Turn on those Sad Songs

Good morning, my friends. It was the worst possible morning in cat land. It was raining...hard...and Smitty was relegated to the sheltered part of his catio.

The whole of the catio has a roof, but with the rain coming down so hard, he must have felt as if he needed even more cover.

Sadie was completely disgusted. How could we present them with such a terrible day of weather?

My morning was spent finishing off Block 7 of the Raggedy & Friends project. I'll set this aside until I'm ready to piece together the block.

There were some cookie ingredients I wanted to use up, and so I spent a little time making these Chocolate-chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries for Two. They were quick to make. We enjoyed those with our afternoon cup of espresso.

It seemed like a good day for a Bowflex workout, and then I got busy with my quilting. Before I started, I checked the quilt back to make sure I wasn't going to get any pleats.

I'm enjoying this dot-to-dot quilting. The designs evolve as I go, beginning with the spot where I put the needle down. It could be anywhere. I started this one at the center seam. My only rule is that I'm not stitching in the ditch anywhere. I can cross the seam lines, but I'm avoiding stitching in the seams. Here's where I started with this orange block.

I thought it needed a little more quilting around the outside, and so I added another line.

And then I finished off the door and the roof.

Here's how it looks from the back.

From there, I moved to the left for the purple block.

Here's how that looks from the back.

And then I finished off the right side of the row with this red block.

Here's how that looks from the back.

So now I've moved to the bottom row. I left it needle down right here.

This being the beginning of the month, it's time to set a goal for October's:

My goal for October will be to finish quilting and binding the Barnyard quilt currently under my quilting needle.

Let's check in on our despondent kitties. Smitty gave up and took an afternoon nap.

Sadie joined him.

Okay, so with my slow-stitching piece finished, I needed something new. I prepared the final block for the Grandpa's Bridges project. This will be the 12th of 12 blocks. These were all printed on Sticky Fabri-Solvy, and I took them along on a trip last year. When we returned from our trip, I put them into the regular rotation with my other embroidery projects. It's good to be starting on the last one.

But before I can do that, I need to stitch out the final names and places for the Shop Hop 4.0 quilt. I'll start stitching these this morning. They shouldn't take long.

I haven't looked at the calendar today, but undoubtedly, I have at least one housekeeping chore on the list. It's also a treadmill day, and so I'll get in a walk there. After that, it's sewing for the rest of the day. I'll get another row finished on the Barnyard quilt, and then I'll see what jumps out at me in the sewing room to finish off the day. If I'm going to link up at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this Saturday, I should probably get busy on October's kitten in a teacup.

What's going on in your sewing room today?

Quilt Shop: The Cotton Patch, Keizer, Oregon

Good morning, my friends. It was a successful outing to the quilt shop, in more ways than one. I had a couple of stops to make along the way, but I reached the quilt shop about 45 minutes after leaving home. In another life, I blogged about this quilt shop when they were at a different location. This was my first visit to this new location, although they've been at the new location for nearly three years. I'm fortunate to have a couple of good options closer to home, and so I don't get down that way very often. But since it was backing day, I made the trek. This must be the place:

Walking in the front door, it looked like this:

To my left was a long wall of fabrics.

Right in front of me...these pretty fall fabrics. I liked those patterns too.

Walking along the wall of fabrics to the back of the store, I turned around to see this row to my left.

It's not a large shop, but they managed to fit a lot of fabric into a smallish space.

And look at that! It's the Painted Ladies. They only did about one-third of the whole quilt for their wall-hanging.

Here's the version I made. Mine still needs quilting and binding.

Oh, and I was sorely tempted by this pattern. Regaining my senses, I realized I have enough cat patterns to keep me busy until the day I die. Still...it's tempting.

Uh-Oh...avert your eyes. Christmas fabrics. It's too early for that, if you ask me.

In this room were batiks. That's a classroom off to the left side of the image. There was a class going on there.

Okay, and so heading back the way I came, I noticed these bolts on a clearance rack. I didn't see anything there I couldn't live without.

To my left were these "mini bolts." They were come-as-you-are, meaning, you took the whole thing. No cuts. Kind of like an end of bolt sale. These appeared to be empty bolts that had been cut in half and then used to wrap these fabrics. Nothing there caught my eye either. 

I was really interested in these grays for my quilt. I liked the two you see there. I liked the scale of the one on the right. But I liked how the one on the left was set on the diagonal.

Walking a little farther on, I found this one at the scale and on the diagonal as I wanted it. That was an easy choice. I got four yards of it. With the backing day discount, one yard was free.

I don't know about you, but I think this is a perfect back for my Scrappy Plus quilt.

And then I headed back to the front of the store to have another look at those fall fabrics. I liked this one to finish off my pumpkin stitchery. Probably, I only needed one yard (or less), but I liked this one enough that I asked for two yards.

It has all the right colors to finish off my pumpkin.

And then...look at this. I love this design as a back for the Kittens in Teacups.

The color seemed wrong to me, though, and so I included the manufacturer in my photo, and then went online to see if it came in a different colorway. And it does!!! So I found this one on Etsy, and I bought four yards of that.

And I don't know if those colors are any better, but I liked them better. I'm still making the Kittens in Teacups. Here are the blocks I have so far.

I'm getting ready to make another block for October. This is the fabric I've selected for the cup. I'll give it a brown handle and base, in keeping with October's black and brown colors.

Now, you might think I picked up that fabric in Alaska, but I did not. It actually came from a quilt shop in Thayne, Wyoming.

So, with all that running around, I didn't do any sewing yesterday. The morning started with me taking the first stitches on Block 7 for the Raggedy & Friends project. Aside from that, I got nothin'.

So, today I'll get back to my quilting, starting right here:

Since I'm only quilting one row at a time, I should have time for some other sewing today. I'll make a back for the Scrappy Plus quilt, and then I'll get busy making October's block for the Kittens in Teacups. Those blocks are time-consuming, and so that will probably take up the rest of my sewing day. If there's more time in the day, I'll get back to my Sashiko project. The reveal is November 1st, and so I need to finish it off. I looked at fabrics for that while I was at the quilt shop, but I didn't see anything I liked better than what I've already pulled from my own stash.

Okay, so a busy day ahead. I guess I'll get to it.

Bleats and Pleats

Good morning, my friends. Yesterday I was whining about the rain arriving just as I was preparing to drive a fair distance to a local quilt shop. As it turns out, the weather gods were merciful. I'll have a short window of dry weather for my drive today. I'm heading south to the Cotton Patch. It's "backing day" today. I can get a discount on backing fabric if I bring in my finished quilt top. I'll be showing up with the Scrappy Plus quilt top. 

It's been a while since I've been to the Cotton Patch, and they have a new location now. I'll be able to see their new shop while I'm at it. I'm also looking at fabrics to finish off my Sashiko piece. It should be a fun little outing.

And say good-bye to September, my friends. We'll be into October tomorrow. Fall color is showing up here at the Three Cats Ranch. When I sat down at my quilting machine yesterday, this is what I could see from my window.

In about a week or so, this tree will be bright red. From my other window, where I'm sitting right now, I can see this tree:

This one will turn a brilliant orange before it starts to drop its leaves.

So I had a housekeeping chore on yesterday's calendar. While I was at it, I imposed on Mike to help me hang a new quilt on the big wall downstairs. This is Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. Since I'm putting out pumpkin and candy corn runners upstairs, I figure the downstairs should have some Halloween action too. This is the most complicated embroidered/pieced quilt I've ever made, and so it makes sense to display it on occasion.

Later in the afternoon, I was able to get back to my quilting. I'd been puzzling over how to quilt the doors and roofs for the barn quilt blocks. I wanted to do something that could be consistent from block to block. I finally settled on this dot-to-dot design. If I start at the middle of the seam on the left, I can do this section without cutting thread.

I tried to figure out a way to continue on to the roof without cutting thread, but I couldn't see a way that satisfied me. I finally decided to start a row of ziggedy-zaggedy stuff across that white strip in the middle, and then continue across the roof at the top. It's a little hard to see in this image, but the design ends up looking like upside-down kites.

Here's how that block looks from the back.

So I'll use the same design for all the roofs and the doors. Each quilt block will be a little different, but I'll continue on with the dot-to-dot style. It's a little tedious working with a ruler, but I'm only doing a small amount at each sitting. Here's the block to the left of the first one.

And here's the block to the right.

From there, I flipped it over to see the back. Here's where the bleating and pleating comes in. Good grief. I quilted a pleat into the back.

And then I bleated: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

Happily, there were only a few offending stitches there.

I took them out from the back where I could best see the area that needed repair. On top, you can see it was just a tiny bit. I ended up taking out the stitching until it reached the seam with the pink fabric. That gave me thread tails I could bury.

And then I carefully straightened and smoothed the back, and resewed that little bit. It isn't perfect, but it's good enough.

Here's how it looks from the back.

So that completed the first row of blocks. I'm not sure how I'll quilt this next one yet, but I left it needle down at the center.

Smitty helped from my desk on the far side of the room. A cat's work is never done.

So, I've already mentioned that I'm going to the quilt shop today. On my way home, I'll make a quick stop at the grocery store. I have just a short list of things we'll need to make it until next week. We'll do our big grocery shopping day next Tuesday, on senior discount day. That's also the day we're getting our COVID vaccines. I'm happy to say we were able to get into the study at our local teaching hospital. They're researching whether the side effects of a protein-based vaccine are any better tolerated than the current mRNA vaccine. We'll each be paid $40 just for getting the vaccine, and then another $80 each for filling out a daily diary for seven days noting any side effects. Not bad for a pretty simple job.

There probably won't be much time for sewing today, but most every morning starts with some slow-stitching. I finished the pumpkin yesterday.

It'll be set aside for the time being. I have a couple of other small quilt tops to finish first. Next up, embroidery-wise will be the 7th block for the Raggedy & Friends project...this one:

By rights I should be doing the 12th of 12 blocks for Grandpa's Bridges. I'm taking them out of order so that I can finish the Raggedy & Friends block before it comes up for piecing again. Also, I need to stitch the names and places for the final Shop Hop 4.0 blocks. When those two are finished, I'll get to work on Grandpa's Bridges.

Also on my stitching to-do's is to make October's Kitten in a Teacup. October's colors are blacks and browns. I've already selected my fabrics, but I'll see if there's anything I like better at the quilt shop. These are the blocks I have for that quilt so far.

Right now, it's time for some breakfast. I want to get an early start heading south to the quilt shop. The window of dry weather won't last long.