All Lined Up

It took most of the day, but I finished the quilting on the Paws & Purrs quilt. The Line Tamer ruler let me down for this project, and I ended up quilting it on my domestic machine. I wanted to be near my work table since I was marking each line individually. It made for a lot of on and off the machine to draw the next line, and it was a tedious process. Of course this required plenty of snoopervision. Smitty took the first shift as my quilting snoopervisor.

For a job like this, you want to hold your ruler firmly. My snoopervisor is very good at this part of the process.

When I had all the lines quilted that headed from northwest to southeast, I took a break.

When I returned, it was Sadie's turn to take over. The kitties are feeling especially purrtective and purrticular about this quilt. It has cats. And it's going to be for some kid. Getting the lines straight and positioning them propurrly is of the utmost impurrtance.

It took about an hour, but I finished them it right around dinner time.

Here's how it looks from the back. I like how the variegated thread shows up among all those multicolored cats.

There should be plenty of time to get the binding sewn on today. Quilts for Kids prefers a machine binding, and so I'll sew it to the back first and flip it to the front for finishing. I don't usually do machine bindings, and so I'm hoping this one will look good when it's finished.

Now here's something: We had to take all the furniture out of the guest bedroom so the crew can get in there (in about ten years) and repair the damage to the walls, carpeting, etc. It's going to be a big job. This meant taking the bed apart. We decided to pile the mattress on top of our pool table to get it out of the way. The kitties think this is an excellent use of the pool table. After a hard day's work, it's good to have an ample space to spread out.

Sadie has used this space too, but she refuses to share it with Smitty. He snores. And so she prefers her spot next to the fireplace.

Mike returns home tonight. It'll be good to have another person around again. Having the house to myself is only fun for a while, and then I start going completely bohemian. It's not a good look. While he's been gone, I've spent hours planning our trip to the Great Lakes Region. I believe I have it nailed down now. I cut out any portions that had us deviating from our more or less straight line across to Lake Superior. From there, we'll drive around Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Looks like we'll get a view of Lake Erie too, which is the one great lake we missed on our USA Perimeter tour. 

Keeping in mind that we may have to change our plans on the fly if we encounter bad weather or some other natural disaster, this is how the trip looks now. (As a reminder, I can only put ten destinations into Google maps, and so each map begins with the last destination on the previous map.)

We're visiting Voyageurs National Park for the second time. We loved our first visit. Also, we'll take the tour of the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin, and try again for good light on the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan's Upper peninsula.

In the next map, I was sad to have to cut the eastern part of Pennsylvania. The trip simply got too long, and so we're turning around sooner than I'd hoped. We'll still get to see our newest national park in West Virginia.

Coming back, I had to delete the Iowa Quilt Museum, but we'll still see the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. I hated to cut the museum in Iowa. We might still do it if we get ahead of schedule.

And then home via Lander, Wyoming. I read about it in a magazine, and it looks like fun. We missed that on one of our trips, and so we'll try again this time around.

Of course, I still need to clear all this with Mike, and we have to decide when we'll leave home. The places are nailed down, but not the dates. As it stands, our trip will be about 2 months.

 Also yesterday, I started the resistance band portion of my new exercise routine yesterday. (Day 2 establishes a routine, right?) I hadn't looked at my resistance bands for years prior to yesterday morning. One of them broke with the very first tug. Of course it did. So I ordered a new set off Amazon. It wouldn't do to put out an eye while I'm trying to get in better shape. Nevertheless, I did what exercises I could with my remaining one resistance band. Yay me. 

The only other thing I have to tell you about is this recent acquisition. I can't remember where I saw it, but it had to be mine. And Thursday is my birthday, so Happy Birthday to me. 

It's a small wallet. I carry a small purse, and this one had some better divisions than the wallet I'm using. These are available for purchase on Etsy from Ooh la Lemon. It seems well-made. I'm a little worried about its snap closure since I think it could pull out over time. I'll just be careful with it and enjoy it while it lasts.

I need to make a quick trip into town today. There's a long list of groceries, but I'm waiting until Mike can go with me tomorrow. I'll just pick up something for tonight's dinner and get the rest tomorrow. As for the rest of my day, it'll be the usual...slow-stitching, filling the bird feeders, and cat petting.