Waaah!!

Doggone! Beloved Little Sister and her Handsome Hubby are stuck in Deming NM, resting overnight in a Walmart parking lot. I gather it's been a gruelling two days -- keep them in Your hands, Father!

OK so I'm really disappointed but it's better they use their heads and keep safe. At our ages endurance tests are entirely optional!

You should see my house! I could eat off the floor, it's that gorgeous! And I caught myself again, dreading rather than doing! Cleaning the back yard to make ready for a total of five dogs wasn't something I looked forward to, and yet it took almost no time at all and gave me a great deal of satisfaction! Live and learn, eh?

Since everything's ready, including chicken breasts steamed with mesquite flavoring, fresh homemade bread, and homemade blackberry wine, I'll drag the quilt frame in front of the tv and watch a movie while I catch up on the hand-quilting project you see here.

This quilt has been an adventure from the beginning. I'd been dreading (that word again!) tackling curved seams, and feeling especially foolish about it since Beloved Little Sister's very first quilt ever was a king-sized Drunkard's Path. It's stunning and she enjoyed doing it!!! Hand-piecing those curved seams looked like a respectable compromise. NOT! After maybe three blocks I knew hand-piecing curved seams was waaay out of my area! Back to the sewing machine -- where to my surprise it went very well. Not easy, but not the nightmare I'd anticipated.

But there were all these little quarter-circles left over and it seemed a shame to waste them. Using Pepper Cory's book I drafted a suitable template for the companion "L" shapes and made a border around the first blocks. Of course now there's a pile of even more, even smaller quarter circles, currently waiting in the scrap bin for inspiration.

And of course I couldn't leave well enough alone --"what if I made another border of really big drunkard's path blocks? Yeah!" Whence came the second border. Then it was a matter of adding borders until it was big enough for my table, and here you see the result.

I really love the colors -- several shades of deep red-to-cranberry with cream prints for background -- and look forward to seeing it on my table. Quilted tablecloths somehow make an ordinary meal seem sumptuous and extra satisfying.

For a quilter, open time means "Pick up a needle and go for it!" so that's what I'm going to do. More later....