Another day of stitching

I got up when Chris left for work. I got right to work on the quilt, looking for backing fabric. The first one wasn't big enough so I considered adding borders on all sides, but I knew the chances of the quilt top ending up precisely in the center were slim. So I looked again. I checked my stack of backing fabrics, but none of the ones of the right color were wider than 42. I got dressed for my skype call with my tapping buddy. Instead of using the desktop computer, I used my tablet, and it worked well for both video and sound. I used the old Sudoku tray to hold it up. We had a good session, uncovering a core issue. And we went a little over. After the call, I went back to the quilt. I chose a backing fabric that wasn't wide enough, but I was able to cut another strip to add on. And the small part that was missing, I filled in with white so I could write the label on it. The first time I sewed the strip on the side, the fabric stretched and one side puckered. So I ripped it out, cut off the selvage and sewed it again. Then I taped it to the floor. The tape would not stick to the fabric very well so I had to pin the tape. Then I lightly sprayed it with basting spray. I unrolled the batting over it several times before I got it straight. I laid the quilt top on it and smoothed it out right where I wanted it. I folded half up, sprayed under it, and smoothed it back down. I folded the other half up, and sprayed under it. Then the whole thing was stuck together. With needle and thread, I basted around the edges. I took a break for breakfast. I moved my sewing machine to the round plastic table and moved the table next to the desk to support the quilt sandwich. I planned my first lines of stitching, pinned them and then quilted. I planned the next set, pinned and quilted in the ditch. I quilted around all the mountain pieces. For the border, I tried to draw lines with my white pencils, but none of them were sharp and I could not find the sharpener. I used the blue pencil, but the mark was too faint. So I used a ruler to precisely place some pins. Some lines I marked with masking tape pinned to the fabric. I took another break after all that sewing. It was after 5 so I made myself a salad. I composed a label, using the name she said meant 'lily' in Korean. I texted Myra to see if she wanted to help a little and be mentioned on the label, but she had decided to give one of her own quilts. I took the quilt into the cutting room to square up. Chris came home from work. He was emoting about a job in Guam that came open, but is not offering relocation costs. I listened to him for awhile. Then he made himself supper. I went into my sewing room to pin the binding to the quilt. But then I discovered that it wasn't long enough. So I cut another strip. I sewed it to the end of the binding already pinned to the quilt. But then I realized that the join would fall precisely on the corner. Not good. I cut the join out and rejoined it further in. I then sewed the binding on, all the way around. I did not feel like messing with a proper 45 degree seam at the end, so I just sewed it straight and folded it under. I sat on the couch to handsew the other side. Chris made popcorn and put the Star Wars episode 4 in the VCR. We watched it as I worked on the binding. It ended before I finished. Chris went to bed and I stayed up to blog.
* Another pic of us in Guam. *