Forgive the poor quality of some of these pictures. I got lazy today and didn’t feel like hauling out the camera. I ordered my backing fabric from Hancock’s of Paducah, and it arrived about 2 weeks ago. Here it is so you can all see it before I turn it upside down. And cover it up.

Top & Backing Together

After a discouraging day at a craft fair, I had this overwhelming urge to clean my living room floor. No. Not really. But I did want to pin the layers of the guest room quilt together. This necessitated moving all the furniture and rug out of the way.

The Bare Floor

I vacuumed and mopped to get all the crud that was stuck to the floor under the rug removed so I had a nice clean surface to stick my tape to. Even this turned out to be just a little small for what I needed. So I moved the sofa to the end of the room. Can you say Even More Dust Bunnies?! I got the vacuum and mop back out, because me being me, I had put them away thinking I was done. I laid the backing fabric down and spread the batting on top of the whole thing.

Backing taped and batting laid

I smoothed the whole thing out and taped the edges within an inch of their lives. Usually I tape the backing first but, as I said, I was feeling a bit lazy. Note the TV with Bride of Frankenstein on in the background.

Next I spread the top out over the batting. This is the first time I’d actually seen the whole thing flat. Pretty cool, right?

The pinning took me about an hour. That’s not counting the few breaks I took to rest my back. I get a little stiff hunched over on the floor for that long with my little bowl of safety pins and my Kwik-Klip (this cool tool that closes the pins so I don’t totally tear my fingers up).

Me and Frankie, a Quiet Evening at Home

Now that the pinning is done, I’ve decided to just do a basic in-the-ditch quilting. I don’t like it when the quilting is so heavy that the quilt becomes stiff. And I’m not a sufficiently enough practiced machine quilter to do a design in just the yellow spots and have it look good. Plus, I just like the fabrics to shine through.

I’m in the home stretch! Who’s coming for Thanksgiving? I should have it done by then.