Right as Rain

Good morning, my friends. It's looking like another nice day of weather. I might impose on tractor man to help me outside today. Up until this very moment, I haven't had much of a plan for the day. Now that I can see the sunrise, I'm thinking it might be one of the last nice days of October for doing that sort of thing. We have dahlias and peonies that need cutting back, and we have daffodil bulbs to plant. Sounds better than the Bowflex, doesn't it?

We got our flu vaccines yesterday, followed by grocery shopping. We both agreed the stick hurt, and it hurt even more as the serum was injected. Both of us had stinging arms throughout our shopping trip. It was feeling better by the time we got home. We also expected to feel sick today, but we're both feeling just fine. My arm is a little tender, but Mike says his isn't hurting at all. So, okay. That brings our 2025 vaccine schedule to a close. We're doing our part for the herd. You're welcome.

As for sewing, I stitched the first of 72 Tiny Treasures yesterday.

My morning embroidery sessions are usually limited to two lengths of floss. And if you know your embroidery floss, then you know it's customary to split the six strands from a single length into three groups of two strands. (That's how I do it, at least.) So the two lengths actually work out to total of six lengths. (I hope that makes sense.) That amount of stitching takes me about 45 minutes. As it happens, six lengths was the amount I needed to complete this first Tiny Treasure. As I go along, I expect some will take less time and some will take more. For now, I'm just happy to be stitching something akin to the stitched inchies I've enjoyed in years past.

In the sewing room, Sadie was tired of working on the Fantastic Felines. She begged off yesterday's efforts.

Besides, she'd already given her input about how the blocks should be arranged the day before. She had no other ideas.

So Smitty and I worked on this together. We'd already taken a nap together, and when we awakened from our nap, we knew just what to do. The problem I've been having with this is trying to achieve symmetry with an even number of rows. I could set the blocks 5 x 5, but then I'd leave a lot of them unused. But what if I added more fabric and set them in rows 7 x 7? Smitty liked that idea.

Together, we came up with this arrangement. Adding blocks of the border fabric gave me the symmetry I was looking for. It meant just three blocks were unused. Possibly, I can work them into the quilt back somehow.

When the blocks were all sewn together, they looked like this.

Then I laid out a combination of borders using the polka dots, the orange, and the cats, as shown at the bottom of the image below.

Today's sewing will be sewing on the three borders. If there's time, I'll figure out a back for it. While I was figuring out the borders, Sadie was ensconced in her sewing room bed, snoring loudly. She was 'zhausted.

It was getting too late in the day to start on the borders, but I spent a little time looking at the next project in line. I'm gearing up to sew Grandpa's Bridges into a finished quilt top. As a reminder, these are all the embroidered blocks for this quilt.

Below is the picture from the pattern cover. It has wide borders and sashings. If I were to do it this way, it would end up at 80 x 98 inches. Mine is going to end up smaller. 

I started working on the embroidered blocks for this quilt in March of 2024. In the meantime, I've been collecting fabrics I thought might work. The one below was purchased at a quilt shop in West Virginia. There are some covered bridges, grist mills, and barns pictured there.

They can be fussy cut to 3-1/2 inches square, and so I believe I'll use some of these for the cornerstones.

If memory serves, I bought the fabric below in Branson, Missouri. I'm thinking it could work for the sashings, but I might also use it in a border.

Also, I have several different coordinating fabrics, and so I'm going to have to make some decisions about how to proceed. For now, I'm in the thinking stage of sewing. If you smell smoke, don't worry. It's just me...thinking.

Okay, so that's about all I have for you today. Since I was expecting to be sick today, the calendar is open. I'll have to see what Mike has in mind, but I'm thinking gardening will be at the top of our list.