Friday at Last

This weekend I must return my sewing corner which is in total disarray from my last minute quilt making before my MIL's 90th birthday party last Saturday. There are drawers open, binding clips on the floor, and loads of thread clippings, random scraps and an explosion of pins (note: my husband has magnetic feet. I myself have NEVER stepped on a pin).

I made a Pineapple Blossom quilt from a quiltville pattern in MIL's chosen color, red, adding to that white centers and black sashing. Nearly 98% of this quilt came from my scrap bins and stash. I had actually purchased a backing fabric, unfortunately without any of my blocks to check the color against, and it turned orangey when held up to my blocks. So now I have five yards of a red calico that will have to find another project!

My attempts to piece a back were quite time-consuming and might have been amusing had I another week or so to finish the project (I didn't). I wanted to stay in the same colors but didn't have quite enough of anything to take up a big chunk. It took me hours longer than I thought it would to wade through all my bins and come up with suitable fabrics and I kept adding strips here and there, plus a few "bonus" triangles I stitched into a row. I even had to pull the backing up off the floor after it was taped down, to make adjustments to a wonky seam. Then I barely squeaked by with about an inch of length to spare on the top and bottom when I pinned my quilt sandwich! I am a WORD girl, not a MATH girl, see?

Lastly, the binding got put on the morning of the party and I was hand sewing it to the back for at least an hour and a half before I made the observation (one hour before the party) that there was absolutely no way I could get around a twin sized quilt in less than another two hours! So I dashed to my machine and stitched the remaining half-plus of binding down. Another crisis occurred when my binding was 8 inches too short (see above reference to MATH). Luckily I had a random strip of the same fabric that I slapped on and that allowed me to finish up with time to even get dressed and put on makeup before the party. Whew. MIL was so surprised and I had my quilt hanger there (DS is 6'4") so I could get some good shots. I hope to post those sometime this weekend when I have figured out how to upload things from my new camera.