Jingle Border Progress: To-Do On Tuesday, Work-In-Progress Wednesday, Still Not Done Thursday, etc.

Happy Tuesday, and while I'm at it, Happy Wednesday, too!  I've been working on assembling my Jingle BOM block border with the setting triangles, a little bit each day, but I've only completely assembled and trimmed one side border so far.

Jingle Border Progress

It's really slow going because all of my carefully pressed and starched seam allowances in the pieced blocks came UNpressed when I soaked them in hot, sudsy water to get all the bleeding red dye out of the blocks.  It is neither easy nor fun to try to figure out which direction the seams are supposed to go and press these completed blocks back into submission one seam at a time!

Unruly Seam Allowances Post-Bloodbath

It feels weird to see my tiny hand stitches (TOO tiny, I now realize!) on the appliqué blocks as I'm sewing them to the setting triangles by machine.  I made these blocks so long ago, and handling them again feels like déjà vu.

See?  Too Many Tiny Stitches.  

Yet, since this is my first appliqué project, this is also the first time I'm sewing these dimensional blocks together. I'm not used to the bumpiness, and having to carefully avoid the raised appliqué shapes when I'm pressing the seam open with my iron. I am SO looking forward to quilting around the appliqué so the little birdies and leaves pop up even more!! :-)

I did measure that left side border that I completed this week, and determined that I should be able to fit a 6" finished border, or multiple borders totalling 6" finished width, between my large appliqué center medallion and this on point block border. But I'm not going to get ahead of myself -- right now I'm just focused on assembling this block border as carefully as I possibly can, and hoping that top, bottom and sides all end up the same size! If there's any fudging needing to be done, that will impact my options for the inner borders.

So my To Do Tuesday goal for this week is the same as last week's goal, to continue working on assembling the Jingle borders. I probably should have set this as a One Monthly Goal instead of a weekly goal, but whatever. I'm not even going to call them goals anymore, okay? From now on, I'm selecting a focus for each week instead of a goal. If I choose something to focus on, then as long as I actually work on it, I WIN! This is my hobby, and it's all about the process. If I ever finish anything, well, that's just a bonus prize. ;-)

One parting photo to share with you today: My Tabby Mountain Disco Kitty quilt has been gifted to my friend, and her cat Finn has indicated his approval:

Sir Finn Approves of His New Quilt

Today I'm linking up with:

• To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com
•        WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

• Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/

  ·       WIPs With Friends at www.mamaspark.blogspot.com