Lots of Stitching

Good morning, my friends. It was a good day of sewing yesterday. In addition to my progress on the Whimsical Garden quilt, My Embroidered Garden is nearly complete, and I finished up the little gift I'm making for a friend. Let's start with the embroidery, shall we?

Possibly I could have finished this yesterday, but it would have meant spending more time than I had to spare. I expect I'll finish this this morning.

From there, I quilted the next row of blocks for the Whimsical Garden. I love all this color when the days are so gray outside. I started with this block...

And then just moved my way across the row.

Block by block. I'm thinking about how to quilt those sashings. If you're wondering why they don't match, it's because they were supposed to be scrappy. I didn't have enough appropriate scraps for the whole quilt, and so I selected some different fabrics to use and then just pieced them at random.

Finally, this one.

As I finished up that last block, Smitty came to announce that my lap was requested downstairs.

So, I left it needle down, and this is where I'll start today. This is the bottom row. When I move to the top of the quilt, I'll turn it around and quilt the blocks upside-down. It allows me to keep the bulk of the quilt on the table, rather than in my lap.

After giving Smitty some snuggles, I moved into the sewing room where Sadie was standing by. Knowing I'll be finishing my embroidery piece, it seemed like a good time to trace the next grouping for Tiny Treasures.

If I were following the instructions in the book, I'd be turning these into hexies. Instead, I have another idea about how to use these when they're all finished. I'm drawing 2-1/2 inch squares on the background fabric, and then centering the little designs within that small space. Sadie helped me draw the lines.

And then she handed me the page with the designs for tracing.

It's nearly impossible to see the designs in a picture, and so I'll show you the next grouping from the book page. This shows me the colors and stitches to use.

With that ready to go, I decided to finish off the gift I'm making for a friend. I can show you the back without giving too much away. Eventually, I'll show you the front, but I'll hold off until after she's received it. I won't mail it until after Thanksgiving.

So, that was a good day of sewing. Today I'll continue on with my quilting. We're going to mop the kitchen floor this morning. "We" do it together. Mike helps me move all the heavy stuff out of the way. Also, I want to bake some cookies today. I have a partial can of pumpkin puree in my refrigerator after making the Skillet Pumpkin Cake last week. Knowing I'd have that left over, I chose a recipe for some Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies to make with the rest. Probably I'll still have pumpkin left over, and so I might still do something else with that. For now...cookies. 

My arm is feeling better today, and so no more excuses for avoiding the Bowflex. There's plenty to keep me busy today, and so I guess I'll get to it. Time's a wastin. Not that our morning chats are ever a waste of time, but you know what I mean.