Binding, and Show & Tell

After several months of work on this big project, I'm seeing a light at the end of the Scrappy Trip-Along tunnel.

My quilt guild came over on Wednesday and helped me baste it.  I am one lucky quilter to have friends like this to help out!  The quilt is a generous queen size at approximately 90 x 100 inches-- a daunting task to take on myself (my hamstrings hurt just thinking about it) but with 5 of us there it was a fast and easy job.

I quilted it with a neutral gray thread with a simple meandering stitch.

The pattern is so busy that that the quilting hardly shows, so it seemed like Keeping Things Simple was the best quilting plan.

Today's project:  450 inches of binding!

Anyway, let me get the binding finished and then I'll take more (and better) pictures of this (almost) finished project!








A highlight on Wednesday, besides getting my quilt basted, was a little show and tell from guild member Jackie.

You might recall from this post that she has had to make herself a new wardrobe of queen size bed quilts, due to the purchase of a new and thicker mattress. She brought along 2 completed tops to show.

Brace yourself:

I believe she said there were 664 blocks in this quilt.

 They're all hand pieced.  The bottoms of the baskets are a pieced pattern, and the little handle is appliqued.

The blocks are 4" finished.

She's planning to machine quilt it.

She even made a beautiful back for it!












And, in case we weren't overwhelmed enough with that one, she also had this top to show, this one in autumn colors:

This one was also completely pieced by hand-- although, I think with hexagon blocks like that it would be almost easier than trying to do them with a machine.

This one will also be machine quilted.

And if you're thinking that she must be retired, or a Lady Of Leisure to produce so many quilts, THINK AGAIN.  She has a Real Job at Florida Hospital here in Tampa, and works long hours.  Obviously, she has given up sleep in the name of quilt production.