Home Stretch

It's a pretty morning out. We had rain yesterday, but it cleared off by late morning, and turned into a pretty nice day. The morning mist seems to have moved on as well. Possibly we still have some good weather ahead before the Big Dark moves in.

The morning sun is low on the horizon these days. At our latitude, the sun moves from east to west like everywhere else, but it is so low on the horizon that it appears to be in the south. Mike and I moved to Oregon in mid-October of 1978, and it took us a while to get our directional bearings because of this late-year low-flying sun.

Yesterday morning I had most of the 4th tree for 12 Trees for Christmas stitched up. While we were watching the news yesterday evening, I finished it off. This one was kind of fun to stitch. There are two different colors of brown in the trunk and tree limbs, and it was all stitched in a stem stitch. Then little fly stitches were used to create the green needles followed by red French knot berries.

I'm using leftover floss from my stash. The red and green were originally used in the Gingerbread Square quilt from several years back.

I'm hoping I'll have enough to finish all 12 trees, but the red is running low. I have more red in my stash, but it would be nice to do the whole piece in the same shade of red. Hopefully, the red beads will pick up some of the slack too.

When I finished with my morning stitching yesterday, I put Sadie on the window perch. She was 'spicious at first.

But then she laid there for a little while.

No doubt it's chilly sitting there right next to the window. She prefers the morning sunshine on the catio.

I had some housework to do, but then I went back to work on the friendship star border. It's now completed on three sides with just one side and 13 stars left to make. Geez. How will I live my life when I don't have any more friendship stars to make?

Here's the best picture I could take of it for the time being. It gives you a chance to see all of the borders. There is just one more border from the blue star fabric after the stars are completed, and then it will be a finished flimsy.

After that, I started to make the half square triangles for the final side. I even trimmed one of them, but then decided to give my wrist a break from cutting for one day. It was feeling quite a bit better at bedtime last night, and even better this morning. A little rest probably did some good.

Besides, Smitty is very tired of this quilt.

Are you finished yet?

Back upstairs, there was a package at the door. I needed some high-quality muslin for the Pieces of the Past quilt started recently. The two largest panels are done in white muslin. I'm not sure why the pattern specifies muslin, and of course, I can do whatever I want to do. Still, the quilt suggests a tablecloth scene to my eyes, and I thought the tight weave and smooth texture of the muslin might make it look even more so.

While I was at it, I ordered some different vintage calico prints for the crazy quilt blocks. I'd pulled some from my stash, but some seemed a little too modern, and so I picked out a selection. The white one in the center has the most delicate white on white floral print. It doesn't show up well in this photo.

So now I have the 5th tree traced out. This one will probably take a little longer than the ones already finished. It has a lot of beading on it as well.

I have a short grocery shopping list to attend to this morning, but I'm hoping to finish off the last row of stars this afternoon. It's looking like I'll have a Friday finish.