Over or Under?

There isn't much to tell you this morning. I spent most of yesterday working on Block #39 for the Live, Love, Teach quilt. This is the block submitted by Kim:

Here is my rendering of Kim's block:

The question I had with this one was whether to applique the dark orange over or under the lighter orange. In the end, I decided on under, where it would appear in nature. The next question was which fusible to use for the applique.

There's an ongoing competition in my sewing room between Heat 'n Bond Lite (my usual fusible) and Wonder Under. It's annoying, I'll tell you, with each product shouting, "Use me! Me, me, me!"  It's pretty darned hard to hear my audio book with all that racket. These are my observations this week: Wonder Under seems to have the advantage of being a bit less stiff at the finish. On the other hand, it could be just my imagination. It's always hard to embroider through applique, and so I opted for the Wonder Under on this piece, reasoning that if indeed it's less stiff, it will be easier to stitch through. Not so. It was still just as much of a bugger as Heat 'n Bond is; however, I will say that I think it gummed up the needle less. Don't take any of this as gospel. I could write a blog post next week saying just the opposite. And that's my definitive opinion. You're welcome.

Sad news on the home front this morning:

Miss Gracie is sick and spending at least one night in the hospital. She's been vomiting an awful lot...nearly every day, and yesterday she grew listless and spiked a fever. She had no appetite for food or water until Mike set it right in front of her. She did eat and drink a little then, but didn't keep it down. Each time we moved her yesterday evening, she whimpered in discomfort. This morning she was hiding in the back of the closet in my sewing room...the place she goes when she's most afraid or uncomfortable. She's wobbly on her feet as well, which I imagine is from dehydration, as much as anything else.

Mike took her into the vet this morning, and they'll keep her at least over night. They'll run some labs and get her hydrated again, and then we'll see how the old girl is doing. She's 14, and so not a spring chicken. We've had many cats, and only two have lived to be older than she is now. We're hopeful we'll still have more time with Gracie, but we're also being realistic. Of course, I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

We had a little break from the rain, but we're expecting more rain and high winds today. Here are the opening paragraphs from this morning's news:

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The National Weather Service says a "significant wind storm" is expected in the Portland area Monday, bringing wind speeds of up to 65 mph to the city.

Expect to see about .66 inches of "horizontal" rain due to the wind, according to KATU Meteorologist Dave Salesky.

Yep. Oregon at its worst. It's been raining almost nonstop for weeks. I tend to move more and more slowly with so little sunlight, and today is no exception. I have a little bit of housework to do, and then I'm hoping to do a little quilting. Hopefully, the power will stay on. On the other hand, I may end up sleeping too. It's anybody's guess.