Quilting Quomplete

Good morning, my friends. Doncha just love it when I make up words like that? And you read them and say, "Huh? What the heck is wrong with her spell checker?"

It was a hurry scurry morning yesterday. We're having some new neighbors up for a get-acquainted dinner on Saturday, and so I'm trying to get some stuff done ahead of time. Those sorts of things stress me out a little. The more I can get done ahead, the better off I am. And all of that to say that I hurried through my to-do list yesterday morning, which left me the whole afternoon to quilt. And the quilting is finished! Yahoo! Fortunately, my emotional support cat was by my side.

This took most of the afternoon. I kept telling myself I'd stitch just one more line, and then I'd take a break. And then, I'd stitch one more line, and I'd say, just one more line. And this went on for approximately 100 one more lines, and then it was finished.

Here's a little closer look at the front.

Here's how it looks from the back.

Today, my first stop in the sewing room will be to square it up and sew on the binding. Hand-stitching the binding will be a relaxing way to finish off the week as I'm preparing for dinner guests.

Outside, exactly two blueberries are looking ripe. There won't be enough to garnish my desserts. Oh well...another place, another time. I've already scoped out some desserts for these. One also uses zucchini. It kinda piques your interest, doesn't it?

Happily, the new dahlia is about an inch tall now.

It's going to have to grow fast to catch up with its neighbors. They're all looking great. Incidentally, there has been no more digging since I gave them each their own pinwheel.

We've been able to enjoy our rose this year. It doesn't look as if the deer have been after it at all. Possibly the surrounding landscape hides it enough that the deer can't find it. On the other hand, I haven't looked outside yet this morning. Possibly, I'll find the thing chewed down to the ground.

The weather has been so nice. Mike and I have been enjoying evenings before dinner outside with the kitties. Yesterday, Smitty thought he would use his strategy of hiding behind shrubbery to catch a tree squirrel.

When that didn't work, he went back to his tiger-in-the-weeds strategy. Looks like Mow Man needs to come.

Meanwhile, Sadie was distracted by the pecking of a downy woodpecker in one of the maple trees. I saw the woodpecker, but I couldn't get a shot of it.

And that was pretty much the whole of yesterday. Cleaning, quilting, catting, cooking.

And Happy July, everybody! It's time to chose something for July's

Pieces of the Past has been lounging on my machine, dewrinkling itself, for the past several weeks. My goal for July will be to finish up this big quilt. It needs quilting and binding.

We have a five-day camping trip planned for mid-month, but I still think I'll have plenty of time to finish it off. I started this quilt in October of 2019...pre-pandemic! It'll be good to get it into the finished column.

Today is a grocery shopping day, and I'm going to try to get one more housekeeping chore done. I should have no problem getting the binding sewn onto the Scrap Happy Baby Ribbons quilt. When that's finished, I'll make the mini quilt for the Summer Sun embroidery piece.

When that's finished, I'll get to work on Tiny House #24.

When all of that is finished, I can get to work quilting Pieces of the Past. So much sewing. So little time. There's something reassuring about knowing I'll never run out of things to sew.

Okay, my friends. Time marches on. We have a long list of groceries for our shopping pleasure today. There's no time like the present. Enjoy your first day of July. I really hope you folks enduring the heat and smoke are getting some relief.