Ding Dong! The Ditch Work's Done!

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before. –Jacob A. Riis

When I started working on the machine quilting for this quilt, I planned to only stitch-in-the-ditch the main seams and maybe a few spots in the blocks where it was obvious that it was needed and fill in anything else as I worked on the individual blocks. But while I was stitching I decided that pretty much the whole quilt could use it and since I was going to do it anyway, I might as well do it all at once. I think I've been working on it for about three weeks now. I had interruptions and distractions but it is finally done and I've moved on to the fun stuff. Here's a peek at what I've been working on. I love how the center turned out on this block.

Can't even tell I stitched-in-the-ditch, can you ? All that work for something that doesn't show . . . but it makes a nice frame for the free-motion and I really like how stable it keeps the quilt, while you push and pull and fold and roll it to fit through the tiny throat of the machine. After I finished the SID, I started with my light pink thread and did everything that needs that color, so none of the blocks are finished yet. This is one of my favorite blocks and I wanted to do something really fun with the quilting.

I really like how this block is coming out too.

I'm going to change thread colors and see if I can get a few more stitches in before bed.

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