A Two-Week Update

Yikes! Time really got away from me. It has been two weeks since I gave an update on my cross-stitch and even longer for an update on my quilting progress. 

A couple of weeks ago I started American Sampler by Crocette a gogo’. If you missed it, and are interested, you can read about it here.

I’m stitching this with friends and one of them has given us monthly stitching assignments to follow. This is my completed August assignment.

I am really enjoying this project.

For a quilting update…grab a box of tissues (for me) ☹

I have avoided adding the binding to the Flea Market quilt because it included ric-rac. I’ve never used ric-rac in a border before. Well, it was time to bite the bullet and get it done.

Lori Holt and others have created YouTube videos demonstrating the process so I felt confident I could do it.

The ric-rac was added…easy peasy.

I set up my binding bag.

Things were going well. I flipped the binding to check.  How pretty…

Until I realized that the binding wasn’t catching the quilt top underneath. How can that be, you ask?

Well, my long-arm quilter trimmed a ¼” away from the quilt top, leaving the batting and backing.

Not her fault, I’m sure I said it was ok. It was MY fault that I didn’t take that into consideration and placed my ric-rac in the incorrect spot. Basically, everything was off ¼”.

So now, I’ve carefully taken it apart. I’ll trim the quilt and reattach everything. I want the ric-rac, now that I know how simple it is to attach, and the trim really adds something to the quilt.

My crafting time has been filled with other “secret” projects as well. Hubby and I are leaving for a big trip in a week. When we return, we'll be home for just one day before I head to a cross-stitch retreat. I have been creating small gifts for attendees, hosts and my tablemates. I’ll share them after the retreat.

We had our monthly book club meeting last night. We read My Friends by Frederick Backman.

I’ve never read anything by this author before but had heard he can break your heart. I was prepared and did not shed a tear. Great story and I love Backman’s writing style.

This is a description of the book from Amazon:

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.

We eat well at book club, and I keep forgetting to take a photo of the food table. Most people bring a little something to share. My contribution this month was sour cream cookies with butter cream frosting.

We will spend this weekend getting ready for our trip and getting the house in order. I do hope to be able to start over with binding the Flea Market quilt, though. Wish me luck!!

Joining Alycia Quilts for her Finished (or not) Friday!

Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you soon.