11/21/19

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.

10 comments:

Katie said...

*raises fist* (goes back to sewing) :)

Julierose said...

Fist raise here, too!! ;)))) Back to important things, right?
Another beautiful tree and you are really doing some lovely quilting--I especially like the hearts between those cute doggies...
hugs, Julierose

quiltzyx said...

And a third fist joining in!!

I had the night off last night, so when I got home I stretched out on my bed to read....zz.zzzz. Probably asleep by 6pm, woke up at 10:30pm. Threw the wash into the dryer & played a couple games on my Kindle Fire. Dryer off about 11:45 & right back to sleep! Yay!

The latest tree is lovely & I agree, those French knots do look like roses. :)

Vroomans' Quilts said...

This piece has such delight in all the little elements within each block. I'm still neck deep in commission work plus picked up two small items to quilt (can you get these done for Chistmas sad eyes) - ah, push over. Hey, it pays the fuel oil bill - which was sticker shock!

SJSM said...

And a fourth fist!

As paraphrased from Art Linkletter, "Cats do the darnedest things!" They wanted you to get in on the cat and mouse game. :)

The quilt is looking good. I thought that was the sweetest quilt when you were making it. If you do not have plans for it, it could be a darling quilt for a baby or child. Not a traditional baby quilt but definitely evokes a feeling of a bundle of joy.

Sewing on the dress today. Darts are in, just need to press then connect the quadrants. Then sleeves, kick pleat and hem.

piecefulwendy said...

Both fists raised - and a resounding "yeah" going up. Haha. I seriously need to clean this weekend. We'll see if it happens. I'm so sad to see the coyotes. How absolutely frustrating. Good work on the placemats and the quilt, and that little tree is just darling! Love it!

gpc said...

I wish I had more than two fists -- I didn't do housework OR sewing, which is becoming a bit of a pattern here. More studies are suggesting that domestic animals understand much more of our language than previously thought, making it more likely that Smitty understands more than we can imagine. Good job on liberating the mouse so quickly -- Sadie must worry that you and Mike will starve to death, since you are clearly poor hunters.

Californianativedaughter said...

A little quote I saw the other day might amuse you: "If a quoter's house is neat, her sewing machine is broken."

Louise said...

I love all the little houses and other buildings in this quilt! That's probably because I don't have to clean them. I'm sure you used pristine, hygienic batting inside.

Kate said...

You've been moving along on your projects. I've been checking out your posts but not commenting. I'm playing catch up today. Hopefully you are all caught up on all your projects.