It's Good to Have a Friend (Giveaway to Follow!)

Good morning, my friends. Ahhhh...Saturday. It's a good day. Saturday might be my favorite day of the week, although I can't really tell you why. Possibly because it's the one day of the week I was able to sleep in as a younger person, and I grew fond of it for that alone. When I was a child, we attended Sunday school and church on Sunday. We went to two church services because my dad sang in the choir and my mom played the organ. And let's face it...when you're a kid, church is booooorrrrrring. Probably my fondness for Saturday started back then.

It was a fairly productive day yesterday. When I realized it was 

I forgot all about the housekeeping chores I'd planned. It's important to follow the rules in all things, wouldn't you agree? After all, you wouldn't want to end up like this guy:

So, anyway...I take no chances with things like that. When I'm told not to do something, I definitely don't do it...unless dessert is involved. Then, we consider our options.

Okay so with all the newly-opened free time available to me, the kitties and I headed out to fill the bird feeders. They were on the hunt for snacks.

It's always good to get out and stretch your legs.

Hmmm...something of interest here.

I took a little walk around. With so much snow and cold weather this winter, I'm concerned about some things in the landscape. Fortunately, the bleeding heart seems to be making a comeback after being buried in about four feet of snow for weeks. It has the sad position of being where the snow slides off the roof and collects in deep piles.

The daffodils are just a little closer to opening. We really need a sunny day, and then I think we'll see them.

The wisteria is showing signs of life. This one has only been in the ground for one whole season, and it has yet to bloom. I'm hoping we'll see some flowers this year.

I've been worried about this deep blue clematis. It has been in the ground through two seasons, but it's still a very small plant. I believe I'm seeing some green sprouts there, but it's hard to be sure. Obviously, there's a lot of yard clean-up to do. We're just waiting for some decent weather.

I checked the red clematis out front. I'm most worried about that one. There are still no signs of life. Here's a shot of it from last summer.

When we bought our house back in 2002, there was a clematis growing in this same spot. It died following the first winter, and it was only replaced two years ago with this current one. If this one dies, I'm going to have to think this just isn't a good spot for clematis. It's too soon to give up on it yet, but I'm not optimistic.

Okay, it was time to get some sewing done. Yesterday's goal was to get the small Best Friends quilt to binding stage. At 26 x 21 inches, it was a reasonable expectation. It still needed to be sandwiched. This is the back fabric. It's some I picked up at a quilt shop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I've used it several times, including making a couple of masks for Matthew's use during the pandemic.

And this quilt was small enough to sandwich in my sewing room. Now it's ready for quilting.

Usually I avoid quilting on fusible applique, but these pieces were too large. They needed something for functionality. I outlined all around them, and then quilted some straight lines in the lighter blue friend using a light blue thread. It's a little hard to see, so I've marked where the lines are.

For the other friend, I did a simple meander using a variegated thread.

In the background, I quilted a motif that Leah Day calls "Cogs." To me, it looks like petroglyphs.

I used this motif once before when I made a doll quilt for a friend's granddaughter. This one with kokopelli:

Okay and with that done, I decided to use one of the fancy stitches from my sewing machine in the turquoise stop border. This is stitch #423 on my Bernina 750QE machine.

Here's how that looks:

And then I did a sort of looping motif in the outer border. Think of it as loops shaped like triangles, and you'll see what I mean:

And then it was ready to be squared up for binding.

Sadie likes it.

The only thing left to do was to sew the binding on, and it was finished, except for the hand-sewing.

Here's how it looks from the back:

And that was the end of my sewing day. It was a good day. I'll set this aside with two other quilts that need their bindings hand-sewn, and I'll take this along on our camping trip. We're expecting some reasonable weather for at least two of the days we're there, but there should still be plenty of time for slow-stitching.

So let's just talk about the camping trip for a minute, shall we? I'm not taking my laptop, and so I'll be taking a few days off from blogging. I'll be back tomorrow morning for a farewell post and to share any sewing I do today, but then I'll be gone for about a week. 

Now, dry your tears, because I'm leaving you with a giveaway to celebrate Smitty's 11th birthday on Tuesday. I'm giving away this six fat-quarter bundle of "Emma" by Sherri & Chelsi for Moda Fabrics. I love these springtime colors:

Consider this a thank you from the Three Cats Ranch for your readership, your many kind comments and suggestions, and your encouragement. Here's what you need to do to be a winner.

1. Just leave a comment...any comment will do. If you can't think of anything, then tell me about anything blooming in your garden...or not. Please leave your comment here on the blog. If you are an email follower, simply click on the title of this post to be taken to the actual web page. You can leave your comment there.

2. This prize is reserved for followers only...new, old, salty, sweet, bitter, and twisted...just step on up and tell me how you follow. If you want to become a follower, you can find lots of ways to do it there in my left side bar. Also, I will ship internationally, so all residents of Planet Earth are welcome to join in. 

3. If you're no reply, be sure to leave an email address. You can't win if I can't contact you.

So good luck, and a big thank you from Smitty for helping him celebrate the day! I'll leave this giveaway open through Saturday, April 15th, and announce the winner sometime on Sunday, April 16th.

Good luck everybody!