Add Fabric and Sew

It rained most of the day yesterday, which made it a good day for sewing. I took the first stitches on Block #6 of the Calendula Patterdrip quilt. 

These blocks are large, which makes them awkward to stitch. The excess is all pinned back, but so much excess makes it a heavy hand-held project. I'll be glad when these are finished. I'm getting close. 

After that, I headed into the sewing room, still perplexed about how to sew together the inchies. At least I had a place to start. In my sewing room, no sewing can get done without the presence of Smitty, the Steadfast Sewing Cat. He's thinking of using that as the title of his autobiography. Just look at that steely serious sewing gaze.

His feet were doing most of the work on this day, holding everything in place until I could sew things together.

With Smitty so steely and serious, Sadie thought she could address the cuteness factor. With her help, I think we had all the facets of sewing this quilt top together covered...steely, serious, and cute. What more is there?

Okay, and then I went to work. This could be described as "trial and error sewing." I was trying to do it somewhat symmetrically, but I couldn't make it work. I couldn't even make things match up very well. When I abandoned both efforts, I just started adding strips of fabric to cover the lack of symmetry and "matchiness." I think I just made up a word. Actually, not. I just found it in the "WordSense" dictionary, to-wit:

It's somewhere on the same continuum as "matchy-matchy," which I prefer not to use since it sounds derogatory. And when you look at this quilt top, you might be tempted to use a different derogatory word.

So, I looked at this for a while. I wanted to add borders. The quilt was around 10 inches longer than it was wide, and so I opted to make the top and bottom borders narrower than the sides. Also, I decided to stick with the same fabric I'd been using. This is one I picked up while we were in Winnemucca, if memory serves.

I might have used the one below, also picked up during our travels somewhere and sometime. Instead, I'll use it for the quilt back.

The quilt ends up at 38 x 42 inches...rather large for a wall-hanging, but I have a place for it. And, phew! That was quite a puzzle to put together. I'll get around to quilting it at some point. I may go against my better judgment and hand quilt it, but I'll have some time to come to my senses before I get around to it. And with so much cuteness involved in this top, Sadie needed a nap.

Finishing off The Neighborhood quilt top was my goal for March's 

and so I'll link up there when the party starts at month's end. There's plenty of March ahead of us.

The only other sewing I did yesterday was to sew the one seam necessary to make a quilt back for Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs. I absolutely love this flying pig fabric.

Okay, and now that truly does bring me back to my "regular" sewing. Everything I worked on while we were traveling is either finished or else at a good stopping place. I'll be getting back to my regular list of WIP's for my next sewing, starting with making another block for the Vintage Linens quilt. I have two blocks for this quilt so far, and it's turning out to be more fun than anticipated.

There are five quilts on my WIP's list (not including hand embroidered quilts), and so I'll make my way through those. Also, I'm needing to get a start on my next art quilt for The Endeavourers art quilt group. The reveal will be May 1st. I believe I've settled on what I'm going to make this time around, and I'll say more about it when the time comes. We're not keeping these a secret, and so I'll be able to share it as I go.

Today is National Pi Day, and so I'll be baking a pie for two later today. Mike and I need to make a trip to the grocery store first, though. I envision a busy day ahead, but I think there will still be time for sewing.