Stitching and Tracing

Good morning, my friends. For the third morning in a row, I'm writing fast. Mike needs some routine lab work done this morning. I'm tagging along. We'll get breakfast afterward, and then we'll do our grocery shopping. It's sort of a date, but not. But, hey! We have clean windows! The better to see you with!

Yesterday's sewing was mainly my attempt to stay out of Scott's way. There was time for slow-stitching before he arrived. That gave me time to start on the first block for the "Home is Where my Flock Is" quilt. These blocks will be done in shades of gray and black.

After I showered and dressed, I went outside to fill the bird feeders. There, I found Smitty sitting on his pedestal, posing for a picture he hopes will be used when his likeness is added to Mt. Rushmore. Why should the guy living in the Whitehouse get all the glory? Besides, Smitty would surely make a better president, wouldn't you agree? (Agreement optional.)

In the sewing room, I first needed to add borders to the last block for The Sewing Room BOM. 

After adding the borders, I gave some thought to how I can finish this off...and why I should want to. (Life is short, you know.)

Here are all the blocks I have for this quilt.

Okay, so if you've been paying attention to the pictures I post here, you might have noticed that the walls of my sewing room are nearly covered in small quilts. It's a colorful room, for sure. I like it that way. My problem is that I'm running out of space even for small quilts. However, there is this little narrow strip of wall at the entrance to the sewing room. There's no door there...just an opening. This next image is what you see as you're leaving the sewing room. The space there is 12-1/2 inches wide and about 60 inches long.

So my idea is to use these blocks to make a narrow banner to hang there. I can line them up vertically like this:

I'll use the lavender fabric on the right below to make a narrow sashing between the blocks and a narrow stop border. And then I'll add a wider border using the floral on the left. The embroidered blocks are 8-1/2 inches wide (unfinished), and so I have about four inches to spare. I can make the stop border a half inch, and then I can make the floral border about 1-1/2 inches. It'll be a tight squeeze, but I think it will work out. I’d use the lavender for the binding. Also, I have a purple ribbon I'll add to the top to use as a hanger.

Okay, so I'm feeling better about that project now that I know how to finish it off.

Next, I needed to top-stitch the two blocks completed the day before for the Northern Wilderness project. This is the Canoe block.

The written pattern suggested doing raw-edge stitching with monofilament. There are a lot of little nooks, crannies, and curves in the applique pieces. I considered doing my usual machine blanket stitch, but I'm afraid that will be too much thread. Look at the mittens above, for example. Also, the rim around the canoe and the handle of the paddle. A blanket stitch would be too wide and "thread heavy" to look right. So, okay. I agree with the monofilament. It barely shows. You can see it in the image below.

I did the same thing with the Dragonfly block, but I used a brown thread for the sunflower. It needed some details to make the petals look right.

And now, the first two blocks are finished.

I was still hiding out in the sewing room by then. I decided to trace the design for my Sashiko piece. I'm using a Frixion pen so that the ink will disappear when I iron the finished piece. I've backed it with a white muslin. I can't start on this until the floss I have on order arrives. Hopefully it'll arrive sometime before the week is out. Here's your peek.

So that will be my next slow-stitching project. When I start on it, I'll just keep going until it's finished. 

In the meantime, I'm back to the first section of my white board. Next up is to quilt the Stitching Wisdom quilt. It's been relaxing on the machine since before we left on our trip to Alaska. It should be more than ready for quilting now.

And, as always, I can only spend about an hour per session doing free motion quilting if I want to avoid getting tendonitis in my wrist. So while I'm doing that, I'll also start to sew together the Cats in Pajamas quilt. This was my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt in 2024. Here are all the blocks I have for this quilt:

Okay...so there's plenty to keep me busy. I'm hoping we'll be home early enough that I can get some sewing time this afternoon. What's on your agenda for today?