Scraps and Squirrels

The rain cleared up yesterday after a dismal day on Tuesday. I took the opportunity to get out for a walk in the afternoon. From the top of our hill, it looked like this.

Being at the top of the hill, we're looking down into the valley in the opposite direction from the mountains.

Don't let those threatening skies fool you. The rain is gone for at least a couple of days.

The morning started with slow stitching on the Appalachian Memories quilt. The barn is beginning to emerge.

After that, I did some housework, and then sewed the binding on the Alley Cats Quilt Guild. There was another fabric selected first, but it was kind of a boring brown. Then, I laid eyes on this stripe. It has all the colors from the quilt, and it's a lot more fun. I'll get started with the hand-stitching on this when I finish up here. I'm not sure I can get it all finished in a single day, but for sure by tomorrow.

Since this one is destined for an open spot on the Mewseum walls, I gave it some corner pockets. The quilt is 28 x 28 inches, and so I also gave it a couple of center loops to keep it from sagging. We'll run a dowel rod through it and that makes a nice way to hang it.

It's been a while since I mentioned the Mewseum. You can read about it at this old blog post right here.

With the alley cats as I could take it, I made the newest Tiny Tuesday block. This is a 3-D bow tie block. I'll admit to having my doubts about whether this would work out. The excellent tutorial was written by Angie at Quilting on the Crescent, and this block went together quickly and easily.

Look at how cool that 3-D knot works out. I really like this block.

Then I added the diagonal setting, and it was finished.

Before I quit for the day, I made the first block from the Countdown to Christmas blocks from Moda. I've been wanting to do something with the scraps from my blues and greens, and so I'll do that for this quilt. The original from Moda was all done in red and white. It was very tempting to go with the reds, but I'm afraid the blues and greens are most urgently needing to be used. I'll be doing these blocks as a sew-along with Mama Spark's World. She's kindly included the links to the blocks on Moda's website. You can see where the sew-along gets under way right here.

There were two blocks posted yesterday, and we'll be doing 2-3 blocks per month. This first one is called "Country Winter."

So for today's agenda, I'll do the second block for the January sew-along, and then I'll get on with something else.

Also yesterday, it seemed like a good time to switch out my seasonal table runners. These are obviously for Valentine's Day. This one is for the dining room table. Sorry, this shot is so weirdly angled.

And then this one is for our kitchen breakfast bar. (Some people call this a peninsula, but we like "breakfast bar" better.)

So while I was looking at this one, it occurred to me that it could just as easily be a runner for St. Patrick's Day if I were to make it in greens and switch out the hearts for shamrocks. And that was when a squirrel ran by. Almost instantly I got on the internet to find some jumbo emerald green rickrack. I found some easily in someone's Etsy shop, and so that's winging it's way toward me already. (I suppose I could have gone to JoAnn's, but I was in such a good mood, so why ruin it?)

I still have lots of greens left over from the Lucky Charm topper, and so I should have everything I need to get this going. It's a QAYG pattern...free off the internet. You can find it right here, but you'll have to hunt down your own shamrock templates. I searched Google for "drawings of shamrocks," selected the one I liked and then made it the sizes I wanted in Photoshop Elements.

Cricket's pawtrait will have to wait another couple of days while I chase after this little green squirrel. I know you understand my dilemma. It's supposed to be another reasonable day weather-wise, and so I'll get out for another walk. Gotta make hay (and quilts) while the sun shines.