Basting always goes smoother when you have help.

Or maybe not.

After the last quilt I basted, I swore I'd never crawl around on the floor again.  Especially after I recovered from a serious brain fart and realized we had a gorgeous dining room table that was plenty big for quilt basting.
I got the backing smoothed out and clipped to the edge of the table, and started laying out the batting.
This caught the attention of our cat, Lynx.
It became like a dance.
Pat the batting.  Remove the cat.

Pat the batting.  Remove the cat.

Here he's trying to help smooth out the batting by rolling on it.

Pat the batting.  Remove the cat.

Despite all the help, I got the batting reasonably smooth and started laying out the top.

His claws actually worked rather well for nailing the layers together.  Whether I wanted them nailed or not.

Pat the top.  Remove the cat.

I don't know which of us was more patient through this process - him or me.  He did keep trying to point out to me how hard it was for him to reach the quilt from the floor.  "How can I help you when I'm way down here?"
But when I reached the needle and thread stage, I finally had to give up and put him outside.  Because "String!!!"  He absolutely could not stop chasing the thread as I tried to baste the layers together.
He spent the next half hour right outside the door, complaining.  Apparently he was willing to forgive my Extreme Rudeness if I would just come open the door so he could get back in.  And play with String!!

Finally!

(And I have to mention that when I got all done and opened the door to let the cat in, he rocketed through the door and immediately jumped up on the quilt.  Just to show that he could.)

Next stop, machine quilting.  Wish me luck!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming

We hope.
I was gratified to find that what I'd thought was an SD card slot on the front of the tower in the picture of the computer when I ordered it, did indeed turn out to be exactly that.  That was a feature that I had missed from my computer-before-last.  (I've had my issues with card readers in the last couple of years...)  (Apparently I am a serial killer of card readers.)  (Not purposely.)  (Of course.)

Now let's see if I can upload pictures...

Woohoo!  That worked!  It's a picture of Garden Party with borders.  And sunbeams.

And here's a close-up without sunbeams.

If luck is with me, I'll be basting this orange wonder tomorrow.
Experimentation with machine quilting will commence as soon as I feel sufficiently courageous. 
Somebody cover me...

I'm only checking for the UPS guy once every 10 minutes or so...

Quick post while I'm waiting for the new computer.
Twinkle has all the pieced borders attached, and I laid it out to measure for the outer borders.  I like to measure each edge and through the center, hoping that the three measurements will end up within shouting distance, for both height and width.   I was quite gratified to find that there was only a 1/4" variation between them, which is close enough for anybody's galloping horse.

Next I'll be holding my breath while I cut the final borders and get them stitched on.
Which means I had to run for the top I'm going to machine quilt first as a practice piece for the Big One.
Anyone remember this?

Yay, Garden Party!

A nice orange border,

and a flashy flowery orange back.

Nothing like some nice fall colors as we lurch into spring!

And I finished the center medallion for the 365 Challenge quilt - here it is at midpoint,

and all put together.

That's an 18" block, which just seems tent-like when you consider my usual scale.  It sure felt huge as I was sewing that last set of pieces around the outside.

(By the way, I've checked three times for the UPS guy while typing this and loading pictures.  Not yet...)

I didn't get any other piecing done, what with wrestling giant blocks and endlessly long borders, but I'm still plugging along through this book looking for the actual name for some of the blocks I'm making for the RSC. 

It's an interesting book, but weirdly organized.  The blocks are divided into categories like 'square', 'diamond', and 'circle', with each category filled with every block that could be said to have a square, diamond, or circle anywhere in it.

To me, categories like 'four-patch' or '60degree triangle' would be more useful and easier to search, but this is the book I have, so I continue thumbing through a dozen or two pages whenever I have an idle moment.
The problem, of course, is the problem I have thumbing through any collection of quilt blocks.

Wouldn't all three of those make great scrap quilts?  I certainly need more ideas, right?