It's in the hoop

Saturday I finished widening the backing by adding a strip of the same yellow print that I used on the front inner border.

This pastel piece of fabric came from a friend among quite a few large pieces.
It is so soft and seemed to be speaking out to be used.


Saturday afternoon I went to the cold empty apartment and was able to pin-baste the little quilt before it began to get dark. It is nice to have one small piece of floor that is not completely covered in dog hair.

By now the top is about half quilted in the ditch. I have to admit that on these cold days, sitting under this quilt while working is a double win.

When I made the last I-spy quilt, I used five-inch picture blocks. Those I quilted inside each block after doing the in-the-ditch quilting. On this quilt, the picture blocks are only four inches and I used #80 thinsulate for the batting. I rather like the puffiness of the quilted blocks and thinsulate is probably intended for clothing and the batting is quite tacky and extremely unlikely to shift. I am seriously considering leaving those blocks puffy and free of stitching. With other battings, I usually quilt more densely with the widest area without any quilting three-finger's width, or about two inches.

Looking at assorted table cloths and runners which get a lot of use and washing, there has never been a problem with thinsulate shifting. I think soft and a bit fluffy will be nice for a February baby.
With that in mind, I will be finished before long ... especially with my last day of school for this year, being yesterday. This will not take a month ... not that I don't have other things on my schedule to complete....

Unfortunately, the hot sauce plan didn't work for long and my door has new teeth-marks.

I think since this behavior worked twice for Nikko, it takes a long time to find that it no longer works. (maybe never, because she still remembers where she found some stinky rotten fish to roll in ten years ago and never passes that place without checking it out).
I am not happy with the scratched up door but considering the damage she could do in the livingroom while I am away, and the number of things she might find that smell like me to chew on ... oh yes, she has chewed several quilts ... I will varnish over the scratches and maybe cover the area with some stick-on covering that I use for book covers.

Eventually, I have an idea to reverse the two doors. Both can be slid into the wall to open the entire door space... and actually, the two doors are reversed with a metal stopper to keep the inner door from going too far to the left. It often confuses guests because most Japanese sliding doors have the little dented grips to meet at the center, thus moving the doors left or right, so when exiting the room, they often try to move the door to the left with no success.

Well, time to get back under that hoop and warm up. Quilting, what a nice hobby to have! and a gift that rewards the giftee....