Mrs Billing's...oh no moment!

Over Christmas and the last couple of months I have been plodding away on my Mrs Billings project, that I started last October. For new to me visitors, this is the end product, yes I have a long way to go....

I was hoping to have a ta-dah moment this post and share my progress by having my first diamond border attached...

but after hand stitching away on Sunday afternoon, I had an oh-no moment instead when I finished this little stripy border...

Spot what's wrong with this picture....should there be a very precise 1/4 inch over hang here? And after lots of head scratching I realised the answer is NO!

I pinned the strip on a 1/4 inch out on both sides, making the border 1/2 inch shorter than it should be...no wonder I had to ease the fabric as I was sewing!

And then I remember having the same easing issue on the first stripy border....yes I measured up and you guessed it, it was out by 1/2 inch too...I have done mitres before....I can't work out how I made such a dumb mistake...grrr....it really hurts to unpick hand stitching!

Other progress to share is my hexie flowers...I did these while travelling in Tasmania in January.

So cute don't you think? There will be twenty eight of these little beauties....

I am committed to doing this project....I am not going to put it away...I have made a pact with myself to have the borders out to the first diamonds done by the end of this month....

Quilting done!

Thank Goodness, I have got the quilting done on my scrappy trip around the world, it wasn't that hard once I actually sat down and it did it, I decided to quilt it every second square, horizontally, vertically and diagonally...

...and on my new Janome, it really powered through the quilt, I think it took around 8 hours, split up over two weekends! I used a Denyse Schmidt, Katie Jump Rope on the back, which is a nice happy fabric! So now all that is left is the binding...is there any such thing as binding avoidance?

With all the quilting out of the way I got stuck into my Bonnie Hunter scrappy baskets....which I am really happy with...

I have them all up on my "design wall", quilt batting held by coat hangers on a sliding door pelmet, ....ready to stitched together!

Speaking of which I better hurry up because the fan keeps on blowing bits and pieces off :)