Ever Have One Of Those Days?

Yesterday was "one of those days". Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Not to be all negative, cause there were some good mixed in with all the bad, and I will look at yesterday as a learning experience!

The Hidden Star is completely quilted! I finished it a couple of days ago and got so thrilled to be able to put the binding on....one of my favorite things to do is binding, second after hand quilting! So I lay it all out and run down to get my Gingher Scissors to trim the edges and thought I would go ahead and make the binding while I was down there.
The first thing I notice is, my scissors are missing!!! They are ALWAYS in the ball jar. Always. No one is confessing anything at this point. I will look for them once I get the binding made. I find the fabric after 12 years....I was pretty proud of myself in that. What I did not remember was, that over that 12 years, I had cut into that fabric for several scrap projects. Hmmmm. Looking at it, it was not hard to see there would be no where near enough for binding. Good Grief! Well, I would get a binding fabric next week. In the meantime I will move on to my next project, cause there is NOTHING in my hoop, which is driving me insane!
I pull out the Sailboats and start marking. UGH!!! It did not go well. My freehand "wind" was a disaster. I decide to draw diagonal lines for movement.I messed that up too. Using a ruler I measured from the corner of the background fabric to the opposite corner of background fabric, totally forgetting that the water is part of the block....the lines looked cock-eyed. I figured it out and started over. In case you are wondering, that is what an eraser looks like in the home of a child who has PICA. ;) (I use a water soluable art pencil to mark light colored fabrics)
On to the waves.....GREAT! The small waves are too small and the large waves are too large.I head to the computer and order the correct sized waves...those will have to wait til the stencil arrives. I am not stopping....those 12 boat waves will have to be marked on a basted quilt.
Here is some "good". This border stencil was GORGEOUS! Lots of detail but it will make the quilt!There. All marked and it was relatively painless.Now to baste! My least favorite part of the quilting process is basting. Anyone who knows me for more than a minute has heard me complain about this part. I am a thread baster....I only use pins when machine quilting, which happens once every 12th of Never!!!! Sweetheart was getting ready to head out the door to spend the day working at the farm. I smooched him good-bye and turned my focus back to the quilt. A few minutes later he came back with a full days supply of Road Ranger Diet Coke!I LOVE THAT GUY!!!!!!!
I had washed and dried my backing fabric, and carefully laid it out in the living room so it would not wrinkle. I went in to get it and look what I found.....SASSY!!!!! What did you do???? That darn cat was curled up in a ball sleeping in the massive wrinkles she had created into a nest! She took off running when she saw me!!!! Great! Now I have to press it! I got it all pressed and laid out on the table. I went to get the batting....a very expensive Quilter's Dream bat, mind you...and there is a freakin HOLE in the corner of the package with batting hanging out. SASSAFRAS!!!!! That cat is gonna need a middle name!
I lay the batting out and position it where the hole is not going to be in the quilt. It is tricky but I get it to this.....Yes, it was that close. The whole time I am doing this process, that dang cat is under the table pulling on the backing fabric like I hung it there just for her. To the basement she goes!!!!!
Let the basting begin!Once I get it halfway basted, I realized that all that pulling on the backing with her claws had actually shifted that backing fabric a bit. CRAP! That is the nicer version of what I actually said! For a minute, I thought I would have to pull those 2 hours of basting stitches out and start all over! I was ready to cry! Instead, I barely made it work.......the backing was uneven on that side to begin with, so most of the side was ok....all except about 1/4 of it. This is the backing fabric. See that teal colored stitch?That is where the very edge of the quilt top comes to. There is about 1/16th of an inch of extra backing fabric there. Enough that I stitched it down so there will be no shifting and I could move on. *deep breath and exhale*
Grrrrrrr. I should have hissed at her!!!!She escaped the basement with the help of the kids who felt sorry for her. I kept my eye on her! Every time I looked at her she looked away! Brat Cat!
I finally got all the basting done and help arrived just in time to trim up the extra batting and backing.Little Emerson wore a "fimble" on her thumb all evening while I hand quilted on the first block of "You Float My Boat". The good in this quilt, is that the quilting shows up beautifully....it will be a very detailed quilt when it is done. The bad news is, that expensive batting is not the Quilter's Dream" I am use too. Though it is for hand and machine quilting, it is more of a machine quilting bat. Kinda tough to needle. I am hoping and praying it softens up to my needle as I handle it. Either way, I am relieved it is in the hoop and life can move on!!!
I am ready for an easy day!!!!! Praying you have one too!