Plenty of Sewing

Good morning, my friends. It's been raining almost steady here for the past several days. During a lull in the downpour yesterday, I opened the door for the kitties and noticed all the leaves and pine needles littering our deck.

These are all from this tree. Here's how it looked about a week ago.

Here's how it looked yesterday.

Sad, isn't it? It's been a beautiful fall season, and we've enjoyed some decent weather well into the month of November. I'm afraid that's over now, and we'll settle into our web-footed period.

My morning was spent on this little stitchery. This is the fifth of seven for the Girls' Getaway quilt.

Heading downstairs, I didn't think I was going to get much kitty help in the sewing room. I left Sadie snuggled up in one of the quilts.

His Eminence (read that: "His Immenseness") was ensconced on his throne.

Knowing I'll be ready to move on to the "Short" part of my embroidery dance card soon, I asked Mr. Random to help me choose my next project. He selected this one from Bird Brain Designs called "Snow Happens."

I peeled off the residue from what looked like a price tag from the cover before taking that picture. It makes me think someone of you shared this pattern with me. And, I'm sorry, but I can't remember who it was. If it was you, then thank you. I'm happy to say I have all the fabrics I need for this. I did order a ball of medium navy blue perle cotton floss, however...just another good reason for checking in with Mr. Random. Sometimes I need some things before I can get started on something new. Turning the cover sideways, here's how it will look. It's a small winter table runner. It seems completely appropriate to be stitching it as we approach December.

Before I could sew a single stitch, the dynamic duo showed up. Smitty was appalled at the mess in the sewing room. I keep a pretty tidy sewing room most of the time, but when I'm working on an art quilt, anything goes.

He posted himself where he could judiciously enforce the No Peeking rule. It seems like this would be uncomfortable, don't you think?

Sadie positioned herself next to the catnip dish and waited for someone to do the right thing.

With their help, I made another row of squares for the Mosaic quilt. Here's your peek.

From there, I started dinner in the Dutch oven. Dutch oven dinners make the house smell so good. When that was in the oven and on its own, I went to work quilting the final Beach Bum lady and the drink beside her.

All that was left of the top-stitching was to stitch the palm fronds at the top.

From there, I switched the top thread from monofilament to an off-white cotton thread. I left monofilament in the bobbin, and then stitched the lines that demarcate the arms on three of the ladies. I'd already stitched over them with monofilament, but the off-white thread hides the pen marks.

That took just a couple of minutes. When it was finished, I switched to a white thread and used the design on the fabric as a guide for quilting clouds in the sky. When that was done, the quilting was finished. Hard to see anything here, I know. I was using a very small needle to avoid needle marks in the applique.

Here's how it looks from the back.

So I've been considering the sewing I'll be doing over the next couple of days. My domestic machine is set up for working on the Mosaic quilt, which means I have monofilament loaded there too, and a very small needle. If I'm to do any other sewing that is not a part of the Mosaic quilt, I'll need to rethread and change the needle. I'm of a mind to do the day's row of Mosaic squares...maybe two if I'm feeling energetic...and then set up the machine for regular sewing. The backing fabric for Ruth's Legacy arrived last week, and so I want to make a back for Ruth's quilt.

And then I want to sew the binding to the Beach Bum ladies. I can work on the hand-sewing as I move the Mosaic quilt along row by row. I've reached the longest rows of the project. The next two rows are nine squares each. After that, the rows will begin to get smaller, and I can think about sewing the squares together. And as long as I'm setting up the machine for "regular" sewing, I might start doing that today too.

So there's plenty on today's agenda, sewing and otherwise. I want to get in a walk on the treadmill, and I have one housekeeping chore on the calendar for today. We've moved to the best sewing weather of the year, and I'm settling into it. What's going on in your sewing room today?