I’ve been busy.  Very busy.  Today is setup day for my guild’s quilt show in Fort Worth, Texas.  I’ve been a bindin’, label makin’, sleeve makin’ fool.  Especially for the last 24 hours.  Because I’m all about deadlines.  And I work well under pressure.  Lots of pressure. 

I realize I have negelected you, my faithful blog followers.  I’m surprised I haven’t heard from some of you, complaining that there hasn’t been a new post for too long.  But then again, those of you who know me well, also know I was working hard to get everything finished in time for the show.  So thank you for not complaining and making me feel guilty.  And I’m proud to report that I finished all the quilts before midnight.  They are all in their bags and ready to deliver early this morning.  But sleep was not easy in coming either.  Too wound up, I guess, with all that last minute stitching.  Last minute, as usual.  It’s the way I operate.

The labels went on very quickly.  Notice the beat up cuticle on my thumb.  And you can’t see it, but I stuck myself in my knuckle just above that cuticle many times.  It’s just what I do as I stitch in a hurry.  Luckily I didn’t bleed on any of those nice white labels.

This quilt back is almost as pretty as the front!  Label and all.

Remember the beautiful appliquè quilt of Susan’s I showed you recently?  Here is the label ready to be stitched.  Susan has been very sick.  She probably wouldn’t have any quilts in the show if she’d had to finish them all.  She’s got a big wedding coming up soon – her daughter’s.  She needs to concentrate on getting well for that and not on finishing quilts.  I was happy to help her out.  And I enjoyed every stitch.

That quilt had to live inside a big fitted sheet as I worked on it.  With only the small amount necessary peeking out as I stitched.  Here’s why:

I set it down on the cutting table when I first brought it home and turned my back for 4 seconds.  Thank goodness it was still inside the sheet.  Well wrapped.  Quilts are known as “Boo magnets” at our house.  I have my lint roller all packed in my things to take to set up and plan to roll this quilt one last time after it is hung.  We don’t need any stray Boo hairs on this one!

I worked especially hard on the corners on the binding on that one.

And stitched the label with great care.  Making sure no threads went through to the front.

This odd shaped quilt of mine required a special double sleeve.  Hope that keeps it from flopping over when it’s hanging!

A last minute label got stitched on it too.

Because “last minute” is my middle name.  But then, you already knew that about me, didn’t you?

In fact, these two labels got hurriedly printed on my printer and stitched to my quilts at the last possible minute.  Printing them on the computer is a great time saver!  Thank goodness for time savers for last minute gals like me.

And here’s the whole big stack of quilts in their bags all ready to be delivered to the show.

My camera is packed too.  So expect lots of pics of the fronts of the quilts soon, not just the labels and sleeves.  And if you live in the North Texas area, you might consider coming to visit our show.  You can find out more details at the guild’s website:  Trinity Valley Quilters’ Guild of Fort Worth.  I hope to see you there.  It will be a fun time with lots of fabulous quilts.  You might even get inspired.  I know I will.  And I’ll be ready to come home and start on a fabulous quilt for next year’s show.

But don’t expect me to sew on the binding, sleeve and label until the night before the show.  It’s just what I do.

Hugs,
Barb