Picking Up Speed

Good morning, my friends. We're looking at another day of gray skies. We only caught the edges of the recent storm that blew through, but it gave us a quarter-inch of rain over several showers throughout the day...a good amount. A little more would be appreciated, but we'll take what we can get.

As time wears on, our energy levels are improving a bit. Mike and I were talking last night, and he admitted to being as tired as I am. We agreed that the trip was long and tiring (especially the last day's drive to home). Then, when we get home, there is So. Much. To. Do. There's the unpacking...that's a given. For us, it usually involves taming the landscape in the form of weeding, pruning, dead-heading, and mowing. We've both finished the most physical parts of returning from a trip. Day by day we feel a little more rested.

As for sewing, I've been working away at my slow-stitching. Yesterday, I moved my hoop to the left side. Here's what I have so far.

The most densely stitched parts are finished now. Probably I have a couple more days to finish it. Here's where I'll pick it up this morning.

In the sewing room, you might recall that I'd barely started cutting squares to make five 4-patches. I needed 18 more.

When I'm doing a lot of cutting, I need a lot of help.

So. Much. Help.

And with such good helpers, how could I go wrong. A little while later, I had five 4-patches.

I'd made 20 half square triangles the day before. Still, I needed more pieces. When all the cutting was done, the only part that wasn't bloody was the soles of the big man's feet. (Sorry...brain fart...you have to be able to remember Jim Croce to know what I was talking about.) Anyhoo... I had these pieces. These will make a row of five blocks.

Once the cutting (and piecing) was finished, the block went together pretty fast. Here's what a single block looks like. It ends up at 12-1/2 inches.

When I have blocks for all six rows, they'll be rotated 90° with the addition of each one. I've drawn arrows in the image below. Look for the 4-patch to help it make sense.

These aren't sewn together, but there's my first row of blocks. 

I've realized I'm not a fan of making scrap quilts. For one thing...the threads. Threads everywhere. Also, I can never tell if they're going to look okay when they're finished, or if it will just look like a big mess with nowhere for the eyes to rest. Are my fabrics too boring? Too bold? Is the scale too large? Whatever the case, I'll continue on with this. If I don't like it in the end, I can always donate it. Quilts are never wasted. Besides, even if I don't like them, they're always good for practicing free motion quilting.

Today I'll make up the fifth block for the Raggedy & Friends project. The two embroidered blocks are finished. Before I can make more blocks for this quilt, I'll need to finish the embroidery for the next one...not yet started.

Another item on the must-do-it-now list is to embroider the next two shops for two more Shop Hop 4.0 blocks. These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

You might remember I went on the hunt for six more fabrics while we were traveling in order to finish this off. I've yet to do the embroidered names and places for any of the shops, and that will need to be finished before I can turn them into quilt blocks.

Also Mike and I are going to attempt to tie up the echinacea plant today. In the image below, you can see there are two different colors of flowers. The one on the right is called Pow Wow Wild Berry. There's another one that hasn't shown itself yet called Cheyenne Spirit. It has more of a yellow/orange cast. 

The problem with these is that the pink ones grow about waist high. The other two grow to only about knee high. The pink ones weren't trained to stay inside their tomato cage this year, and so they've fallen over and are covering up the other two shorter varieties. I believe if we can get the pink ones up off the ground, the other two colors will have a fighting chance. That, and one housekeeping chore are what's on my to-do list today. 

So, okay...off I go. Flowers and fabric are waiting. And cats. Always cats.