A Near Finish

Yes, those are trumpets you hear announcing the near-finish of It's Raining Cats and Dogs. I'm not sure but...[checks notes]...yes, actually this is the quilt I've been working on for the longest period of time from start to finish. It was started on December 12, 2013, and it still has about another week to go before it will be finished. It'll be bumping Wind in the Whiskers from its longest-running-from-start-to-finish perch.

Of course, it still needs binding. Here's how it looks from the back.

Yesterday I had just the borders left to quilt. I had in mind to do a series of stylized cats. This is from an image I found on Pinterest. The afternoon before, I'd drawn it out roughly before my pen stopped writing. It isn't particularly neat, but I was trying to see if I had even a snowball's chance of drawing it at all.

And I was pretty sure I could. But then I lay awake that night trying to envision it in the outer border of the quilt. It's a directional motif, and so how would it look on the quilt sides? And would I quilt it going the same direction in the top and bottom borders? Or would one border have the cat upside down? And when my brain started smoking at all that thinking, I bagged the whole idea and did something more symmetrical with this heart-shaped feather for the outer border.

It wasn't the more daring choice, but it was the smarter one. The inner border was finished up in the "paper clip" motif started the afternoon before.

Still, I wanted some cats, and so I quilted this line drawing of a cat in each of the four cornerstones.

And when it was all finished, I took it downstairs for the quilt inspectors to have their say. And geez. the bureaucatic red tape one has to wade through to get a couple of quilt inspectors to look at your quilt. Sadie was busy with the hummingbirds outside the window.

Smitty was staging a full blown mewtiny.

I disapurrove of any quilt that expurressly states "no dogs," and then includes dogs. It's nothing short of an abomination! It's completely purrposterous!

Yeah, I see what you mean, Smitty. That is purrculiar, for sure.

But doesn't this catnip dispensary make you want to shout out loud? I'm giving a big HUZZAH! for that part of the quilt!

And it gets an A+ for snuggleability. It makes me want to snoozle up and take a nap.

Okay, so mixed reviews from the quilt inspectors. I think Smitty will come around. He was just using the "no dogs" thing to take the afternoon off.

After dinner last night, I spent a little time on Tree #11 for Twelve Trees for Christmas. The trunk of this tree is stitched in "woven fill stitch," which was new to me. It sounded easy enough though, and so I stitched it up. Only, I did it all wrong, and the woven effect was lost. Then I went back and read the instructions for the stitch again. You can see how it's done on Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread right here. My mistake was making the vertical stitches too close together. Mine were done more like a satin stitch, and it was nearly impossible to "weave" the horizontal stitches across. So I took it out and did it over again. When I was finished, it looked like this.

The sides are also stitched around in stem stitch.

So there's much more to do on this tree. For this one, I'll be doing a "griffin stitch," which doesn't look too scary.

Also, I'll be doing a "buttonhole scalloped chain stitch," which looks decidedly scary. I'll say more about both stitches as I do them. Fingers crossed they don't give me too much trouble.

Next on the agenda is to sew the binding on It's Raining Cats and Dogs. I'll be using that same aqua colored fabric used for the inner border. The strips are cut, but I still need to sew them together and then sew them to the quilt. Oh yes, and let's not forget that delightful step of squaring it up. 

There might not be much time for sewing today. Our pest control service is coming around to do an application. (Not sure I need to be here for that since they only need to be outside.) Also, I need to make a run into town to go to the post office, and I have a short list for the grocery store. I'll do my major grocery shopping next week in preparation for Thanksgiving. (Teeth chattering in anticipation of that horror show.) I'm doing the cooking this year. And, honestly, I simply must do some housework today. (See, "I'm doing the cooking this year," above. Visitors will be here.) And thanks to all of you who raised your fist in procrastination solidarity. I knew I'd find a sisterhood in Blogland. So, I'm wishing for sewing today, but only time will tell. As my dear father-in-law used to say, "Wish in one hand and sh*t in the other, and see which hand fills up first."