THE SEEDLINGS HAVE SPROUTED

I opened this blog with an entry of a pieced table runner - do you remember?  Over time it grew into a wall hanging and I am happy to report that I have finished it!  It traveled back from Colorado two weeks ago where it was machine quilted by the iconic Linda Hibbert.  Her work continues to astonish me.  I sent her my little unadorned seedlings and she returned them in true Garden-of-Eden splendor!  


This weekend was about completion of the seedlings - Binding and Beading!  My finger tips are sore, my eyes are burning, but my creative soul is happy, content.  There was no knitting, which was the only truly disappointing part of my productive weekend.   There will be no new sweater to wear to Sheep and Wool - unless I forego sleep for the next five nights!



The process of binding the piece has become  second nature to me now.  I don't know what I did before the Walking Foot appeared on the scene.  Geez, I don't remember how I even CUT before the rotary cutter was invented!  I've seen many many changes occur in the quilting world, since I made my first quilt in 1972.   Here's a look at some of the process~

God bless the Walking Foot.  Then onward and upward to the ironing board~

Check out that wallpaper - it came with this old house.  One of these days I will be very happy to see it replaced.  My son swears that it has the propensity to bring on a seizure!  I never focus on it for any length of time.
Next, hours and hours of hand stitching the binding in place.  I do enjoy the repetitive nature of this chore, but am always relieved when I turn that last corner and can indulge in bead selection.  Auditioning beads can take up the better part of an afternoon, so I have trained myself to select only the bead bins where everything is neatly color coordinated.

I treat myself to a cup or two of green Chai tea and continue with the long hours of beading under the Ott light.  I worked so long into the night last night - I found myself watching old John Wayne films and thinking about my father.  I wanted to call him and tell him that one of his favorites was on, but for the cruel realization that he is in a nursing facility where his reality and mine never hold hands anymore.  I miss him.  He isn't gone, and yet I miss who he was.  He doesn't recognize my face, but sometimes I think he hears and knows my voice.  He weeps.

Today I sewed a nice envelope on the back of the piece for hanging.  And then I took it out under the apple trees where I could photograph it on the clothesline.  We are having a bit of a wind today, so please indulge me - I had to get some shots of the back of this piece where one could see the wizardry that is Linda.  When I look at these images, I am reminded of the little Silhouette books that I used to take out of the library.  Were they a part of your childhood too?  If memory serves, the books were always published in a turquoise cloth wrapper with the black cameo silhouette on the cover.  I was a voracious reader - always taking as many as I could possibly carry.  Remember - the backpack hadn't been invented yet!!!

Goodbye little seedlings!  Bloom where you are planted - on that lovely Parisian wall where I hope you will captivate and delight all who pass through.  God speed!