The Binding and Little Tee...

Oh boy, let's start with this... hand stitching a binding TAKES FOREVER. This is something I knew, but never really thought about it, seeing as I could pay someone $25 to do it for me. That'd be $900 for 36 quilts, so a plan B has come into play. Machine bindings. Dorothy's will be the only one hand stitched. I basically have 10 days to complete a quilt from start to finish and I'll go crazy if I take 5 of those days stitching. So here we are, Lilli and me, sewing on the binding to Dorothy's quilt.

We watched White Collar while stitching. LOVE that show!

Other news on the dog front. I noticed my dogs' toys were a mess last night. I asked Ryan if had noticed how bad they were, and THANK GOD Toy Story isn't a real life thing. His reply, "Toy Story: Snapped" "Ryan, did the dogs snap or the toys?" "I'd say you've got some fierce K-9's in your mist, stay on their good side, you should be OK."  That used to be a racoon, the one on the left. 

Please meet my girl, Little Tee. Yesterday was her birthday, so many birthday wishes go out to her.

Quilt Receiver #2 - Taylor (Little Tee)

Little Tee came into our lives 4 or 5 years ago. I honestly can’t remember, I feel like I’ve known her, her whole life. With Little Tee also came another joy, her little sister, Maggs. Their dad, married Ryan’s sister and we added two more nieces to our large list of nieces and nephews, 18 total, 19 is due in April.

Ryan says Little Tee and I are made out of the same mold. I agree with him, but there are a few differences, she has blond hair and blue eyes and can do a triple round off something or other. As for me, brown hair and brown eyes and I’ll be damned if I can even do a cartwheel.

She has made my list, not because she is more important than our other nieces or nephews, but because she reminds me so much of myself. Like me, Little Tee wears her heart on her sleeve and never fears heartache. Like all of us that show too much of ourselves, we don’t fear heartache, we loathe it.

Little Tee calls me Aunt Tee and is as loving as the day is long. Most days I receive some sort of message from her telling me she misses me or how much she loves me. My response is usually the same, I miss you more, I love you more.

She lives with her family in Colorado as well. When we go up there to see them, she is always the first one running out of the house yelling, “Aunt Tee is here! Aunt Tee is here!” And always the first one to give me a hug. Maggs is never far behind, but she is usually climbing a tree, riding her bike or trying to keep up with her big brother on a skateboard. Maggs, is an all around tomboy, that is what her and I have in common. I was always trying to keep up with the boys, still am. ;)

Little Tee is an artist who is always conjuring up ideas in her head. Very creative ideas at that. I remember when I was her age. Creativity in middle school wasn’t often encouraged, it was cooler to be like the crowd than different. It wasn’t until I got to high school that I realized my true passion, my love of the arts. Every time I see her, I encourage her to draw me something or make me something, and she does. I proudly display her work in my cubicle.

She also has recently decided to start playing the cello. The instrument I played for years. Ryan says she choose the cello because of me, I say, she choose it because it’s the best instrument EVER!

I have a goal set that everyone of our nieces and nephews will get a twin size quilt from me before they go to college. I also plan on making them all a queen size wedding ring quilt, but hopefully I have some time on that one! Probably will start that project next year, but this year my goal is to spread my love of quilting to people in my life that might not really know much about it. I’m going to try and change the world, one quilt at a time. 

 

Comments

[Angela]

Hi Tracee!
I have a dog just like that and her nameis Jeannie. She's 6 years old.And White Collar's one of my favorite TV shows.
36 quilts? That's great!!!
Hugs,
Angela from Brazil

[Tracee Doran]

Hi Angela from Brazil. My middle name is Jean - so I'm sure I'd love Jeannie! White Collar is awesome, don't you just love Mauzi? I just quilted #2 - think I'm on task; it's 1/11.
Hugs right back!

[JoAnn]

I've been quilting for probably 7 years and just discovered that I can hand sew my bindings much quicker and with less pain (the skin on my fingertips gets sore ) if I wear a pair of machingers while stitching easy fix and can get done much faster!!!

[Deborah K]

Holey moley 36 quilts in a year!? I am going to follow you and see these beautiful quilts come to life. That's quite a pace to keep up considering you obviously work, also. I did two quilts at one time last year from an Eleanor Burns pattern that was called something like Twin Sisters. It was done using jelly rolls and while it isn't like you aren't doing twice as many blocks, it seemed to go very quickly and they turned out beautifully. Also, I love the precision of a hand finished binding but I like one that uses the Ricky Tims machine applied method of using a tiny piping and then bringing the binding from the back and machine stitching it from the front as the last step. Typically, a stitch in the ditch is not precise enough for my taste but the piping hides any small mis-stitch in the ditch and the small piping looks so elegant. It may not be any faster than hand stitching because of the extra step of piping but it sure looks nice. Also, I love the sneak preview of the cardinal BOM.

[Deborah K]

Just realized the cardinal BOM isn't yours. Duh! Feeling a little embarrassed....

[Michelle]

Hi Tracee! My dog has a favorite toy and I imagine yours do, too. My dog's favorite toy had a facelift recently due to him trying to get the squeaker out of it's head. I have sewn up both sides of it's face and now it looks like Joan Rivers :) Do you ever sew them back up? Man, what we do for our pets?? BTW, I love what you are doing with the 36 quilts and wish I had that much drive. I look forward to seeing more.

[Sarah]

Wow I like your last sentence there. lol