First Block

This morning I did all the fusing for the first block on my new project, "It's Raining Cats and Dogs". Here's a picture of the finished quilt from the pattern:

Yesterday, I made the background for the block, and so this is where I started this morning.

If you look at the pattern picture of the block shown below, you can see that I turned the four-patch on the right in the wrong direction. I thought I had it right when I sewed it, but there it is...turned 90 degrees. Doh! Ordinarily, I wouldn't be so picky about this, but I knew it would be the only thing I could see every time I looked at this quilt forever after. I decided to fix it before going on. As much as I shrink from perfectionism, sometimes it's better than living with one's mistakes. And in this case, it was easy enough to fix.

So once I had that done, I fused the dogs. Dogs. Now that's a switch.

And let me tell you, Smitty did not like it...not one little bit.

So once I had the dogs fused, I went to work on the house. My scrap stash is a little light on browns and grays, and so I'm often using the wrong sides of fabrics for this project. That goes for the pinks too since many of my pinks are very bright, and I'm trying to stick with pastels. It's working out okay. I still might go in search of a few more appropriate fat quarters before I start on the next block.

So the fusing on this block is finished. Now I'm going to top-stitch along the edges of the pieces. Also, it has some embroidery and a few little embellishments. For one thing, I need to embroider "Pampered Pooch" onto the house. Or is that a doggy hairdresser's shop? Also, I'm going to machine embroider the window panes onto the windows, and I'm going to use hot fix nailheads on the left dog's collar, both dogs' eyes, and the door knob. And then this block will be finished. I'm thinking another good long sewing session like I had today, and I should be able to wrap it up.

Fortunately, the next block has some cats in it. That should keep me in good stead with my furry friends. Here's a sneak peek of the pattern picture for Block 2. 

Once I have the first block finished, I'll set this project aside until next time. I'm getting ready to make a label for the Love Me, Love My Cat quilt. Also, I need to put a hanging sleeve on it so that I can ship it off to the Road to California show. It needs to be there by January 10th, and I hate doing things at the last minute. Time to get moving.

That's it for my sewing day. How was your Friday the 13th? Lucky, I hope.