Sunrise, Sunset

Yesterday, I spent the entire day outline quilting the applique, and then quilting the cornerstones and sashings for Shoot the Moon. I thought I might get it finished, but after spending so much time on it, I was tired of looking at it. It's about 3/4 finished, and it seemed like a good time to take a little break from it.

The new theme for

was announced yesterday. Did I give it away with the title for this post? Yes, you've guessed it: "Sunrise, Sunset". My mind went immediately to a project on my to-do list from this book:

This, "Sunset" quilt:

The whole thing caused me to abandon my planned project for the month for Let's Book It, 

and to do this one instead. I can do the other project next month (unless I get distracted by another challenge of course). These are stained glass applique projects, and they require doing a sort of reverse applique technique where one creates the "leading" for the stained glass from fusible and then the colors are fused in the reverse. I know...that doesn't make a lot of sense, but you can read this post if you want to see how it's done in more detail.

Anyway...I very carefully traced out the leading onto Heat 'n Bond yesterday, and today I cut out the leading.

Those of you with sharp eyes are going to look at that and say "Hey! Wait a minute! That's not what the original quilt looks like!" And you will be right, Grasshopper. That is because when I was cutting out the traced template, I made a most unfortunate and irredeemable error in my cutting. (Don't ask me because I don't want to talk about it.) I briefly considered stabbing myself in the throat with my scissors, but then recalled the wisdom of some folks on The Quilting Board who correctly opined that:

A mistake is just an opportunity for creativity. 

Besides, it's far preferable to stabbing oneself in the throat with one's scissors. And so I rotated my quilt 90 degrees and decided to put grass at the bottom. You'll see in just a minute.

First, I needed to set a trap for my little helper cat. Enter one empty box. It didn't take long, and I'd caught a cat.

He helped me hold the template down as I worked.

You would be right to wonder if this was truly a part of a plan, because it wasn't. Still, one must make the most of any situation.

So I got to work adding the color to my stained glass. I took a break for lunch when I got this far.

Then, I did a little housework, and went back to finish the rest of the quilt top. Honestly, I had no expectation that I would finish this today, but there you go. Persistence pays off.

Tomorrow, I'll sandwich and quilt it, and with a little bit of luck, I'll have this finished by Wednesday. 

The Project Quilting Challenge only gives us a week to finish our quilts. Since I'm going to be spending Thursday through Saturday at the Stitches in Bloom Quilt show this week, I need to have mine finished early. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I missed the deadline, but it would also be fun to meet it.

Tonight is my guild meeting. I've missed the last two. I'm forgetting right now who our guest speaker is tonight. With that in mind, I still need to finish up a couple of things around the house and eat something before it's time to take off. 

I had breakfast with Erik this morning, I did a little housework, and I finished a quilt top...all in all, a pretty good day.