Happy Dance for HQAL Update

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Our gathering was just me, Hubby and my mother-in-law. I made enough food to bring to my own mother and her aide as well as send leftovers home with my mother-in-law. 

The Maroon Baby Quilt is finished. Happy Dance! I have to rinse out the markings and wash it still. The sun rays shining on it highlight the quilting in this photo. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I also need to give the quilt a different name and add a label. Any name ideas? My mother hand pieced this quilt several years ago, but didn't really love it and didn't want to quilt it. I took it and started hand quilting, then I took a break from it. I recently picked it up again to work on while visiting my mom. I finished sewing the self-binding on Thanksgiving.

If you are wondering what I mean by self-binding. I did not add a separate binding to this quilt. I cut the backing fabric one inch wider than the top and batting once the quilting was completed. I folded over 1/2 inch of this fabric and then folded it to the front of the quilt. 

This is not as sturdy a binding as if I had used a separate double fold binding, but I only found the extra fabric needed to make a binding after I had already started this method. I will keep the extra fabric and label it for the appropriate quilt so that I can make sturdy binding in the future if it is needed. 

On Friday I tried to figure out what project I wanted to work on next. I have several items that my mother started, but never finished. I could work on the Overall Sam quilt. Each Overall Sam needs to be echo quilted with DMC floss  and also needs a running stitch 1/4 inch from the edge of each block. 

My mother made a Sunbonnet Sue quilt and this is supposed to be the companion to it. I want to quilt it as she did the Sunbonnet Sue.

I could also quilt the green/brown table topper that I purchased a new stencil for. If you zoom in, you can see that I already traced the stencil in the center. 

 My mother had placed small shamrocks in each corner of the center block and they looked really odd. She didn't like the way it looked, which is why she stopped working on it. She had the backing fabric already pinned, but was using a thin flannel as batting. I have plenty of batting scraps so I cut one to size and have basted the sandwich. I just need to figure out which of the floss/thread colors to use to quilt the stencil. I am leaning toward the variegated brown tatting thread. 

I think this is what I will work on first, as I washed the navy backing fabric for Overall Sam and it ran badly. I think I will look for a lighter blue fabric for the backing. My mother had already purchased the batting for Overall Sam so I don't have to buy any. 

The HQAL is an opportunity for hand quilters to share and motivate each other. The talented quilters below post every three weeks to show our progress and encourage one another. Stop by their sites to see what they are working on. If you have a hand project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Cathie 

Thanks for stopping by!