Under the Needles

Got the first border on the Triple Chain:

 

This flimsy can rest for a bit on the rack while I think about what the 2nd border might be. Something solid, probably, followed by the final border made from the 1.5"x2.5" bricks that have collected.

This morning, while listening to "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!" and "Ask Me Another" on our local NPR station, I finished the binding on "Coach is Calling For the Heat". I've been sewing down that binding to those 2 shows for weeks now! There was some areas of quilting where I wasn't happy with the thread tension (but not so unhappy as to rip it out and redo it) so before throwing it into the washer and dryer, I took this shot.

The inverted U's are the main worry. I was hoping the drawing-up of the batt and fabric would help balance the threads, or at least sink them into the fabric a bit more.

Turns out, it doesn't.

Bad tension will remain bad tension. Okay--live and learn!

The finished product (hung sideways on the backyard fence, because), front:

and back:

Knock one more off the MEQ list!

While "Coach" was washing and drying, I started in on the quilting for the Indian Spiderweb. I've chosen Leah Day's "Flowing Glass" design for the webs, but honestly it's more evocative of little spermies.

King Tut "Freedom" (Red, White & Blue) on the machine

I'm going from the outside edge into the middle, looping back at the black border (instead of squaring off the stitching).

Nothing like white flannel to show off stitches!

I like it!












Obviously, traveling from one completed block to start and finish another would allow only 2 blocks of quilting at a time before breaking thread and moving to another section, so I started quilting in quadrants and planning my travel.

This is a fast filler stitch and quite forgiving. I'm happy to have it in my repertoire now! The gray stars will be quilted with gray thread in a variation of this:

The center stem will make it easy to double back and plan the travel from point to point across the quilt top. (In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly following her in chronological order.)