One Day, One Block

Good morning, my friends. It's a chilly day here at the Three Cats Ranch. It's currently 26°F. We might have received a little dusting of snow last night, but the wind is blowing so hard, it probably all blew away. We're expecting cold and sunny days ahead...my favorite winter weather.

Friday was spent embroidering the names and places of quilt shops for the Shop Hop blocks. Yesterday, I was able to get back to the Sewing Day stitchery. I'm trying to finish this off before the "Stitched Inchies" (my name for it) start on Wednesday, February 1st. Yesterday's stitching had me working on a new-to-me stitch.

See that yellow stitch that's running horizontally just above the middle of my hoop? It's called an "open chain stitch." I've probably done it before, but I can't remember when. The diagram in the pattern was a little confusing, and so I looked up a video demonstration on Youtube. I found this one from Mary Corbet:

It's not difficult, but I felt all fumble-fingers about it. After getting my floss and my panties in a tangle several times, I bagged it and did a large blanket stitch going in one direction, and then I stitched the upper line with a large back stitch going in the opposite direction. There's more than one way to get 'er done. 

In the sewing room, I went to work cutting the pieces for the latest Barn Quilt Sampler block. I wasn't just kidding yesterday when I said these blocks take a surprisingly long time to make. Here are all the pieces I cut.

When Smitty saw that, he bowed out of the whole sewing helper job.

Sadie, I just remembered I have some impurrtant work to do upstairs. Can you take over today?

Sure, Smitty, no purroblem.

When she saw what we were doing, she bowed her head in purr.

The barn "structure" goes together pretty fast. I believe it's the same from block to block.

This barn's quilt block was a whole different story. There were lots of itty bitty half square triangles to make. They end up at 1-1/2 inches each.

Then I started sewing them together.

It felt less onerous with fewer pieces. Their next iteration looked like this:

Then, there were just two more seams to finish it off.

Just now I went searching to see if I could find the names of these blocks. I came up empty. 

Edited to say I found the block. It’s called “Heavenly Stars.” My block is 12-1/2 inches before adding the rest of the barn. Here’s one from Quilter’s Cache that makes a 16-inch block. 

Despite all the little pieces, I like this block. I could see doing a whole quilt from these for a Rainbow Scrap Challenge. And here's the whole thing. Finished.

Ms. Sadie is looking purretty self-satisfied, isn't she? She's looking forward to the day when it's all sewn into a quilt for her inspection.

Here are the three blocks I have for this quilt so far. 

If you like these, you can find the whole set for sale right here. They're also available individually.

Today I'll get to work on the final section of the Purrfectly Pieced quilt...this one:

I can probably finish all the fusing, and then do the top-stitching when Big Bertha is back on the job. I'm not expecting to see her before Tuesday. 

It's pancake day here today. After breakfast, I'll get busy making a potato salad for tonight's dinner. It's a recipe first published in the June/July 2011 issue of Cook's Country. If you are a fresh dill lover like I am, then you will love this potato salad. Here's an old picture:

It's a family favorite. You can find the recipe at this old blog post right here.

So I was good and did my housework yesterday. That leaves me with a free day to do whatever else I want to do. Sewing is high on the list.