Endings and Beginnings...

Mark the calendar, I finally got the binding done on my Gee's Bend Wanna Be quilt. It's not a big deal, I know, but right now, every 'finish' is a victory in the ongoing vision battle! This was a playtime project while on a previous retreat. Betsy had been sewing up dozens of string type blocks, and I got to play in her strips plus a few of mine. Gee's Bend quilts were the BIG thing in the news, so I figured "what the heck?" and went to town. I'm happy with the results and have another Gee's Bend type 'thingy' floating around in my head.
In the mean time, here's a look at the utility quilting, what there is of it..LOL. Nothing much shows up again the strips(might just be my vision) so I used #5 perle cotton, slow going as it's thick to pull through. I'm not sure there is enough quilting, but as I said, I've had a hard time with this one for a couple of years now, and it's NOT big. While binding it, I realized that I could mark additional quilting lines on the light backing and quilt from back there. I've never bound before and then quilted, but what the heck....LOL. I know some of you gals do that, so I'm giving it a try. I spent two or three very busy hours out in the garage this afternoon, and really wore myself out. But I got a ton of stuff sorted, some for DD, some for friends and
some for donating. I consolidated the box of small batting pieces onto the larger batting pieces box and elimated one box. Some stuff put on shelves, their new permanent home...at last! And I hauled some things into the house that I must find a place for. More is going than what is staying, and that's good.
And I came across a 'treasure from the past' that I had forgotten I had. Imagine that? Long, long ago my elderly Aunt in KC sent me a package of 9 patches, made from scraps of shirting. She had worked in a shirting factory(in Chicago) in the 1930's and 40's. I had asked her for the handpieced Bow Tie blocks she had pieced to make my Dad a quilt. Instead she sent these 9 patches. How I can nicely say that instead of grateful I was disappointe?.....really disappointed. It would have meant alot to me to finish up the bow ties and make the quilt she never got made for her brother. So that plastic bag of blocks got dropped into a box of 'stuff', and has been there ever since. Dad has been gone since 1990. I was really surprised to find them today. I figured I owed it to the blocks, so
long neglected to do something with them. In the 'love them' department, I could quite happily pass them along to one of you. But since they are family, I'll hang onto them, I guess. I came in the house(tired for sure) and sat down and counted them. Most are hand pieced, a few are done on a treadle machine. I have 96 that are useable the way they are(with washing, drying and pressing) and 6 with some staining. It looks like it might be a rust stain that seeped upwards or downwards, getting lighter with each layer. I'm not sure if it will come out or now, but I'll give it a try. I can work with the 96 if the others don't clean up. Here is quick snap shot of them, and I used
a color enhance. They really aren't that bright. I'll do more pics tomorrow, and show you how they look naturally. All in all they are quite well done. No seams opening, quite square, with well matched seams.
I'm undecided about how to set them, and would appreciate any advice, block to block??? I'm thinking about maybe doing it by hand...which sounds a bit foolish even to me, but also sounds very appealing. Maybe just reaching into the basket, and join up whatever two I pull out??? I think they are 6.5" blocks, meaning it won't be a big quilt one way or the other.