Since taking the picture of the stack of quilts to be bound, 3 more have been added and 2 more will be done today.  I have deadlines to meet!  Not all 27 of the quilts have to be bound by next week but more than half of them do.

My dear friend, Vicky . . poor darling!  Not only does she have a stressful job, and problems of her own but she’s my “go to” girl when I need a shoulder on which to cry.  Yesterday, out of total frustration, I sent her an email and it said something like this:

I’m so frustrated!  I’ll never get everything done.  I think I’ll finish quilting the last two quilts, throw everything in the car and drive to Louisiana!

Now, don’t ask me what driving to Louisiana was going to solve but . . I guess even at my age, when the going gets tough, mom and dad’s house is where I want to be.  My thinking was that I wouldn’t have to cook, wash clothes . . I could just sit and sew on binding and mom would help.

The only reasons I’m not driving to Louisiana as you read this . . a wedding on Sunday and I have teaching engagements next week.  So, it was time to put on the big girl panties and tackle this problem like an adult.  Yes, I can be an adult when I have no other options!

After having read all the comments left about my mountain of binding, and about how many quilters finish their binding by machine, I said to myself . . dang it . . if they can do it, I can too!

I finished the handwork on the binding on Peaches & Dreams, my thumb and wrist were killing me and I was ready for bed but this little voice inside me kept saying . . your only hope of meeting those deadlines is to get the binding finished by machine!

I came back downstairs, dug through the pile of unbound quilts, found a donation quilt, started pinning . . got about half of one side done and took it to the machine.  First try and I’ll be a monkey’s uncle . . I think it looks better than my hand binding!

I stitched in the ditch on the front.

I barely caught the edge on the back.  Well, I could’ve changed the bobbin thread to green.  It still had peach thread from Peaches & Dreams but hey . . this was just for practice.

Oh, this is the best thing I’ve done in years!!  Within a bit more than an hour, I had a whole quilt (not this one . . a big quilt!) bound.  I can meet my deadlines!

When I first started quilting in the early 80′s, I pieced and quilted everything by hand.  At some point early on, I decided I’d never get all the quilts made that I wanted to make so if I pieced by machine and still quilted by hand, no one would know; the quilt police would never find me and all would be grand.  That worked until the unquilted tops filled my home and then I decided I must break down and allow my tops to be machine quilted (by Martha Vincent in Sulphur, Louisiana before I got my own machine).  I guess I’ve about come full circle since I now piece, quilt and looks like I’ll be binding from now on . . all by machine!

Thanks to all who encouraged me to try and try again . . til I got it right!  You’ve changed my quilting world!