Insanity by the Numbers

It was a chilly day in the sewing room yesterday. It was possibly the hottest day we've ever seen here in 15 years at the Three Cats Ranch. We're generally 10 degrees cooler here than in the valley, and our thermometers were reading 100°F. That meant the air conditioner was running for most of the day. Although we have the vents closed off in the basement, they still leak some air, and it was like a refrigerator down there. I had to come upstairs about every half hour or so, just to get warmed up.

It was okay though because the chill kept my mind sharp for the scrub jay. All I can say is that I should have enlarged it more so that the little pieces would have been a little larger. Oy. I'm not kidding...those suckers are small!

That picture was taken as I worked on the last and most difficult section for the day. It's probably the most difficult section for the quilt. It's comprised of the pieces that make up the area between the birds legs...not to be pornographic or anything. The bird is fully clothed, after all. I drew it in such a way that it preserved the fringy section there.

It might have been easier just to draw a straight line and call it good. When I took the class from Ann Shaw last time around and drew in my brother's hair, Ann showed me a way to preserve that look.

By making a little zig zag there, it avoids having the hair look more like a cap or a helmet. I decided I could pull it off with the bird too.

Miss Sadie has been my fabric consultant, helping me with fabric choices. She lies on the ones she's rejected, leaving me to choose among the ones that are not weighted down.

You can see that fringy piece at the very bottom. This was where I left it for the day, only...

That bottom section just isn't right. I should have a straight line extending thus:

But I couldn't get the edges to match up there. From experience, I've learned this means that a piece in that section is not oriented correctly. I studied this for a half hour, at least, comparing the shapes and numbers to the original drawing. I simply could not figure it out. If I leave it as is and try to work with it, it's going to haunt me when I try to sew it to the section on the left...and probably when I try to sew the section below. In other words, it will throw off everything around it. 

With the pieces so small, and because I hadn't lost any of them yet, I decided to take them off and start over...just re-cut and re-sew the whole section. Before I start, I'm going to line the pieces up on my work table and highlight the adjacent edges with different colors of highlighter. Then, there will be no question how they are oriented. Perhaps it will go together more smoothly. With that in mind, here's where I left the piece when I walked out of the sewing room for the last time yesterday afternoon.

Sadie helped me to select some fabrics to audition for the small inner border on the left. I'm leaning toward the one on top or else the one on the bottom. The one on the bottom is my current favorite.

If you're wondering about the orange, I'm choosing it because of the orange-ish poppies in my other background, but also because it is the complementary color to blue. I like the greens on the one at the bottom, and I'd probably choose greens for the branch where the bird is perched...just to reuse that color. As I make fabric selections, I continue to ask myself, "What would Ann Shaw choose?" And then I do what she would do. If it ends up looking terrible, I can blame her for the resulting abomination.

Despite the hot day, the evening was lovely. Mike and I took a walk around the garden. Some of the echinacea have finally opened. I'm afraid something has chewed the petals of the one on the right. I'm guessing the squirrels have been after it.

A few of the sunflowers are developing buds.

And some of the hydrangeas are beginning to open.

All of the tomato plants have flowers now. I'll be re-potting them into their largest pots of the season either today or tomorrow.

This morning we're meeting up with Matthew for breakfast in downtown Portland. After breakfast, we'll take a walk along the waterfront. The weather is significantly cooler today, and so it should be a nice morning. I'm hoping to get back to the scrub jay this afternoon if I have some time.