Nearing the End

Good morning, my friends! We had a snow scare overnight. Watching the news yesterday evening, there was a confusingly inaccurate graphic that had us wondering if snow would fall at our elevation. Thankfully, it did not. I'm happy to report there is no white stuff outside.

It was another busy day of sewing and quilting here. I'm nearing a finish on the quilting for the "maps" quilt. Yesterday, I quilted the last of the pieced blocks. It was hard to decide how to stitch it, but my hands made all the decisions as I went along, and I'm happy with how it turned out. Here's your peek:

There are a number of different elements I wanted to include in the quilting. I've quilted all of them into the black background "canvas," but for this block, I quilted one of the elements in the corners of the quilt block. That worked out well. Here's your peek at that:

After that, I quilted several elements above the quilt block:

And below the quilt block:

There are three more thread drawings to finish up the upper left-hand corner, and then I'll use black thread to meander around some areas, filling in any gaps for functionality. I have a different idea for the outer border. Just FYI, these are all the threads I've used on the top:

And I used this variegated thread in the bobbin throughout. (Thank you, Ila.) 

Okay, so it was tempting to finish off the thread drawings, but I was getting tired of working on it by then. It was best to wait until today when I can start with fresh eyes and hands. The thread drawings have been working out better than expected, but they still require a lot of teeth gnashing and breath-holding, and so each new one is a little stressful to undertake.

There was easier sewing in my future, and so I moved downstairs to the sewing room. The next task for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage was to make five 9-patch blocks. Coincidentally, the next block for my RSC Challenge quilt...the Homestead quilt...was also a nine patch. It made sense to do them all at once. 

Sadie was my helper cat for this. Cats are very good with "nines." You see, a cat has to learn to count to nine from an early age. It's so they can keep tabs on how many lives they've used. And, as you might guess, cats are very good at math. She had her doubts about that "cattle" fabric, insisting that it was the wrong kind of "cat."

She helped me cut (and count) all the pieces.

And then, we sewed them together. This is April's purple block for the Homestead quilt.

These are the five nine-patch blocks for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage.

These are all the blocks I have for the Homestead quilt so far.

There's quite a bit of sewing on today's agenda, and I'll also be working my way through piles of laundry. I kind of like the combination of sewing and laundry. Laundry feels like a big job sometimes, and when I can interrupt my long periods of sewing to take care of it, I barely notice. 

On today's list: finish the quilting on the "maps" quilt, and get it to binding stage. That might be overly ambitious, but sometimes I surprise myself. Also, I'll be making four bow tie blocks for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. And, surprisingly, I'm nearly finished with the latest Domestic Affairs embroidery, and so I'll be tracing out my next "short" project, getting it ready for stitching. Oh yes! And the newest resident of Planet Earth has arrived...a 7 lb. 2 oz. boy named Dominic. Look at that full head of hair!

 Welcome to the world, Dominic, your quilt is coming!

It's a gray day outside, so there's nothing to tempt me there. Sewing will be a good way to spend time while we're waiting for that spring sunshine to arrive. But right now, blueberry oatmeal pancakes. Time to get started on the day.