Relaxing Day

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It has been a glorious day from start to finish.  The weather is perfect.  I had the whole day, and now the evening to myself.  Mike is off with Erik, and so I'm not cooking dinner tonight, and I can do whatever I want to.  Sometimes I'm completely Bohemian on a day like this, but today, I actually got dressed early in the day and went outside.  I posted earlier about my stroll through the garden with Smithers the Cat.  Even Gracie came outside toward the end of my walk around with Smitty.

I did some sewing today, but most of it was spent listening to the end of the book on tape I've been listening to.  I finished The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.  I'm a fan of historical fiction, and this was an excellent book.  The ending was so compelling that I couldn't tear myself away from it.  No matter, I sat listening and finished the 12th of 12 blocks for my Vintage Miniature Sewing machine quilt.  (Listening to books on tape and sewing is my favorite kind of multitasking.)

Her mouth was supposed to be done in gray, but I thought she needed some lipstick.  I decided to do it in a burgundy floss, but I'm thinking it might be too dark.  I may decide to take it out and use the lighter rose color.  It's only a few stitches.  What do you think? 

So the next thing I'll be doing with this one is to put borders on the blocks and then cutting the sashing and the quilt borders and turning it into a flimsy.  That probably won't happen until later on this summer.  It's good to have the embroidery all finished, and I have some pretty fabrics to make the rest of the quilt.

Next up for my newest embroidery project, I'm going to do a pattern by the talented Jenny of Elefantz called Wonky Houses.  It was originally a free BOM on her website, but it looks as if she's removed it now.  I tried to find a link somewhere else, but couldn't come up with it.  If you know where to find it, please do tell.  I thought it might be available for sale somewhere.  Anyway, here is how it will look when it's finished.

It says "Home Sweet Home" across the bottom.  I thought it might make a cute house warming gift for someone, but I don't have any plans for it.  The embroidered blocks are tiny, and so this one should go together pretty fast.

I spent the rest of my sewing day getting started on piecing together the first three sections of the Gardener's Journal quilt.  To have that as a goal for the month might have been a little overly optimistic.  I was thinking these were just a matter of adding borders to all the embroidered blocks I have, but they are actually pieced in tiny pieces.  Oy.  I'm just barely getting started and I've made a royal mess of the sewing room.  Here's what I have so far.

The two fabrics on the left are for my two quilt borders.  I've always seen this quilt done in reds and browns, but I'm doing mine in blues, grays, aquas, and browns to match the border fabric.  I'm making it kind of scrappy since my blues drawer is overflowing into three rooms in the house.  At least, it would be if I wasn't so big and strong about stuffing it all back into one drawer.  (I keep a crowbar next to the drawer so that I can open it again after said stuffing.)  So I didn't get very far with this when I decided it was time to quit and get little kitty inside for the night.  Before quitting, however, I cut out thirty little 1 1/2 x 1 1/2-inch squares that will be sewn into two patches and then sewn into little checkerboards.  See what I mean?  Lots of tiny little pieces.

I'll save that for tomorrow.  For tonight, I have some leftover chicken in the fridge, and I'm just about to go eat it.  The weekend is supposed to continue with warm temperatures and "wall to wall sunshine" as our newspaper put it.  We, here in Portland, simply cannot contain ourselves when we get such good weather this early in the year.

How did your Friday go?