A Slow Day

Mike had dinner with a friend last night, and so I knew I was on my own for the evening. Maybe that was part of the reason I felt lazy yesterday. Nothing but slow-stitching was on the menu. There were good intentions of getting to my two remaining monthies: the June blocks for Garden Sunshine, and two more blocks for the Countdown to Christmas sew-along.

The morning started with my usual slow-stitching. I worked on the stitch sampler until I had it this far:

To the right of the hoop were showing two of the three English Daisies for this piece. Since they required a little prep work, I wanted to do all three at the same time, and it made sense to move the hoop there. These are done a little like trapunto (although I've never done trapunto, and so I have no idea what I'm talking about). The pattern suggests cutting three small wool circles, a little smaller than a dime. I don't have wool, and so I've used flannel for this. I think the pattern suggests a different way of attaching them to the fabric, but I've used Heat 'n Bond Lite to attach them.

This morning I'll stitch two layers of lazy daisy stitches over the top, which will cover the flannel completely, and it will give them a three-dimensional appearance. They're supposed to have a white bead in the center of the flower. Since I don't have any small white beads, I'm considering using a white hot fix nail head there. I'll have to see how it comes out in the end before I make a decision. There might be a trip to a craft store in my future.

From there, I did a little housework, and then did some more sewing on the binding for Heart & Home. By the time I finished, I'd turned the third corner.

And then, I headed into the sewing room to look at my remaining two monthly projects. Neither of them interested me or sparked any enthusiasm. Do you ever get halfway through a project and then wish you'd never started? Both of those projects lost their appeal at least two months ago, but I'll soldier on with them until the bitter end. Both were started as a way to use scraps, and I'm determined to make a dent in my scraps this year. Only...maybe not on this particular day. Instead, I went upstairs and took a nap. It gave me enough energy to finish up the binding on Heart & Home and now this is a finished quilt.

Here's how it looks from the back.

I really love the color combination in this quilt. Red, black, and white were my high school colors, but I don't think that has anything to do with it. I've just always liked that combination. In fact, I like any black and white quilt that includes one other color. It doesn't matter what the third color is.

So, I have no plans for this quilt. I think I'll wash it and retire one of the lap quilts currently hanging out in the living room. Sadie is my morning lap cat, and she'd probably appreciate a change.

I think your black and white quilt would go purrfectly with my furs.

And that brings me to today. It's going to be a bad day for Sadie, who will accompany me on my excursion to the vet. Our previous veterinarian left town while we were traveling around the perimeter of the country. She left in a hurry, which kind of made us wonder what happened. Anyway...we've tried a different vet since she left. It was kind of like Grand Central Station in their office. Too many dogs. Too much noise. Entirely too busy for any one pet to feel as if they'd received purrsonalized care. It was a little like a veterinary conveyor belt of care. We'll try a different office this morning. Choices are limited in our little town, and so I'm hoping this goes better today. It would be nice if we didn't have to drive across town with our nervous kitties yowling in their crates. Sadie is blazing the trail this morning. Smitty's turn will come next month.

Hopefully all of that will go smoothly, and I can get back to my two remaining monthlies. When those are finished, I'm going to start Clementine's pawtrait. Clementine is one of my two grandcats.

This is the photo I took of her while she was nipped out on catnip last month. You can see the blooming catnip in the foreground. Just last night I was reading the Botany of Desire by Michael Pollen. He claims that cats like catnip because it contains nepetalactone, which mimics a pheromone emitted in the urine of cats during courtship. A less X-rated explanation can be found right here. Probably I should have instructed Molly, the kitten across town, to cover her eyes during this paragraph. Molly is known to have tender sensibilities about such things.