Ring of Fire

Good morning, my friends! It's getting late enough in the season that there's actually light shining in through my window as I write. Some of us have dealt with a spate of bad weather recently, and so these changes are appreciated. 

There's been entirely too much running around the past two days for this homebody. I'm happy to say I have a day at home today. There's one more thing I need to do in town, but if I bat my eyes at Mike, I might be able to talk him into combining it with one of his into-town runs. Maybe if I bake him a From-the-freezer muffin...whaddaya think? To be clear, I have no ethical or moral problem with domestic bribery.

We had a shorter-than-usual grocery list yesterday, and we had all of our other errands taken care of by lunch time. Before we left, I stitched up Day 6's Tiny Heart.

There was just a little left to do on the second Story of my Day block, and so I finished that one too.

When we got home from our running around, the kitties were champing at the bit to get out. One must do one's killing while the sun shines. Sadie was on the hunt for anything that moved.

Smitty was a cat on a mission. I noticed there's some living catnip growing right beside the exterior wall of the house. He was headed there for a little nibble.

He needed a pick-me-up if he was going to be any help at all in the sewing room.

I skipped the Dot-to-Dot quilting project in favor of completing my quilt for Project Quilting Season 15.3. Prompt for this quilt was "Inside Out." After giving it some thought, I decided to do a solar eclipse. I have eclipse on the brain since we're just a few weeks away from leaving on what I've dubbed our "Eclipse Trip." 

If you've been reading for a while, then you might remember when we were able to see the solar eclipse that was visible in Oregon in 2017. This image as captured with my iPhone.

We had a prime viewing spot with nothing around us for miles.

My dear birding friend, Judy, came up from Fresno, California, to be with us and to see the eclipse. Judy and I were in the high school band together, and we've stayed in touch through the years. Judy is an entomologist (a bug person), and probably the smartest person I know.

Mike and I have something of a history when it comes to solar eclipses. Some time ago, I read there's a scientific reason we're able to see a solar eclipse more often in the Pacific Northwest than other areas of the country, but I've forgotten what it is. In any case, there was a solar eclipse in 1979, visible from Portland. We were relatively new to the area at the time and had no seniority on our jobs when it happened. In typical Pacific Northwest fashion, it was overcast the morning of the eclipse. Some folks were able to drive out to Goldendale, Washington, to get clear of the clouds, but we couldn't. When the eclipse occurred, everything got dark, streetlights came on, and it was clear it was happening, but we couldn't see it through the clouds. Bummer. And here we were, still in our 20's. Realizing the next opportunity to see one wouldn't be until 2017, we knew for sure and certain we'd both be dead by then. 

Fast forward to 2017, and we were so ready...and so happy...to be able to see it on that day.

When it was all over, the three of us made a pact to be together in Texas for the 2024 eclipse. Fast forward to the present day, and you might understand why I have Eclipse-on-the-Brain Syndrome. From what I understand, it is not fatal.

So what does this have to do with my submission for Project Quilting's "Inside Out" prompt? Well...stick with me here...when the moon passes Inside the space between Planet Earth and the Sun, we are able to see the Outer atmosphere of the sun...the corona, if you must. My idea was to thread paint a representation of a solar eclipse. I used a small whole cloth piece of black fabric and drew a circle with a template. Then I went to work with the thread.

This was done before I added the backing fabric. It's personal preference, but I don't want all that thread on the back of my quilt.

When I had that finished, I added the backing fabric.

And then did just a little more quilting with some black metallic thread. I'm a little disappointed the black metallic didn't add more sparkle, but there you go.

Here's how it looks from the back.

The quilt is only 10 x 10 inches, and so it was pretty quick to finish off the binding. And how could I go wrong when I had not one, but two, cats to help with my stitching.

And there's my finished quilt. I'm calling it "Ring of Fire."

Here's how it looks from the back.

In other quilting news, between the two of us, we've clipped six of nine rows on the flannel quilt. We should be able to finish it off easily today. I'm excited to see it after it's been laundered and ragged.

Today I'll get back to my quilting. Probably I'm going to institute the one-hour rule on the quilting. I can't say I'm enjoying what I'm doing, but I want to finish it off. It's probably going to include watching the video for Week 4 again. I feel as if I need a refresher. After that, there's one more week to watch before I can finish it off.

Also, I nearly forgot about this project. This is February's block for the "Joy in the Ordinary" BOM from Jenny of Elefantz. These are small, and I should have no problem stitching it up this morning.

It'll need borders added when it's finished, and I'll do that when I add the borders to the two blocks for The Story of My Day. 

Right now it seems as if I have a lot of shorty projects on my list. I want to make February's red block for the Cats in Pajamas RSC quilt. As a reminder, here's January's green block.

That's probably enough to keep me busy for the day. Also today, I want to get in a Bow-Flex workout, and I have a little housework to do. It's going to be a busy day at home, but it's going to be a good day too. I won all my word games this morning, so how can I go wrong?

Okay, so I'm off. But you already knew that, didn't you?