Sew Productive

There was important business to take care of before any sewing could happen yesterday. First, a chill day doesn't get off to a good start unless it begins with hand stitching. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with the latest Wine Country block.

These blocks were a gift from my friend Marei in a Pay it Forward event. They came with no instructions regarding colors, etc., and so I've been making my own decisions about that. From the beginning, I tried limiting myself to a certain palette of colors that matches the fabrics I have for turning it all into a quilt. It's been a fun project, and there are still four blocks to finish when this one is done. Now I've hooped the last of it, and I'm hoping to have it finished before the Christmas weekend is over.

Also, Smitty had to get out for a walk. When he'd walked all over the park and eaten his share of grass, he took a morning nap on the catio with Sadie. It's good to have a friend.

We made a short trip into town to get some Man Stuff at the hardware store. Mike spent his day repairing the plug for his back-up camera. I rode along to mail some letters and also because lunch was in the bargain. When we got back, I added Florida to the side of the RV. Atlantic states...check!

When we started this trip, folks back home asked me where we were going. I responded by telling them we were heading east. When we reached the Atlantic Ocean, we were turning right. Then, we would head south until we hit the Gulf of Mexico, and then we would turn right again. We're spending the next couple of weeks in Florida, and then we'll make our second right turn of the trip. Gulf States...you're next. From there, we'll head west until we hit the Pacific Ocean, and then make our final right turn of the trip. Pretty simple directions, when you think about it.

So with that very important task taken care of, I could finally get in some sewing time. It was already fairly late in the day...later than I'd hoped...and so I didn't think I'd get much done. As it turns out, my sewing day was fairly productive despite the late start. Of course, any day of sewing is always more productive when the helper cats show up.

Do you think I need to demonstrate the If-I-fits-I-sits Axiom again?

The task for yesterday was to start sewing the embroidered blocks together. They encircle the center nine-patch panel forming a border around it. I started with the top row of blocks.

Then moved to the left side...

and the right side...

and finally, the bottom row. You have to be quick with the camera when the helper cats show up.

Here...allow me purrsition my body to create the maximum pawsible impawdiment to purrogress.

Now that I had the blocks sewn together, the next step was to sew a line of decorative stitching across each seam. If I were hard core like the designer Meg Hawkey, I would have done this by hand. I figure that's why Pfelicity has something like 100 decorative stitches, and so I decided to let her do the work. Looking at my choices, I thought Stitch #76 might be a good place to start. And with a name like "Antique Embroidery," it was almost like I wasn't cheating at all.

Only...when I stitched it out, it was kind of heavy and slow. I decided to try another one.

How about stitch #43..."Antique quilt." That might work.

And that one was kind of boring.

So then I tried stitch #13, "Crosshem stitch." It looked a little like the "fly stitch" that Meg Hawkey used on her quilt.

And I kind of liked the look of that one...plus, it was pretty fast to stitch.

So I took a deep breath and stitched across the first seam. It looked pretty good to me.

Continuing on, I stitched over all the seams. I wanted to do as much of this as possible before sewing the blocks to the center panel since I didn't want the weight of the whole quilt dragging while I sewed the decorative stitch.

When I had the left side blocks sewn on, I laid it down on the floor to get a look at it.

As I was preparing to sew the right side blocks on, Miss Sadie showed up to check on progress.

Oh my...this quilt matches my furs purrfectly! Is it fur me?

With her help, I managed to get all four sides sewn on. When I had all the blocks sewn to the center panel, I finished the decorative stitching for the final four seams. And that was the end of my sewing day. I enlisted the help of the Resident Engineer to hold it up for a picture.

Now the only thing left to do is to sew a border around the outside, and then sew the black jumbo rick rack around the center panel, and I'll have one finished quilt top.

Today we're moving on to Tybee Island, just outside of Savannah, Georgia, and we'll spend the Christmas weekend there. We'll be spending it quietly and I know we'll be missing the kids terribly. We've picked up a prime rib roast, and we'll have a scaled down Christmas dinner on Christmas Day.

I'm expecting to have internet service there, but one never knows. With that in mind, I'll say Merry Christmas to y'all right here and now. You've been so kind following along on this journey, and your comments, advice, personal visits, and helpful information have been very much appreciated. Thank you for being such good traveling companions. May all your Christmas dreams come true.