On the Borders

Despite my assertion that I was going to do some housework yesterday, I did none. I only mention this to gain solidarity among my fellow procrastinators with messy houses. (Raises fist in show of strength.) Instead, I spent pretty much the whole day sewing.

My first task was to finish off the placemats for the RV.

Here you can see how they look with the upholstered chairs at the "dining room" table. Yes, RV interiors are gaudy. Would it surprise you to know that we chose the least gaudy interior available?

Anyway...the chairs are comfortable, and the placemats fit all the parameters I set for them; i.e., they were easy, they won't show spills or dirt too badly, they are machine washable, and they were made from scraps.

After that, I got back to work on It's Raining Cats and Dogs. The blocks are finished off now, and I'll be working on the borders today. First, I needed to finish off the bottom row of blocks.

This first one was pretty easy...outline the applique, and a meandering loopy motif in the background.

Moving to the right...

For this one, I quilted some "shingles" into the roof, and used the same loopy meander in the background. The applique was outlined here as well.

Above, I did some swirly stuff around the umbrellas and some cross-hatching around the border.

From there, I moved to the top row of blocks, working on the middle block first.

I did some echo quilting of the "hill" behind the house, and some loopy meander in the background. Again, the applique was outlined. It's mainly to bring out the applique so that it can be seen on the quilt back.

Moving left, I quilted the first block made when I started this project.

Here, I did a little heart-shaped motif between the dogs.

Some scallops in the four-patch and border.

More looping meander in the background.

And then I moved to the final block.

For this one, I quilted the background with a leafy vine I'd used on an earlier block. The only other quilting here was to outline the applique.

And with that finished, I'd nearly finished out the day. For grins, I started quilting the inner border with a motif Lori Kennedy refers to as "paper clip." I've done this on other quilts, and it looks good on the quilt back.

The machine was left in a needle-down position, and I'll pick it up there today.

When I finished sewing, I found Smitty on his kitty pole downstairs, looking longingly out the window. Not five minutes earlier, I'd been thinking about how I hadn't seen any coyotes for a while and (not seriously) considering whether the kitties could go outside just occasionally. As I stood petting and talking to Smitty, his ears perked up. I looked down to the bottom of the field to see these two.

For Smitty's benefit, I announced "There are those bad dogs! Bad dogs! Bad dogs!" I'm hoping I can communicate to him this is the reason he's no longer allowed outside. He had no quibble about that and jumped off his pole to go and hide. Clearly, he understands these are bad hombres. It's anybody's guess whether he understands they are the reason for his confinement.

This morning I finished off Tree #10 of the Twelve Trees for Christmas. It was tempting to use more red beads here, but I stuck to the pattern and did French knots instead. They look like tiny roses.

So you can see it was a full day of sewing. I'm hoping to get near a finish on It's Raining Cats and Dogs today. I have an interesting motif picked out for the outer border, but I'm still mulling it over in terms of what direction to go with it. I'll say more about that in tomorrow's post.

There was scarcely any help from my catsultants yesterday. I guess they've said all they're going to say about this quilt. The inclusion of dogs has been a great disappointment to Smitty. This morning I let them up in their clubhouse. As Mike and I sat in the living room, we heard quite a ruckus between the floor boards. Within a few minutes, Sadie appeared carrying a live mouse. She lost it fairly quickly, and Mike and I spent a few minutes rounding it up and liberating it to the outdoors. It seemed no worse for wear. There's never a dull moment here at the Three Cats Ranch.