Heeeere's Gourdy!

I finished Gourdy and his gang yesterday evening and this morning he got hung out to dry up in the place of honor by the front door of the house.  I found a stick in the campfire wood pile that seemed to work just fine for this purpose, and now he and the guys are proudly on display.

Here's a close up of the banner.  I'm not sure which one is Gourdy but I'm picking the bottom orange guy.  The rest of the jacks are nameless---unless we call each of them "Jack."  That'll do, I think.

I was in a quandary as to how to finish off the banner since I'd quilted up the background piece and had supposed that I would bind it as I usually would do for a quilt. However, the addition of the hanging tabs and the "tongues" on the bottom were a problem.  If I included them in the binding, they wouldn't hang straight and if I didn't bind the thing, well, we all know how fraying happens, don't we?  I dug around in my bin of wools and found a piece of the Black Watch plaid fabric that was big enough for a backing and then I simply followed directions and stitched all around the piece with a machine overcast stitch.  In a few places, the white of the batting showed through, but a black Sharpie took care of that in no time.

I like my banner and I hope it brings a smile to our visitors this fall.  When I return from my trip, I'll get the pumpkins for the front flower bed and put out the Halloween ornaments and then I'll call it pretty darn good!

Today is another busy day--the last for awhile I think--as we leave for our trip at 8 tonight. I have the laundry going already, shopping list made out, things for Dan ready to be packed up in a special bag for him, and have decided in my mind what I'm going to pack to take along for the trip.  After I finish all of the above things, I hope to spend a few minutes in the sewing room, working on potholders for Elaine.  I called her yesterday and got ideas of what kind of colors and designs I should use and actually have all the fabrics I need in my stash, so it's just a matter of moving ahead with the projects.  She also asked me if I could make her a microwave bowl holder so when I get back home, I'll have to get started on that as well.

Got to get a move on--my personal ladies' maid has the day off so I have to do all the above packing things myself.  Sigh!  I'll likely be without internet while on the train and when we're in WA I'll be too busy to blog, but I'll tell you all about the trip when I get home. Maybe with some pics even!