Becky's quilt obsession

Where did September go? I’m sure there must be more of it left somewhere! Yes, I finished the monster other person’s UFO. I did the binding by sewing the back from the front. I even glued it down, but I’m still not happy with how it turned out. I still had to do a lot of resewing.  I haven’t found a foot for the Bernina that let’s me open the ditch as wide as I would like on the binding. I’ve tried the new ditch attachment for the walking foot, and it didn’t help. If it hadn’t been so large, I would have turned it by hand. This is as far as  I am on the donation quilt for the Virginia and Truckee Railroad Symposium next week. It only needs a small border – I’m debating between the red and the yellow. The yellow is a subtle tone-on-tone, but the red has trains on it. Every other piece of fabric in it is train fabric, so I’m leaning towards the red. It doesn’t show very much, but each of the railroad crossing blocks have red lights under the white crosses. I’m hoping it is a ...

The train quilt was finished, and delivered to the Friends of the Nevada State Railroad Museum for their silent auction last weekend. It made $125, which I thought was good for a drag-around size. We had two grandparents striving for it, so it went higher than I expected. I did, however, tell my husband he had to buy it if it didn't go for at least $75. I didn't have to worry. It was won by a quilter / grandma for her grandson, and the quilt was being sent back to Missouri, but to St. Louis this time. People seemed to enjoy the back art big star, made from scraps, so I may have to rethink always using one-piece backs for my quilts. When I was quilting this quilt, I didn't have problems with the dreaded "baggy back". I did pay attention while loading it so I could center the star left-to-right. I deliberately didn't center it top to bottom. I'm holding it upside down, so the extra on the bottom would tuck in and still leave the whole big star on t...

The train donation top is finished, and I started playing with the scraps for some back art. I don't know where I picked up this obsession of using up all the small scraps before I move on to another project. I'm sorry the train quilt picture is a little fuzzy, and the colors are closer to real in the backart picture. I hope to start quilting it tomorrow, so will have a finished picture in about 3 days (I hope). Backyard update I'm still playing in the back yard with iris transplanting. I became frustrated Saturday - I thought I would have the help of DGS - and he's such good help - but he had to go home too early. I was trying to hold an iris with my grabber in one hand, and use the hoe to pull dirt over the rhizomes. DH came home, and I asked him to come outside in about 20 minutes and help me stand up. Then I did what I call the "Mom Ackley" way of gardening. She sat on a cushion and inched her way down thru the garden area. She was, however, able ...