progress

Wouldn't you know it. About two hours after I complained about having to wait so long for that fabric to arrive, it did. And it is so lovely.

It is very different from the Italian fabric I am using now. The colors are brighter, the patterns more modern, and as tempting as it is to put away the blocks I've done and start something new and fresh, I am still prodding along with the Blimunda quilt.

The blocks have already been ironed and I have been playing around with them. I had them arranged like this temporarily when my husband came in to see what I was up to. He ended up switching everything around and it looks so much nicer now that I think I will keep his arrangement.

At this point the quilt is much bigger than I initially thought it would be. It is going to end up big enough for a single bed or to fit all of our small family snug on the couch. I bought some white for the border and backing, along with batting. I am going to do thin strips of white around the blocks and a white backing with one 12-cm strip (or two?) all the way across the back made up of my scraps from the blocks.

I am thinking I will quilt it in a grid through the blocks. I like the way the squares will look when the quilting lines run on each side of the ditch, about one or two centimeters away from it, almost highlighting the points where the different fabrics meet. And then once I've done that, I might do some handquilting around each block in yellow, orange or green Perle cotton thread because I think that would look pretty and sort of be in keeping with the shabby chic look I am going for at this point. Actually, I am really looking forward to the handquilting part.

Not that I haven't enjoyed this whole process because it is so relaxing, but also exciting at the same time. I love the way the fabrics look next to each other once they are sewn and pressed.

And then I think I might pick up some more of that orange fabric for the binding. My husband says to use the pale green stripes, but I wouldn't mind using that bright orange. It's not gingham, but almost, and has a faint green line running through it which I just love. I could handstitch the binding on with green thread and it would be a very sweet way to close up my sandwich.

But that is not going to happen anytime soon. I have yet to finish the stockings and my son's teacher has asked me to sew the gnome hats for the Christmas play, which of course takes priority over everything right now...