Do You Sew on a Computer?

(Flowers from Mom's garden for your viewing pleasure.)

I didn't sew a stitch yesterday.  I ran around a bit; picked up the surgical seam ripper from Patchwork Cottage. I am not sure what we will use it for, but I am ready for whatever it is.  At the Quilt Symposium of Alabama I am taking classes called "Thick and Thin" (handstitching), "Framed Double Wedding Ring" and "Mariner's Compass." Good gracious I have had the most trouble trying to figure out what fabric to pack for these classes.  Yesterday I washed, spray starched and ironed the fabric for the Compass class.  I don't normally wash fabric first.  I wish I had though when I decided to hand quilt the coffee filter fan piece. I think it would be easier to stitch through. Back in the late 70s we washed all the fabric because we hand pieced and hand quilted.

See my tools stashed in a "flower frog" on the left side of my machine?  I love that thing!  The idea was on another blog somewhere.  Also, see the little hair clips in the foreground?  I see those clipped onto binding when women are stitching it onto their quilts.  I couldn't make them work.  Is there a special type of hair clip that doesn't slip off the fabric? And on the front left you see the smaller part of my thread holder holding the tissue roll of binding for me while I stitch it onto the quilt.  I used to have trouble with the tube (tissue roll) rolling out of my lap and under the table.  No problem with that now.

So, or sew, today I applied the binding that waited overnight by my sewing computer (not a machine, mind you, according to Bernina).

But I decided to hand stitch, rather than machine stitch,  the binding down to the back of the quilt.  This is a very time consuming process of which I am, at least tonight, tired. I'll get back to it after work tomorrow unless someone, that would be me, decides they need to cook healthy food for dinner.  Then maybe I will get it done Tuesday.  But I will finish!  Oh, yes, this will get done this year.  I want my UFO bead from the Spirited Quilters to sew on my name tag.

Photo of finished Samurai Squares to follow. Soon.