Fast Start, Slow Finish

Around noon yesterday, the Vintage Tin quilt started taking shape. After so much concern about seams, it was nice to sew two straight pieces together.

The sashing fabric looks good. It's black stars on a charcoal background, and that charcoal color is a perfect match for the floss. Then, I sewed the next stitchery.

After that, it was time to add those dastardly friendship stars. There was a little easing involved, but it's going to be fine.

With that center section done, I was ready to add the rest of the stitcheries and the Devil's Claw blocks. The pieced strip below the oil cans fit nicely.

As much as I love seeing all the pieces of a quilt take shape, I was ready for a break by that time. When I came back to it, I sewed the inner border to the whole.

Finally, I was ready to sew the geese. And DRAT!!! Just now looking at this picture, I realized that the upper border is sewn on backwards. Cover your ears because:  #@&*@!

Sigh. Honestly...I just now noticed that. Oh well. I'll need to fix it, but not today.

So here's the news from today. Sue is finally back from her Wandering-to-Wisconsin ways, and so we walked for the first time in about a month. And I'll just say right here that we are awesome!

We walked our usual Fanno Creek Trail where there's always something interesting to see. For one thing, we saw this neon caterpillar. I swear, he was actually this color. Sue held her cupped hands around him to see if he glowed in the dark. I'm going to say he was about two inches long. 

Also, we met this kitty. He trotted along on the trail ahead of us by about twenty feet. I was talking to him, but he ignored me, as any self-respecting cat would do. We followed him like that for about 200 yards, I'm guessing. Here's where it helps to speak Catonese. I happen to know that any cat who doesn't want to be petted will run off into the bushes and hide. This little cat just kept running ahead of us. Finally, I said, "You know you want it," and he flopped down on his back and started purring. I gave his belly a skritch and then tried taking his picture. That was where he drew the line. Besides, I had my finger over the lens, so what are you gonna do? Nevertheless, you can call me "The Cat Whisperer".

Our very first kitty was an orange tabby named Benjamin, and I've always had a weak spot for orange kitties. And, of course, there is always George, aka Captain Cat-tastic. (Sniff.)

So my morning was off to a fast start, but the slow finish came when I arrived home. I ate a little lunch, sat and iced my feet and my knee, and then sort of fell over on the couch never to be heard from again. Until now. 

There was just one more productive thing accomplished today. The Vintage Tin quilt comes with a label to embroider. I scanned the one included with the pattern:

Originally, it included the words "100 mph in a 55 mph zone" below the word "Speeding". I deleted those and added my own. This quilt is a gift for Erik's 36th birthday. He's my son from a different mother because I am entirely too young to have a 36-year-old child. After all, I'm only 32 myself. (Guffaw!) So here's how the label will look when I'm ready to embroider it:

"Over the Hill" should probably be capitalized, and I'll make that change. It was the only other thing I've done today, though, and so you can't really blame me for showing it off.

Now it's time to feed the starving birds and water the annuals. Then, I should probably hit the showers because Mike will be home in a couple of hours. 

How's your Monday moving along?