Rain Respite

We had a break in the deluge yesterday. Not to worry...it's back today. I'm hoping we'll see at least a little sunshine, but not really counting on it. I used the opportunity to get outside and bask in the sunshine. I filled the bird feeders and pulled a few weeds. In my wanderings, I noticed these cute little ruffly mushrooms. The largest among them is about the diameter of a quarter. The rest are adorably small.

The kitties were happy to get outside too. In the rain, they've only set two paws outside before changing their minds, although Smitty will sit on the woodbox under the eaves until he gets too cold. If he can't go out in the field and find something to kill, what's the point?

Back inside, I went to work hand-sewing the binding on the Get Well Kitty quilt. This was my view.

It didn't take long to finish it. I'm happy I added the nurse cap button. My friend Debi in southern California is going to take the other five off my hands, and I'm happy to give them to her. We'll be seeing one another when we head south this winter. I'll put them in my sewing box, and then they'll be sure to make the trip along with us.

Now it's taken its place in the upstairs section of the Mewseum. Most of the Mewseum is located in the downstairs, and so there's still lots of real estate in this section.

Oh yes, that other quilt? That's the "Let Sleeping Cats Lie" quilt...one of the first quilts I made.

You can find the pattern right here. There's a "dog version" too.

I spent a good part of yesterday right here, taking out the quilting I've done on the Fancy Cats quilt.

Here's the thing: It's my opinion that perfection is highly overrated. A former colleague once mentioned to me that a perfectionist is always looking for the flaw. I really took that to heart, and so I'm forgiving of imperfections when I'm sewing. It's supposed to be fun, right? And I look at every project as an opportunity to learn. When I look at my oldest quilts, I can say, "I was just learning" to do this or that thing. Looking at quilts I've made later, I can see how my work has improved. 

A couple of years ago, I would have been okay with this quilt, reveling in the fact that the tension was adjusted properly and not worrying too much about the design. But now...I know I can do better than this, and so I'm going to start again. My watchwords now are "My best is good enough," and this is not my best work.

Okay, so with all that said, the stitches are tight together, and it's been hard to take it out without resorting to picking at one stitch at a time. It's going to take several days at the rate I'm going. My friend Wendy pointed me to a link this morning that might be helpful. Carole (From My Carolina Home) wrote a post where she "skins" the top of the quilt from the sandwich. I'm going to try this today. I'm not sure it will work very well since the block I'm working on is right in the middle of the quilt.

My quilts are all spray basted, and so it might be disruptive to pull it apart. I'm going to give it a try anyway. Possibly if I start from one corner, I can do it without messing things up too much. My dining room table is large, and so I'll take it down there and give it a go. Fingers crossed.

While I was picking out stitches, Sadie was doing her best to look adorable. 

Doncha think I'm cute?

Here, Smitty starting making gagging sounds. He thinks her antics are utterly disgusting.

She doesn't care what that baboon impurrsonating a cat thinks. She just continued on.

What about now? Do you think I'm purrecious?

Ack! Sadie, you're going to make me barf if you keep this up!

He had to leave the room, so revolting was her display.

This morning, I stitched up the first hoop on Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. The toe of the boot is finished. There's still a long way to go on this.

Today I'll get back to my stitch-picking. I'm hoping Carole's method will work better, but I haven't actually tried it yet. It's been pouring rain for most of the morning. I've had a reprieve from housework the past couple of days because I tried to get it all done before our friends were here last weekend. I'm afraid I need to get a little more done today though. Those vacations don't last forever when it comes to housework. When I think about picking out those quilting stitches, housework doesn't sound so bad.