Bordering

I’ve lost all concept of time passing. Some people attribute that to the pandemic. Maybe that’s true. I know that switching from daylight savings to standard time really messed me up this year. I guess we’ll see what happens in a couple of weeks when we go back to DST. I wish we’d just stay there.

The husband left around 7 a.m. yesterday morning and I headed upstairs to sew. I had two items at the top of the to-do list: putting borders on the Christmas wallhanging and borders on the Big Top quilt. I had the fabric pressed and ready to go, so I queued up some YouTube videos and got to work.

I like the border fabric for the wallhanging, but I am not sure I like the border fabric on the wallhanging, if that makes any sense. I was trying to stick to what I had in the stash. This print was one of the few pieces of sufficient size as my Christmas fabrics are mostly remnants.

This wallhanging was so fast and easy to make that I am thinking of making another one in some flowery spring prints anyway. I think that once this has some black or gold binding on it, the border won’t look so odd.

[And now we know how the Beginner’s Choice block looks made up in the way I think it was intended in the original printing. It really is easy enough for a newbie quilter.]

I added a bright red feedsack print as a border on the Big Top quilt:

I got both of the borders done and then went to see what I had for backings and batting. I had a cotton/wool blend throw-size batting in the stash that I plan to use for the wallhanging. I haven’t used that blend before and I am curious to see how it quilts up. I did not have backings for either piece and I also needed batting for the Big Top quilt.

I dithered for a few minutes about whether or not I wanted to run to town to get a batting and some backing or wait until today or tomorrow, when I would normally run errands. The sun was shining and the roads were clear. As it is supposed to snow again today, I decided I would go ahead and make a special trip while the weather was good. I thought I might eat lunch, first, before I left.

And then I glanced at the clock. It was 9:42 a.m.

In fairness, I do get up at 4:00 a.m. and usually eat breakfast then. Still, I hadn’t used up much of the day at all. I had a snack and headed into town.

The wallhanging measures 45” x 45.” Quilt cotton fabric is 44/45” wide, but I need to have a few inches overhang all around for quilting. That meant either getting some wideback fabric—which is 108” wide—or piecing a backing from regular quilt cotton. This is Kalispell. The chances of finding wideback Christmas fabric are less than zero. In any case, a wideback (Christmas print or not), would be a bit of overkill for a wallhanging. Thankfully, Joanns has all of their Christmas fabric on sale for 50% off. I needed three yards. I picked up some batting there because it was also on sale.

The Big Top quilt top finished at 66” x 77” with the borders on it. I would have loved to put a wideback on it, but I knew that the chances of finding a wideback in a feedsack print were also less than zero. (That’s true everywhere, not just in Kalispell, as they aren’t common.) My choices were to use a solid-color wideback, like Kona; use 108” muslin, probably what they used during the Depression; or piece something from yardage.

One of the quilt stores had wideback Kona in Natural, which is what I used for the background on the front. (I think I may have said it was Kona Snow in an earlier post, but the quilt store checked my purchase history and it was Kona Natural.) That is a bit heftier than plain muslin but gives the same look, so I went with that.

Today’s tasks include getting the backings pressed and then laying out and basting both tops. The Big Top quilt is still small enough that I can do it here instead of at the church.

While the fabric was in the washer—and because it was still only about 2:00 p.m.—I worked on the second installment of the Sandhill Sling sewalong. The e-mail with the video came out yesterday morning. Anna Graham has a YouTube channel for Noodlehead, her design business, but she doesn’t have these videos linked there. They are—understandably—hidden on YouTube and available only to people who signed up for the sewalong. I would prefer to watch them on the TV upstairs, closer to the cutting table, but I can’t do that unless I hook the laptop up to the TV.

But I am sewing on the industrial Necchi, which is here in my office, so I’d be going up and down the steps either way. It’s good exercise. Last week’s instructions were for the strap. This week, we did the outer pocket, the inside pocket, and rounded the edges of the body pieces (I can’t quite get the colors right—that waxed canvas is a much brighter blue, not navy):

I chose to do the outer zipper pocket (view A) with the rain flap as I’ve never done one of those before. View B is a patch pocket with a flap and magnetic closure. The inside pocket has an elastic casing at the top.

Every one of Anna’s patterns is top-notch and easy to follow even without a video. She’s a good teacher, however, and pleasant to listen to. Nothing so far in this pattern is tricky. I think that sewing the gusset on might be a bit squirrely just because of the size of the bag, but we’ll see. I did Betz White’s Ravenwood Messenger Bag (three years ago already—I started that one in February 2018, just before I got the flu) and it was of similar construction but overall more complicated. That is a pattern I would love to make again.

I finally got the Necchi adjusted to where it will sew this waxed canvas without much complaint, which is good because I’d like to start the Slabtown Backpack soon and it is also out of Klum House canvas. For the next couple of days, though, I am going to be quilting on the Q20 in an effort to get these tops finished.