Flattened

So I was supposed to walk with my friend Sue this morning. Since there's an 80% chance of rain (which in Portland translates into: it will rain 80% of the time), I dug out my rain gear (because I'm nothing if not intrepid), put on my winter woollies which includes my chapstick, my ear-warming headband, my packet of kleenex (for my terminally runny nose), switching out my custom orthotic into my walking shoes (yes, I'm old), layers of warm clothing, cat socks, let's see...have I left anything out? Oh yes, my cell phone to satisfy Mike's concern for my chances of breaking an ankle and needing to dial 9-1-1, and let's see...what else? Oh yes, my glasses because I need to stop at the grocery store on the way home, which means I need to be able to actually see something. I guess that's about it. Oh yes, my keys. And I run to the car because I'm always feeling as if I'm running a few minutes late. I jump in the car, start it, and then, hmmmmmmm. Something feels a little "off". Even more off than usual...somehow I feel even more out-of-balance than I'm accustomed to feeling.

So I jump out of the car, and uh oh.......

Well. This is a problem. (Full stop.) I briefly consider my options...none...changing tires is definitely not in my job description. If it can't be fixed with a needle and thread or a little Kitchen Bouquet, then I'm not fixing it. 

So I dashed back into the house to call Sue, and I managed to catch her just before she left. That was a huge relief. I would hate to have stood her up. Sadly, we can't walk now for a couple of weeks because both of us are busy doing different things.

So, all of that to say I suddenly have a lot more time on my hands today than I anticipated. This isn't a bad thing because I'm cooking dinner for eight people tomorrow, and that means I have a lot to do today. Only now I have more time to do it. (Big sigh of relief.) Now that I'm moving at a much more leisurely pace than I started at, I have time to write a blog post. So here goes:

Remember how I went on about this fabric in yesterday's post? 

Well, forget I said any of that. After spending more time thinking about it and looking at it yesterday, I decided that as much as I wanted those little squares to be a perfect fit for the template, they weren't exactly right.

They were off by just a smidge. I measured the finished size of the block against the fabric and realized that this was a recipe for disaster. So I decided to go back to the original pattern plan of making rail fence blocks for the background and piecing it together. As it turns out, I'm glad I did, because I love the way this turned out.

They're odd colors with odd little names. The pattern used words like "cerise" and "peri" to describe the colors. So I turned to my good friend, Google, (have I said lately how much I love the internet?) and typed in "What the F color is 'cerise'?" Actually, no. I was more polite. I said "What color is 'cerise'?" And Google informed me thus:

Absolutely amazing. I went with "irresistible". I mean, how could I resist? Ha!!!

As for "peri", I was pretty sure that meant "periwinkle", but I typed in my question anyway and came up with:

Amazing. 

The brown color was described as "espresso". I didn't need to Google that, and the black was, surprisingly, "black". Not "tar" or "how-it-looks-where-your-brain-should-be". 

For the pickets across the top, the colors were described as "eggplant," "moss," and the uninspired, "green". Okay, so I didn't look those up. I figured I could wing it on those descriptions. There is always the possibility that they might have been referring to those sort of albino eggplants, which creep me out, but I went with "purple". There I go being all unimaginative again. Anyway, this is how it ended up.

It's good we've had this little chat about color today, don't you agree?

So with those colors all pieced together and laid out, I ended up doing the cat in yellow again, rather than the purple I originally intended to use. I can still use the purple for one of the remaining six cats. Here's how it looked when I quit yesterday:

I still need to do the top-stitching. I'll be adding a hot fix nail head to the cat's eye and then I'll need to add the checkerboard border. There are also a couple of pieced cornerstones, but I'm hoping to have this block finished before day's end.

After that, I'm going to move on to quilting the Vintage Miniature Sewing Machines quilt. That will probably have to wait until Sunday, however.

I have a couple of ideas about how I'm going to quilt this, but I'm still not sure which one it will be. It's been my experience that I won't know until I sit down at the machine and press my foot to the foot pedal to see what comes out of my needle. It's a little like how I blog, never really knowing what I'm going to say until I see what my fingers type. You couldn't tell, could you?

And just for grins, I wanted to show you this thing about cats. Any cat lover will tell you that cats are masters of alternative uses for everyday items. There is a place in my pantry where I toss things that I intend to take with me when I go out the door next time...various favorite purses and packs for various functions, items to be recycled, coupons, outgoing mail, and my reusable grocery sacks once I have them unpacked. Smitty thinks the reusable grocery sacks make excellent napping places.

And when it comes to napping, who can argue with a cat?