Lotsa Sewing

Good morning, my friends. Well, the rain we were expecting yesterday never materialized. It was cloudy for a good part of the day, but then the sun came out in the late afternoon. It's been a sunny morning here. With no rain, I'll need to get outside and water the annuals again today. The birds are eating us out of house and home as well, and so the feeders are needing some attention. There's one housekeeping chore on today's agenda, and then I can get back to my sewing.

It was a good sewing day yesterday. I finished the 12th of 12 blocks for the Joyful Journey quilt. This one is called "Silent Night."

Here are all 12 blocks together.

For a while, I've been sewing my quilt tops together in the order the blocks were finished. Recently, I decided to start sewing them together according to the length of time I've been working on them. By that standard, these will be the next to be sewn into a quilt top.

With that finished, I needed to trace out the next stitchery on my list. This "Clawfoot Tub" is the second stitchery in the Girls' Getaway quilt. I'll do this one next. 

Also on yesterday's slow-stitching menu, I turned the first two corners on the binding for the Blackwork Baskets. I don't expect to finish this today, but it will probably be finished sometime tomorrow.

And then I went back to work sewing together the Barn Block Samper quilt blocks. The top row was finished. Yesterday, I added the second row.

There was still time left in the day, and so I sewed the third row as well.

Today I'll finish sewing the blocks together, and then I'll have to figure out something for the borders. Yesterday, I ran these two by the Retired Resident Engineer for his opinion. He thought they were fine. That pinkish fabric has been in my stash since I first learned to quilt.

I've had second thoughts since then. I used that barn and sheep fabric in a baby quilt a while back...this one I call "Counting Sheep" for our CSA farmers:

The design in the fabric is directional. It didn't matter for the baby quilt, but it will make a difference if I'm to use it in a border. If I don't have enough fabric, I'll have to decide on something else. Also, I'd kind of like to use these cornerstones found while I was searching through my fabrics.

So...we'll see. Obviously, I'm still mulling it over.

When I went upstairs, I found Smitty happily snoozing in the afternoon sunshine. He's definitely glad to be home where he can get a good afternoon nap in his catio.

Here's a warning, however. If you leave your cat in the sun for too long, it will melt. At the very least, it will get a broken neck.

And then who will run herd on the garden pests? 

Okay. My newest slow-stitching piece awaits. There's plenty on today's agenda, so I'd better get busy. Tomorrow is a grocery shopping day. I'll need to make up a list for that. So much sewing. Too many grown-up responsibilities.