Last Gasp Sewing

Good morning, my friends. We're in the waning days of the year with Christmas just around the corner. Today I'll need to get serious about preparing for our trip. Yesterday, I spent some time checking the lists I'd made to see what's already packed and what still needs packing. (Some things live in the RV full time, but I sometimes need refills or updates.) Today I'll start doing some of the cook-ahead items, starting with the Frozen Breakfast Burritos. They're good any time, but they're especially nice when we're driving from one destination to another. No cooking, and no dirty dishes. There are a couple of other things on my list, but that's my biggest focus for the day.

Of course, I have another Tiny Treasure to show you today. This is Tiny Treasure #33. And since it rained the whole day yesterday, it seems completely appropriate. This one has stem stitch, running stitch, straight stitch, and lazy daisy.

There was one housekeeping chore to do. Happily, as I check off my housekeeping chores this week, the list of things I'll do before we leave gets shorter and shorter until we're down to almost nothing but packing. Don't be fooled, though. There's a big job ahead of me.

So Sadie and I decided to spend what will probably be our last day of sewing for the year together. We discussed which fabrics I should use to finish off My Embroidered Garden. Sadie takes this decision-making very seriously.

We liked that fancy swirly fabric, and it had the right colors. In the end, we decided it was too modern and busy for this rather delicate embroidered piece. We decided to stick with my first choice. So, I added a pale green stop border.

And then I used a narrow cut-off strip of the outer border fabric to finish it off. As it turns out, I have quite a bit of that fabric left over from when I quilted My Whimsical Quilt Garden. I kept the largest pieces together. They can be used in another quilt at some point. I was able to use a long and narrow strip for this border.

Then I went in search of fabrics for the back and binding. I selected the ones below with the green for the binding.

Then I quilted just inside the heart-shape of embroidery stitches, and I quilted a straight line around the outer border. On the embroidery background, I stitched a row of these little flowers. It's stitch #152 on my Bernina 750QE.

When the quilting was finished, it looked like this:

The only thing left to do was to sew on the binding. When I finished sewing the machine portion, I tidied everything up and said good-bye to the sewing room.

Taking it upstairs to where I could sit comfortably, I hand-stitched the binding in about half an hour, and I had a finished quilt. It ends up at 11 x 13 inches.

Here's how it looks from the back.

Since I can't do any quilting on big quilts until Eliza returns from her va-cay, I'm down to just three projects I could work on right now. I could sew the Kittens in Cups into a finished quilt top, 

and I could sew the blocks together for Land & Sea.

The only other quilt I have for quilting is the Fantastic Felines. It's not one of my favorite quilts, but it's growing on me.

There are still some WIPs blocks I can make, but probably I'm finished for the year. The next sewing I'll do will be on the projects I've kitted-up to take along.

Okay so we're coming down the home stretch of 2025. I'll keep doing my embroidery each morning...that part is non-negotiable. For the next several days, I'll be in full trip-prepping mode. It's one of those times when there's no whining and no moaning. It's just one foot in front of the other until it's finished. It's a big job that I dread, but it's nice when we can get a good distance south where the weather is warmer and drier, and we can see some of our life-long friends. 

In preparation for this trip, I've found a few new destinations to see along the way. For one thing, we'll be visiting Mike's birthplace in Taft, California. His family left Taft when he was just two, and so he has no memory of the place. We've often talked abut spending a night there, just to have a look, but this will be our first time doing it. We'll also be seeing the Danish community of Solvang, California. This was on our itinerary last time we traveled south, but we had to cut it when one of the leaf springs on the RV broke. We ended up spending an extra day in Petaluma while Mike made the repairs.

Although Mike grew up in the area we're traveling to (and I lived there from the age of 12 through 21), I've found a lot of sight-seeing destinations neither of us has ever seen. We're both looking forward to seeing friends and acting like tourists in our old stomping grounds. Even though we'll be parking the RV and staying put in most places, there will still be plenty to see and explore. If you're going with us, it's not too early to start preparing now. Be sure to bring clothes for warm weather.

So, that's it from me today. Embroidery awaits, and then I'll get busy with the day's to-do's.