Picking and Choosing

After my Saturday grocery shopping trip, how much unpacking do you think I did yesterday? I see some hands up over there...that's right...Zero. None. Nada. Zilch. That's not entirely true because every time I needed something that was still in the camper, I walked out, retrieved exactly that one item, and then came back in the house. Priorities, people. I had sewing to do.

So here's what happened in the sewing room. I'm happy to say that the binding is on Mumm's the Word now.

Since I didn't hand quilt along the edges of the quilt, it was a bit of a trick to get the edges straight. At this, I was unsuccessful, but close enough for a scrappy snuggle quilt. Just to be sure, I machine stitched a basting stitch around the outside edge and then added the binding. Before day was done yesterday, I'd stitched around the first corner.

As of this morning, I rounded the second corner, and I'm inches away from the third. It's a small quilt at 45 x 45 inches, but it will be perfect for taking along in our truck camper.

Also this morning, I did a little more stitching on the last of the Summer Holiday blocks.

The little basket turned out nice. It covers that red-checkered table cloth perfectly.

This being the 30th, I was hoping I could finish this one before the 1st, which is when Constance gets her due. I made up her block yesterday, and so she's ready to go. If you're stitching along with us in the Bag Ladies of the Fat Quarter Club stitch-along, please feel free to do whichever bag lady you like. For all that Mildred lacked in fashion and style, Constance makes up for it in spades. She is one classy lady. Mike's grandmother could have been this little lady. She was classy and elegant until the day she died. In her 80's she was like the little old lady from Pasadena, driving around in her sporty Camaro. She was quite a character. Anyway...Constance reminds me of her.

Also yesterday, I spent some time selecting my next embroidery projects we'll be taking on the road in September. I wanted to pick projects that were straight embroidery on the blocks. By that I mean I ruled out any that required piecing or applique. To be clear, I'm talking about the embroidered quilt blocks here...not the finished quilt. 

So with that in mind, I'm going to get started on Sundress from Crabapple Hill Studios. I love this quilt. My friend Kate, with her Rainbow Scrap dresses last year, had me itching to stitch it.

Partly, I chose this one because I already have the floss packet. It seems as if there should be more colors, but there you go. 

The quilt ends up at 64 1/2 inches square, and so the embroidered blocks are fairly small.

Also, I'm going to get started on this Home and Heart blackwork quilt from Bird Brain Designs. I'm going to have plenty of black floss left over when I finish Hocuspocusville, and so this seemed like a good choice. I'll probably stitch the hearts with red floss.

For this one, I needed to order some background fabric. It's hard to keep a good supply of backgrounds. This one will have a mottled cream color background. It ends up at 48 x 48 inches, and so the blocks are small, but there is a lot of detail in the stitching.

Finally, this Friendship's Garden quilt, also from Bird Brain Designs. This is another small quilt, finishing up at 35 x 35 inches. 

I went searching through my piles of floss skeins yesterday and found all that I needed in my stash. Most of them came from the recent package received from my friend Karen. So, thank you again, Karen!

Of course, I'll continue stitching a bag lady each month, and there are still five blocks to finish in Wine Country. So there's plenty to keep me busy along the dusty trail, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm taking my sewing machine along as well, and I'll have some sewing to do. Still, it's not so easy to drag out all the sewing supplies and they take up every available surface in the trailer when they're out. We'll have to be staying put for a few days before I'm ready to do all of that.

So, back to the present...I seem to be living in the future quite frequently these days. Today I really am going to unload the camper. There's laundry and a few housekeeping chores to do. Onward!