The quilty portion of today’s blog is that I finally began the introduction (which often gets written after the rest of book, as in this case since most of it is in first or second draft) to my book on thread on the drive home from the hospital (it is 60 miles each way, and instead of pouring it was glorious summer in Maine) and it is coming clear in my mind! So when I can finally re-focus on work, I will have a bit of a head start. Believe it or not, the quotes I plan to use are from Twyla Tharp and Stephen King…how’s that for eclectic?

Joshua is making progress; as usual, it is several steps forward, one back, repeat process. Yesterday he ended up having to have the blood transfusion. His hematocrit and hemoglobin levels were SO low that he was in the critical range. We were talking to the nurse about it today and she said she’d think long and hard about giving her kid a transfusion, too, but with levels as low as Joshua’s had become, there wasn’t even a question. It was a “DO IT”. So that helps. He did improve quite a bit…not so pale or groggy. Here’s the poor kid at the end of the second unit of blood:

This morning he had his FOURTH surgery in six days! The first, Monday, was to stabilize the leg. The second, Wednesday, was to set everything. Friday and today were to change the dressins and clean the incisions (hope that last link in the previous post didn’t freak anyone out! even my normally unflappable hubby who has assisted in veterinary surgery said “oh that was gross!”). Today they were able to put a few sutures at the ends of the long incisions, and hope to be able to close them if the swelling goes down enough on Tuesday. I guess once that happens, he will get to stand up and try to get mobile. Plus, today they changed the pain meds (for those who know more than I, from Fentenol to Dilaudid, and that seems to have helped a ton….apparently he ate a LOT of supper…hoooray!). Maybe home over next weekend????

Then, Paul will reschedule his rotator cuff surgery!!!!!

Well, just a quick note and alas no pictures, but I am THRILLED to say that I will be teaching in two wonderful venues next year! I have been invited to teach at Salon 2008, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 22 to 25. The show is sponsored by Courtepointe Quebec Quilts. I will be teaching in English, but my rusty French may be revived and expanded to include quilting terms!

AND I just learned that I will be teaching at the Images Quilt show / Quilt Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts next year August 7-10. WOOHOOO!

Will return in a couple of days with a Joshua update, and hope that life returns to a semblance of normalcy in a week or two (at which point hubby Paul will go in for his delayed rotator cuff surgery, which was to have been the day after Joshua’s accident). Oh joy…two male patients in the house LOL! Wonder if Doritos would help? for them…I’ll take the pina coladas…..

The outpouring of caring, friendship, concern, prayers, white light and good thoughts is amazing, sustaining and just plain wonderful…thank you, thank you all!

Joshua has, as of Friday evening, had three surgeries in one week! The first, right after the accident, was to stabilize the breaks until he was stable enough for the long “fix it” surgery. That one began at 1 pm Wednesday and lasted SEVEN hours! They placed a rod in his femur, and external fixator (tinker toy on the outside) of his shin / calf, and had to do two fasciotomies (sp?) which are long incisions on either side of his calf. These were to allow the wounded muscles to swell without killing muscle tissue (from the constriction that would have happened if squoze by the skin)…had they not made these incisions, he could very likely have had gangrene and lost his leg—shudder! (here’s a link, but I warn you the photo is not for the squeamish).

On Friday, he went in for “maintenance” surgery; basically, cleaning the wounds and changing the dressings is so painful, they do it under a general anesthetic. They were hoping to close one of the fasciotomies, but as I type I’m not sure what the results were as I am home with Eli and the animals, and Paul is with Joshua in post-op recovery (last minute note: swelling still too much to close up, so maybe Sunday). The only bad news is that Joshua had to have a transfusion because of serious anemia; I REALLY don’t like the idea of a transfusion in an AIDS world, but not to have one would have been worse. Erg. (Last minute update…hoooray! They didn’t do it after all… I will donate a unit tomorrow as we have the same blood type…hope he won’t need it, adn they can then put it into the general blood bank!)  Best of all NO signs of any infections…hallelujah!

Anyway, Joshua has been an amazing trooper, getting through the pain (the changing of sheets and bathing today was the only thing that has brought me to total tears), being polite to all the staff no matter how much he hurts. He makes me incredibly proud of him–even more than I already was, if that’s possible! Eli, too, has been a trooper through all the disruption, and our friends and neighbors and parents of his friends have been phenomenally supportive and helpful; just knowing they are there in case we need them to take Eli for an evening or a night is the most amazing help–even if we never need to take them up on the offer. Another blessing!

Now I need to go deal with the house. And oh yeah…amidst all of this today, my cell phone croaked! So an emergency replacement will arrive tomorrow…so I have to stay home and WAIT for it before returning to the hospital. AAAARGH. At least Verizon was understanding and cooperative and helpful, and tolerant of my crankiness (for which I apologized in advance, explaining I was ultra-stressed and why). Paul and I are both holding up well. As I said before…the fact that Joshua is alive makes these incredibly serious fractures and some complications seem minor in comparison. Blessed again.

I think there are many more angels out there than I ever realized.

The following tutorial builds on the article published in the August/September 2007 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine. The Pillowcase (or bagged back, or escape hatch) finish for a small art quilt is simply a one-piece facing that covers the entire back of an art quilt. This method is useful if you have lots of knots or carried threads that you wish to cover, for example after extensively beading a piece. For larger quilts (or even small ones) you may not wish to cover the entire back. Instead, you can use facings. On a quilt with straight edges, like Koi, you can use a straight strip of cloth as I did here on the back / under / second side of this quilt. However, just like a dress neckline, facings work well on curved and irregular shapes. From the front, you can’t tell if this quilt is a Pillowcase backing or a faced edge:

Facings:
Borrowed from dressmaking, a facing is simply a piece of fabric that echoes the outside edges that is turned completely to the back side of a quilt. Large and small quilts with irregular edges are great candidates for facings!

1. Cut a strip of fabric that extends ½ inch beyond the outside outermost edge and 2-plus inches towards the center of the quilt from the innermost “innie”.

2. Pin the facing to the quilt top, right sides together, on the back side of the quilt.
3. Sew a ¼ seam (photo below, left)

4. Trim excess fabric from the seam allowance.
5. Clip /notch curves, clip inside corners and trim outside corners.

6. Press the seam as stitched. Fold facing over the seam allowance and press again.

7. Edgestitch facing to seam allowance a scant 1/8” from seam line; this will encourage the seam allowance to stay put and not try to roll back to the front. (photo above right)
8. Fold facing to the back, “favoring” the edge. The little bit of green that you see in the photo below is the “favored” edge, which is a bit of the front rolled to the back.

9. Iron the seam allowance and facings towards the center of the quilt. (See Step 9, above)

10. Turn under the edge of the facing and stitch in place. See the photo about edgestitching to see the turned, pinned edge.

11. Repeat on the other sides, turning under the short ends of the facing and stitch down to create a completely finished facing.

The double-fold bias binding with a mitered corner is probably the most familiar edge finish for contemporary quilts. In the set of mini-quilts I made for my forthcoming article on bindings in Quilting Arts magazine (August 2008), I created an outside edge that includes corners, a point, and inside and outside curved edges which covers most of the challenges you will face.

I hope you’ll check the forthcoming issue (due on stands and in mailboxes near you at the very end of July and early August) for more details. Because there is only so much space available, they didn’t have room to include instructions for “any-width” bias binding, only 1/4″ bias binding. I actually prefer this technique to the one described in the article, so you have my permission to make ONE copy of this blogpost, for you personal use ONLY (since I make a living, albeit modest, teaching and selling quilts, thank you in advance for respecting my copyright!).

As soon as the article is out, I’ll insert a picture of the mini-quilt here. In the meantime, the close-up above of a good mitered binding will have to do! Thanks for understanding!Cut your binding strips SIX times the width of the desired binding, plus ¼” (or up to ½” extra if you’d like a little more wiggle room). For a binding that finishes at 3/8” that is [(6 x 3/8) + 3/8 = 18/8 + 2/8 = 20/8 or] 2 ½ inch wide strips. Sew your binding strips together with a ¼” seam allowance until you have the length of your quilt perimeter plus several inches. The seams are on the straight grain, so when folded they run at an angle to the side of the quilt (making them less noticeable). Fold the strip in half lengthwise, finger-pressing or lightly pressing with an iron.

Think Boomerang: first the binding goes away, then it comes back:

1. Sew binding strip to the quilt edge, beginning at least four to six inches from a corner, and leaving a tail of about four to six inches (on large quilts, 12 inches or more is better), figure 1. In North and South America, Europe, and Africa, since we read from left to right and top to bottom, I like to start the binding on the lower left side, where the join is relatively unnoticed as the eye travels in its accustomed path across a quilt. Loosely run the binding strip around the quilt to make sure a seam doesn’t land on a corner (too much bulk); if it does, adjust your starting point slighly.

2. When stitching is about 2 inches from corner, fold the binding strip back on itself exactly on the edge of the quilt and finger press. You may wish to mark with a pin or chalk to see the line better. Diagrams 2

3. Fold the binding strip UP so that the marked line is now exactly even with the top edge of the quilt; finger press a crease at the 45 degree line. Mark with chalk on the inside of the binding if you need to improve visibility. Diagram 3

4. Continue to sew the seam until you reach the 45 degree chalk line. Backstitch 3 or four stitches. Diagram 4.

5. Pull the quilt out from under presser foot and (this is the boomerang part) : first fold the binding away on the marked lines, then back down so that the binding turns the corner and goes down the next side. Diagram 5.

6. Stitch from the very outside edge of the quilt down the next side. Diagram 6.

7. Repeat at the other corners.

8. Stop stitching about 4-6 inches from where you began.

After you have used this method enough, you will be able to fingerpress and eyeball the corner turns instead of marking.