One Nibble at a Time

Sometimes the "elephant" seems too massive for a full bite, and one must nibble her way through to the other side.

I've spent this weekend nibbling on several large mounds piled hither and thither. During the week I've been working on quilting the Angry Birds (Ugh!) sandwich I created almost immediately after pinning the batik top from last post. I've had the backing for it for yonks (can you tell I enjoy British and Ozzie sitcoms?), and recently franken'ed a batting as well, so there was no reason for it to still be hanging about. Plus, I knew exactly how I wanted to quilt all aspects of it, so it was easy to put it ahead of the batik sandwich (the quilting of which I'm still pondering).

The "easy" parts were stippled, their borders filled with a simple wave pattern, then it came time to quilt the strips of 5-patches. I bitched and moaned about doing these with the last one, but this time I decided I'd go with option 2 of the three I set out for myself at the conclusion of that quilting session.

I don't know that I'm getting any better at eye-balling and accomplishing straight lines, but I'm more forgiving of anything less than perfect.

To break up the seemingly endless amount of strips to X my way through, I resorted to my favorite game of Esses: Strip (quilt one, above),

Snail (trim a block),

Scrap (grab one piece and Deal With It!)(this pile used to be supplemented by a large box),

iron Something (from a huge mesh bag I'd filled with all the newly-donated scraps that seemed certain to bleed, then threw in the washer [hot water with 4 color-catchers] and dryer),

The pile was relatively minuscule by the time I took this picture.

ending with Sugar and a Sip.

I've certainly kept moving all day, both days!

When the Snail blocks ran out (needing the next round of triangles sewn on), I Substituted cutting my batik scraps into 2.5" widths, for the Contessa top I plan to make with them.

Progress report: nearly all the strips are Xed on the quilt (I chose to shut the Juki down when some storm fronts moved through), the scraps have been contained and seem to be manageable again, the ironing is Done and the board clear, the Snail's Trail blocks are growing at a nice pace, and I've cut over 500 of the 2100 inches of batik scraps that I'll need to start the next (Contessa) project.

Tomorrow is also commitment-free, so I should get the quilting finished on Angry Birds (Ugh!). The binding is ready to go too--will it be a Finish?