I’m still spending a lot of time in the evenings quilting along the sashing… there is a lot of straight-line quilting to do, and with blocks that don’t have a lot of pieces to them, it goes fairly quickly.  However, considering these blocks are 4.5 inches square, many of them have a lot of seams to stitch through which really slow a hand quilter down.  So when I get to blocks with very few seams, I giggle like a school girl and sometimes quilt the entire block, even though I had hadn’t planned to yet. (For those of you who have been following the progress of this quilt, my goal was to first quilt the entire quilt along the sashings, and THEN quilt the individual blocks.)  But it’s fun to cut loose and throw some inner block quilting in occasionally, which is what I did with this block. I’m getting used to using the Black Gold needles now… persistence pays off, and they are becoming one with my thimble and don’t bother me as much as they used to.  I am also noticing my stitches getting smaller the more I use them, which is nice. I’m not a “hand quilting snob” that thinks you have to have 20 stitches to the inch, but since I’ve been quilting since 1976, I do try to at least keep my stitch length consistent and look to improve as I can.

If you click on the photos below, they will open larger on your screen.

	Water Lily by Sue Mohr
Apple by Judy Lindsay
	Maple Star by Liz Ewing
Indianapolis by Sue Hilton
	Nonesuch by Jean Amundsen
Palm Tree by Sue Mohr
	Perhaps you’d like a peek at the back of the quilt for a better update of progress.  Click on these to enlarge the photos… Photos beautifully taken on my freshly-vacuumed living room floor.