OMG: It's a Finished Flimsy!

Good morning, my friends. It's something of a red letter day. The sun has moved into the propurr position for Smitty to get his morning sunbath. When I left him downstairs just now, he was grooming himself. When one is settling in for a nap, one must have every single strand of fur in place.

He's looking pretty self-satisfied, isn't he?

Happily, I've finished the quilt top for The Story of My Day, and I can move on to something new. I didn't really expect to finish it when I made my way to the sewing room yesterday afternoon, but it all worked out. 

The morning was spent baking some Chocolate and Pistachio Biscotti. This was Mike's choice for our next morning snack. It comes out nicely crunchy. 

It was nearly lunch time by then. I still needed lunch and a nap, and so it was mid-afternoon before I made my way to the sewing room. There, I started on the bottom border for The Story of My Day. First, I pieced together the two windmill sections for the left side of the border.

Smitty helped me pick through my scraps for the windmill pieces.

When they were top-stitched, I could sew the two sections together.

Then, I made the sections for the right side of the border.

When they windmills were finished, I could sew it all together.

And then I could sew it to the bottom of the quilt. And...TA-DA!!

It ends up at 62 x 62 inches. Finishing this quilt top was my goal for April's

and so I'll link up when the party starts in about two weeks.

It was time to stop then, but I grabbed out one of the big pieces of yardage I received in the my recent gift box of fabric. When I first saw this piece, I was thinking it would make a good back for The Story of My Day. What do you guys think?

I worry that it will be too boring if I use a neutral color like this. On the other hand, it goes with the background of the quilt top. Also, if I choose this backing, I can continue using the same off-white thread when its turn to be quilted arrives. I'm not confident enough about my quilting to do anything too forward, and so being able to use the same thread both top and bottom is a plus. I can jazz it up with a fun striped or scrappy binding. So, I'm still mulling this over, and I haven't looked through my stash at all. Still...what do you guys think? Should I use this? Or should I strive for something more colorful?

Okay, so I took time to clean up the colossal mess in my sewing room before turning off the light. When I make my way there this afternoon, I'll be starting with a clean slate. My first task will be to finish of April's assignment for the "Sewing Room" quilt. I've finished the embroidery, but it still needs borders and three more pieced blocks before I can set it aside.

These are all the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Also, I'll want to make April's Kitten in a Cup. April's color is red, and I'll be making another block like the one you see in the middle.

It will have a longer striped tail like Smitty's tail.

When those are finished, I'll be ready to quilt the mini I made back before Christmas. This is the Blue Blazes quilt. It'll be quilted pretty simply, so it shouldn't take long.

At the top of my list today, though, will be to trace the first block for Le Jardin. I'm going to need something new for slow-stitching very soon.

I'm going to enjoy my Monday peacefully. Tomorrow, I'm going to need to do some cooking. Our neighbors are coming for dinner on Wednesday. On our menu will be some stuffed pasta shells, a Caesar salad, some Italian bread, and a Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake. I can do the pasta shells tomorrow, but the rest will all need to wait until the day of. These sorts of things can stress me out as I anticipate the work involved. Like so many things, the anticipation is always worse than the actual effort. 

So with that, I'll let you get to your day, and I'll get to mine.