Cats of All Kinds

Good morning, my friends. We survived our pre-Thanksgiving grocery shopping trip yesterday. The store was busy, but not too crazy. I'll still have to go back next week for some fresh mushrooms. It was too early to get those just yet. 

When we arrived home, I was chagrined to realize I'd forgotten to get any tomatoes. We had an extra avocado rolling around in the refrigerator. I'd planned to add it to some BLT's for last night's dinner. (That would make them BLAT's.) So shoot. My dinner plans were shot. Oh, but then I wondered if there were any tomatoes still growing in the greenhouse, and there were! I was able to harvest these lovelies to save the dinner day.

The water was turned off to the greenhouse some weeks ago. However, this one plant apparently has grown its roots through the bottom of the pot so that it can suck up water from the ground below. I suppose we'll be able to find tomatoes until the first freeze.

Prior to our grocery shopping, I'd fortified myself with a little slow stitching. The first stitches have been taken on the 11th Domestic Affairs block. This one won't take long.

When the block is finished, I'll be ready to start on the next "Short" project from my list. As I've said before, I use a random number generator to choose my next projects. I have so many PINS (projects I never started) in my sewing room, and I can't possibly make up my mind what to do next. Mr. Random to the rescue. Only...sometimes Mr. Random picks wrong, and I have to ask him for a do-over. And this time, I asked him for about five do-overs, and he never did get it right. I had to step in and choose for myself. Next up will be this "Bumble Sampler" from Kathy Schmitz.

Her patterns are fun to stitch for the variety of stitches she uses. It meant ordering some Valdani Perle Cotton 12 in the right color, and so I'll have to stitch slowly until that arrives.

My wrist was feeling okay, although it was still bothering me with certain movements. I really wanted to get back to my quilting, and so I put on a splint and then went to work. It was a little clumsy, but I was able to get all the way around the yellow border with this upsy-downsy heart motif.

Here's how that looks from the back.

I'd planned all along to stop there, but then I spent a little time getting myself started on the black border. Lori Kennedy calls this motif "paper clip." I like it for narrow borders.

I'd given Smitty strict instructions to drag me from the machine if I didn't stop after the yellow border, and the cat is nothing if not reliable. He came and told me I was finished. 

So, I listened to my bossy cat, and moved myself to the sewing room. I can't make any more progress on my art quilt until some fabric arrives. I'd purchased a yard of fabric to use on the back, but I'm still puzzling out how to finish off the front. It occurs to me an idea might come to me from that fabric. I can't show you the fabric, because that would give it away. It's supposed to arrive today, and then I can get back to finishing it off.

For now, I moved to the next project on my white board, which was to sew together the blocks for the Purrfectly Pieced quilt. Here's where I left it back in February.

If I'd realized how easy it would be to sew it all together, I might have done it back then. So it starts with this center block.

It needed a black border.

And then I added the bottom block, sewing a partial seam starting on the left side.

From there, I added the remaining blocks, moving clockwise around the quilt until I finished up the seam at the bottom. It still needs one more black border around the outer edge, but I was getting tired of sewing by then. I'll finish that up today.

If you like this quilt, just know that I've added the used 5-pattern set to the Yard Sale in my right sidebar. (Edited to say sorry. It sold already.) Used patterns are for sale there at half the going price for a new one. Postage is included in the price. Take a look, if you're interested. There are a few other things there too.

Even though I was tired of sewing, I went digging around in my huge bin of cat fabrics. When I first learned to quilt, I worked on two projects at a time. One project was always a cat quilt. And over time, I collected lots of cat fabrics, bought in 3-yard lengths. I knew I had a lot of cat fabrics, but I haven't looked in that bin for quite some time. Maybe I was too scared to look. And all of that to say that I had plenty of choices for a backing for this quilt. I selected this one:

It came from a quilt shop called People, Places, and Quilts in Summerville, South Carolina. (I'm surprised I remember that, but it was a really good quilt shop.)

Also, I had some scraps of this fabric that I'll use for a binding.

So I'll finish off that quilt top today, and then set it aside for a bit. It's a small quilt at about 33 x 37 inches. That means I can sandwich it in my sewing room, and it will end up under my quilting needle soon enough.

Also on today's agenda is to quilt the black border on Ties & Tails. I'll limit myself to a single border again today, and I should be able to finish the quilting tomorrow. I've promised Mike some gingerbread biscotti, and so I'm hoping to get that done today too. 'Tis the season, you know. And that should keep me out of trouble for the remainder of the day. 

What are you doing to stay out of trouble today?