Nearing the End

We're nearing the end of the month, and I'm nearing the end of my quilting adventure. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I hadn't slept well the night before, and I needed to make a trek into town for my monthly pedicure. The pedicure was nice, but as I've also mentioned, these treks into town wear me out. I was already tired from sleeping poorly. When I got home, I made some lunch for the two of us, and then took a nap. It was around 1:30 by the time I woke up, and my energy level hadn't increased in the slightest. No way I was going to do the canning I'd planned to do. I sat mindlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came to this image posted by my friend Anne:

Holy moly. And here I sat, having not done a single stitch of embroidery. It was time to get busy...practically an emergency. And so I sat with my kitty and stitched the day's allotment, usually 6 lengths of floss. When we started our quest to honor the World Embroidery Day, Smitty nestled between my legs. 

By the time I'd finished, he was picking up the slack in laziness where I'd left off.

There's progress on the latest Appalachian Memories block, but still a long way to go.

By that time, my energy level had improved. The rest of the day was spent sewing. I finished off most of the vertical sashings with straight line quilting. I told myself I'd do half, and I did a little more than that. Probably, I could have finished it off, but it will be quick work today. Maybe I'll even get the binding sewn on. It depends on how long the rest of the day's chores take.

Also, I made a little more progress top-stitching Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs. I love these whimsical blocks, but they are a little tedious to top-stitch. There are lots of little tiny pieces, and lots of different colors. I'm in no hurry since Shop Hop is taking most of my sewing time right now. 

The past couple of days have been the hottest of the summer so far, but we're expecting some cooler days ahead. This morning's sunrise was kind of interesting with these little spotty clouds in the mix.

The most "flaming" part of the sunrise was below the tree line, and I couldn't get high enough to see it.

While I was out, though, I noticed these purple poppies opening up. They are like happy little spirit flowers. They only last a day, but there are a lot of them.

 

Today, I really am going to can some zucchini relish. Also, I need to get out in the garden and harvest some beets. I'll be working on them tomorrow. Fortunately, the beets can be refrigerated for canning when we return. Aside from that I'll just continue on with the Shop Hop quilt. I want to work on hand-sewing the binding on our camping trip next week, and I should have no problem getting it to that point before we go.