It looks as if two blocks per day is going to be my limit for quilting Psycatdelic. It isn't completely fair to say that because I'm also quilting all of the checkerboard sashings as I go. It would be a good estimate to say that I'm halfway finished with it. Six blocks are quilted, one side of the border, and two vertical rows of sashings (as well as the associated horizontal ones). Here's what I did yesterday.
For this one, I just did some diagonal lines in the checkerboard background, some wavy lines in the blue fabric at the bottom, and then I stitched around the edges of all the applique pieces. Oh yes, and I put a swirl in all of the round applique pieces: the flowers and the sun.
That seemed like enough. I got a little pleat on the back when I did that one, and so I'm going to need to take out a short section of the stitching and fix it. I might also take out the diagonal line where I have a couple of little bobbles with the needle. Sometimes I get a little drag from the quilt catching on the edge of my table top, and when it lets loose, I get that little zag when I meant to zig. You know what I mean.
Then on this next block, I was a little unsure what to do. I didn't really want to put a lot of the natural colored thread on the dark background. It seemed as if it would be too distracting.
Then I remembered "Meow Minor" from when I quilted the Shoot for the Moon quilt.
That gave me an idea. As I've said many times, I can't draw worth beans; but that's not entirely true. If I can find something someone else has drawn, I can usually copy it pretty well. So, with that in mind, I went in search of a line drawing for a mouse, and I found this one:
All I needed to do was add some "stars" dot-to-dot style. Also, the tail was a little too much for the space I had, and so I changed it a little. Here's what I came up with:
It's primitive, but Mike recognized it as a mouse right away, and that's good enough for me. All I needed to do then was to add a few other things in the sky, stitch around the appliques, and my block was finished:
This fellow lost his eyes along the way. I found one on the floor at my feet, and the other one was ready to fall off. Obviously my iron wasn't hot enough when I attached them. I'll have to put new ones on when this is all finished.
We are celebrating Eliza's coming-of-age today. She has used up her first full spool of thread yesterday. I'm considering having this mounted to hang on the wall of my sewing room.
Today, I'm baking an apple pie for Pi Day tomorrow: 3.1415. I made the dough for the crust yesterday, and so today I'll roll it out, add the fruit, bake, and eat. I'll probably save a piece for when Mike gets home. I'm baking my pie today because tomorrow I'm going to take a needle felting class. We are making this dragon:
I'm imagining some of you might be saying, "Hey, whatever happened to the sheep she was supposed to make last month?" Or maybe not. We went ATVing instead, and so I switched my registration to this month's class. Just now I looked at their website so that I could copy that image, and I discovered that they're offering a two-fer class in April. I signed up right away. We'll be making a rabbit:
And I'll get another chance at the sheep:
If I have time this afternoon, I'll get some more quilting done...or maybe I'll just fix the parts I'm not happy with yet. And I'm thinking that's enough for one day.
We're expecting rain for the entire weekend, but today...none. Nada. Zilch. I'm going to get out and enjoy it. What about you? What's on your agenda for today?
11 comments:
Love your quilted animal constellations!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would love to make the dragon, my son used to collect them when he was little.
I finally made a piece, a rabbit so I will post that later tonight, not bad for my first attempt at a figure.
Debbie
Enjoy that outdoors while you can. The 'cats' are coming along delightfully - take your time. I would love to take a felting class - what fun it looks.
I think a dragon is much better than a sheep, I know you'll have fun.
Your cat blocks are adorably! I'm also loving the felted animals that will be a great class.
You're lucky to have such wonderful classes close by. Really liking the kittys. I bet that quilt ends up in a show somewhere. Enjoying nice temps in Minn. Good day for a St. Pat's Day parade locally. Our town celebrates on the weekend before the actual day. That way we can go to the next town and celebrate on the actual day. LOL
Pie Day? Tomorrow is pi day? Wo ho! What a great idea...I have apples in the freezer all cut up and ready to become a pie. Tomorrow! (PS love the mousie!)
Adding the big dipper was a good move--contextualized the mouse as a constellation. And the diagonals in the other block emphasize the cat reaching. Very cool. I like how you often design quilting block by block.
Love the mouse constellation! Very fun. Hope your needle felting class was a lot of fun.
You are pretty danged clever with your quilting :) And I am super excited to see your dragon... how cool!
Another new constellation! You are getting to be quite the astronomer Barbara!
It's been hot here - 90s even & beautifully clear. But allergy hell too. I was going to go to an art exhibit Friday, but took an allergy pill & fell asleep...it's OK though, went on Saturday instead. Hope you had a blast at the felting class.
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