Greetings, my lovelies! This will be just a quick update to share what I accomplished in the last few days before I head to New Jersey for my mom’s burial service. No, I don’t have any hand stitching prepped for my trip, but I did get a little prep work done so I’ll have things ready to stitch when I get home.
My Deco quilt is loaded on my long arm machine and my ruler base is on the machine, woot woot! When I get back to Florida I’ll be ready to start stabilizing this custom quilt project by stitching in the ditch between blocks with my favorite Aurifil Smoke monofilament thread. This is a big bed quilt, 102” x 102”, and I’m in no rush whatsoever. Expect to see dribbles of progress over the next few months on this one.
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| 102 x 102 Deco Quilt Loaded on my Bernina Q24 Long Arm Machine |
Second accomplishment, I have made some progress on the prep work for my new sampler project, the Stonefields Quilt by Susan Smith! The pattern instructions told me to cut out forty 6 1/2” background blocks for appliqué. I ultimately decided to tear my fabric instead of ripping it per the instructions in Jeanne Sullivan’s book, and I tore my squares at a generous 7 1/2” square so I’d be able to trim them with the serger knife when overcasting the raw edges and still have excess to trim after stitching the appliqué. I think that was a good amount of trimming insurance as the blocks are about 7 1/4” now after the serger knife trimmed the whiskers away.
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| 40 Appliqué Background Blocks for Stonefields Prepped |
Did I really need to overcast the edges on these little blocks? Debatable. There is definitely a potential for fraying of the raw block edges on larger, more complex blocks that will be handled a lot during hand stitching (like my 19” FrankenWhiggish blocks, still awaiting the final stuffed berries). These Stonefields blocks are small and relatively simple, so they might have been fine without overcasting.
