I'm Back! (For a moment)

Hi out there all you bloggy friends!  I'm back from my trip to Germany, which was super fun, (and documented in around 800 pictures), and have been quilting madly on Seymour.  Just in the random-aside vein,  this always plays in my mind when I say (or think) "I'm back" or "I'll be right back."  Not sure why, but it's one of those things that's taking up permanent brain space and keeping out more important useful things.



Anyway,  I fused Seymour's background pieces all together on both sides, then assembled the quilt sandwiches.  I used spray baste to adhere the batting to the backing and then fused the top (you may recall the whole thing had fusible on it) to the batting.  This seemed to work fairly well in terms of shifting;  that is, I didn't really have any.  I'm pleased that there were no back puckers or anything.

That didn't mean the quilting went particularly well though.  Some parts were fairly straightforward, while others really made me want to scream.  For instance,  I feel pretty good about the quilting on and around the swamp (on the dark side) and on chimney rock (on the light side), mediocre about the quilting on the background of the dark side, and dreadful about the sky on both sides.

For the foreground of the light side my mom suggested quilting some straight lines (after I had a little mini-meltdown on the phone) so I did that.  I increased the distance between the lines as I came into the foreground (to hopefully give some added perspective), but the lines blend in so much I don't think you can tell.  I also think it probably needs more quilting in that region, but so much will be covered by Seymour that I'm going to wait to do any more quilting till his skeleton is on there.

I did the (seemingly)-requisite ripping as well, once when the tension was way off and I didn't realize it until I'd quilted a large section, and once when the extra backing got accidentally flipped around the edge (ACK).  Also, I did all the quilting on the singer 201 which has a blessedly large amount of space under the harp compared to my baby Janome, but makes extra stitches after I've picked up my foot/stopped my hands.  I have lovely little knots all over the top of my quilting.  *sigh*

However, squaring them up and standing back (way back) made me feel better, as I'm still liking the overall impact.  The next step is to put on the trim and facing so the two sides can be laced together (I'll post on that later this week).  My goal is to finish the trim/facing this week, so wish me luck.  I'm headed to my family home in southern New Mexico on Friday for a family reunion in honor of my Grandfather's 85th birthday.  Should be fun, especially because my favorite Anna Banana will be there.  She has grown significantly (to judge from the pictures) and has apparently acquired many new skills since I last saw her.

Hope everyone is doing well out in blogland (and real-land too!)