Summer's End

We're closing in on the tail end of summer, and I'm closing in on the end of the Summer Holiday quilt. Yesterday's sewing consisted of finishing off the final two embroidery blocks with their borders. This one is called "A Day at the Beach."

This one is called "Sunset Picnic."

The cat was stitched using long and short stitches, which gives him some texture. I've determined that the best way to do satin stitch is to use three strands of floss, rather than two. It gives me better coverage. Using long and short stitches also worked well for the rather large area of the cat. The stitches cover better than a regular satin stitch would have, since the stitches would have needed to be very long.

When those were finished, I was ready to lay out all the blocks for the quilt top.

And in pretty short order, I had it sewn together and the first border added.

The second border is a pieced border requiring 64 patches cut 2 1/2-inches square. Those are cut, and I'd just started sewing them together when I needed to quit and pick-up the CSA share.

All of yesterday's sewing was done under the watchful eye of the Princess and the Pea.

A few of you have asked me about the origin for the Summer Holiday pattern. It's from this book by Lynette Anderson.

Her stuff is so stinking cute. This is the third or fourth quilt I've made from her designs. The book is a good one and chalk full of cute patterns. There's another in the book I have my eye on, but that will have to wait until next year at the earliest.

Also yesterday, we had a surprise visit from our son, Smitty's favorite person in the whole world. Smitty is a friendly cat with most everybody, but he is particularly fond of our Matthew.

Matthew played with him for hours on end when he was a rambunctious kitten, and Smitty has loved him ever since.

I've been suffering with a painful stiff neck. It's kind of a mystery how it all got started, but I blame the quilting I did on Monday while simultaneously keeping a death grip on the template I was using. There's no other explanation I can think of. It was extremely painful yesterday, causing me to wince in pain at certain movements. It's a little better today, but I'm giving myself a break from housework for the day. Sewing should be all right, however. I'll suffer through somehow, because I'm determined to finish the Summer Holiday quilt top today. Also, I have an idea about a pieced back for it that I think will be very cute. I'm excited to give my idea a try.

We originally thought we'd be heading east for the solar eclipse today or tomorrow. As it turns out, the forecast is for sunny, clear skies right here at home, and so we're staying. Our plan is to drive south about an hour where we'll be smack in the middle of the path of totality. A friend from high school will be staying with us Sunday and Monday. She's going to travel with us to see the eclipse early Monday morning. We're all looking forward to seeing the eclipse, but I'm especially looking forward to seeing my friend, Judy. We haven't seen one another since we graduated from high school. Judy is one of the smartest people I know, and it was thanks to her that I passed my high school chemistry class. Judy did the math...I did the typing. Not really a fair trade. I definitely got the better half of that deal.

This morning I'll do a little more hand-stitching on the binding for Bee Loving, and then I'll get back to work on the Summer Holiday quilt.