Hot, Hotter, Hottest

The temperature in Portland reached 114°F. yesterday...among the hottest temperatures in the nation. It was even hotter for our neighbors to the south in Salem. Public transportation was shut down, roads were buckling, garden landscaping died off, and emergency cooling centers were opened. At our house around 5:00 p.m.:

Then...as the sun was setting, the temperature began to drop like a stone. We were downstairs watching TV, and the basement was like a freaking meat locker. When Mike went upstairs to turn off a sprinkler, I asked him to check and see if we could turn off the A/C. He came back in open-mouthed amazement, telling me the temperature had dropped 20 degrees in just about two hours! Indeed, we shut off the A/C and opened things up. Good grief. I'm just thankful we actually have A/C, because a *lot* of people in the Northwest do not. This morning it is just 66° as I'm writing this. That's a temperature we can all live with. We're expecting more warm weather, but just seasonably warm. Phew! I'm glad that's over. For now.

With it so hot outside, there wasn't much that could be done, except to stay inside and try to stay cool. I watered the flower pots in the morning, and I'll do them again today. After that, I think I can return to my every-two-days watering schedule. And I really should get out and hoe some more weeds. But I ended up spending most of the day in the sewing room, working on the Sonora Desert piece. Before I tell you about that, can we all paws for a moment and observe how nicely this fabric blends with Miss Sadie's lovely furs?

So here's where I'd left my piece the day before. Just looking at this, I can visualize the mountains, so that's something. I really have no expectation that this is going to work at all. I'm encouraging myself by thinking it will be interesting, whatever I end up with.

Starting at the left, I removed the first strip, and then starting cutting the pieces apart one by one, and then ironing the templates to the wrong side (although it's hard to see any difference between the wrong and right sides). 

I'd done two pieces when I decided it would be wise to at least number the pieces as I went. Here, it's important to know that, except for drawing the lines, there should be no writing on the shiny side of the freezer paper. Anything written on the shiny side will transfer to the fabric when it's ironed.

And then, I also numbered the pieces on the vellum. This was very helpful as I worked because it allowed me to see clearly which color I was working with in the photo.

As I chose fabrics, I pinned each piece to the poster board.

When I began to work on the second vertical strip, I decided to highlight one edge, which helps when I'm trying to figure out the orientation of each piece. Also, seeing the numbers written right side up helps orient the pieces.

So, I continued on choosing colors and pinning pieces to the poster board.

If I were taking this class with Ann Shaw, she would make me add fabrics to every single piece before sewing everything together. It's just one disagreement I have with Ann about this. I need to start sewing things together sooner than that, and so I decided to sew the first strip together. As I work across, I'll sew strips together leaving the adjacent strip unsewn until I've added the next one.

And don't worry if that doesn't make sense. Maybe this next image will help. I sewed all the pieces in the second strip together, and then sewed the first and second strips together. When I add the fourth strip, I'll sew the third one together and then sew it to strips 1 and 2. Clear as mud, right? That's kind of the rule with this technique.

So, yeah...it isn't looking like anything right now. I'm trying not to get discouraged right from the get-go, but I still question whether this is going to work. If I were taking this class from Ann Shaw, she would be on my case about having so many small pieces. She would be right. It's a little tedious, but it's what I'm doing. The punishment will be all mine.

I'll keep making my way across today and hoping for the best. In this beginning, I've stressed way too much about selecting just the right color. Now I'm telling myself to pay attention to the shapes and try to keep them consistent as I work from left to right across the image. When I come to a new layer in the mountains, it doesn't matter so much whether my color choice is accurate...only that I stay consistent for each layer. Yeah...that's what I'm telling myself, but I'm not at all sure I know what I'm talking about.

All right, so no jury duty again for me today, and this afternoon will be my last call-in. Think I can get through tomorrow without having to report? That would be something. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and trying to avoid saying anything that might tempt fate. After all, tomorrow is the day we've decided to pick cherries. I don't want anything to mess that up. There's plenty to keep me busy this morning with gardening and housekeeping chores. I'll probably make my way into the sewing room after lunch.