Some Blocks

Good morning, my friends. The nights are cooling off where I live. I don't know about you, but I'm happy for better sleep under the covers. My snuggle cat, Smitty, likes it too. It's been too warm to snuggle at night, and so he's happy to be able to cozy up next to me for a good snooze fest.

My day in the sewing room was busy yesterday. I had some repair work to do on one of the flannel rag quilts I made a while back. When I snipped the ragged edges, I'd inadvertantly snipped into the machine stitching. Over time, it developed a hole. Fortunately, it was an easy fix. I just stitched back and forth a couple of times to fortify it at that spot, and it should give us many more years of usage. 

Next up, I wanted to try to fix the embroidery on the 6th block for the Raggedy & Friends project. If you read yesterday's post, then you might remember that my friend, Anonymous, made the suggestion to add the cut-off embroidery design to the quilt piecing. And I was thinking, I've made many a quilt where the applique extends out into the pieced sections. Here's an example from the Whimsical Garden quilt:

Why shouldn't embroidery be able to do the same thing? Here's how the block looked originally.

I free-hand drew the missing parts of the design, and then stitched them. Smitty stood by for meowral support.

The bird was first. Cute.

And then the foot.

And hey! I like that! It looks better than before.

Okay so with all those little repairs made, I could turn my attention to the Shop Hop blocks. The first one was from The Calico Cow in Delta Junction, Alaska. It was the first quilt shop I visited in Alaska, and so the fabric was a no-brainer. I was actually very surprised to find a quilt shop in the tiny town of Delta Junction (pop. 985).

Next, I made a block for The Patchwork Moose in Talkeetna, Alaska (pop. 997). This was a very nice shop in a fun little town. The women there were very friendly. I selected this fabric for the moose we'd seen on the drive that day.

Here are all the blocks I have for this quilt so far. Just two blocks to go.

Now I'll turn my attention to making two more blocks for the Northern Wilderness quilt. This time around, I'll make the Fireweed block...

And the Forget-Me-Not block.

I can't recall seeing any forget-me-nots in Alaska. They may have bloomed out before our arrival in mid-June. We saw plenty of fireweed, though. Here's some we saw while walking the Coastal Trail in Anchorage. It might be the same fireweed pictured in the quilt block! Ya' think?

So I'll start with the Fireweed block. The first step is to make the pieced quilt block and the background for the applique. I've done the cutting for that part, but I stopped there. I'll start sewing this together today.

And that's about all I have for you today. You'll be happy to know two things: First, the Korean restaurant is open again, and so I was able to get my fix of their delicious Chicken Bibimbap. Phew. I was Jonesing for it. Also, I learned yesterday that a doctor's prescription is no longer required for the COVID vaccine in Oregon, so we're good to go with that. Still no word about the vaccine study going on at Oregon Health and Sciences University. I'm thinking of writing them a follow-up email along the lines of WTF?

Okay, so my slow-stitching is next. I want to get in a Bowflex workout today, and I need to do one housekeeping chore. Aside from that, it'll be a mostly sewing day. Tomorrow's post will probably be later in the day. I'm going to the farmer's market with Erik and Mae, and I can't think of a better way to start the weekend.