Tortoise and the Hare

I think I tend to be a bit of the hare in the old fable. I like to speed ahead on a project, and if something comes up to disturb my progress, I like to be far enough ahead to not "feel behind" due to interruptions. Life is busy enough right now, that I am having to learn to be a bit more tortoiselike. Small bits of time do add up if you are consistent. This isn't my preferred way to work, but it's all I have to work with right now. Better bits of progress than none.

I have been quilting on Easy Street as much as possible. It may be 20-30 minutes, or occasionally a couple hours. I am now working on the last quarter to be quilted. I'm hoping to finish it this weekend, depending on what comes up.

I sewed the binding on Thrice Broken Dishes. I don't do my bindings by hand, I expect to be ticketed by the quilt police any time now. I have a bad thumb and I just can't do much in the way of handwork. I use a serpentine stitch and just stitch it with the sewing machine. I make quilts to be used, not judged, and a machine stitched binding can take a lot of abuse. The binding on the quilt on my bed was hand stitched (by someone else, not me) and I recently had to restitch it because it was coming undone. I went ahead and used the serpentine stitch like I do on most of my quilts, and no problems now. I don't mind the look of machine stitched bindings, but if you prefer hand stitched bindings, and are capable of doing them, I think that's great! I have some health issues that makes some things difficult, and I'd rather quilt untraditionally than not at all.

I still have to do some stencil work on Thrice Broken Dishes, but the quilt is stabilized from all the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, and I have already quilted the border, so putting on the binding now may be unusual, but it's not going to be a problem. The plus to working this way is that when the quilting is finished, the quilt is also finished. I couldn't take this approach with Easy Street, because there is no ditch quilting holding everything in place. 

I chose a purple binding for Easy Street, and if I get the quilting done, I will try to get the binding on and cross that quilt off my to do list!

Our big scooter event last weekend was a success. We ended up with about 50 people here for dinner, and everyone had a good time. We got lots of compliments on the backyard makeover and the food!

DS the Elder just got hired for a job out of state, so we need to be helping him get ready to move again. He just moved back to town about six months ago, but now he's off again.

DD#2 will need lots of help packing as well. She will be moving when she gets married in December. She's only moving a couple hours away, and we'll make her room into a guest room so she can come visit with her husband or even without when he's traveling for work.

The next big event around here besides packing is DD#2's bridal shower in the beginning of November.

DD#3 started her new job this week and she's loving it! We were expecting her to graduate college in December, but there is a problem with two of her classes that should have been caught long before now. She is bummed about the delay, but no help for it, she needs one more semester. This part time job at the college is a blessing, and at least she'll have some income now while she's finishing her degree.

I was running through the next few quilts that need to made, and I realized that I need almost all big quilts for next year. I know of at least five big quilts that I need next year, but three more I'd like to do. I'm not sure what I'll actually get done, but I have plenty to keep me out of trouble!