More Sunday Quilting...

Quote for the Day:

"The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was 

is so we can tell them about our own weekend."

~author unknown

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days...I've been up to my eyeballs in work and appointments this past week.  :(

The good news is that I finally had my appointment with the Pain Clinic doctor...who was VERY nice and understanding, by the way...and am now scheduled for an injection into the right sacro-iliac joint on March 1.  I know, I know...it sounds very painful.  But I'm hoping that this will allow me some semblance of "normal" again in my life.  

I have made so many "changes" in my life and the way I do things so as not to aggravate the pain in my back.  I've really missed not being able to just "do" what I want, but always having to consider how it will effect my back and cause pain, etc.  Having back pain is kind of like having a sleeping dragon that you don't want to awake!  And that is how I've been living my life for the last 1.5 years...doing anything necessary to NOT wake the dragon!  :(


Several years ago...in 2007...I purchased this quilt top made from 1930's feed sacks at an estate auction for $2.00!!!

 

If you are unfamiliar with the term "feed sacks", years ago "staples" such as flour, sugar, rice, and even animal food was packaged in cloth bags.  After using the items in the bags, women would then take the bags apart and use them as fabric to make clothing, quilts, and other household items.  The practice of using cloth bags for packaging ended sometime around the 1940's, so now real "feed sack" fabric is an expensive commodity, but can still be found at estate sales and antique stores.  It is highly prized by quilters because of its history of being used in quilts.  How I ended up with the quilt top for only $2.00 is still a mystery to me.  :)

Anyway...I've had it around, knowing that some day I would finish it into a quilt.

Fast forward to January 2011 when Andy & I went to Florida for a visit/vacation with my sisters and we stayed with my eldest sister, Mary Ellen, at her condo.   In the guest bedroom where Andy & I slept, the bed had a POLYESTER BEDSPREAD on it.  OH, the HORROR of it all!  Seriously...it was one of those slippery, ugly bedspreads that you find on motel room beds.  :(  

I'm very used to nice, comfortable, cotton quilts.  :)   So while we were there I'd wake up HOT in the middle of the night because of the polyester.  Then I'd through the covers off, go back to sleep and wake up COLD.  This went on several times a night for the duration of our stay there.  At that time, I told Mary Ellen that she needed a nice, homemade quilt for the guest bed.  (She already has a quilt I made her for her own bed there.)  :)  I knew then what I would finish the feed sack quilt top into a quilt and have it ready for our next visit down there. 

Since our next trip there is in just a few weeks, I thought I'd better get on the stick!  LOL  One problem, though...the quilt top had been sloppily cut and sewn and didn't lay flat.  It had, what we call in quilting..."C" cups.  Yep...the blocks pooched out in the middle and looked like they should have been holding breasts.  This is why it is soooooooooo important to cut accurately and sew accurately...so everything fits together like a puzzle...not like a bra!!!  :) 

Before I could quilt this top, I had to "nip and tuck" it to get it to lay flat.  I used a very fine (60 wt.) white thread to sew down the tucks.  Here's a close-up view of an area that I tucked and then zigzag stitched down...

Here's another area after it's been quilted....

You can see that the stitched tucks blend in with the other machine quilting stitches.  :)

I'm machine quilting this top for a couple of reasons:  1)  because of the age of the fabric/seams and the tucking that I had to do, I felt it would hold together better with machine quilting instead hand quilting;  and 2)  I need to get it done fast!  :)

I started quilting it yesterday and am about 1/3 of the way done!  :)

Well...I'd better get back to my machine and get as much done today as I can!  :) 

Loretta