Saved by Saturday

Good morning, my friends. We're all going to survive yet another Christmas season, I think. The past week was busy with me leaving the house for something every day last week. It was rather poor planning on my part, but it's over now. Wild horses couldn't drag me from my home today. The kids are making Christmas dinner tomorrow night, and I'm looking forward to that. My contribution will be a chocolate chip bread pudding, but that will be for tomorrow's to-do's. I'm looking forward to a relaxing day at home. I'm planning to get in another workout, and I want to do one housekeeping chore. Other than that, it'll be a day of sewing for me.

Yesterday, I finished off the sixth of the Kittens blocks. These are fun to stitch, and the kittens are so cute.

Sadie helped me line them up for their picture. They're the only cats in the house smaller than she is, and so she gratifies herself by ordering them around.

Shape up, you guys!

They're very obedient. Here they are for their group photo.

There was a little more progress on my quilt binding. I've turned the second corner now, and I'm about halfway across to the third corner.

When I made my way to the sewing room yesterday, I found Sadie resting up for her day's work.

She had plenty of input about this Purrfectly Pieced quilt.

I started with the center block, quilting the quilts as I would if they were actual quilts. Eventually, I'll switch to a black thread on top for quilting the borders and the black quilt there on the pile. When I had it this far, I needed to drive Mike into town to pick up his truck.

Back home again, I continued on quilting the top quilt and stitching all around the cat.

I stitched in the ditch around the outer edge of the Home Sweet Home plaque, and then around the lighter tan block inside.

In the block backgrounds, I'm doing a double-looping meander.

With the center block finished, I moved to the lowest block...this one:

There, I stitched around all the applique...

Stitching between designs with the same double-looping meander.

Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched? When I turned my sewing chair around, this is what I saw.

We discussed what to do next when I finished the bottom block. I decided to continue working my way around the quilt in a counter-clockwise direction. For this block, I started with a dot-to-dot motif, and then outlined the cat and bird.

Then I used the same double-looping meander to travel up to the quilt block flowers. There, I'm doing another simple dot-to-dot motif.

It was time to stop then, and I left it needle down for the next flower.

Here's a little peek at the back. I absolutely love that fabric.

And that was the end of my sewing day.

Today I'll continue on with the quilt binding and the free motion quilting. I expect to finish the quilting today, and then I should have time to sew on the binding. It's looking good for finishing my 32nd quilt of the year. There's still plenty of time left to wrap it up. 

I'll begin my sewing day taking the first stitches on the final Domestic Affairs block.

Mike is leaving to get his hair cut this morning. I'll have the house to myself for a while. You never know...sometimes that means a morning nap. 

Deep breath, my friends. This crazy season is nearly coming to a close.