"Waiting for Halloween" quilt finished

"Waiting for Halloween" is finished now as of a couple of days ago. I had not put actual piping around the edge of binding since I took the class our guild had last fall by Peg Pennell, so had to get my instructions out to make sure I was doing it right. With this method you cut strips of binding a few inches longer than the side of the quilt then do a mitered seam after the strips are stitched to the sides. A little tricky but it turned out great. Since with this method you stitch the binding on the back first then pull it to the front you can stitch in the ditch to secure the binding to the front so no hand stitching.

I do need to get it washed to get out the white lines where I marked my quilting designs yet. Am hoping it doesn't shrink too much as I split some wool batting to use in the quilt as I couldn't find any cotton in my stash - found some later but had already started quilting and wasn't going to take it out.

I am the newsletter person for our guild this year and am trying to get it finished and out today. It is not that big a job if all the members would get their articles to me in time.

Last night I drove to Superior to listen to Pat Knoechel (sister to Eleanor Burns). She had been here last year and came again - she was an entertaining speaker and was fun to listen to. Of course she basically showed how some of the blocks and quilts were made from the books and patterns from the Quilt In A Day company. There was a pretty good sized group to listen to her and of course to buy her stuff after the program. She had tables full of books, patterns, rulers, etc. and of course I had to buy something. Got a small set of flying geese rulers. They will be too big for my miniatures but thought they would come in handy for other projects.

Tomorrow we are picking up a second cousin in his early 20s from Germany for a week visit at the farm with us. He has never been here before so will be fun to show him around and take in all the local sights.

We want to get up to Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island one day with him too. For those not from Nebraska, Husker Harvest Days is a very large display of every kind and brand of any product or machine farmers might want or use - kind of like Paducah and Houston are to quilters. It pulls in attendees from other states too so it a big deal for any farmer to attend. It is always fun to see what the new products look like and of course there are lots of "freebies" to pick up or tasty treats to snack on.

Not sure how much sewing/quilting I will be able to while he is here. I bought a couple of purse patterns the other day plus an apron pattern and fabric. Maybe I can get a start on one of them.

Helped John pick up irrigation pipe this morning so now this afternoon I need to work on getting my house in shape for company.

Lynn
PS - links to posts on designing and making this quilt can be found on the following pages;
August 28, 2008
August 30, 2008
September 10, 2008