and some tented out in the back yard while others chose to sleep inside in the spare bedroom, the sewing room and the living room couch.  Now, a day of R&R for us grandparents before another family group arrives on Friday for a late 4th of July weekend and a grandson's 9th birthday.  A lot of family fun packed into one short week!

I hope to have more to share next week.  But tomorrow we both will be mowing the lawns again before the next batch of rainshowers arrive.  And grocery shopping, and ...   we won't talk about the state of the garden weeds!

Thanks for stopping by!