Aves 2018 - Week 34

This year I thought I would take on a quilting challenge, so I signed up for Aves, a Block of the Week quilt by Kathryn Kerr of Green Avenue Quilts.

Every Sunday starting 21 January 2018, I receive the instructions to complete one block for the quilt. The plan is to complete the current block before the next one is released.

Week 34

All I have been wanting to do is finish the baby quilt, before the child becomes an adult.  So over Saturday and Sunday, that is what I did.  But then to binding.  I decided to add a bit of a border as an afterthought, using some leftover fabric I had, but I didn't have enough of anything I could use for binding except white, and I was not going to put a white binding on a quilt for a baby.

At grandma's for dinner on Tuesday, I showed off what I had done so far, and we then started digging around grandma's stash for possible binding.  Mum came up with a scrap of purple that would work, and my rough calculations figured there should just be enough.  After that, everything was completely straightforward, I cut and sewed on the border on Wednesday night, I cut, pressed and sewed the binding on the front of the quilt on Thursday night, and then folded the binding over to the back and then put in almost every pin I own to hold the binding in place on Friday night.  All that was left to do on Saturday was to sew the binding on the back.  But to be honest, it was such a long week at work that by Saturday, after going to Parkrun with one of the nephews and then doing the grocery shopping, I had a headache and didn't feel like doing much else.  But by Saturday evening I convinced myself to just get on with it, as I needed to change the sewing machine setup for the next Aves block on Sunday, let alone I hadn't actually finished this week's block (but more about that later...).

So one long ~160" seam later I was done.  Yay!  And I am happy enough with it.  I am actually looking forward to giving it to the baby, who I am arranging to meet in the next couple of weeks, now that the quilt is done. 😊

Here it is (apologies for the lighting):

Now... that block of the week...

After seeing the pattern on Sunday, I was unhappy.  I used the "A" word.

APPLIQUE.

Not happy. At least there is only one 6 1/2" this time.  That is something.  The background of the block was easy enough, and I actually got it cut out and put together Sunday evening.

That is nice enough, isn't it?  I did consider stopping here, and pretending this was the pattern for the week, or even considering this modified to look better to me, as I have done on a couple of occasions.  But no, there are still 12 leaf shapes to "applique". I am sure the larger to the two sizes of leaves is barely 1 1/2 inches long.  I was not looking forward to this.

Luckily, I was busy doing the baby quilt during the week, but by Saturday night, with the baby quilt finally bagged up and sitting in the "things that belong to other people" pile, I figured I had no choice but to cut out those stupid leaves and satin stitch them on.

But first, I had to take out the recycling, and clean out the recycling bucket, give the sewing machine a quick brush out, and re-read all about foot #20, which is best for satin stitch, and then figure out what to watch on TV while I did the cutting out.  Did I mention I also gave the loungeroom a thorough spring clean earlier in the day, and researched options for storing my fabric (I've recently acquired quite a bit and need to change my current storage solution).  Yes, I have been procrastinating all day, trying to avoid applique, even though it will be done by machine, and not by hand - which was certainly not an option.

I finally cut out the really tiny pieces, and then cooked dinner, cleaned the kitchen, chatted to the cat, watched TV.  Soon I was out of excuses and just had to do it.

It's okay.  Nothing fancy.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring me something more exciting.