We've extended our lazy streak to a fourth day. If I'm being generous, I'd say Day 1 doesn't count since we did drive over 300 miles that day. Since then we've done nearly nothing. Today may change that. I got out our hiking book yesterday and looked for some hikes we might want to take. Mike wondered if I'd like to ride bikes. The idea of riding bikes still fills me with dread, but I'm working on enjoying it more and riding with less fear. Maybe we'll do one or the other thing today. Maybe if we can find a short hike we'll do both. Only time will tell...and Mike still has to get out of bed, so there's that.
It's not true that nothing has been accomplished. I got out the sewing machine yesterday and got more than halfway sewing the blocks together. Since my window seat is now in shade most of the day, I was having trouble seeing the black on black fabric...not to mention the black thread. It made sense to use my little Daylight lamp. You might remember that I bought a "Slimline lamp" when we visited the Road to California Quilt Show, pre-pandemic. When I purchased the Slimline lamp, the "Smart Clip-on Lamp" came as a free gift. You can see it in the image below attached to the right side of the sewing machine.
The Slimline lamp is attached to my sewing table at home, and I use it whenever I'm sitting at the sewing machine there. The Smart Clip-on lamp is a portable style, and I've used it many times when I need more light in one spot or another. It has three brightness settings, and it's lightweight, so it's easy to find ways to mount it. It's also rechargeable. With the area nicely lit, I could see the blacks more clearly. By lunch time, I had the first two rows sewn together.
My quilt blocks were stacked in order from the bottom up, and so I'm starting with the bottom row and making my way to the top. After lunch, I finished two more rows. There are still three rows to sew together for the top half, and then I'll sew the two halves together for a finished quilt top.
I did all of this under Sadie's watchful eye.
When I took the quilt blocks out of their kit yesterday, I found some cut strips. It confused me because I was thinking the quilt didn't have a border, and it does not. As it turns out, I checked back on an old blog post and realized I'd cut those strips for the binding. It's nice knowing I won't have to sew on another border to finish this project.
Okay, so my next trick is to spend some more time with the hiking book and see if I can find something that will cause us to perk up. This is a good book covering a large swath of the state of Nevada, including our next two destinations of Pahrump and Death Valley. We've nearly hiked out the Death Valley portions of the book, but I believe there are a few hikes we've missed. We've done almost no hiking at all in the Pahrump area.
Okay...so off I go. Maybe we'll get off our keisters today...and maybe not. Maybe I'll just finish the quilt top. We'll just have to see what our feet have in mind for us.
6 comments:
Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Nice that you were able to get so many rows done!! And to find the binding pre-cut--whoo hoo:)))
What a great surprise!! Hugs, Julierose
Having a few slug days is not a problem. Making plans for adventures will quickly spark the brain and the desire to see more. City Blocks is certainly coming along. I like it better each day.
The patio tile is about ¼ done. Cant wait for the finished job. It is looking beautiful. Stella still hasn’t come home. Today makes a week. We go out multiple times a day searching. Lots of neighbors give us sightings. Black cats are common in our neighborhood. There are two colonies of cats with several black ones among them. As a result, a lot of false sightings of Stella. We are hoping she is adverse to the construction and will come home after it is done.
Your vacation sounds perfect and your quilt is coming along great. I really love the color palette.
I love it when questions can get answered either on the blog or a note in the box with the other fabric. I have extra bits in my current WIP that leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
I'm not sure how I've managed to miss so many of your posts, but I'm catching up! Sometimes slow days are just the best days. I like how your city lights quilt is coming together. Black fabric and black thread is a challenge - I'm ignoring a black binding I need to put on a quilt. When I actually decide to get it done, I'm going to machine bind the whole thing. Stitching black binding by hand is just too hard to see.
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