Fevered Sewing

Now you might think I accomplished a lot yesterday with the title for this post. Actually, not nearly as much as I'd hoped. I think I mentioned yesterday I was feeling a little achy in response to my second booster shot. By afternoon, I was feeling poorly, and running a slight fever. I ended up sleeping on the couch for a couple of hours. Fortunately, the reaction was short-lived, and I was feeling better after about six hours. Mike had a similar reaction, but his started the night before. He felt poorly for several hours, and then fine. So...no biggy. I'm generally sensitive to vaccines, and this was a minor reaction compared to some I've experienced. It's way better than getting sick with the actual disease.

Before I was felled by vaccination, however, I took the first stitches on the final panel for the Heartland Barns quilt.

These blocks are stitched all in a dark brown, except for the leaves. Each block has a little bit of color elsewhere too. This one, being twice the size of the others, has color in several places. I decided to stitch that little quilt first, and then I used whatever leftover color I had on the leaves. Mainly, I was cleaning up my floss bobbins with the bits of floss left over from the last time I worked on it.

From there, I went straight upstairs and quilted another row on the Charm Stars.

There are just two rows left to quilt, and I have a goal to finish this up today. I won't get to the binding until I've cleared my work table of the Blackwork Baskets quilt...another of today's goals. It just needs two borders.

Sewing borders on a quilt is my second least favorite part of quilting, sandwiching for quilting being the winner for the part I dislike most. (Can you be a "winner" if you're the worst? Winning at being worst? Is that a thing?) So I'm dragging my feet on this a little bit. I really need to just rip off the band-aid and finish it up.

Okay, and then next on my list was to finish off the latest Calendula Patterdrip block. I still needed to add the pieced blocks at the top and bottom.

These blocks were supposed to have been tinted and shaded with brown crayon. I don't enjoy the coloring part, although I do think it can add a lot to the finished quilt. For this one, I selected that "grunge" fabric for the background, alleviating the need for coloring. It doesn't photograph well, and so it's kind of hard to see the stitching in a photograph. It shows much better in person. With that said, here are all the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

This has been a complicated quilt to put together, and there's still more to come. If you look at the picture of the pattern cover below, the next sections (7 and 8) will have to be sewn as one piece. You can see them in the pink square below. Then, after everything else is finished, I'll need to stitch the tree. It's "circled" in green. And there are still many pieced blocks to do as well. 

So this is a long way from being finished, but any progress is good progress. 

From there, I was beginning to feel as if a nap was the thing I needed most. I went ahead and prepared the next block for the Books & Roses quilt. This is being combined with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and so my block will be done with pink fabrics. I needed to applique the bow, and then trace out the stitchery. It seemed like a good thing to work on while feeling sickly.

Upstairs and outside, the kitties were on squirrel patrol. Smitty was sitting at their "front door," waiting for someone to make an appearance.

Sadie was nearby, acting as his emergency back-up cat.

I sat inside doing my stitching, and then slid down on the couch for a long nap. When I woke up, I could tell I was running a fever, but I still felt good enough to add the borders to my freshly-stitched block. Now April's block is finished.

Here are all the blocks I have for this quilt so far. These are so much fun to make. I look forward to each one.

Outside, the kitties were enjoying the sunshine. Sadie was using the chair for her beach umbrella. She doesn't want the harsh sunlight to cause purrmature wrinkling of her furs. Besides, she doesn't want to get mewlanoma.

And I spent the rest of my afternoon sitting and stitching slow. I managed to stitch a few more leaves on the Heartland Barns quilt. 

Okay, so I'm pretty much back to what passes for normal today. My goals are to finish the quilting on Charm Stars and to finish the borders on the Blackwork Baskets. Slow stitching will fill in the gaps. Also, it's laundry day, so there's plenty to keep me busy on this Sunday. What's going on in your world?