Mostly Sewing

Good morning, my friends. We've arrived back at Monday again. I hope everyone had a good weekend. Our weekend was very nice. We had warm weather, but not too hot. 

My day yesterday started with the first stitches on Block 7 for The Story of My Day quilt.

So...what does this mean anyway? I wasn't exactly sure what the word "soldiers" was referring to, although there was a hint in the pattern that it referred to "toast." And keeping in mind this pattern was designed by Anni Downs in Australia, I figured it was a regional expression. So, I inquired of my friend, The Google, who is very smart about these things. Here's my question and the answer from The Google:

Why are they called soldiers with eggs?

Now as far as the “soldiers” go–if you're from the UK, there's no explanation needed, but for everyone else: when soft boiled eggs are served to little ones in Britain, the toast is cut into long strips which everyone calls “soldiers,” apparently because they're so straight. These are used to “dip-dip” in the yolk!

Okay, thank you. That makes perfect sense. And having settled this question, I went back to torturing the cat. Sadie would like to remind you that she's having a terrible life again. And, frankly, it's hard to tell which end is which in this picture. 

Soon thereafter, we all headed outdoors.

I needed to water the annuals, and I couldn't resist taking yet another picture of the clematis. This is its second or third year in the ground, and it's having its best flower year ever. I'm very happy about this.

There was a pretty red clematis growing on a trellis here when we bought our home. It died within the first year. We took down the trellis and didn't give it much thought until I saw this one on a camping trip in Washington a few years back.

Seeing that gorgeous deep blue made me want to plant another one at our house. And if you remember this sad story, we bought a deep blue clematis and then cooked it against a hot wall. 😞

We chose poorly when we decided to plant it on that dark wall where the full sun baked it. We replaced it with the Red Cardinal, turning the corner to a shadier spot. And now, I'm keeping a careful eye on the blue one we planted with a free-standing trellis around back. It has a couple of flowers, but nothing is opening yet. It's the thing I'm watching most closely right now. 

I'll get my blue clematis one way or another.

Both my indoor and outdoor chores were finished early, and that left me plenty of time for sewing. I needed to make 16 more half square triangles, and then they were sewn into pieces like the ones below. If I'd been doing this on my own, I probably would have made these from flying geese, but I don't suppose it matters. It means an extra seam when they're done this way.

Those were sewn to two-patches, and then I was able to start sewing the rows together.

And I just kept going row by row...

until all the rows were finished.

Then, all that was left was to sew the rows together, and voila!

It turned out cute. It still needs a white border. I didn't cut any border strips yet because I wanted to see how large it would be. The pattern claims it ends a 48 x 48 inches, but mine is already 46 x 46. The pattern also suggests a 2-1/2 inch border, which will bring it to 50 x 50 inches. I'll go with that.

Also, I perused my stash looking for an appropriate back. I found this pastel green that I like. I'll need to put another strip down the middle to make it wide enough. They baby is expected to be a girl, but I still didn't want to make it too foofy. I kind of liked the hat with streaming ribbons on this print. Using green will keep the quilt more gender neutral. Sometimes those gender predictions are wrong.

I'll use this next one for the binding. There's another fabric in my stash that could also serve as the binding. I'm not completely sold on this one yet.

It was nearing dinner time when I had all the rows finished. We had dinner outside last night. The kitties joined us. Smitty demonstrated proper dust-bathing technique for Sadie.

Like this, Smitty? Am I doing it right?

I couldn't hear his answer, but she seemed satisfied when she settled herself on the patio and cooled her tummy furs.

Overhead, we were joined by some purple finches. They were looking beautiful in the bright sunshine.

So today again I have both indoor and outdoor chores to do before I can get back to my sewing. Still, I'm optimistic I can get the baby quilt to quilting stage today. I'll quilt is simply with a diagonal grid, and I expect to have it finished in the next day or two. From there, I'll need to get busy paper-piecing the mini quilt for the Summer Sun stitchery finished on Saturday.

Also, Tiny House #24 has been released...this one:

The sections in this one are lettered "C" through "L," so it should go together a little faster than some of the others have. 

Clearly, there's plenty to keep me busy today. For now, I'll get back to my slow stitching and let the rest of the day unfold from there.