Spring's First Blush - Part X

Quilting and Constructing

Thank you for all the compliments on my new jeans and my daughter's new glasses!  I know the jeans aren't 100% perfect, but this is a good starting point and much better than when I started.  My daughter really is growing up fast, and she's a great girl.
 
I've enough panels quilted and prepared, so now I can start joining them together.  This is good because I can alternate between quilting the last of the two heavily quilted panels (details in another post) and the construction.  I just can't sit at the machine and quilt for hours on end, so this is a good break, as is everything else I need to do in life.

I've decided to use beaded strap seams for the side front and side back seams, and to use regular seams for the side seams.  I've also moved the zipper from center back (the original had a seam up the center back, I eliminated that), so the zipper will be in a side seam, another reason for the side seams to be stitched in the regular manner.

To start, I've basted the adjoining panels together and then marked out with pins the location of the beads.  There is 1/2" between beads.  As I stitch each bead in place, the pin is removed.  It is much easier to use the pins, as I do not have to mark the fabric and then remove the marks later. 

Once all the beads are in place and the basting is removed, a bias strip is centered over the seam and stitched in place using a running stitch.  This is the finished seam from the back:

This is the same seam from the front:

As you can see, the skirt is starting to take shape. 

There's plenty more work to do, but I don't mind the hand stitching.  Besides this initial design and artwork it is the part I enjoy the most.

Parting Shot:  Lily.  This is the first of these type of lilies to bloom this year.  The plants in general have done much better than in previous years.  I think it's because I got out the insecticide right away when I saw the little beetles that devastate these plants.  Once the rains stops today, I think I'll give them another spray, it has been a couple of rainstorms since I sprayed them.  I'd like to have more flowers!