Photo Bomb!

Hey there! Just wanted to check in for a minute and show you what I've been up to. I'm currently taking another 4 day Staycation. My Staycations involve lots of sofa sitting, t.v. watching, hot tub sitting (more on that later!), sewing, wine sipping, eating, baking and sleeping late. Basically.....all the things I love to do but never have enough time to do. For some reason I've had to force myself to take scheduled Staycation "down time" lately. I can't seem to flip the "off" switch at nights and on weekends......I always find myself working or thinking about working. Well, at least I do that when Mr. Sew Fab (a.k.a. John) is away on work trips which is.....a lot of the time! When he's home he forces me to quit working. And I mean "forces" in the nicest possible "lures me away from the computer with a glass of wine" sort of way. Anyway.....where was I? What was the point I was trying to get to?
Oh yeah.....I finally made time to sandwich and pin the quilt that I started 6 months ago! You know the one....the quilt that I wanted to have finished by October 1! And of course Bailey had to photo bomb my little photo shoot! But I think he definitely makes the picture better! And Bailey has already claimed this quilt as his own so it's only fair that he should supervise the making and photographing of it!

So now I get to start quilting it and binding it! Yay!

Before I head back out to the hot tub with a glass of wine I've got to share a few important lessons from today:

-Always make sure you have enough of the curved jumbo safety pins before you start pinning your quilt. This is the largest quilt I've ever made and I ran out of jumbo pins and I had to resort to the normal/little ones. And let me tell you something - The little pins HURT! I finished pinning over an hour ago and my finger is still throbbing!

-Think twice before using a difficult to match plaid for the backing of a large quilt. I had a heck of a time matching the plaid and I ended up hand piecing the backing because I couldn't figure out any other way to do it. And I know, I know....it's the backing...who's going to notice if the plaid isn't matched? But I'm a wee bit OCD so I couldn't let that one go! Plaids. Must. Match.

-Make sure you remember the "measure twice, cut once" rule when cutting your backing. I didn't realize I'd need so many extra inches to get the plaids to match! And now I have to add about an inch to the backing on one side because I "lost" so much length matching the plaids. Oops! And that takes us back to Plaids. Must. Match. I now have to add a sliver of fabric to the backing AND make sure the plaids match. Is anyone else out there this obsessive about small details?

Gotta run! The hot tub is calling my name (seriously....more on that later!).

Happy Sewing,
Jenny