The test is over

Sunday evening I finished turning the binding on the single black and white quilt. I was hoping for a bit of sunshine for taking a picture, as I plan to give this to my friend and pastor this evening.
Alas, Monday was on and off rain, and rain is predicted for today too. I decided to take quilt and camera to the park while on Nikko's morning walk and see if I could get at least one picture before the rain begins again.

This was my first test of sashiko "big stitch" on a quilt. The batting is #60 thinsulate but it looks as puffy as the #80. I decided to go with puffy rather than quilt inside the larger areas. Thinsulate is good in that it will not shift, even when loosely quilted and with much use.  The border is just quilted in diagonal rows on the white. All the blocks are quilted in the ditch first. The rather busy prints didn't show the big stitches so much but I think I am satisfied with the all-over effect.

Now, the next task will be to lay out Kai's big-boy quilt and get it basted so I can begin quilting that.
It is 8 blocks by 10 blocks with a larger wave print in the border. Getting the seam allowances to lie in the right direction and line up the backing in a small space is going to be the first challenge. If only I didn't have to travel to church in such a crowded train, I could take it there and use the floor in the fellowship hall... since I have to go there anyway tonight.

Anyway, time to stop dithering and come up with a plan... At least the test worked out and I found a purpose for the extra blocks caused by my poor math.