My RWB Hourglass quilt is finished. It’s #8 of 10 to be bound during this quilting/binding marathon of mine and I see the end in sight … just one to quilt and two to bind left. This one also happens to be my 5th UFO finish for the year.

It’s a simple quilt based on a vintage one I saw on eBay but I love everything about it! It will be donated.

I’m having a very lazy day today but I’m hopeful that I’ll rustle up some energy to go into the sewing room later. There’s a quilt ready to load, HeartStrings blocks to piece, and more packing of projects and supplies … I’d be happy to get any of it done today but at least I did get #7 bound! This is a UFO from 2017 and I’m doing better with my UFO goals thanks to the quilting/binding marathon. Goal #1 is to finish as many quilts as I start and I’ve started 12 and finished 12. Goal #2 is to have 12 of those finishes be UFOs each year. This is UFO finish #4 for the year and #5 and 6 just need binding. So I will be all caught up and even a little ahead at the halfway mark.

Fabric for this boxed squares came from a Craftsy kit. I often buy a discounted kit and then use the fabric for one of my own projects. Speaking of Craftsy, now Bluprint. Had you heard they’re going out of business? I’ve done a lot of stash enhancement with them over the last several years including lots of discounted Jelly Rolls and Fat Quarter packs. It’s a good thing I stocked up because I don’t know of anywhere else that sells them for those kinds of prices.

These are the latest 3 finishes from my quilting/binding marathon.

This is a free pattern found online – Modern Puzzle.

This is one of my Boxed Squares quilts – instructions are on my website.

How is it possible that I’ve finished 3 bindings and still have 5 waiting?! I don’t plan to quilt today but I will do some binding and if they finish up with Finn’s grooming and call me before it’s too late, I might get some piecing done.

This is the last of 6 tops I brought from Maine, a 16 patch that I thought was pieced by Jackie but she said no so I’m not sure who pieced it.

And two Strippies are bound one to be donated and one to be gifted to a family member I think.

Shirley’s quilt is done. I don’t have a lot of choice here but the fabric I used for the background and binding on Ruby’s quilt works for the binding on this one too.

Just simple quilting with the walking foot. I don’t do stitch in the ditch quilting at all … I use the edge of my walking foot and stitch along the seams. It’s much easier than staying in the ditch and doesn’t require any marking.

I really like how this one turned out and can see using the idea for a baby quilt.

We started the day off with visitors … I was making masks this morning for Keith and glanced out my window and saw 4 deer in the yard. My photo only caught 3 of them … can you find them all (picture will enlarge if you click on it)? I’ll probably bore you with photos of the deer now …

After finishing the 4 masks for Keith (that’s 30 this week and I still have to make my extra ones), I layered and pinned the doll quilt. I didn’t have any batting or backing here but when I was grocery shopping at Walmart yesterday I took a quick look and found some. Rae is coming tomorrow evening and I wanted to have it finished.

Finn took a nap while I was stitching the binding.

I panicked for a minute or two thinking I was going to have to completely machine stitch the binding down because I hadn’t bought any of my binding supplies but I remembered I had a pill bottle to discard old needles in one of the bins I’d brought with me and I found a needle in it that worked.

I know many of you like to bind by machine but I always sew the binding on by machine and then hand stitch it to the back of the quilt. I prefer the look of a hand stitched binding and it is very durable too. People always tell me they machine stitch them because they hold up better but I’ve never had a hand stitched binding fail on me and my boys have quilts that have gotten rough use and been washed a LOT.

Here’s the finished quilt. Made from leftover bits of the Jelly Roll strips from the puzzle quilt – cut 2.5 inches. Finished size is 18 x 24. I love being able to use these leftovers and little girls love getting doll quilts. Some go to my little girls and some are donated.

Crosshatching was done without marking using the walking foot and my lines are fairly straight. I didn’t do a great job of hitting the 1/4 mark on many of the starts at first but I got better (see the last row in the photo above, the right side lines were done first and the left ones are better placed so that when the quilt was bound, the stitching line ends in the corner where the binding crosses it and not in the seam allowance where the blocks meet.

If you remember, my goal this year is to finish as many quilts as I start … I do include my doll quilts in my UFO number and they count as new starts too so I’m still behind with my current count for 2020 : Started = 8 ; Finished = 5.

I got one waiting for the binding to be stitched down and that will be a quick finish when we get home so I’m behind but not so far behind I can’t catch up.