Aspen Tree

Yesterday was a stay-at-home day for me. Usually, I would swim on Thursday, but I took yesterday off because it was my only chance this week to stay home all day. I don't know about you, but I have to have at least one day at home to collect myself. My plan was to do some housework...of which I did none...and then to do some sewing. I pretty much farted around all day (although there was no actual farting), and didn't get to my sewing until late in the day. I wanted to get started on my Let's Book It project for June. I'm making this Aspen Tree from a book by Jean Wells.

It's a little different technique from what I'm used to. The "portrait" (her word, not mine) of the Aspen tree is a sort of mini quilt framed by a larger quilt. What appears to be a stop border in the rust color is actually a binding. It is sewn to the center panel, and then laid on the larger piece of green fabric, then stitched down using monofilament thread. This seemed like a lot of trouble to me at first blush, but then I saw a quilt constructed in the same way while I was shopping quilt shops on Wednesday. I liked the look of it, and so I'm going to give it a try; "try" being the operative word in that sentence. (You know this often doesn't go well for me.)

So I already had the applique template enlarged.

I decided the easiest way to proceed was to trace the template onto the back using my lightbox (in effect, reversing the image for fusible applique). It seemed easier than trying to trace it to the fusing medium using my lightbox because the template is substantially larger than the lightbox. So I did that:

Only this turned out to be a complete waste of effort because when I had finished this step, I thought to check the image in the book. That was when I realized that the template was already reversed. Oy.

Okay, so then I was ready to turn the template back to the right side and trace it onto the fusing medium. It was large enough that I decided to use painter's tape to tape it down to my cutting mat, thereby avoiding shifting as I went. For this, I just needed the tree.

Also, I needed to cut my background piece, and then I fused the tree to the background. When it was time to quit for the day, I had also begun fusing the leaves.

And that was as far as I got with it yesterday. Today's plan is to fuse the rest of the leaves, but I'll be setting my timer and fitting in some housework as I go. As I've been writing this, I've been getting my exercise running up and down the stairs from my office on the third level to my sewing room in the basement. It seems Smitty has developed a taste for squirrel. Just let that sink in for a moment. And I think that's all I need to say about that.

Sue and I walked this morning, but it may be the last time we'll walk until fall. We're both doing a lot of gadding about this summer, and I'll just say that Sue did not check in with me about her schedule. She managed to be gone the times when I'm home, and home the times that I am gone. So there you go.

And with that, I'd better go check on how the SpotBot is doing cleaning up the dining area in my sewing room. Before I go, I'll say this: If you have pets or young children in the house (or messy adults), you need a SpotBot. Seriously.