Legendary Sewing

Before we get to the "legendary" part of yesterday's sewing, let us all pause here for a moment to admire this legendary tummy.

Formerly feral, Sadie tends to be an anxious and shy cat. During our morning slow-stitching sessions, however, she finds time to relax and ready herself for a day of frenetic activity.

There was housework to do, and I promised myself I'd stop sewing by 3:00 p.m. Liar! Three o'clock came and went, and I was still sewing. In fact, I sewed the whole live-long day. Possibly I've made peace with paper-piecing. The object of my desire was this unicorn.

As I was trying to think of a title for this post, I looked up unicorns to see what kind of stories I could tell about them. There's actually quite a bit written, given this is a mythical creature. Check it out right here. The pattern was created to make the unicorn's mane in one color, but there was also this rainbow version in photograph, and I wanted to make mine like that.

My first task was to decide how to do the background. My friend's granddaughter possibly likes blue, and so I knew I wanted blue. (The granddaughter is only just two, and so she hasn't really made any decisions about what her favorites are yet. Blue is only a guess, based on her grandmother's assessment of what amounts to baby talk.) It didn't seem as if it would work to make it scrappy blue. I worried the rainbow mane would get lost if the background were too busy. I was thinking I wanted something "magical" with stars or metallic. Opening my drawer of blue fabrics, I found the perfect thing.

This yardage has been in my stash absolutely forever. I must have used it at some point in time because it was washed and cut. I have no idea when. It is completely unfamiliar. But anyway...I got started with the first section, and decided that would work just fine.

And then, I was on my merry way.

By lunch time, I had the first of three sections finished.

And then I spent the remainder of the afternoon working on the section containing the horn. I auditioned a couple of different fabrics before settling on this rainbow stripe.

This is not a pattern for beginners. When I did the zebra, there was a helpful diagram showing the individual sections with letters, labeling the colors, and showing where the seam lines would be. This one was originally created to make the unicorn one color, and so it has symbols labeling the colors. Making it rainbow colors means figuring out where one color ends and one begins. I've used a highlighter to mark the sections as I work on them, and giving them letter labels as well.

The rainbow photograph is detailed enough that I've been able to use a chalk pencil to help me along with that.

When Mike called to let me know he was on his way home, I stopped. We had dinner, and then he had some work to do outside. I used the opportunity to get out with my DSLR and macro lens to get some pictures of the echinacea. I've been meaning to do this for quite a while, and the flowers are showing their age. Nevertheless, I did get a few pretty ones.

This volunteer pansy is one of the stars of the garden.

And Mike was still busy, so I went back into the sewing room to work on the unicorn a little more. My nosy kitties had to get in on the act too.

When I left it for the day, I was piecing together the sections of the face. I need one more section, and then I'll be able to sew this second part together.

Of course, I gave it a proper flower eye, although it won't look like an eye until I've sewn it all together.

The whole quilt top is made up of three large sections, and I'm nearly finished with the second of the three. I'm hoping I'll finish off the third section today, except I absolutely must get at my housekeeping chores. I did the laundry yesterday, but the rest went begging when I couldn't tear myself away from the paper-piecing (pun totally intended). Matthew and Lyndsay are here too, and so that might interrupt my flow. Also, it's a CSA pick-up day. With all that going on, I'll be surprised if I can finish it off today, but I'm going to give it a go.