Yipes! Stripes!

Holy Moly. I can get back to my life. The paper-pieced zebra quilt top is finished! Yahoo! And I even lived to tell about it. Even the people I live with lived to tell about it! Okay, but let's just back up. I'll keep you in suspense until the end. First, I was heading out for a walk with Sue, but I had just a little bit of time for slow-stitching. I'd finished my mystery project the day before, and so I was ready to start on the October heart for A Year of Hearts.

I'd done some stitching already, but then I looked a little closer at my hoop and what did I see?

Look at that word, "Haloween." Isn't it supposed to be spelled with two "L's"? So I checked the pattern, and...same thing.

So, am I the only one who, when looking at a misspelled word, starts to question their own spelling prowess? Have I been spelling it wrong my whole life? So, I checked in with my friend The Google, and...

Okay, so what to do? What to do? So I stitched a little more and looked at it, and I decided there was enough room to add the extra "L."

And maybe the designer meant to misspell the word, but this is the 7th one I've done, and there haven't been any other misspellings. I have to think that's an error. Anyway...all fixed now. When I needed to leave, I had it this far.

So I was off to my walk with Sue. It was good to see her because we haven't seen one another for almost the whole summer. Along the way, I took pictures of every blooming thing. Are cattails considered blooming things? I'm not sure, but you know I love cattails...and cats.

It was harvest time in our valley, and the farmers are in the process of cutting their wheat.

Yesterday's photo-a-day prompt was "a memory of mine." When I saw this combine, I knew exactly what to do.

This is my memory: At our previous home, we lived at the edge of a farm field. The farmer alternated between growing wheat and red clover. During the wheat harvest, the boys would stand at the edge of the field and the farmer would come by in his combine and pick them up so they could ride in the cab. Fun times for them. Like living on a farm, only without all the work.

Walking on...

Looks like Big Foot was here.

Back home, I checked the zucchini. There are lots of little ones, and this one larger one, nearly ready for harvest. I need to watch it carefully or one morning I'll walk out here and find it's grown to the size of a baseball bat overnight.

The light was all wrong for the echinacea. I really want to get out here with my macro lens and take some pictures of these. Maybe today.

We planted some raspberries before Mike swore off berry seeds. They are ripening, but mainly, I just pick them off the bush and eat them myself.

Okay, so let's talk about the zebra, shall we? For all the tedium of Section L the day before, it had nothing on Section M with all those long skinny pieces.

When I had it finished, I could sew it to the other two sections.

There was just one more section of zebra to sew together. It went a little easier, and when I added it to the rest, the zebra was finished.

There was just one more section...all red...and the right side of the quilt top was finished.

Then I sewed it to the left side, and the top was finished. Ta-da!

Of course, I still had to remove all the paper from the back. For this I went upstairs and sat next to the window. Then, I made friends with my tweezers.

Here it is...pressed and paperless. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I won't be able to finish it until the backing fabric arrives on Wednesday, but I'm hoping to get it to binding stage. We have a short trip planned for next week, and this would be a good take-along project.

Of course, I had plenty of help for this project. Smitty handed me tools as I worked.

Sadie lounged among the scraps.

When it was finished...

We were good helpurrs, huh? Do we get some treats now?

So, I'd like to say I'm never going to paper-piece again, but I'd be lying. My friend has another granddaughter who needs a doll quilt. Since big sister is getting the requested zebra, I figured another equine was in order. I knew I'd found it when I found this pattern from robynie.com for a unicorn.

And that seems like the perfect choice to me. I'm going to make the background blue since my friend believes that is her granddaughter's favorite color.

Okay, and so to finish off the day, this arrived in the mailbox. I saw it on Instagram, and you didn't think I was going to leave without it, did you?

This morning, I'm heading out to the Farmer's Market with Erik and Mae. I'm on the hunt for pie cherries, peaches, and tomatillos. And if any one of those isn't to be found, I'll get some more sweet cherries. I believe there is canning in my future...and pie. Pie cherries can be hard to find, so wish me luck.