One More Time Around

It's going to be a good day...I can feel it in my quilting hands. There's just one more go-around in the outer border of Wind in the Whiskers, and then that puppy will be heading for the finish line. But before I get started on that...let's back up to the beginning of the day.

The latest Snow Globe block is off to a good start. Whenever I start anew on a block, I always have to first clean up all the leftover bits of floss from the last time I worked on it. That's what you see here:

If I'm remembering right, this one includes all five colors of sparkle floss used in this project. Of course, I can't do proper slow-stitching without my lap warmer cat. She was yesterday's photo for the photo-a-day project. Yesterday's prompt was "Begins with 'S'"...and that was easy. I happen to have two living things that begin with "S".

After that, I had to gird up my loins for a trip to the grocery store. I managed to get through the trip without killing anyone, although I was on the razor's edge of leaping across the counter and onto the cashier. Recognizing this would only slow down an already world-record-breakingly slow process, I held myself in check. It was a very close call.

When I got home, I unloaded the groceries, ate some lunch, and then got busy with my free motion quilting. My goal was to quilt the inner border, and I'd selected this motif from one I found on Pinterest.

Looks easy enough, right? In fact, it was. I did a little practice line, and then committed it to the quilt.

After that, I pulled the quilt off the machine so that I could load a practice piece for the outer border motif. In the process, I found the missing applique piece.

Of course, I did. Now that I've made a new one, fused it down and sewn it on, it only makes sense that the original one would show itself.

So the motif I've chosen for the outer border is another I found on Pinterest. I think originally I saw it on Instagram. It's not as complicated as it looks. You come in from the top and make a little swirl, doubling back on the outside of the swirl to the "petals" of the flower. When you've gone most of the way around, you echo back in one direction, then the other, and done. And, heck...I figured I could do that.

 So I loaded an old practice piece onto the machine and did it on the first try. Voila!

A couple of the "petals" are a little wider than I'd like them, but I'm confident I can pull this off. And since I'd worked on this quilt for three days in a row, I gave myself the rest of the afternoon off. I'll start on the outer border today, and I'm hoping I can get it finished. If I do, it'll be ready for binding.

The only other thing to happen yesterday was the arrival of this 36-fat quarter bundle from a Massdrop purchase I made recently. Since I'd used most all of my black and white scraps in the Rainbow Jubilee quilt, I wanted to get another grouping. I've already picked out my project for 2019, and it's going to use blacks and whites too.

This is the Black & White collection from Michael Miller...not that I pay much attention to fabric designers or names, but I know some of you do.

And what fun these were to go through. Here's the image from the Massdrop page that drew me in.

I pulled off the ribbon and looked through them...well, don't you think these are some of my favorites.

And how about these many ways with polka dots.

So that was a nice way to end the day.

It rained hard most of the day yesterday. Today is much nicer...chilly, but for now, blue sky and sunshine. I simply must get outside to empty the compost pail and fill the hummingbird feeder. We have Annas hummingbirds year-round at our location, and so I put food out for them. The kitties like to sit near the window where the feeder is and chatter at them. There's one small housekeeping chore to do today, but the rest will be NBFMQ (Nothing But Free Motion Quilting).