Working on my UFOs

I've made progress on two UFOs this week. I've got the Cross Quilt bound. All that is left is to put a partial sleeve on the back so I can use a hanger I own.

 I decided to bind the quilt totally by machine using a technique that is new to me. So here it is sewn to the back of the quilt.

 And here are front and back photos of the blanket stitch I used to attach the binding to the front. Most of the mitered corners turned out great.

As expected the front turned out nicer than the back, but the back wasn't bad. I'll use this system again. I do understand why some people using this system like a slightly narrower strip for the binding. I cut mine 2 1/2, but if I do this again, I'll try a 2 1/4 strip and see if that works out better.

I know that people use other decorative stitches on their bindings when they sew it all on by hand. I am going to try out some other stitches.

But the next experiment in binding will be a bit different than this one. And I will need a 2 1/2 inch strip for that one.








My blue art quilt has been sitting on the cork board for a very long time while I worked on free motion quilting projects. I just didn't know what to do with it.

I've been going upstairs to my attic storeroom and looking around and I found four doilies I'd made when we lived in California. I'd never done anything with them and I suddenly thought they might look good on this project.

I'm not sure which pair I will put on the project. I like the idea of one in white and one in blue. I know I'm going to be doing more decorative stitches on what is now going to be the background of the project. And I think I'll quilt it before I put the doilies on the project. I expect there will be a bunch of hand stitching and maybe some beadwork on this as well.







I also found two boxes of thread, and a box of buttons upstairs. I'd forgotten about them totally. They are old, but not ancient. I dumped the bobbins because they were for a machine I no longer own. And I got rid of the thread that was intended only for surgers. I no longer own a surger.

 The top box is mainly normal sewing cotton. The bottom is mostly metallic threads from a manufacturer that I haven't seen lately. I remember that brand as being a pretty good one to machine sew with, but I'll have to try it out before I actually use any of it on a project. I'll keep them separate from the new thread I've bought over the last year.