Many Blocks

Good morning, my friends. It's a grocery shopping day, and so I'm writing fast this morning. It's another frosty morning. We'll be bundling up to venture out into the cold, cold world. 

It was a fairly productive day yesterday. Lately I've been echoing Pennsylvania's Governor Shapiro who is fond of saying he "gets sh*t done." That's GSD to you. And that summarizes my day yesterday. I GSD. Maybe I'll just start writing in acronyms from now on. Figuring out what I'm talking about could be a good brain exercise. And, now that I think of it, maybe you're already trying to figure out what I'm talking about. 

In any case, I filled my embroidery hoop yesterday morning.

And now I've moved my hoop to the left to encompass almost all the rest of it. There's just a little bit at the top left that I couldn't capture. I'll stitch a little in the lower right first, and then I'll move my hoop to capture the remainder. It cannot escape my hoop of doom for very long.

After that, I did a Bowflex workout, and then I finished my housekeeping chores. The rest of the day was devoted to sewing. I was starting with these six half square triangles made the day before.

To those, I added some scrappy strips.

And then sewed them into a row to be added to the rows already finished. Here's what I have so far. Half the rows are finished now. 

There was still sewing time left in my day. I didn't think I had enough time to finish off December's cat for the Cats in Pajamas, but I decided to go ahead and do all the cutting. These blocks have been fun to make. They are time-consuming, however. Here are all the pieces that go into a single block.

There was still time left, and so I went to work sewing it together, reasoning I could quit whenever I wanted to. But lo and behold, I was able to finish it off. That's the last block I needed. Now, I'll be able to sew it into a finished quilt top.

Sadie showed up just in time to be no help whatsoever.

Please tell me the purrpose of cats wearing pawjamas. Cats purrfur to sleep in the nude. They've been doing it since time immemeoworial.

I'll admit she has a point. Here are all the cats I have for this quilt.

They'll be offset on the finished top. Here's the picture from the pattern cover.

All the background pieces are cut and just waiting for all the cats to arrive. When I get to that section of my whiteboard, this will be the next quilt top to be sewn together. I used to sew them together in the order I finished all the blocks. Now, I'm starting with the oldest projects first.

So next up, I'll be making at least two more pieced blocks for the Girls' Getaway quilt. These are pictures from the pattern cover. Today's blocks will include the small embroidered pieces I finished recently. There are two of the churn dash blocks. I made the first one earlier, but this one with the embroidered center has been on hold until the embroidery was complete. Sorry about the blur. It's blurred on the pattern cover.

Also, this one. There are actually two embroidered blocks in this configuration, and I'll probably do both of them. It'll help me to stay organized.

So that's a good amount of sewing to keep me busy. If there's still time left in the day, I'll start making the first blocks for the Shop Hop 4.0 quilt.

After yesterday's post, several of you wrote to ask about the Kittens in Teacups pattern. Those who asked are no-reply, and so I'll have to answer your question here. I linked to the pattern in yesterday's post, but maybe it wasn't obvious. You can find the pattern right here.

And now that I'm finished with the cats in pajamas, I'm kind of excited to get started on these kittens. That will have to wait until next year...which is closer than you realize.

Okay, so that's all I have time for today. Grocery shopping awaits. I'm starting a frozen turkey breast in the slow cooker today. When someone else hosts Thanksgiving dinner, I still do a turkey breast in the slow cooker for those delicious hot turkey sandwiches. It's a good way to end any day that includes grocery shopping.