Much Ado, or Much To Do...

Lists. I have made lists of 'things to do' for a good forty years now. Some days the same thing appears days in a row. Often it takes me more than one day to get to the vacuuming for instance. You would think that such elemental items as breakfast or brush hair wouldn't need to be scheduled. I do on occasion look at the clock and find at noon I haven't had breakfast or brushed my hair. Those could be wild mornings, or maybe not.

Lists are a good way to prioritize the day, get jobs done, and have a record of having accomplished things. For instance this happened several years ago:

***My Adorable Cousin has come out to raid our garden. It's late afternoon, early eveningish time-wise. "What you been doing today?" she asks as I grab my garden gloves out of the house, and we head outside.

"I don't know." I stop to grab my hoe that leans against the side of the house by the backdoor. "Can't think of anything—must not have done a thing." We duck under the clothesline on our way out to the garden, chatting as we walk along. After we pick a wheelbarrow of tomatoes and other vegetables, and bring them back up toward the house we duck under the same clothesline still laden with several loads of laundry.

We load her bounty into her pickup and she asks, "You want me to help you get those clothes off the line?"

"Sure, I'll grab the basket."

I probably did have a list of things I'd actually accomplished that day. If not, I would have forgotten that I'd done anything. Lists give us validation at times.

This picture...

and the next, show finishing the quilt edges. The red seam binding is what I used on one long side. Here it is pinned along the edge and I will use my sewing machine to sew it on. The next step after sewing is to (unpin and) roll the material over then pin it onto the other side, covering the edge. In the second picture you can see how I've done that with the blue seam binding. I've been using up items that were left after my mother-in-law passed away. I had 2 &3/4 packages of seam binding in the closet so that's what I'm using. I will need a long strip of material about 5 or 6 inches wide the length of a quilt side to finish the last side.

I sewed the binding on the quilt bottom side (plaid) so the seam is covered when I roll it over to the top (denim) side. I could finish with a machine sewing, but will probably blind hem the last step.

Some purists prefer to do all the sewing by hand from beginning to end. That's a lot of work, and hopefully they are faster at sewing than I am. I don't know that there is a real advantage to sewing it by hand other than the ability to tell people that's what they did. But my hand sewing isn't as strong as my machine, and maybe theirs is. I'm also not as patient as I could be, and some days (as long as it's not sloppy nor careless of course) I do a fast/maybe easy version.

I have been working on other projects, and am trying to catch up, so until next time, keep looking up, and thanks for joining in the fray.