Sew Many Cats

It was a fairly productive day yesterday. While I was stitching away on the latest of the Sundress blocks, I started building up a head of steam and courage to stitch the row of bullion stitches at the bottom of the dress. Feeling somewhat invincible, I watched the video posted on the Crabapple Hill Studio website, which is very helpful. And then...

Ta-Da! It isn't the best bullion stitch ever, but it's not the worst either. I know this because I've stitched much worse right here in my own sewing room.

And feeling buoyed by my stitching prowess, I finished the whole thing.

When I took it down to the sewing room to press and trim it, my little furriend came along with me. She was itching to get up into the clubhouse.

Purrdon me...purrhaps you might be convinced to open the clubhouse doors?

It would be ever so considerate of you to simply turn around and open the door behind you.

And it was early. I wanted them to get out, run around, and act like cats for a while first, and so I ignored her sad little face.

With the Sundress block done, and having finished up the last of the Shop Hop blocks, there's an opening on my embroidery dance card. For this next project, I'm going to do something small and a little different. The next one is a cross-stitch project.

I can't remember where I first saw this...Pinterest maybe? The image below is the one I saw. It's a design by Ursula Michael Designs. She has some fun little designs on the website, and I've given you the link. The one below was stitched by someone else, and I think it's the one I saw first. You can see that the stitcher personalized it with the addition of the flag and their name in the upper right corner. Also, below the trailer, she's stitched in when they became full-time RVers along with her signature and the date.

You can find the pattern for this right here. I purchased it more than a year ago, and its time has come. I've been plotting and collecting the items I'll need to finish this, which happens to include the cross-stitch needles I purchased by mistake. Also, I've had to watch some videos to remind me what I'm supposed to be doing. The last time I did cross stitch was when my kids were babies and I passed my pregnancy time making birth samplers for them. The only cross-stitch I've ever done was from kits, and so I had to figure out the whole Aida cloth thing and remember how to read a pattern. Wish me luck as I get started on this...probably a little later on today.

With my morning stitching done, I got back to work finishing up the remainder of the applique on the last block for It's Raining Cats and Dogs. That took just a few minutes.

I had to switch the position of the star and the cat. When I made the applique for the cat, I neglected to reverse the template and ended up with a cat facing the wrong direction. I was afraid he'd fall off the sloping roof as you see him in the image below, but then (face palm) a cat belongs at the top of his world anyway. Who doesn't know that?

After that, I got to work on the machine top-stitching.

And last, I added hot fix nailheads for the door knob and the eye of the dog. The cat's face is hand embroidered.

And that block was finished. I laid it out with all of its neighbors, and there it is.

So here, I took a little intermission. One of my goals for the year is to rededicate myself to all things Fitbit and to get in my 10k steps during the day. It took all of my motivational courage to force myself out the door for a walk. Now that we have a cool paved road, it's a lot nicer walking in my own neighborhood. At this time of the year, one could experience what it feels like to have mud splashed all over one's body, but no more. That baby is smooth. And so black. And so striped.

It was a dark, windy, and cold day...not the best day for walking, but walk I did. I walked to the top of the hill and turned in the opposite direction from my usual path. The views were pretty.

The mushroom forests love this weather.

When I got back home, I took advantage of the dry day to fill the bird feeders. There's our little Christmas tree relegated to the outdoors now. It'll get planted later in the year. Now that it isn't pretending to be a Christmas tree, it doesn't look so ridiculous.

The birds were more than grateful when I gave them some seed. They were especially fond of the cracked corn I threw out on the driveway for them.

Our silly Andromeda is already forming flower buds. Mike pruned it a few months ago because it was blocking the window. It seems to think its time has come.

Back inside, I took a seat to ice my knee, and Smitty came in to join me.

He was especially interested in something he smelled on my jeans. While I was walking a man rode by on a bicycle. He had a woofie along with him who ran up to me and may have brushed my jeans with his furry body. This caused Smitty no end of consternation.

He got up close and purrsonal.

Very close...and very purrsonal.

When my 20 minutes of icing time was up, we went into the sewing room to sew the quilt blocks together. Smitty was my most excellent snoopervisor.

He's a task master when it comes to matching points and quarter-inch seams.

Peek-a-boo!

It didn't take long, and those blocks were sewn into a near-finished-flimsy.

This morning I'm walking with Sue. When I get home, I'll sew the two borders on this, and it'll be a finish. After that, I'll probably make some other quilt blocks. As I'm writing this, I haven't actually made up my mind what's next on the list.

How's this first Friday of 2019 shaping up for you?