Stitching Like There's No Tomorrow

It's raining hard today, and it looks like a day of rain ahead of us. It looked like that yesterday. Mike got out early to do some work on the trailer before the rain hit. By afternoon, it still hadn't hit, and Mike was finished for the day. I think he was waiting for a bail-out from the rain, and it never came. These two took advantage of the dry day and played outside for a good part of the morning.

They have become really good friends. Smitty still needs to assert his seniority occasionally, but for the most part, they play well together. They spend most of their time side by side.

As for me, I spent hours finishing off the Let's RV Cross-stitch. I kept thinking I'd quit, and then I'd think...it's only just a little more. And then I'd stitch a little more, and I'd say...it's only just a little more. And this went on for quite some time until it really was just a little more, and then it was finished.

So I took it downstairs and pressed it. Then I flipped it to the back. I'm a messy back person...judge me if you must. I have no shame about my messy backs.

When I'm doing regular embroidery, I back my pieces with muslin or some kind of stabilizer so that none of the threads show through. For cross-stitch, that didn't seem to be a good idea, and so I was a little more careful to keep the ends tidy. Still, I worried about a few, and so I spritzed them with water and pressed them to the more densely stitched areas. Then I used some Pellon SF-101 stabilizer (the kind used for t-shirt quilts) and fused it to the back. It will hold those thread ends in place, and it also gave the piece a nice heft.

With that finished I set it aside for a bit while I worked on finishing off the Mulligan Stew blocks. The first one was this one:

Here's the block.

This was the story associated with this block.

The fifth and final block for this go-round was this one.

I wondered if it was a coincidence that this little person showed up just about then.

Hello...it looks as if you need an assistant. I would be purrfectly pleased to help you with your sewing.

Truly. And I have a lot of expurrience with just this sort of thing.

Purrhaps you didn't hear me.

I SAID, I HAVE A LOT OF EXPURRIENCE WITH THIS SORT OF THING!!!

I find catnip is an excellent remedy for this kind of purroblem. Here's the fifth block of the five I was making.

When I work on this quilt the next time, I'll be finishing off all the blocks. My goal is to get through each of the four oldest UFO's each month, but I'm not really keeping track. Most of them are nearing finish.

So then I got back to work on the Let's RV piece. I added a border, and then cut a piece of batting. I had a scrap that was the perfect size.

Then, I selected this fabric from my stash for the back. No reason...it was there, and so I grabbed it.

And then...just to hold things in place...I stitched one-half inch inside the border seam, and a quarter-inch outside the border seam. It's a little difficult to see in the image below, and so you might have to take my word for it. Would I lie?

And then, I machine sewed a binding to it. It ends up at 12 x 17.5 inches. I'm just hoping there's a wall big enough in the RV to hang it. We have lots of windows...not so much wall space.

With that finished, I needed something new for slow-stitching. Next up is the third block for Appalachian Memories. This one is called "Goose Tracks."

Once I had it traced out, I colored in the quilt block. These are named for their quilt blocks.

And now, it's hooped up and ready to go. In the beginning, I decided to start with the quilt block on each of these.

When I was finished with that, I realized that the cat was closed.

They'll reopen for business during regular business hours. This being a three-day weekend, I'm not sure whether they'll reopen before Tuesday.

This morning's slow stitching will probably consist of stitching down the binding for Let's RV. I might get started on the barn block a little later. As for machine stitching, I'm going to get a start on quilting the Alley Cats Quilt Guild. I haven't really thought about what to do with this, but something will come to me.

Oh yes, and the second challenge for Project Quilting will be announced today. Usually I need a day or two to think of something. Sometimes inspiration comes instantly with the announcement of the theme. We'll see. It'll be the Alley Cats unless I get waylaid by Project Quilting.