Longarm quilting and haircuts, too

Dear Emily,

The week at home is flying by as usual! It has taken me until Thursday to finally start the actual quilting. 

One of the harder things in quilting, I think, is making the quilt sandwich. [the layers of the quilt make up the "sandwich" - the quilt top, the batting in the middle, and then the backing fabric] The backing has to be perfectly smooth and kind of taut when pinning the layers together prior to the quilting [For those of you who are new to all this quilting stuff, "piecing" is what you call sewing the individual parts together to make the squares and sewing all the squares together to make the quilt top. "Quilting" is the sewing that holds the "sandwich" together and is visible.] If the fabric isn't smooth, there will be puckers on the back of the quilt when all quilting is finished. Not pretty. If a quilt is small enough, I can tape the backing to the kitchen table to keep it taut while pinning it together. If the quilt is bigger than my table, I have to mop my kitchen floor super well and tape the backing there. Putting all the parts together on a longarm quilting is a bit easier, though you have to be careful to roll it up straight and free of wrinkles. The backing fabric is on one roller, the quilt top on another, and the batting on another and they all roll together as the quilting progresses. 

I discovered a fabulous way to mark the quilt, too. I'll send you pictures of that later.

And what are the kids doing while all this is going on? Playing in this:

Don't you wish we had this when we were kids?

Besides getting the quilting starting this week, the second major accomplishment was cutting this boy's hair. 

Before

After. Who is this kid?

(Thanks to the fabulous Mary at Glow.)

And not to be left out, Caroline got her second hair cut ever.

Before. She was sitting on her hair and it was everywhere.

Second time in a beauty parlor chair. Ever.

Still mermaid hair for the pool but slightly more manageable.

  

She looks a little less than thrilled. She'll get used to it. Thanks Mary!

I hope your house has recovered from the yucky summer crud!

xoxo

Monica