Starting Line

Yesterday I finished the first hooping of Friendship's Garden.

This was Sadie's contribution. It was too chilly to be outside yesterday morning, and so she opted for the comfort of my quilt-covered lap.

Chilly or no, I got outside to empty the compost pail and fill the bird feeders. The seed feeders are good for about a week to 10 days this time of year, when we have fewer birds. The peanut feeder never lasts more than about an hour. Peanuts are kind of expensive, and so the blue jays have to wait between fillings. Once I've filled it, it takes them only a few minutes to find the peanuts and start their siege.

There was housework to do, but I decided to cut myself some slack and sew together the Rainbow Jubilee blocks first. That takes care of November's color.

There are 44 blocks now, with four more to go. It makes for a big stack of blocks.

After finishing up my housework, I vowed to get a start on Wind in the Whiskers. Just getting the machine set up and the tension adjusted takes some time. If that was the only thing I could finish in a day, it would be enough. So I opened up a new cone of monofilment thread. Finding the open thread end is quite a challenge, but I got 'er done.

Some of the little applique pieces have peeled up in places in the years it's been waiting for its time under the quilting needle.

For that, I set up my little travel iron, and I'll give them a pressing as I come to them. Hopefully, I won't find any lost pieces, although I do have scraps of fabric left over if I need them.

This butterfly's wings are three dimensional, held in place by the tiny body of the butterfly, and so I stitched that down right away. I feared my shifting the quilt around would cause it to come loose.

Stitching the edges of the applique is going to serve as the quilting for the vast bulk of this quilt, although I will quilt in some clouds and lines of hills in the larger open areas. I'm using a 90/14 needle, which is the smallest needle I can find for my mid-arm machine. Unfortunately, it's leaving holes in the batik. I'm not sure what to do about that, but I'm hoping it will heal as I go. Things always look worse to my eye as I stitch. When I stand back and look at the whole quilt, I lose track of the things I didn't like in the moment.

Also, I'm taking three stitches at the beginning and ending of each piece, and then just traveling with the thread to the next one rather than cutting thread each time. As I finish each small section, I clip the traveling threads and call it good.

By the time I quit for the day, I'd stitched all around the darkest green, the kittens, the basket, and the lower half of the tree trunk.

Little by little will be the name of the game to finish this off.

Here's where I'll pick up my slow stitching this morning.

Sue and I are walking for the first time in months. We have a chilly, but sunny morning to get back at it, and we'll walk the Fanno Creek Trail. We're both hoping it isn't partially under water, as it sometimes is. When I get home, I'll get back to my quilting. It's good to have it started. When I've been dreading a project for a long time, I find just getting started is enough to motivate me to finish.