Undercover Cats

Good morning, my friends. You might think it's a cold morning here, but I think we're actually in the high 40's. Not too bad. It's apparently too cold for cats however. I shared the couch and the quilt with these two this morning.

It looks as if Smitty is considering taking over Sadie's spot there. She has the best quilt cover. 

Backing up to yesterday morning...when I finished my post yesterday, I went right to work making the final reservations for our trip. It took up a good part of the morning, and I hadn't even done my slow-stitching yet. Now I have all the reservations made that I want to make before we go. The purging is finished as well, except for our closets. We're putting those on hold until after the first of the year. 

When I'd finished with all that computer stuff, I stitched enough of the Kitten block to decide to move my hoop.

Now I've hooped the last of it. While we watched the news last night, I finished stitching the purple bow and some of the ribbon to the right. Possibly, I can finish this morning. If not, it will be tomorrow.

My next stop was to sandwich Purrfectly Pieced for quilting. This quilt is 32 x 36 inches, so it's a small quilt. I was happy to have a piece of batting just the right size for it.

I'll be quilting this on my domestic machine, and I have a good variegated thread for the bobbin. I even have a bobbin wound! It seems the perfect choice. This is an Aurifil polyester thread, and I believe it's a 50 weight thread, although I'm having trouble deciphering that from the label.

For the top thread, this variegated gray Valdani thread tempted me.

The Valdani threads come packaged in little plastic zip-lock pouches. This was the label on the pouch.

Instead, I'm going to go with this Magnifico thread from Superior Threads. I believe I have enough here to finish off my quilt. It's a polyester thread like the bobbin thread, and the two might work more cooperatively together than the alternative cotton Valdani gray. 

All of these threads were gifts from my quilting fairy godmother, Ila. Thank you, Ila. 

I spent some time working on the tension settings for my domestic machine. I had the top thread tension turned down almost as loose as it could go before I had it right. There was no quilting yesterday, but I'm ready to take it up today.

Instead, I went to work clipping the binding for Heartland Barns. When it was clipped and ready to go, I stitched past the first corner and nearly to the second corner before stopping.

So it was a relaxing slow day sewing-wise. I needed it. Being out so many times this week had me feeling a bit stressed. There was no need for the pressure I was feeling, but sometimes I have to talk myself down for a day or two when I feel too busy.

There was time for one short housekeeping task. Unhappily, I needed to drive into town with Mike so he could drop his truck off again for more service. They didn't do the whole job last week. It was a miscommunication situation, but the dealer made it right with him. Nevertheless, it involved another trip to finish the job, and we'll have to go pick it up again sometime today. That means I will have driven into town every day this week, and I never do that. I guess I can't ever say that again, now can I?

So today should be an easy-going day. There's no housework on the calendar for the day. I really must get back to my workouts, however. I did some walking last weekend, but I haven't done the Bowflex for nearly two weeks. Today there will be no excuses. After that, nothing but sewing...oh yes, and a trip into town for Mike's truck. Deep breath. This crazy Christmas season soon shall pass.

I'll finish up today with an image I took from the top of our hill as we drove home last night. It's a red sky above and fog below. Day is done.