Hello, October!

Well, lookie here!  We've got a border!

I had to make some changes to what I originally thought was going to happen, but I am happy with how the whole feel of the borders turned out.

I wanted to keep the same unit that was in the corners of the string stars and just carry them out to the border - but it was going to take some math to make the corner turning just right.

That's where the inner border came into play.  Plan the outer border first, get it to turn where you want, and then build up the quilt center to fit the outer border with the inner border.

And because I needed odd number of triangles for the border lengths, I chose an asymmetrical layout because I didn't want to introduce a different unit as a "center turn" point for symmetrical corners.

Got it?

The main thing was to have red touch green, not green touch green, or red touch red...but just keep those triangles tossing and turning all the way around no matter how the corners turned.

Getting that last border on and having everything fit like a glove and lay flat was a major win - it always is with something stretchy like string piecing.

And you know I took that victory lap seriously!

I wanted no popping open of seams during the quilting process, and I wanted to avoid any border flares.

Tada!!

But what about backings?

Hello, 1998!

I'll be 65 in January.  I am still on a mission to use up fabrics that I liked (or not!) in backings rather than go out and buy anymore.

I'm not sure where I acquired this piece, but it's always been cute.  Still, even though neutral (mostly) it's a larger pattern and doesn't cut up well as a background neutral for things. It's time to go into a backing.

The backing trimmings after quilting will be happily added to the neutral strings bin - that's the best place to use it.

Gone to backings!

Here's a close up of other things now gone -
Little neutral calico with green print that is printed too closely to read as neutral, but too neutral to be green. I know I've had this since at least the 90s.  Big grape print on white - too big of a print to cut small. I love this print, but trimmings will also be used up in the neutral strings bin.
Neutral check/plaid with yellow lemons.  It's cute, but never went with anything.
And that last bit of brown toile - BYE!!  It was just the right width to include and make the backing wide enough.
Fine. It's all fine. Just use the fabric!

I got everything loaded by lunchtime yesterday (late lunch!) and got in on the quilting.

I say LATE lunch because it really was around 2pm after Hubster Dave and I had finished making beds at the retreat for the incoming group.

Choosing threads -

I went with the sandy gold.  The grey just looked dirty to me, especially crossing over all of the white/light/neutral areas in the stars.

This blends pretty well!

And after this video I only broke ONE needle....

Windy Swirls by Kalynda Grant.

I've used this one before and it gives such great texture.

So here is where I left things after putting the plastic rug runner pokey-side-up on both the quilt and the table side of the machine to keep Hazel from turning everything into a hammock.

Surely, she wouldn't try that - would she?

Yes.  Yes, she would.

The Project Linus Metrolina gals began to arrive around 4pm yesterday afternoon.  There are a few others who will be arriving this morning and I'm excited to meet them.

I've also got that deep tissue massage appointment this afternoon as that what-I-assume-to-be a pinched nerve between my shoulder blades is still acting up. That will be followed up with chiropractor tomorrow afternoon - this getting older thing is putting a crimp ion my activity levels!

How about your own Thursday? What are you working on?

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

I have this crazy idea that at some point I'm going to take all of my orphan blocks and left over pieces and parts and turn them into some kind of magnificent random sampler thing.

 
No rules. Just a lot of fun!

 
That's the plan. For someday.

Have a terrific Thursday, everyone -