The Next Step

 With the top complete

of my Red and White sampler

 from the It Just Takes 2 blocks

it was time to move on to the next part,

the quilting.

 And in this case, the hand quilting.

 Of course, 

we know there are some steps in between. 

These are the steps that I dislike the most,

getting the backing ready,

getting the batting ready,

  and 

then basting the whole thing together.

I don't have a great place to baste a 

large quilt so I have to scramble around

on the floor.

Long ago, in ancient times when I was younger, basting was

done with thread.

Now at least, with safety pins it's quicker,

but you need to be careful not to create holes anywhere.

The quilt weighs a ton now with all those pins,

and is somewhat of a struggle to get to the middle

to start hand quilting. 

 I haven't premarked anything.

I plan to do mostly outline quilting.

The one thing I always do to same time is to 

prethread my needles.

I use the quilt dome by Clover and 

 load it up with 30 needles, 

three in each slot, and

in this case, half red and half white.

It's amazing how much time you save,

not having to stop and thread a needle

each time you empty one.

The other thing I use other than

a regular thimble are these

Thimble-Its.

I use them on my underneath fingers to save

my fingertips.  

They take a little getting use to and

as you use them they do soften up a bit.

Even with them on two of my underneath fingers,

it's easy to tell if I've pushed the needle through

all three layers.

Okay,

I'm ready to begin.

My goal is to have it done by the end

of May or sooner.

So far it seems like I'm moving at a snail's pace.

But my mantra has always been,

 "Just a hoop a day".

That may not happen.

 (Reality check)

But even if it doesn't,
every stitch gets me closer to being done.

 Until Next Time-