Practicing

Yesterday Mrs. Ochiai came over (and braved the cats... She does not like cats.) and practiced machine quilting. After months of procrastinating she decided to GET THIS QUILT FINISHED and she called me on Monday to say that she was ready to start quilting and wanted to come over on Thursday.

"All the applique pieces are fused down. All I have to do it buttonhole stitch them."

WHAT? That's ALL she has to do? That is quite a lot of work. I honestly didn't think that she would be here yesterday.

"Mrs. Ochiai is NOT going to be able to applique all that down in three days."

She did! She said she spent three intense days doing nothing but buttonhole stitch! See, if we put our minds to something we can get it done! I don't know how long this project has been on Mrs. Ochiai's shelf.





For all that though, when I set her down with a practice sandwich to work on some stitches she decided that she needed to do a lot more practicing before she puts her quilt under the needle. This is really the first time for her to use a quilting foot and to try and maneuver a quilt in different directions. (She cheated on her Happy Village quilting and turned the quilt at each corner...)

"Don't practice too long. Practicing is just another way of procrastinating. If you start quilting a quilt you will get all the practice you need."

I need to follow my own advice.