I Did Get The Quilt Top Finished & Outlander in my Mailbox Just now

   I finished it yesterday, and went through the back of this quilt cutting off long threads etc today. The seams need a bit of a steam, and sigh I have three seams to fix.

   I cut each square out with a rotary cutter, and that will usually leave a little cut in the fabric above it. I missed not seeing the cut on three pieces-once everything was pretty much together except for the rows.  So I added another piece of small fabric to the seam-the cut goes deep into the seam, and I have no more fabrics big enough to replace the blocks.  So I am going to go through my stash and see what fusibles I have to seal the cut area to the other piece of fabric.   This is a first so I guess my eyes are not catching everything now that I am over 70.

   I will tackle that tomorrow. This ended up much bigger than most of my quilts I make for us. Pretty much a queen minus a few inches and our bed is a full long. I do love the top finish, now to decide how I want to hand quilt this.

   First photo before I added the borders

I am pretty happy with the layout of these scrappy blocks. I did end up with tree blocks in a row, but didn't see a good swap.

    

These borders ended up being a two morning project. I had enough fabric to do this and didn't think it mattered to line up any pattern, so I tore the strips so they would be straight.  I sewed on two sides and could see this was not going to be pretty unless I followed the pattern that you see. The others had no berries in the print. So I took all that apart and had enough fabric to get all the berries in the strips

I am looking into #8 perle cotton to hand quilt larger stitches with. This is a flannel top and bottom with a wool batting.  Our small wal mart did not have this so I could see what it looks like.  Anyone familiar with this and think it would be ok to hand quilt with? thanks

  Back around Thanksgiving weekend I was looking at Outlander inspired jewelry on Etsy. I found a dragonfly bracelet I fell in love with it-the maker in Spain. For free shipping she said it would take up to two months to the US.  This week I started thinking about it and it arrived today. I love the simplicity of this piece, the dragonfly is a bit shiny for me, but I do love it.  

    I had a couple dollars coming in ebay bucks so I wanted to use them before I forgot to, and found an Outlander box calendar which I have never had before. Thought it would be nice in my craft room. Wow I just ordered this and it arrived in two days. I am still waiting for the quilt pattern I ordered and a book that is a bit overdo. our mail seems to get slowed down in different places-patience Kathy patience. 

  I see these photos shows my hand where I fell on concrete several years ago and dislodged the joint out of the socket under my thumb area above my wrist.-it gets a little worse every year, I try to stretch it out as I have noticed that my thumb area is now kind folding under my hand. At the time my doctor didn't recommend the surgery at my age. So glad I am right handed otherwise I would have a really difficult time doing things