First August Finish

Well, I'm happy to say that I've finished quilting and binding the Happy Campers quilt. It's finished in plenty of time to hang it in our 5th wheel before we take off for Minnesota at the end of the month. This ought to brighten things up a little:

Portland artist Rachel Austin graciously gave me permission to use her original art work to make a quilt. She does the cutest stuff. You can see more of Rachel's work here in her Etsy shop. I saw Rachel's work hanging in a restaurant some time ago, and only just recently got around to making the quilt blocks I wanted to make.

These are Rachel's original pictures as I saw them:

And these are the quilt blocks I made from them. 

There is enough going on in this quilt that I didn't want to add any more design with the quilting. I used invisible thread and just stitched around the edges of the applique and the embroidered lines.

Then I stitched around the blocks.

I stitched around the lines in the fabric, outlining the trailers, doors, and awnings to give them more dimension without adding more design (if that makes sense). It's a little hard to see in these next images, but I'm hoping you can get the idea. 

You might be able to see it better in this next image.

Now, I just need to hand sew the binding. The quilt is 30 x 30 inches, and so that shouldn't take very long.

In other news: They're coming! I've picked three ripe tomatoes in the past week. When I was looking at them yesterday, I noticed a dozen or more starting to turn red. I'm thinking that within a week or so I'll have enough tomatoes to start making salsa and pasta sauce.

We had one of these on our salad last night, and it was so flavorful...and red! It's amazing how much more brightly red vine-ripened tomatoes are when compared to the ones in the grocery store. This makes me very happy because I have to finish my canning before we leave on August 31st. I've been worrying over my tomato plants, willing them to ripen a little faster, and it looks like they're going to do it.

Today I'm taking Mr. Smitty to the vet. He needs worming and he needs his vaccines brought up to date. He eats one or two little rodents every day, which makes us very happy. There is a noticeable difference in the number of gopher mounds in our field. The squirrels have all packed up and moved, but a few strays have met with Killer Smitty. He is an amazing little hunter. Mike and I have never seen anything like it. Our thinking is that he is the progeny of feral cats, and the best hunters were the ones to survive and procreate. He was a shelter cat when we got him but, no doubt, he was rescued from the wild when he was very young.

This, of course, is both good news and bad news. For one thing, all that vermin has to mean he's carrying around some parasites in his digestive tract. And he's getting worse about bringing in his kill, and so we've closed off the doors to all of his favorite rooms unless someone is there to supervise his comings and goings. Just this morning I caught him with a mouse and made him take it outside. He's a smart little bugger, and he can learn too. It is going to mean more commitment from us to keep an eye on him.

So that's it from me for today. I'm off to get going on hand-sewing my binding. What's on your agenda today?