Shop Hopping

Good Saturday morning to you, my friends. It's still too dark outside to see what kind of day we'll be having today. The weather is supposed to turn clear and cold, although the forecast was for another day of rain today. As we transition from rain to clear and cold, we'll have our best (or worst) chance for snow. I wouldn't mind if some of the white stuff fell.

When I left you yesterday, I was heading off to slow stitch the names on the latest Shop Hop blocks.

Mike and I had to make a short trip into town yesterday. When we got home, we had some lunch, and then Smitty insisted we get on with our sewing for the day.

The embroidery was done, and I just needed to do the cutting and piecing. From there, it was just chain piecing to finish them off.

Smitty likes how the white, gray, and black fabrics compliment his furs. He's thinking this could work in his next "Sexiest Cat Alive" photoshoot for Cosmeowpolitan magazine.

Regarding the quilt blocks, you might remember a trip we took a while back when we drove our truck camper to the manufacturer in Yakima, Washington, for some work. To reach Yakima from where we live, one must drive through the Yakama Nation. Here's a little graphic I found online to illustrate.

So when I visited The Quilter's Cafe, this fabric seemed like a good choice. Yakima was originally the home of the indigenous Yakama tribe, and so this block honors Yakima's first citizens. I didn't write a separate post for this shop, but you can read a little about it at the link I gave you above.

Next, was this shop we visited in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We were doing some sight-seeing in New Mexico on an ATV-riding trip. We were there the weekend of the balloon festival, and so no other fabric would do. This was a great shop. If you're in Albuquerque, it's a must see. You can read more about it right here.

Finally, this one from a shop we visited on the northern edge of Tucson, Arizona. I believe this might have been the same ATV-riding trip. This was a fun shop. It had some incredible quilts devoted to Native American culture hanging on the walls. It was almost as good as attending a quilt show. You can see some of the beautiful quilts and read about the shop right here. This fabric seemed like a good one to represent the shop. My understanding is that it is under new ownership now.

This was the same shop that gave out the free "cactus cat" pattern. I had to promise to give it a good home, and I stitched it up during the past year.

Okay, so I've been making these Shop Hop blocks three at a time now. With the completion of the three from yesterday, I'm down to the final four. Next time this project comes up on my WIPs list, I'll make the last ones. They'll be set five by five blocks, and that will make a nice size quilt. My dedicated snoopervisor helped me to lay out the 21 blocks I have so far.

Here they are. The camera block will be in the middle when they're all sewn together.

Okay, so next, I'll be making the third barn block. These take longer than you might think. The little barn quilt is like making a mini, and so accuracy is important.

If I can finish that, I'll get to work on the next block for the Purrfectly Pieced quilt. This might be the last block for this quilt.

When I showed this picture last time, one of my friends objected to the duck with scissors through its head. Since then, I've learned this is a vintage pincushion. I've never actually seen one "in the flesh," but here's a picture I found online:

There are lots more of these in different configurations. Just Google "images of duck pincushion with scissors," and you'll find more pictures.

The Purrfectly Pieced quilt is applique, and I won't be able to do the top-stitching until Big Bertha comes home. Without having Big Bertha's knee lift, top-stitching applique is a very tedious process. And let me just say that Big Bertha needs to get herself home. There's an awful lot of sewing piling up in her absence. I called the shop yesterday. At the start, they told me a turn-around time of two weeks, and it's been longer than that. As it turns out, they haven't even started on my machine yet, and so he thought Tuesday might be the day. I wondered aloud if it didn't make more sense to set up some kind of appointment system. I could have had my machine at home these past two weeks, and so it's more than a little annoying to know it's been sitting idle in their shop all this time. Next time I take it in, I will try to make those arrangements ahead of time.

Okay, so it's time to get a start on my day. It's a walking day for me, and so I'll either get outside or else take a stroll on the treadmill. Also, I simply must stop procrastinating on housework, although procrastinating on housework is one of my favorite things to do. Who's with me on that?