It's a Topper!

This will be my final posting of the my work in progress on Swamp Hibiscus. The border and blanket stitching are done and now it's on to piecing the back, pinning and THEN quilting. I leave for Hendersonville tomorrow for (I hope) 2 weeks and so the pinning will have to wait until I come back to Charleston where I have a big enough floor to lay it out on (yes, I STILL get down on the floor to pin). I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and now my general nervousness will set in about just how to proceed with the quilting. I know it will work out, but . . .

One thing I've been doing while spending more time than I had planned on in Charleston is finishing up some of my unfinished projects. This is one that I started about four years ago at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. It was a needleturn applique class with Linda Cantrell. One of the unique "twists" in this class was that you ironed all of the applique pieces onto freezer paper, ironed under the raw edges and then glued the entire piece onto the background fabric. You cut away the backing as you go. It's kind of tough in the beginning because there is so much stiffness to the work, but you get the reward of seeing the entire piece from the start. I actually have had the entire piece finished for years, but just added the borders. I'll be taking it with me to the mountains and will quilt it up there. It won't take long and will make a nice Christmas present for someone.

That's it for now. Hope things are going well with everyone.