A Sewing Day and More Quilts

It was a hot day here in Hemet yesterday. We turned on the air-conditioning in the afternoon. I was running the washer, which didn't help the inside temperature one bit, but it was plenty warm enough outside too. Smitty melted like chocolate.

Before I tell you about my sewing day, I have a few pictures leftover on my camera from the day before. And, don't worry, there are pictures from the quilt show at the end.

Smitty wanted me to be sure and tell you that he's been out for several walks since my last post. When he's outside, he first checks his reflection in the chrome wheel of the truck, and then smooths his whiskers on the mud flap. A gentleman always tried to look his best, you know.

Sadie offers suggestions from the catio.

For any new readers, I should explain why Sadie never gets out for a walk. She was practically feral when she came to the Three Cats Ranch to live, and she tends to revert to feral when she's panicked. Also, she has an anxious personality, even on her best days. So we tried every harness available...yes, even the one you're thinking about...and she has managed to slip out of every single one. On a previous trip, we nearly lost her in Teddy Roosevelt National Park. After that experience, her walking days were over. Sorry. Not sorry.

At the end of the day, we were treated to an interesting sunset. I especially like the silhouette of the birds on a wire on the right side of the image below.

Mike surprised me with something he ordered off Amazon. It's a propane fire pit. If you're wondering why one would have something like this, it's because it offers an alternative to wood-burning fires. Now, I like a wood-burning fire as much as the next person, but there are often burn bans in effect. Also, most RV parks will not allow wood fires at any time. As an added benefit, it doesn't make smoke, which often ends up smoking us out of the trailer. It provides some warmth when those lava rocks start glowing red, and so it was kind of fun to set it up and touch it off.

It came with a cat trap at no extra charge!

Okay, so now we're back to yesterday morning, and I'm just about to tell you a dirty little secret. I moved on to the third snowflake without stitching a single stitch on my hand quilting project.

Here's my excuse, and it's a good one: When Mike's sister came by the other day, I didn't want to get out the larger hand-quilting project because it's hard to fold up and manage and to keep in a tidy bundle. With company coming, I opted for the smaller more compact project. It's a good excuse, no? So, I've been working away on that for the past couple of days. I stitched the diamond-shaped portions in a blue sparkle floss, but I was going to run out for the triplets around the outer edge. For those, I switched off to a darker blue metallic thread. I'll keep working away on that, and when it's finished, I'll get back to my hand quilting...no excuses.

So it being a warm day yesterday, we had the blinds closed on the south side of the trailer to keep the sun out. It made for a rather dark work space, but I used the little clip-on light I got at the quilt show, and that gave me a nice bright space for sewing.

So seldom do I sew on Pfelicity that I have to reteach myself every single time I set it up. Yesterday I was doing free motion quilting, and so I also needed to attach the hopping foot, which is a full-day trial in and of itself. I fussed around with the machine for about an hour before I was able to put thread to fabric.

This is a small project, and so I've taken it very nearly to a finish now. You might recall I started this project about a year and a half ago after taking a class with Meg Hawkey from Crabapple Hill Studio. I finished the embroidery long ago, and then combined it with another pattern to make this little Pumpkin Pie wall-hanging. For the background, I filled in with the "Double C" motif I've used before.

After that, I switched to orange thread and quilted some "ribs" into the pumpkin. Then, I switched to green thread and stitched some veins into the leaves and some little remnants from the vine.

It was all going nicely until I looked at the back. Oh no!

It seems I'd completely missed the tension disks when I changed thread spools. The only good thing I can say about this is that it was easy to take it out. What a mess. And it took me a while to figure out what I'd done wrong. In the process, I rewound the bobbin, rethreaded the needle twice, changed the needle...like I said, I have to reteach myself how to use Pfelicity every single time. Anyway...after fussing for about a half an hour trying to figure it out, I was back on track and redid the leaves and vines.

For the outer border, I did a kind of leafy, swirly, feathery thing. (Technical quilting terms, so try to keep up.)

By day's end, I had a finish, except for hand-sewing the binding. This is a small quilt, and so I expect to finish it today. And this is my January OMG, so I'll get in just under the wire.

Oh yes, and I almost forgot! After all that, I needed something sweet for dessert. I made these Carrot Cakes for Two with Warm Cream Cheese Sauce. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Okay, so let's get back to the quilt show, shall we? As before, I'll first show you the information about the quilt and the quiltmaker, then the quilt, then any detail shots I took. Today's quilts are all animals, and some of them were so realistic, you might have thought you could reach out and pet them. But DON"T TOUCH THE QUILTS, if you know what's good for you. That reminds me of one of my favorite quilts ever...this one is not from the show. It was made by Rosalie Gray.

So keep your hands to yourself unless you want to end up like Sunbonnet Sue. Enjoy.

This quilt was so realistic, you'd swear the bear was right in front of you.

This was one of my favorites. It had a shimmery look to it that didn't translate well into photography.

The little hairs around the mouth were so realistic, it was hard not to reach out and feel them.

There were a series of quilts from the book shown here.

This was another one where the animal appeared three-dimensional, and you'd swear it was sitting right there.

So I still have lots more quilts to show you, but that's enough for today. After yesterday's rather frustrating sewing day, I'm going to take a day off, get out, and enjoy the warm weather and sunshine. Mike is still checking off projects from his list, but we've already decided to get out fairly early before it gets too hot. As for me...I'm going to work on the hand-stitching on the Pumpkin Pie quilt and add it to the finished column.