Squirrely

When I finished writing yesterday's post, I went downstairs to find Smitty snuggled up in Mike's lap. Don't you think the world would be a nicer place if we could all fold our hands under our bodies the way kitties do?

Outside, one of our mischievous squirrels was enjoying some sunflower seeds he stole from the bird feeders. 

I love how they use their little hands.

When he spotted me watching him through the window, he hopped off the rock into the wild strawberry bed where he continued digging stuff up and eating it. I can't even imagine what he was finding, but maybe he knew where the treasures were buried.

As I watched, he dug a little hole and then used it the way kitties use a litterbox, then covered up what he left behind. Until then, I had no idea squirrels did that. Clearly they know, as kitties do, that one must take care to cover up one's doody.

We kept wary eyes on one another, and he took up a strategic position hiding behind the rock.

Then, he continued digging and eating, staring me down, daring me to blink first.

Okay, but I had quilting to do, and so I headed upstairs and spent just a few minutes quilting the last of the Charm Stars quilt. There was one more row to do of the areas between the stars, and then I went around the outer perimeter filling in any places I'd missed. This is a large quilt...61 x 73 inches...and so it's hard to get a very good picture of the whole thing when one's quilt-holder-upper is not in attendance. (Cats are no good at this. They are too short.)

Here are a couple of close-ups of the quilt top.

And, for what it's worth, here are a couple of shots of the quilt back.

Sadie helped me square it up and cut off the edges, readying it for binding.

Going with the colors on the quilt back, I had in mind to bind it with either a pink or a yellow. Pink seemed too feminine, and I wanted to keep it gender neutral, so I went with this yellow. I had less than a yard in my stash, and so it was a good way to use it.

Now it's been sewn to the quilt edge, and the quilt awaits me for hand-stitching downstairs. I'll probably spend a good part of today on this.

Before I could do any of that, however, I needed to clear my workspace of the Blackwork Baskets piece. I gave it a black border...

And then finished it off with its outer border. That right there is a finished quilt top.

This was April's OMG, and so I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month. It ended up at 53 x 53 inches.

I wanted to use this horse fabric for the quilt back, but I didn't have enough. Since I only just bought it last fall when we visited The Patchwork Pig in Farmington, New Mexico, I thought I had a pretty good chance of scoring two more yards...and I did. It's on its way to me now.

When that arrives, I'll need to stitch one seam to make a quilt back for this. For the binding, I've already cut black strips. It seemed like choosing anything other than black would be gilding the lily.

Okay, so I'm pretty happy with all the progress I made yesterday. I completed more than I thought I could in a single day. It seems I was making up for my lost vaccine reaction time. Today I'll probably spend most of my time slow-stitching...either embroidery or quilt binding...but I'd also like to make April's blocks for this year's Rainbow Scrap quilt, Jericho Walls. These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

The blocks don't lend themselves well to chain piecing, and so it will probably take a while to make three more pink ones. I like these blocks, and the finished quilts I've seen on Facebook have been very pretty.

We had quite a bit of rain and wind last night, but the sun is shining as I'm writing this. I believe there is more rain in the forecast. The forecast also calls for warmer weather toward the end of the week. I'm starting to get itchy about pulling more weeds, and so some warm weather would go a long way toward that effort.