McGlutton for Punishment

You might think I'd be finished with McKenna Ryan patterns for a while, but you would be wrong. It seemed appropriate to get in one more session of torture before the year was spent. There was very little sewing yesterday because I walked with Sue in the morning, and then laid around nursing my inflamed knees for most of the afternoon. Nevertheless, I did get a start on the next section for And on that Farm. It's the other McKenna Ryan pattern I started before I knew better. The next section is called "And a Moo-Moo There."

These always start with making the background piece. This one was fairly straightforward. For all that the patterns give me heartburn, the fabrics are beautiful.

Smitty helped me with this. He's always at the ready monitoring that 1/4-inch seam.

And these guys, seen on our walk yesterday, said they'd be happy to serve as models if I needed them.

It wasn't a great day for pictures yesterday because it was dark and rainy...in other words, Oregon in December. Still, the landscape was pretty with wisps of fog all around.

When I got home, I spent a good part of the afternoon icing my knees. I think the cold weather makes them worse, and my right shoulder has been achy too. Mike was home for the day, and we both took naps. When I felt up to getting back to something productive, I traced out all the pieces for two sunflowers and fused them to their appropriate fabric pieces.

Next, I'll cut them out and fuse them together on my pressing sheet. These will get set aside for now because they'll be fused over the quilt sashing when I sew the cow to the pig. Here's the picture from the pattern cover.

You might recall when I made the pig last month, the sunflower was only partially fused and the remainder left loose. I'll move it out of the way when I sew them together, and then fuse it down later.

The only other thing I have to tell you about is the amaryllis. It was hard to tell how many flowers were on its single stalk before. Now four have opened, and two more have shown themselves for a total of six blossoms. 

Mike picked up this single bulb at the hardware store several weeks ago for $5. It certainly has given us $5 worth of entertainment during the season.

Today I'll be setting the cow aside for a time. Mike is helping me set up my sawhorse tables in preparation for making quilt sandwiches. I have 12 flimsies ready to be sandwiched, and I expect to have them all finished before the weekend is out...finished, if you mean I've made them into sandwiches. It'll give me something to do next year. Besides, having a stack of quilts ready for quilting is just about as good as having a full gas tank. When the sandwiches are finished, I'll get back to the cow and more self-flagellation.