Small Quilt Quilting

The morning was mostly taken up with my eye exam yesterday. The exam took less time than the driving to and fro'. On the way home, I started thinking I needed to get ready for the coming tomato tonnage, and so I stopped off at the grocery store to pick up some things I'd need: onions, fresh basil, red wine, red wine vinegar, and tomato paste. Also, there was a question in my mind whether I had enough quart jars for all the pasta sauce I'm going to make. As I walked past the grocery store shelf, I noticed they had one (1), count them...one...box of quart-sized jars. The rest were all half-pints and quarter-pints. Also, no lids at all. Well, I have plenty of lids, but I decided that one box left on the shelf was a message from the Universe somewhere along the lines of "last chance, Sucker." Okay, so I grabbed that too. They were even on sale. So, all of that to say that I'm picking up 60 lbs. of Roma tomatoes from our farmers tomorrow. I've set aside three days for processing, starting on Sunday. If you're looking for me, look no further than my kitchen. 

With all that running around, I was tired when I got home. After eating some lunch, I took a short nap, and then got to work on the Quilt Shop redwork piece. This piece gives me a "traditional" vibe. Maybe it's because of the ladies dressed in their long dresses and petticoats. 

I decided to fill in around the edges, and to mostly do traditional motifs. There is feathering in the border and in the open areas.

There are some folds quilted in their dresses. Where there were "quilty" things, I did a little quilting, as if they might have been quilted if they were real.

While it seemed like a good idea to quilt the little quilt blocks across the top, they were really too small for that. I did the one on the left side, but didn't like having the white thread crossing over the red embroidery floss...and don't look for me to cut threads and bury them every three stitches. I didn't like the looks of it, and it was too much trouble to do it with more detail. For the quilt blocks farther to the right, I just quilted straight lines between them.

My binding strips were cut, and when the quilting was finished, I sewed on the binding.

Now it's ready for hand-stitching. I'm hoping to finish it off today.

It was mid-afternoon before the kitties were allowed outside. We were both busy doing other things, and so they stayed out past their usual coming in time. Sadie came in and played with some of her toys, but then fell over in a heap. She was 'zhausted. So much playing...such a small cat.

Smitty was feeling much better yesterday, and back to his old self. I tried several times to get a picture of him. He's a little self-conscious about the shaved spot on his right arm, and so he's ducking the pawpawrazzi right now. He worries one of those headlines showing him when he's just hanging out and looking terrible might end up in the National Enquirerpurr, and that would be disastrous for his modeling career.

This morning I'm going to harvest some veggies and fill the bird feeders. After that Mike and I are going to try again to have fun riding our bikes. We're heading over to Champoeg State Heritage Area. ("Champoeg" is pronounced sham-POO-ee.) It's only a few miles from our house, and yet, in 43 years in Oregon, we've never visited. It's website says this about its history:

This is the site where Oregon's first provisional government was formed by a historical vote in 1843. A thriving town of 200 was established, only to be washed away during a great flood in 1861. This rich history earns the park’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

Okay...so it should be interesting, if nothing else. Fingers crossed we don't have any, um, upsets. Of course, I'll take my camera along and take some pictures. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to share a happy story about all the fun we've had. I'm engaged in the positive thinking approach today, although my helmet will be firmly buckled on. Maybe I have some body armor around somewhere. Now where did I put that?