Mostly Sewing Day

Most all the post-trip tasks are finished now, and yesterday was spent mostly sewing. There was still a lot of laundry to do, but it was all finished by day's end. Earlier, in a stunning reversal of fortune, Sadie claimed the top rung of the kitty scratching post:

Usually, the top rung is Smitty's exclusive domain, but yesterday, he was relegated to the rather humble post on the chair under the dining room table.

He's become a more benevolent dictator over time. We used to have to keep a spray bottle handy when he decided it was time to beat-up on Sadie. We take it along when we travel too, but we didn't use it even once this last trip. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to become the feline version of...you know...that dictator whose name sounds something like "Pukin." Smitty worries that people will start calling him "Purrtin," and I'm certain that would be disastrous for his meowdeling career. He still decides to beat-up on Sadie occasionally, but only because she's the only purrson in the house smaller than he is.

Peace ruled the day yesterday, however, and they both got out for some nice cold and cloudy weather. Sadie led the way.

Our shaggy winter lawn is purrfect for grass consumption right at the moment.

Smitty thought this gopher mound might hold some purromise.

They only stay out for about 15 minutes in this cold weather, and so Smitty was prompt reporting for sewing cat duties.

Lead on, fair sewing maiden.

His tail is his most important sewing tool.

With his help, I made another 7 inchy felt blocks.

Here are the 14 I have so far. As I was stitching these, I was thinking some of them were different sizes, and you can see now that there are some shorter, squattier ones. It doesn't matter. The felt squares are all the same size.

There are 13 more to do. I'll knock off another 7 today. There are also the larger motifs, and I haven't decided what to do with those yet. 

For now, I'm leaving them as whole cloth. I may decide to cut them differently from the others. 

I'm still not sure how I'll set these when they're that far along. I have an idea to use a wide ribbon as a sashing. There's nothing appropriate in my stash, and so tomorrow I'll make a stop at JoAnn (shudder)...or else Michael's...and see if I can find something appropriate. I'm hoping I can find some wide ribbon with birds or else bird houses. In the meantime, I've pulled these fabrics from my stash. The black and white fabrics are potential sashings or else bindings. The others are potential borders or backs. It's all a big muddle in my mind for the time being.

It was time for some lunch then, and Mike came in the house with some mail our neighbor collected while we were gone. There was some happy mail in the pile from my friend Janet, this magnetic needle minder. Isn't this cool? I love the mountain scene there.

I put that straight to work holding the needle I'm using to stitch the inchies to felt. Thank you, Janet!

My friend Leeda contacted me earlier in the year offering up some cat patterns. Well...heck, yeah! The first one is an embroidered cat calendar quilt. Pieces from my Heart patterns are created by Sandy Gervais. Here's January's block:

You can see the rest of the blocks at the link I've given you back there.

Also, this pattern, "Cats for All Seasons," from Sand & Sun Designs. Oh my gosh! Be still, my beating heart!

Well...all I can say is that it was a very celebratory and fun lunch break. Thank you, Leeda!

Okay, but we were on a sewing binge. With my daily quota of inchies complete, I was ready to get caught up on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I'm starting back with January's reds, and I'm using this block pattern:

I saw this on a Facebook Group known as "The Stash Buster Challenge." This group is new to me. They post a block each year with a goal of making one each week, and then ending with a total of 52 blocks to be sewn into a quilt. There are even prizes! Well...I'm not in for all that, but I do like this block. It's an adaptation of Jericho's Walls, and you can find the free pdf right here. This is the color-coded layout of the block:

I had in mind to do something else for my 2022 Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt, but when I saw the beautiful quilts people on Facebook were making from this block, I decided to do one too. I especially like the "on point" setting. If you want to see some of the quilts, check out The Stash Buster Challenge group on Facebook. Join in, if you like! 

I'm making a smaller quilt than what is suggested in the pdf. I'll be making 32 blocks altogether, which means I'll need three per month. Colors are only announced for 10 months of the year, and so I'll do the remaining two blocks in a color of my choosing, or else pull some of my multi-colored fabrics to finish them off.

When Sadie heard I was making quilt blocks, she knew it was time to help out. She's very purrsnickety about accuracy, and so she always brings her calculator and some small scissors. She's a purrfection task master, let me tell you. And after eating all that grass, a nap sounded good too.

Okay, so I needed to choose a background fabric. At first, I thought I'd do white, but then I found this fabric in my stash.

I believe I bought this as an alternative quilt back when I made the "Quiltemala" quilt from hand-woven fabrics Matthew brought back from Guatemala.

I ended up using a different fabric, and then this one went in my stash. I have quite a bit of it. It seemed like the more interesting choice, as opposed to the white. Also, I had to choose a fabric for the cornerstones and the center. I thought I might use some gray yardage I had on hand, but then it seemed as if it would make better use of my scraps if I used some of the solid black scraps in my black scrap bin.

Okay, and then I was ready to lay out the first block:

And then I sewed it together. It's 10-1/2 inches unfinished. 

Okay, and so this is how the blocks will look, switching out just the reds. The rest will stay consistent for the 32 blocks of this quilt. I thought I'd laid out a second red block, but apparently, I didn't take a picture. And that was the end of my sewing day.

Today I'll continue on making two more red blocks. Then I'll get back to making the inchies. If there's time left over, I'll continue on with the Rainbow Scrap quilt making three aqua blocks for February. I need to pair up some socks from yesterday's laundry extravaganza, and I still need to put away some Christmas decorations. That shouldn't take long. After that, it's going to be an NBS day. (Nothing But Sewing.)