Update: Just so you know I have not lost my mind. I am not happy with what I tried to do with this and I am redoing the crosses today. Hopefully, I will have something to post later today. I lost the original vision that the client loved as I tried to do something different with this. It is not working for me. I must be happy with my work. So stay tuned.

I am working my way across with the crosses. They are pinned at this point so if they look crooked, that is why. I originally had three sizes, but it looked too cluttered so I am using two sizes. I think I may  have too many small red ones so I have to take a look at that tomorrow.

I hope to be able to start stitching tomorrow.

Yesterday we attended Mia’s drama class production of Ali Baba and the Pirate. There weren’t enough kids to have forty thieves, I guess. She played the part of a bear.

Here is Milo, completely enthralled by the whole event:

I have spent a lot of time today cutting crosses. I did manage to get in 10,800 steps. I also covered one of my design walls with gray felt. The other will be covered with black. Steph and M & M came over for a short visit and then we all went to the Westmoreland Farmer’s market.

I want to thank all of you who joined my silliness yesterday and posted a comment – especially those who have not commented before, It is always nice to meet a new friend in cyberspace.

I am not ready to put the quilt on the design wall just yet. I have to trim some threads and give it a good steam pressing. However, tonight I just had to place some on the crosses to see if my idea is going to work. My plan is to do a wash of the crosses across the quilt, placing the colors over their complements with the same mix of colors that are in the background. (Did that make sense?) Here is a photo.

Tomorrow, I have to compare my threads on hand with the colors of the crosses and run to the store to pick up the colors that I need to satin stitch the crosses. That will be  a huge task – the satin stitching not the shopping!

No? Well I’m gonna tell you anyway!!

I walked 11,300 steps – yee ha!!

I planted an herb garden.

I finished re-installing and updating software on my computer.

I finished the initial quilting on the worship quilt.

Are you tired of this yet?

By the way, who are you?

Tonight I cut crosses from fused silk in different sizes and colors. I have a lot more to cut. Why don’t you come over and help me???

Ta…

It has been a very productive day. I took the laptop to the Mac store to sober up after the wine incident. I have walked OVER 10,595 steps so far today, and it is getting easier or I am getting stronger.

Best of all, I started quilting the worship quilt!! Here are the steps I have taken to get there. Oh, first, I promised to blog about the spray fuse. Here is the can:

I purchased it from The Quilter’s Husband website. The only directions on the can are for spraying fabric appliques to fuse to a fabric background. My piece has silk fused to pfd cotton. I wanted to fuse that to the batting to make it sturdy and to use the escape hatch finish. I tested it on a small quiltlet. It worked so I used it on my large piece. I wore a mask and put a fan by an open door and sprayed the batting. I then fused the top to the batting my ironing it.

The next step was to prepare the back for the escape hatch finish. I fused a strip of Wonder Under along the top edge of the back.

I then stitched the back to the front with right sides together. I first laid everything out on the floor and carefully pinned all of the edges. The back was cut slightly smaller than the front so that it will not show along the front edge when it is finished.

The next step was to cut an opening through the fused WU:

Then I carefully turned the whole piece right side out – thus the Escape Hatch!

Then the paper is removed from the fused opening and it is ironed shut. Look, can you find the opening?

I then carefully pressed all of the edges making sure that the backing does not show from the front. And it is then ready for quilting:

Here is the quilting set up with  my Janome 6600. It really was not difficult to fit half of the quilt under the harp of the machine.

I did not feel comfortable trying to do free motion quilting on this so I am using the quilting foot and doing simple wavy line in variegated thread that matches the background – I have about 6 different color ways of Superior Rainbow thread.

I am cutting crosses in three sizes to applique to this when the quilting is finished. I am half done and feeling pretty good about the result so far. Silk is not difficult to quilt on when it is fused. I am wearing my gloves because it is quite slippery.

So you can see that I have had a pretty good day!!

My daughter, Lisa, of Bird in the Hand fame, is having a solo show of her mixed media work in San Francisco. She hung the show this week and the opening reception is tomorrow night. You can see photos of the installation here. I sure wish I could be there to see it in person.

Now back to my work in progress. Look! I pinned up on the design wall to see how it looks. I think that once the layer of crosses is added, this is going to look wonderful.

Next, I put it on the floor to square it up:

And, look!! The hand-dyed backing fabric arrived from e-quilter. It is gorgeous. It is 108" wide so I do not have to do any seams.

Tomorrow, I hope the thread arrives because I want to start quilting. I am going to get it sandwiched tomorrow and plan to do the escape hatch finish, a la Mrs. Mel. I also need to start fussy cutting the crosses. Never a dull moment around here!!

I had to take a break today while I worked with the window treatment representative. In about two weeks, we will finally  have permanent window coverings on most rooms.

Woman Challenge update: Yesterday, I managed to walk 10,085 steps. It was a lot of work. I took 3 walks with the dog. So far today, I have walked 8190 steps by taking two walks in the rain!!