So Many Finishes!

It's strictly a coincidence that "I Believe in Snowmen" was finished and ready for its reveal on the same day as the reveal for the latest challenge piece from The Endeavourers. Further...the carpeting is in!!! Yay! There's still some work to do in the basement, but I'm hopeful the whole project will be wrapped up soon. Needless to say, I have a lot to tell you. Let's just start first with the challenge quilt.

The prompt was "Boustrophedon," which, after several months, I can spell it now without looking it up every single time. There were so many obstacles to my finishing this quilt, I wondered how I would be able to get it completed in time. As you know, my sewing room was dismantled toward the end of July after a plumbing catastrophe. The leak was discovered in April, and as you also know, we've been plagued by slow insurance adjusters and slow contractors. It's been very frustrating. 

When the prompt was announced at the beginning of August, we already had plans to leave on a two-month road trip. Our return wasn't expected until October 17th, and so there was just a small window of time for me to work on it. I decided my best bet was to hand embroider something while we were on the road, and then finish it upon our return. My hand embroidery was inspired by this image created by "ndgmtlcd." I've contacted him or her. I don’t know if “ndgmtled” is a man or a woman, but in any case, I’m using the image with permission. I'm grateful to "ndgmtled" for allowing me to adapt it for my purposes. 

I had some ideas about how to make it work for the prompt, and so I traced it onto a background fabric and went to work hand-stitching. This is my finished quilt. Mine is a literal interpretation of the prompt. It measures 15 x 18 inches.

Here's how it looks from the back. The backing fabric was a gift from a friend. It's a Kaffe Fassett fabric, called "Sharks Teeth." I cut it into three strips and faced the "teeth" in opposite directions.

Since my sewing room was still dismantled upon our return, I set up a temporary sewing space specifically to finish this quilt. I added the two borders to the quilt top, sticking with the "cow" theme. How could I resist using that Holstein fabric? It was some I picked up while traveling in Wisconsin...the dairy state. Here's my little temporary sewing space.

When the top was finished, I added the batting and then used one of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine to add some machine stitching and quilting, filling out the design.

For that, I stitched just through the batting before adding the back, 

and then just lightly quilted it with some straight-line quilting.

The hand embroidery was tiny. In the image below, I've added my thimble for scale.

After completing the quilting, it was ready for binding.

And one more time...here is my finished quilt. I hope you like it. I had fun making it despite all the challenges.

With so many obstacles to my finishing, I decided to call it "Curves Ahead."

While the crew was here laying carpet yesterday, I finished what was left of the binding on "I Believe in Snowmen." This pattern is from Bunny Hill Designs. It finishes up at 56 x 64 inches.

Here's how it looks from the back.

And then, finally, the carpet. I peeked from the top of the stairs and got a look at the padding. At first, I thought it was vinyl that was revealed when the old carpet was pulled up. Actually, it's just the design on the pad underneath. As it turns out, this pad is manufactured by Nike, of all companies. Who knew an athletic company was also in the carpet pad business? So I took this picture of the pad (on the right) and the carpet. It was all laid out, but not yet cut and stretched.

I think we're going to be happy with the carpet. The old stuff was white. Given a choice, I'd never put down white carpet, but it was here when we moved in. This will hide stains better. We wanted to choose something not too dark, since it's a daylight basement and fairly dark already. We're told the remaining work will commence Thursday. And I've learned never to trust a single thing they say, but I remain hopeful. Things are looking up! You're going to miss my repetitive random rageful rants (awesome alliteration) when it's all finished, aren't you?

So where do you suppose the kitties spent their day with the dreaded Mans in the house? Well, Smitty wormed his way under the comforter on our bed. I came upstairs to check on them, and this was all I could see:

Sadie was under the "drop" of the comforter. It had fallen to the floor creating a very comfy fort for her day-long hideout.

We gave them food, water, and a potty box, and all was well.

 So if my writing seems bleary-eyed this morning, it's because I haven't had my coffee. I have to return to the doctor's office this morning for some routine fasting lab work. Frankly, I don't think "routine" and "fasting" can be used in the same sentence. And since I'm starting to get very hungry, it seems a good time to get in the shower and get on my way. When the bloodsuckers have had their way with me, I'll go to McDonald's and get my favorite comfort food: Egg McMuffin. I'm getting my hair cut today too, and so I'll stop off and kill time at a local Starbucks after breakfast. It sounds like a terrible way to start the day, but I'm planning to allow myself my one White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha this morning. How can the day not get off to a better start after that?