Two Projects

The quilting is half finished for Hocuspocusville now. I'm in a mad dash to get the binding sewn on by Thursday. We're taking a little weekend getaway, and hand-sewing the binding would make a good take-along project. If that is to happen, I need to quilt at least three of the remaining six blocks today. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

As for yesterday, the blocks I'm quilting are located on the most difficult part of the quilt for my machine. They are large blocks on the sides of the quilt. Since I can't quilt upside down, I have to turn the quilt right side up for the special motifs. Fortunately, the McTavishing can be done in any direction, and so I can turn the bulk of the quilt toward the back of the machine where it's less bothersome. The first one I quilted yesterday was the "Hermione's Split Ends." Apparently, this is a salon for witches. For this block, I quilted a bat in the sky.

For each specialty motif, I echo around it a few times to make it stand out from the McTavishing.

Any witch getting her hair done is going to remove her hat, and so this seemed like a good place for a witch's hat too.

Also, a spider web near the tree...

And some pavers on the walkway.

When the McTavishing was finished, it looked like this:

My helper cat was sleeping on the job in the chair beside me.

Looks like that chair could use a good going-over with a lint brush. Good grief. Either that, or shave the hair from the cat.

Okay, so the next block was the Black Cauldron, and that seemed an obvious place for a bubbling witch's cauldron.

Also, a ghost coming from the top. He's a little hard to make out in this image, but his head is at the top.

Also, some siding on the building for function.

When the block was finished, it looked like this:

My loyalties were divided yesterday because I need to get going on my project for Project Quilting 10.4, "Pixel Play." I had an idea in mind, and so I pulled fabrics first thing yesterday morning. Yummy colors, huh?

It's the reason only two blocks got quilted yesterday because once I started sewing on this, it was hard to tear myself away. It's sandwiched for quilting now. At 17 x 21 inches, it won't take long to finish it off and sew the binding on. I'll finish that today. I kind of like to keep these a secret until they're finished, and so I'm just giving you a peek today.

Any guesses? I'll show you the finished quilt in tomorrow's post.

There was a fun little surprise in the mail yesterday. (It was actually Saturday's mail but, like slugs, we hadn't been out to the mailbox until yesterday.) My friend Karen sent me a packet of sunflower seeds. Karen knows I love the sunflowers in summer. Also, she sent this little charm square of fabric. She said it reminded her of Smitty and Sadie. Which one do you think is Sadie, and which one Smitty?

Finally...today's inchy. I so look forward to these each morning.

So there's laundry to do and quilts to quilt, and oh yes, some housekeeping too. What would I do without housekeeping to fill in around the cracks of my days?