Back in Oregon

I brought a project with me to Oregon this time. Although I'm still doing much of the cooking, and maintaining my mom's daily exercise and PT regime, and doing all the driving, there's more down/me time. I knew there would be, so I came prepared.

My hoop did not get broken in my luggage, so I was able to get right to quilting. Because I'm using a Baptist Fan pattern, and I had basted the top, I decided to start at a corner and work my way across one edge. It's awkward right now, but I'm encouraged by what I've managed in the last 3 days.

I wish I could say I started in a bottom corner and will be working my across the bottom, then up, but I see now that I managed to start sideways. Meh. In the grand scheme of things, this is as nothing.

Anyway, here's a shot of the last section I worked:

4th block, 5th fan

and a closer look at the stitches (taken with my flip phone's camera, which doesn't do 'close' very well):

The purple thread is the machine basting stitch, done in a lazy serpentine pattern.

The back is looking quite nice (in my opinion):

I don't think this is going to be a sunk cost fallacy project, as some of my friends feared when I blogged about this in June. Once I'm done with the first row and can then have the section being quilted centered in hoop, I think it'll be more comfortable to work on. The final row will be a booger, just as this first row is, but I suspect by that point any quilter will gladly put up with inconveniences simply because it's so close to being done!

My fickle girl Zoe has made the best of this home again/gone again situation. She's decided that maybe The Loud isn't so bad after all. It only took her nine years (nine years!!! Where did that time go?!?) to figure out how to double her lap options.