Half a French Braid

 After getting home from Omaha, I got half of the next strip of French Braid done before I fizzled.

Strip Section for Kitties Quilt

One small strip section is done on granddaughter Elsie's Playful Kitties quilt.

Fabric for Elsie's Quilt

Here is the fabric daughter-in-law Amy gave me -- more of the pretty things she has such a talent for finding at secondhand stores -- for making Elsie's quilt. Elsie will be 7 next week. She is Teddy and Amy's youngest of nine.

Label for Cross-Stitched Teddies

I got the machine-embroidered label for Malinda's quilt done. I'll sew it onto the quilt tomorrow or Thursday. Right now, I need to rush to bed and sleep fast, because I must get up a little before 4:00 a.m. in order to get to Lincoln in time for an early appointment with my eye doctor for Botox treatments for the Benign Essential Blepharospasm. Doesn't feel very 'benign'. Feels downright malicious! The treatment isn't a whole lot of fun; but I'm ever so thankful that it does help.

Cross-Stitched Teddies Quilt, Finished

 I finished the Cross-Stitched Teddies quilt for granddaughter Malinda, who's 6 ½, last night.

The quilt measures 76" x 76".  My daughter-in-law Amy found the cross-stitched teddies, all on one piece of fabric, at a secondhand store.  I cut them apart and added the Irish Chain variation and Ohio Star blocks.  The blocks measure 10".

I used white 40-wt. Omni thread on top, and white 60-wt. Bottom Line thread in the bobbin.  The batting is a conglomeration of multitudes of polyester batting scraps I had.  I found the backing, something thin and soft that probably has a bit of poly in it, in a bin of fabric my late sister-in-law gave me a few months before she passed away.

The quilting was done with my 18" Handi Quilter Avanté, which is hand-guided.  There's a little bit of free-motion and a whole lot of rulerwork in the quilting.

The closeups of the binding is especially for the woman who, upon learning that I was preparing to put binding onto another quilt entirely by machine, which is how I do it almost always, exclaimed, "OH, NOOO!  You're going to RUIN it!"  So... does it look ruined??  😆

The last few pictures show the 'twubbles and twials' (as son Caleb used to say, when he was about 3 years old) Larry and I were having as we tried to get pictures of the quilt on the back deck in a gusty Nebraska breeze.  😅

One More Row, Cross-Stitched Teddies

Only one more row to go on the Cross-Stitched Teddies quilt! Photos 1 and 2, and also 3 and 4, show 'Before' and 'After' shots of the blocks. Photo 5 -- yay! My rag rug is back on the floor! It's so soft and smells so good now. And it's much warmer underfoot than the oak floor. The Cross-Stitched Teddy blocks are all done. I finally remembered to time my quilting on the very last one: it took 50 minutes.

Cross-Stitched Teddies, Two Rows to Go

 Only two more rows to go on the Cross-Stitched Teddies quilt.  Please ignore the wayward seam ripper on the final photo.  Surely you know I nevah, evah use one o' them thar thangs!