A Good Day of Sewing

Good morning, my friends. It looks as if our epic rain storm has rained itself out. It rained almost the entire live-long day yesterday. It was very discouraging for kitties who desperately wanted to go outside. Instead, they helped mightily in the sewing room, as you're just about to see. 

The blocks I'd already given borders were spread out on my design floor. (I used to have a design wall, but I never used it. The floor works better for me.)

The kitties thought I had this arrangement all wrong, and so they conspired to set things right.

Smitty, you keep her pawccupied, and I'll rearrange this mess.

I appurrove of this fabric change you've made. These flowers are so brightly colored, and I purrfur bright colors.

Psst...Sadie...she's sitting at the sewing meowchine. Now's the time.

Are you sure, Smitty? I don't want to get in trouble. She might take us to the vet!

She took a chance and made her move. To her eyes, the placement of those two middle blocks was all wrong. She purrfurs this arrangement.

I gave it some thought while I added borders to the last two blocks.

In the end, I went with the original arrangement. Kitties don't know everything.

And then, using lots of quilter's math, I sewed the blocks into rows. With more luck than math prowess, I managed to make the top two rows the same width. The bottom row is an inch too short. Probably I could ease in the difference, but I'm going to take out the flower strip between the lower right two blocks and add an inch there. When that's done, I'll be able to sew the rows together. And when that's done, I'll add a border all the way around, and my top will be finished.

With that much finished, I could see how large the quilt would be, and so I went ahead and ordered four yards of this "I'm a Maker" fabric for the back.

Thanks again to my friend, Mary C, for suggesting it. I think this is the perfect back.

Okay, so that was a good day of sewing. I should be able to finish the quilt top today. Also in yesterday's comings and goings, I finished the last shelf of the three large shelving units. Mainly, I just rearranged things and dusted everything off. I slid all the lightweight stuff to the farthest corner and moved the heavier stuff to where it was easier to reach.

Today I'll start on these wire units. Mainly, they just need reorganizing...or organizing. (One must first organize to be eligible for reorganizing.) These shouldn't take too long. I might just finish them off and put this whole job in the rearview mirror.

Okay, so finishing the quilt top is my top priority for the day. Also taking high priority, I need to make up the next embroidery piece for the Girls' Getaway quilt. As a reminder, here's how the whole quilt will look when it's finished.

By rights, I should be doing the row of bicycles in the middle.

But, as you know (or maybe you don't), I'm also making the pieced blocks as I work on my list of WIPs. Some of the pieced blocks have embroidered centers. 

Since I'm nearly at the end of the pieced blocks I can make without first doing the embroidered centers, I'm going to do this a little out of order and make these my next slow-stitching project. 

And since it's time to choose a project for November's

I'll commit to finishing the Girls' Getaway Stitcheries before the end of November.

There's still a little bit to stitch on January's block for a Year in the Garden...this is the last picture I took of it, but I'm farther along now.

I expect to finish it this morning, and that will create a stitching emergency. So you can see that it's urgent that I make up the Girls' Getaway stitcheries no later than today.

Okay. Well. I have my work cut out for me. Don't forget to fall back tonight. Actual falling is optional.