Pinball Quilting

Yesterday began the final stages of the Snow Globes quilting. The day was spent quilting straight lines I'm probably about halfway finished with it, but it's hard to tell. By day's end, I took it off the machine and laid it on the floor. Here's how it's looking so far:

That's not a great picture, but it's a large quilt and a small space on the floor.

I'm using my "Line Tamer" tool for this. It's the one template I'm still using after messing up my machine this past summer. It fits around both sides of the foot, and so it's unlikely to end up under my needle. I love it for straight line quilting. I can watch just the template, keeping it lined up how I want, and then just sew without having to watch the needle. Also, there's no marking required. If you click on that link I've given you, there's a short video where you can see how it works.

For this, I'm just quilting long lines where I can. At the edge of the quilt, I can stitch to the next position without needing to cut thread. So I'm just quilting around and around like a pinball. When I bump into the end of a line or an embroidered block, I just ricochet off in a different direction.

Speaking of ricocheting...cats. I had a lot of kitty input on this yesterday. Smitty is my usual quilting cat.

Sadie thought she'd give Smitty a break, and so she took over for a while.

She had the good sense to watch from the window sill.

Smitty likes a more paws-on approach.

When Sadie is on the floor below, he gets distracted. He has to keep an eye on her at all times.

I spent a little extra time on my slow stitching yesterday morning. Most of the candies and spoons in the mason jar were finished. This morning, I finished the rest. 

Now I've moved my hoop back to the bottom of the piece so I can finish the pie. Whenever one has an opportunity to finish a pie, one should do it. Wouldn't you agree?

There's still a lot to do on this. I think I'll be able to finish it off from one side to the other, but I might decide to work on something else at some point. For now, it's keeping me entertained, and so I'll just keep going with it. 

Today I'll continue on with my quilting. As I said, it's hard to decide how much is left. I think I'm about halfway finished, but I can't really tell even when I look at the whole thing. 

Today is Erik's birthday. This little cherub turns 41 today, which makes me feel super old.

We're having the family over for a dinner of roast beast tomorrow. I have a little housework to do today to get ready. I'd be doing the housework anyway, but you know...company. If it weren't for company coming over, I wonder if I'd ever feel motivated to do housework. Tomorrow I'll be baking a pie, so I really want to get the quilting finished today. I doubt there will be any time for sewing tomorrow.

We had smoky skies earlier this week, then mostly foggy yesterday. This morning it's looking like we might get clear skies and sunshine. Possibly I'll get outside and do a little work in the garden. What's on your to-do list for today?