Wednesday's Whereabouts

Usually I do my sewing in the afternoon, but today I switched things up a little. I opted not to spend my usual 30-45 minutes doing embroidery, and instead went into the sewing room to put in some more time quilting the Outback Sunrise table runner. On my calendar today was a follow-up and regular eye exam, and I figured they were going to dilate my pupils, which meant I probably wouldn't be able to see when I got finished. They did, and I could, but one can never be too careful about such things. I do have my priorities to uphold.

Anyway...so I went downstairs, and I was quite surprised to find my little furry pal all snoozed out on his bed in the sewing room. It seems his mornings are often not as busy as I think they are. Here I go thinking he's out harassing squirrels and keeping them clear of the area, when in reality, he's downstairs doing this:

He looked up and yawned sleepily when I came in the room, but then went back to napping.

I had about an hour and a half to sew before I needed to get in the shower, and so I was working away at the flames in the border. It took me a while yesterday to get a nice rhythm going with these meandering flames. I figured out that the best way to keep them looking tidy was to do a short one on the left, then a long one all the way across, then a short one on the right, then another long one all the way across, and so on, all the while keeping one's head bobbing rhythmically. The rhythmic head-bobbing is very important to this design. So I'm bopping and bobbing along when suddenly, my left index finger screamed in terror.

I came within a hair's breadth of putting that needle right through my finger. Yikes. And, of course, now I was captured. I ended up taking the glove off to free myself. After that, my poor finger needed a shot of bourbon. It was a little early for bourbon, but then it was a little early to nearly kill off one's finger too. Of course, I'm kidding about the bourbon. My finger prefers tequila. I'll admit that I was probably driving beyond the posted speed limit. Oh wait. There is no posted speed limit. I might have to lobby Congress for that, but then...oh, never mind. I'll just stick with blaming Obama for this near catastrophe.

So after that little scare I continued on and managed to quilt the rest of the table runner with no bloodshed. Quilting is a dangerous game, let me tell you. Definitely not for wimps.

I still had the binding to go, but it seemed a good idea to stop while I still had all my appendages. I got ready to go and then went to get my eyes examined. Query: Do you think the need for a new eyeglass prescription might have caused this near disaster? Nah. I like the idea of blaming Obama better, don't you? 

Also on my agenda was to pick up some medicine and then go to the YMCA and sign up for my Silver Sneakers benefit. I've mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again. With my medical insurance benefits, I have Silver Sneakers which allows me to use a number of gyms in the area FOR FREE! 

Originally, I signed up for Curves that way, but it turns out I can sign up at gyms all over town. Recently I was able to sign up at the pool where I swim. Then, on a recent swimming outing, a woman informed me that they have Zumba Gold at the YMCA and that I can sign up with Silver Sneakers there. It allows me access to the entire facility, and our neighborhood YMCA is very nice! So I did that too. I've been wanting to try Zumba, and with this being a "Gold" class, meaning it's designed for those born prior during the 15th Century, I figure it probably won't bother my old bones and joints too much. So that's my next room full of strangers to brave, but I'm going to do it!

So, feeling pretty smug about getting all those errands taken care of, I came home and finished binding the Outback Sunset quilt. And here it is:

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I think I switched out the fabrics half a dozen times before settling on these, and I'm thinking they work pretty well. This table runner is very long at 80 inches x 20 inches, and so it's hard to get a very good picture of it. Nevertheless, I'm going to give it the old college try (since I'm old and I went to college). The angles are a little odd, but there you go.

This was another one of those bindings with angles other than 90 degrees. I had to look back at an old post where I had a video posted to re-learn how to do it.

And now all that's left is to hand sew the binding. I figure I'll work on that tomorrow morning.

So remember a couple of days ago when I told you about our aggressive water? Recall that I waited all day for "the guy" to show up to refill our tank. He showed up about 15 minutes before I needed to leave for my guild meeting...a full hour and a half late. He claimed miscommunication with Mike, and who was I to argue? I had no idea who said what. In any event, he had to reschedule, and so purportedly he's coming tomorrow afternoon. We'll see. In any case, I'm going swimming in the morning, and then I'll come home and spend the afternoon sewing. I'm going to get started on my official March NewFO project, which is this Chili Rounder:

I saw this table topper made up in a quilt shop in New Mexico when we were traveling a couple of winters ago, and I'm going to get going on it. It's an interesting design. I haven't even opened the pattern yet, and so I'm hoping it won't turn into a nightmare project, as these unusual designs are wont to do. It was cute in the quilt shop, and so I have high hopes for it. And I'll just say I'm enjoying working on some smaller projects in 2014. I can start and finish one in a month or two, even with all my interruptions for distractions.

Mike called a few minutes ago to say he was on his way home, and that's my cue to get going on dinner. It was a good day here. I hope you had a good day too.