Apples and a Kitty

Yesterday was spent getting our guestroom ready, doing some laundry, and doing some cooking. Today I'll be doing a little more cooking in preparation for a visit from a friend. There are a lot of blueberries lounging in our freezer right now, and so I'm going to try a new recipe for a blueberry tart that uses cornmeal and fresh corn for its topping. Sounds kind of interesting, and we have the most delicious fresh corn from our farmers right now. If it turns out to be good, I'll tell you more about it in my next post.

As for sewing, I got a start on the next section for And on that Farm. This section is called "She had some Chicks." McKenna Ryan patterns are pretty scary to contemplate. Every time I attempt one, I swear I'll never do another...until the next cute one comes along...and then I'm back to swearing. Check out this placement template:

It's never a good thing when the pieces are so small that the numbers must be placed in the margins with arrows indicating where they go.

The scariest part is cutting the piece(s) for the background. There can be no mistakes here since this is a kit, and the fabric is limited.

Phew...so far, so good.

These are best worked by reading one item in the instructions, and then doing just that one item. If I read ahead, I start getting confused. So, this one started with the apples.

Some of them are oddly shaped because they will be placed behind other pieces.

Next, I was ready to work on the cat. Not this one.

This one. Oy. Look at those eyes.

The applique was stacked six deep. and the centers were smaller than the head of a pin.

When it was all finished, I fused it to the apples and laid it on the background.

Only then, I looked at the picture from the pattern, and realized I'd done a couple of the pieces on the head of the cat in the wrong fabric.

Fortunately, I had more, and so I was able to pull those pieces up without any problem, and replace them with the correct color.

Okay...that looks better.

Next up, I'll be making the little chicks. They have lots of little pieces too. There probably won't be any more accomplished on this for at least a couple of days, however. I'm getting an early start this morning because my friend should be here before noon. I want to get a little more cooking done and there are some things to do outside as well.

We're heading out before dawn tomorrow, hoping to avoid traffic snarls on our drive south to get to the midpoint of the path of totality. We'll probably park near some farmer's field and then wait for the big moment. With that in mind, I'm signing off for a day or two. Look for me in the shadow of the moon.