Project to Project to Project

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have many irons in the fire right now. It's time to pare things down or go crazy trying...or maybe it's too late already. Anyway...I've only created one more "iron" for myself by finishing off the names for the second row of the Shop Hop quilt yesterday morning.

Sadly, I know that at least two of these shops have closed since I visited them. For now, I'll set this aside until I clear some space on my work table. It's currently occupied by projects at all corners. Nevertheless, I always need some slow stitching to work on, and so I traced out the 7th of 12 blocks for the Snow Globes quilt. This one is "Santa Claus."

But take a look at Santa's "nice" list there. I thought a modification was in order, and so I pulled out my trusty Post-it tape. This stuff is great for repairing paper-piecing templates when you make an error, but I've used it for other things too. The only place I've ever seen it for sale is at Staples. Just now I checked Amazon and found it right here. I like it because I can modify a pattern and then take it off without destroying the pattern.

Getting back to my modification:

Yeah...they're good kitties. Sometimes. Now it's traced up, hooped up, and waiting for me downstairs. It seems like it's been a long time since I worked on this.

The first project I desperately need to clear off my work table is the Gingerbread Village. I can only work on this for short bursts at a time. It's mostly done except for a small area in the Northeast corner there.

When I have all the pieces laid out, I'll no doubt make some changes. It takes some time to study all those itty bitty pieces and switch things out that don't make sense. It actually doesn't matter much because there's so much busy-ness to these that they end up being very forgiving. Either way, I'll endeavor to finish up that corner today, and then I'll be at the stage where I can glue the pieces down. Once they're glued down, I'll be able to move it onto the quilt back, lay the tulle over the top, and it will be ready for stitching.

When I came upstairs, I noticed the kitties were outside partaking of some nip at the Gracie Memorial Catnip Garden. I'm thinking this might be the first time they noticed the catnip planted especially for them. Smitty was taking his turn.

When he was finished, Sadie had a go at it too. I haven't actually looked at it since. I'm hoping they left something behind.

Later in the afternoon, I looked out to see they'd cornered some poor critter under one of the azaleas. Yes, it's a cruel world for mousies, voles, and moles here at the Three Cats Ranch.

There seemed to be some disagreement about the actual location of said critter. Sadie seemed to think it was in amongst this ground cover.

After that, I did a little more quilting on the Quiltmaker's Garden. Another rose was quilted. There are still two more of these.

Then I filled in some more of the Greek Key motif on the uprights of the gazebo. There were also some terry twists here.

Then, I got real brave a did some feathering for the butterfly. I started with antennae at the top of the black strip of a body, then did some back and forth motion down the length of the body, then starting at the bottom of each wing, I quilted a small feather. I'm not a feather aficionado, but these turned out okay.

Probably I should switch off to a smoky monofilament when I'm quilting on these darker places, but I'm not going to change this. Here's how it looks from the back.

It was getting late in the day by then. Mike was still hanging towel racks and making some repairs in the RV bathroom. They'd used steel screws in areas exposed to water, which meant they would rust eventually. Mike replaced all the screws with stainless steel. While he was in town, he picked up this calla lily for me. Pretty, huh?

Yeah...he's a good guy. We'll celebrate 43 years of marriage in a couple of weeks. If this keeps up, I'll extend his contract for another year.

Tonight we're eating dinner out to celebrate our two birthdays. Mine was Saturday, his was yesterday. As for the rest of the day, I'll need to do some work in the greenhouse since it was neglected yesterday, and then I'll get back to my stitching. After working at it for several days running, the quilting luster is wearing off the Quiltmaker's Garden a little bit. I'll do it in shorter bursts now and get back to working on the other projects in the sewing room. There's always plenty to do. Oh yes...and a monthly pedicure today. I loves me a good pedi.