Stories from the Sewing Room

The Batesville BOM is finally a top! It only took 17 years! This first photo shows the pieced border that I created from the remnants of the border that didn't fit. The little corner pieces didn't quite work out how I'd envisioned, but it's okay and I didn't care enough to change them. It's pretty wobbly and not square/flat at this point.

And here is the top! I feel so much relief from having this done. Still a little off, but I think quilting will help it.

I'm trying to use up as much as possible for the backing. Many of the scraps left are quite small, so I pulled out a few prints from my stash to fill in the rest. This was actually difficult because these are not colors I normally use. Here was my first attempt. That piece on the upper right was way too light.

Here is what I came up with. I'll need to add "leaders" at the top and bottom so that I can attach it to the frame and have enough clearance, but that's no big deal. I actually keep 5" strips just for this purpose. I didn't expect those green strips to line up. 

I will make a Frankenbatting for this quilt. I've also cut all the binding strips. I don't anticipate having any issue on finishing this before the end of the year.

I cannot wait to sew something with color again! Good thing I have plenty of options. 😳

I'm making a small amount of headway on my to-do list. 

• finish Batesville top & figure out backing
• Bedford Tiles
• J school book
• clean house
• watch Karlee Porter classes--12 hours to go
• watch Bethanne Nemesh classes--finished one
• shop for gifts--making a small amount of progress
• repot plants
• finish last of this year's quilts
• print next year's planner
• fix dress form as much as possible
• do fitting pattern
• lose a gazillion pounds
• sew cover for serger
• Marble Mystery
• add newest pantos to website
• complete other business things from computer list
• think about PHD for 2025
• clean up IntelliQuilter files
• bring in hummingbird feeders--left them outside too long and they froze and broke 😭
• drop off toys at pantry

Next is Margaret's mini, quilted with Identity.

I was working on creating a custom edge-to-edge for Carol's other quilt. I did this by editing a couple different pantos I'd purchased and sticking them back together. This took waaayyy longer than I should have spent for what I was charging. Then I had a big oops that took a while to address. See that pleat in the backing? It's been years since I've had a pleat in the backing. I had quite a bit of ripping to do, partly because this was past halfway across and partly due to a lot of backtracking.

But I persevered and got the quilt done.

Next in line is Kayle's quilt. She participates in quite a few round robin swaps. This is one of them and it's a bed-sized quilt. She wanted Snails stitched on it. You may remember when I stitched this design on my daughter's quilt a few months ago. We went with a larger scale for this quilt and it went a lot better. I absolutely love the outer border of this quilt.

Not much else has been going on. The hinges rivets? on our mailbox door have been ripped off from apparently aggressive mail pick up and delivery and it's cheaper to buy a new mailbox than repair the door yet again. Our dishwasher, which is just over three years old, malfunctioned AGAIN. We already replaced a part two years ago and the same part quit this time. My husband tore it apart and cleaned it out and it's working for now. We have a replacement part on order in case. Remember when appliances used to work for like 30 years? Ugh. This dishwasher frequently makes the "most recommended" lists online. I purchased it during the pandemic when our previous one failed and there were only two choices that were available within a month's time.