Hand Sewing

It seems like I have nothing to show for all the work I did this week. Monday night after work, my MIL and I went to the LQS and picked up fabric for the back of her quilt and some pants fabric for Paul and I. I'm making him shorts and PJ pants for me. I think they are going to turn out way cute. I also picked up some more flag fabric for binding on my Mt. Rushmore quilt. I worked on the hand sewing of binding on the friendship quilt and sewed all the blocks together for a going away gift my co-worker Karen and I are making.
I worked on the binding more at lunch on Tues. After work Tues. night we had supper at Qdoba, my favorite fast food place. My mom needed us to haul a chair for her, so we went home and got my pickup and picked up the chair and took it to her. She gave Paul a box of fresh baked cookies, so he was happy. When we got home, I made and sewed the binding to the front of my Mt. Rushmore quilt. I started hand sewing it down, but I kept poking one spot on my finger and had a huge hole, so I quit. I bought these Milliner hand needles on the recommendation of a quilter who's had numerous quilts in big shows and won, so I figured she had a good idea of what needles work best for hand sewing binding. They are awesome, compared to the el cheapo needles that come with el cheapo sewing kits. You all know the ones I'm talking about... pair of scissors that won't cut anything, a measuring tape that isn't long enough to measure a whole lot, thread that breaks when you pull it on those little itty bitty spools, a needle threader, and a roller for using with tracing paper (who uses those anymore).
I'm getting better at hand sewing and I don't actually mind it too bad now that I have new needles, but I've decided I need a good thimble. I bought a couple of those rubber ones, but they don't stay on my fingers. Last night I went to TSC and bought thread to quilt the quilt for our boss and picked up a leather thimble. I'm really impressed with it and it made a world of difference in my hand sewing last night.
I loaded the quilt Karen and I made and quilted it within an hour. It was so easy and looks really cool. It's all pictures and I did loops on it. Karen will put the binding on and then I'll get a picture. Our old boss leaves next Fri, but we hope to have it done by tomorrow, so everyone can sign the back. I had the tension up to 8 and it really made a big difference. I'm so happy with the way it turned out. I'm loving the speed control. I may have to save my money for the stitch regulator, but so far the speed control has fixed a lot of my issues. After I got done quilting, I hand sewed binding on the MTR quilt for an hour, but I'm only about 1/4 done with it, so I brought it to work to spend some time at lunch on it.
Tonight is Wind Up Round up at the store, so I plan to cut out the PJ pants and shorts and serge them all up and I have a few pillowcases I would like to make too if time allows.