Tail Feathers

The bird is two-thirds finished now. There are just a few sections left that contain very many half square triangles, and so the remainder should go a little faster. Pretty much just the tail feathers are left to be finished. Here's where it stood when I walked away yesterday.

There are still two rows of six 36-patch sections left to do. I was hoping to get it finished by Sunday, but it will probably be more like Tuesday. I've worked on it for nearly a week straight, and it's getting tiresome. Also, my left wrist is bothering me from holding the ruler to cut and trim, and also from using my fingers to nest the seams. Quilting: Not for wimps.

In yesterday's mail, the fabric I ordered for the back arrived. Is this perfect or what?

While I was sewing yesterday, Smitty let me know in no uncertain terms that he isn't at all happy with our arrangement right now. He wants to be up in his Clubhouse when I'm in the sewing room. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the "Clubhouse," it's the narrow area in the ceiling of the sewing room between the main floor and the basement of our house. The kitties like to get up there for napping. It's dark, warm, and private...with the occasional intruding mouse for fun. The problem with letting him up there is that unless they are both corralled inside the house, I can't be sure if someone is still outside. We monitor their outdoor time pretty carefully, and so I need to know where they both are at any given time.

Getting back to this picture, Smitty wanted up in the Clubhouse, but Sadie was still outside, and so the Clubhouse was a no-go. It has accordion doors, and with enough commitment, both kitties can pry them open. To thwart their efforts we've stuffed door stops under them to keep them closed. It's insulting, really. And so here, he's very unhappy about being barred from his Clubhouse, and he's letting me know it. He was only barely willing to turn his head for his picture.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to enroll in Molly University to learn better staff training. Molly University...that's MU...also affectionately known as "Mew." 

Outside, Sadie was enjoying the fall color. Two of the trees in front of the house are dressed in their autumn best. They'll continue to change to a bright orange as the season progresses...that is, unless we get a big wind storm as we often do in October.

I like how this next one changes from top to bottom.

We're being good on our diets...aside from our First Friday dessert. Last night's offering was these Roasted Zucchini and Black Bean Tostadas. That's a link to the recipe there. Heck, I'd make these even if we weren't on a diet.

The recipe calls for radishes on the top. I didn't have radishes, but I did have hakurei turnips. If you've never had hakurei turnips, they are about the size and texture of a radish, pure white, and mild in flavor. Here's an image from the internet, courtesy of Tim Sackton:

(image source)

They were great in this recipe, and so it's good to have a way to use them. We get them a couple of times per season in our CSA shares, and I'm never really sure what to do with them. Often they sit in the vegetable crisper until I can compost them in good conscience. Not any more. Now I'll know what to make whenever they show their little faces. Also, I used sunflower seeds instead of pumpkin seed kernels. This, after consulting with the Resident Engineer. Sunflower seeds are on his I-can-eat-them list.

Also yesterday, I finished stitching the next eight names for the Shop Hop quilt. I'll get to the quilt blocks after I've finished the cardinal.

And don't you know I jumped right on tracing out the first of 12 blocks for the Appalachian Memories quilt.

For this quilt, I'll do all the stitching in the variegated brown Valdani floss I showed you in an earlier post.

But I'm going to use crayon to color the barn quilts...thus:

While I considered using colored pencil, I decided against it. As it turns out, colored pencil will require some extra supplies I don't currently have, and so I'll stick with crayon for this quilt. I will use colored pencil at some point in the future. For now...it's hooped up and ready to go.

I'm starting on that right now. The waiting is over. After that, grocery shopping. After that, the cardinal awaits.