OMG: November's Goal is Complete!

After dreading the quilting on Wind in the Whiskers for more than a year, I'm happy to say things are going better than expected. It seems that's usually the case with things I dread for long periods of time. Perhaps the dread grows to enormous proportions while the size of the job remains the same. Possibly "dread" serves the function of convincing me in the end that it really wasn't so bad after all. Either way, things are moving along and I've finished the section I committed to for the month of November. When the time comes, I'll be linking up and joining the party.

Recall, that my goal for the month was to quilt the section encompassed by the pink line.

Over the past week, I've been plugging away at it. Yesterday it was finished. First, I stitched across the quilt top to finish a portion of the dogwood tree, the cat, and the bird. The cat will have some lines hand-stitched to show closed eyelids.

And let me just say that this here is not helpful at all.

He was letting me know, as he often does, that his treat bowl was empty. It was time to eat some lunch, and so I stopped when I reached the last section to take care of both our hunger needs.

Also, I decided to stitch down this little bird. Its feet were becoming separated from its body, and it seemed the prudent thing to do if I didn't want to lose them.

So I finished up the last section after lunch and then laid it out on the dining room table for inspection. I needed to clip some of the traveling stitched both front and back, and I took its picture from several angles to document my finished goal.

When I finish it off next month, there will be some embellishing in this next section...mainly the addition of a clothesline with some things hanging from it. For now, it has hills and clouds quilted into the open sections.

Down the right side of the quilt, this cat and the daisies were also completed as a part of November's goal.

It's looking pretty good from the back. You can see the large trunk of the dogwood tree here. To the left, the daisies are easy to make out.

Here where the greenery and the dogwood blossoms are is more of a mish-mash of quilting everywhere. Try to use your imagination to find the blossoms.

The unstitched appliques stayed in place pretty well except for this section of iris. It makes me wonder if there was something wrong with the fusible used there because it's so much worse than any other areas of the quilt.

One of the flower centers was lost, which is kind of a bummer. I've searched for it, but can't find it anywhere. I'll probably end up remaking it, and I might remake all the flowers on this particular stalk. Also, I have a product called 606 that might work to reapply fusible to the backs of these pieces and stick them down again.

Now I've returned the quilt to the machine. Under inspection, I noticed this little piece that should have been stitched into a seam. It was just a tiny section (although it looks huge in this picture), and I top stitched it down with the rest.

Those big needle holes bother me some. When I visited the newly-opened McKenna Ryan showroom in Portland a few years back, I took some pictures of her version of Wind in the Whiskers on display there. I note that hers also had some large needle holes. Here's one of the pictures of her display quilt.

My friend, Vivian, suggested using a vinyl eraser to heal some of those spots, and I intend to give that a try. (Thank you, Vivian.) Also, some packs of smaller 80/12 needles arrived yesterday, and so I'll continue with those and hope it improves the look.

With November's commitment complete, I've left it lined up for finishing...either later this month or during the month of December. For now...may it rest in peace until I return.

After that, I went back to work on November's Tuxedo Tales block. And let me tell you, stitching down those grapes without the benefit of Big Bertha's knee lift was downright painful.

From there, just the hand-stitching remained, and I finished that off fairly quickly.

So...okay. All my monthlies are finished, and I can get to work paring down that UFO list. By rights, I should be making a block for Chicken Buffet, but I don't want to work on another applique buttonhole stitch until Big Bertha gets back on the job. Instead, I'll start on the next section for And On that Farm. No top-stitching required for now.

My friend Sue should like this one. She's a great fan of pigs. As for Big Bertha, it's been ten days since I last spoke with the shop about ordering the correct part. Today I'll give them a call and see what's what. It seems like the part should have come in by now.