10/26/16

Three Corner Cats

It was an early start to the day. I was awake somewhere in the 3:00 a.m. range, and couldn't get back to sleep. It seems I have about one day out of the week like this. There's usually something to blame. For now, I'm blaming our dark days. The sky is only just now becoming light and it's nearly 8:00 a.m. We're fairly high up on the planet, latitude-wise, and since we're still on daylight saving time, our mornings are dark. I pulled this chart off the internet just now showing our sunrise and sunset hours at this time of year.


You can see that we're getting less than 10 1/2 hours of daylight right now, and it will be down to 10 hours in about a week. That means we spend nearly 14 hours in darkness. Then, by day, we're shrouded in thick cloud cover, and so there is never much light. It might be time to break out the light therapy box. It will help when we go back to standard time, but that won't improve the cloud cover. These early starts usually mean a morning nap, and I think Sadie has the right idea.


Like all the cats I've ever known, she loves the quilts. She's looking pretty cozy there. I'll probably join her in a few minutes.

But let's back up to yesterday, shall we? Right after writing to you, I was excited to do the next part on the Sunflower Sampler that I'm stitching along with Lori Kennedy. The second part was to add the petals around the flower center.


Maybe I shouldn't have stitched it so fast because now I have to wait a whole week for the next part. Presumably, we'll start filling in the empty sections around the flower.

After that, I finished off the fourth corner of the 88 nine-patch blocks. (This seems to be my week for corners.)


And then, I was ready to start sewing the quilt top together. Here's the first block.


It didn't take long before I had the top row finished.


Hopefully, I'll finish the second and third rows today. When those are done, the rows will be sewn together with a horizontal strip of  13 nine-patches each...one between each row and another at the top and bottom. After that, it'll just be borders. It's getting close.

So what did I do in those predawn hours this morning? I stitched and stitched and stitched around the third corner of the binding for the cats. I'm a little more than halfway around, but I'd like to point out that 75% of the corners are finished.


And there you have it. (Yawn.) Think I'll join Sadie on the couch now for an epilogue to last night's sleep.

13 comments:

beaquilter said...

fabulous progress! love the gingerbread row AND the cat quilt

Vroomans' Quilts said...

You are on fire there girl! Love how the gingerbread houses are coming along - those crisp 9's just pop this piece. Snuggling with a furkid makes naps so much more cozy.

DeeDee said...

Your free motion gets more beautiful by the post. Nice job!

Lyndsey said...

Wow that gingerbread house quilt is going to be amazing. The nine patches really set off the embroidery.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Lyndsey....those nine patch blocks really make your embroidered blocks pop! Love it...cannot wait to see the finished quilt top!!
Thanks for sharing!
Sandra B
scb304@juno.com

gpc said...

The sunflower is aMAZing. Love the binding, love the gingers, and love the idea of a nap on a dreary winter day. Yawn.

ytsmom said...

We have a little more daylight hours than you, but luckily, most of those are sunny. It is amazing, especially in winter, how good some sunshine feels after a run of cloudy days. Wishing you some sunshine!

Susan said...

Progress on several fronts/quilts.

After finishing off the fourth corner of the 88 nine-patch blocks, I would say you have been around the block quite a few times and you are no longer backed into corners unless you count the one corner left to go on the cats quilt.

Everything is looking GOOD!


As for the Sunflower, you could always make another one while you wait for the next instructions or join the slow stitching movement.

allthingzsewn said...

This is gorgeous, How long (approximately) did the a block of embroidery take you to finish and did you color with crayons? If so did you set it with heat?

Marlene said...

The Gingerbread House Quilt is amazing-it's tempting to make it. The nine patch blocks really make the embroidery pop. Can't wait to see the finished cat quilt-loving it. I too hate the time of year with fewer daylight hours-luckily for us we're going into the longer hours st the moment-opposite to your part of the world.

Janet said...

Lots of great stitching going on in the wee hours. I know about being awake in the middle of the night. It happens to me a lot! Love the sunflower!

Kate said...

The Sunflower is looking great and so are the Gingerbread House blocks. I'm not going to like regular time, it means we leave the house in the dark and then leave work in the dark. At least now we have about 30 minutes of daylight when we get home.

Brown Family said...

We do not often think about how long the days are. It seems that after the time change it is dark by 5:30 pm!