Prepped for History Day

In a previous post, I mentioned Greenfield's History Day, and that I was prepping a week ahead (unheard of for me!) to be sure I was ready. I so typically put these sorts of things off until the very last minute.

And it took quite awhile to do the prepping, so I am glad I did it early. I wouldn't be too far off in estimating that it took me a couple of hours to get two quilts into frames.

First, I had to decide on the quilts I would most like to work on. One has several matters to consider - is this quilt worthy of my hand-quilting time? Is it one that I will enjoy looking at up close and personal? Is the size manageable? Those are the questions for the bigger frame. For the lap frame, I looked for something that gave me incentive to finish. It would be small and quick. I think I found two winners.

On my Q-Snap frame that sits up like a table, I pulled out Fall Foliage, a throw-size quilt that I made quite awhile ago. I've tried to track down exactly when I made this quilt top to no avail. 

While digging for suitable backing fabric, I came across a remnant from the quilt, and further digging eventually resulted in finding a decent piece that matched the remnant. Happiness!! After stitching them together I turned my attention to batting. Since this is a throw quilt, I didn't want to cut into a brand new batt, so I pieced together 3 batting remnants and used them for my quilt sandwich. Whew! Such a lot of work! Piecing backings and battings are NOT on my list of most fun things to do. This was truly labor.

Then I turned my attention to preparing the smaller quilt for the lap-frame. Last December I made the HST quilt from some of the Roman Holiday remnants, and I thought it'd be so nice to have that finished in time to actually use this coming holiday season. Could I do it fast enough? Well, I think I can, because I plan to do "big-stitch" quilting on it. Perhaps in a Baptist Fan design? I'm leaning that direction.

Below is the backing I chose - an older red with a holiday vibe to it by Robin Pandolph. It's barely big enough, but I made it work.

I glue-basted the backing and batting (another remnant) together. Then I did the same with the top. On smaller projects, glue-basting is the way to go, in my opinion. This was fast and easy.

So now I'm set. I have all these items set aside in a spare bedroom, and have added necessaries like thread, needles, thimbles, scissors -- all the usual tools. I will take a folding tv tray/table, a cushion for my chair, and 3-4 finished quilts that I hand-quilted. I display these behind me as folks to like to see them, and I love for them to be seen! *grin*

I have prepared a special feature for History Day -- a slide show which I will run on a continuous loop on my laptop. I went back through all my picture files and pulled every quilt I could find that I'd made. I selected over 100 pictures, and created a show of about 98 slides. It was fun to do, and I hope folks enjoy watching it. 

It's been awhile since I've joined a linky party so why not go have a visit with Kelly at her weekly Needle and Thread Thursday party! Looks like fun!

I hope you are having an awesome Thursday!! I have essays to grade, and later tonight - cards with some girlfriends. Busy day for me!

Happy Quilting, Friends!