Coming Up Short

Good morning, my friends. It was another hot day yesterday...98°F at our place, which is very unusual for us. Being at the top of a hill, we're generally a little cooler than they are in the valley. It was a good day to stay in and sew.

There was a little more progress on the Stitching Wisdom quilt. The bottom row of blocks has just one embroidered block. I did that one the same as I've done the others.

At each corner were pieced (and embroidered) blocks. I did a little dot-to-dot quilting there.

There's one more row of blocks to quilt on this. I'll do that today. Tomorrow I'll get started on the sashings.

In the frigid sewing room, I finished sewing together the Cats in Pajamas blocks. 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was afraid I would run out of fabric, and I did come up just a few inches short. I need about 26 inches, and I have only 20-1/2. Bummer. This was worrisome because I bought this "Feline Fancy" fabric many years ago. Probably more than ten years ago. 

Happily, I was able to find another yard on eBay. The only down side is that the extra fabric has been washed. Being a light fabric, I'm hoping that won't matter. Probably the color won’t have faded, and I wouldn’t expect a lot of shrinkage either. I only purchased another yard, and so if it's too different, I'll set it aside and figure out something else.

On another happy note, I had a fabric in my cat fabric bin that will work for the back. I can't remember where or when I acquired this, but I have more than I'll need for a quilt back. 

So I'm kind of stuck on the Cats in Pajamas until the extra fabric arrives. As long as I'm waiting for that, I'll get caught up on the Kittens in Teacups. I still need to make a block for June. June's block will be orange. These are the blocks I have for that quilt so far.

It'll be good to be caught up on all my projects, and I can start fresh when September's color is announced.

Today I want to cut the dead foliage from the poppy barrels. We mostly missed their blooms this year, although I did see a few of them before we left on our trip back in May.

Next year's growth is beginning to appear, but it's mixed in with the dead foliage from this year. I want to get out before it gets too hot and give them a haircut.

If I'm going to beat the heat, I'd better get going. Stay cool my friends. September is just around the corner and cooler days are coming.