It's a Start

Good morning, my friends, and Happy Monday! The sun is shining here, but it's cold out. Nice to look at, but I'll probably stay indoors today. It might be the first morning I've felt mostly settled. Not much was accomplished yesterday, but I still felt worn out from the trip. It had me wondering why I felt so tired at home, and yet, not while we were still in the RV. I'd say traveling is tiring, but isn't being in the RV traveling? Well, duh. It's the routine that's missing. If I'm not in my regular routine, then it's more tiring and stressful. So, all of that to say that I think I can pick up where I left off in December from here on. Yes, I'll have to make some trips into town, but that's part of life. I don't think it will throw me off too much.

My first task yesterday was to help Mike by emptying out the freezer so he could attempt to repair our malfunctioning ice maker. He has a part on order, and so we're optimistic he'll get it working as soon as the part arrives. And that was the last thing I needed to do before I could get to my sewing. 

Yesterday's highest priority was to get a start on quilting the Painted Ladies. They've been more than patient. The image you see below was taken in January of 2024, and that's how long they've been waiting to be quilted.

First, I needed to choose a thread color. As usual, my friend, Ila, has given me the perfect color. Thank you, Ila. This is a dark gray Aurifil. I don't know anything more about it...weight, what it's made from ...but I already had a nearly-full bobbin of the same thread, so it didn't really matter.

Of course, Smitty had to put in his two cents, helping me select the thread. 

You might remember that we saw the Painted Ladies when we passed through San Francisco two years ago. After making the quilt, it was quite a thrill to see them in person.

I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest for this project. The quilt was sewn together one vertical row at a time, and I'll do the quilting the same way...one vertical row at a time. Starting on the fourth vertical row from the left...

I think of those long diagonal strips of gray as the "road" where the Painted Ladies are located. In the pieced triangle there, I've done a sort of arching sequential dot-to-dot motif.

In the rectangle below, I did a loopity-loopity thing. (Technical quilting terms. I should probably create some sort of reference manual.)

Below that, another dot-to-dot motif in the triangles on either side of the roof. The roof was left unquilted, although I might decide to do something there later. (Probably not.)

The original pattern had an applique template to create an eave under the roof. I decided to use bits of ribbon, lace, and other stuff there. In this first one, I'm using a ribbon that was tied around some fabric with the Moda label on it. Originally, I simply caught the upper portion in the roof seam, but left the bottom edge unstitched. I'm afraid that will be annoying for whoever uses this quilt in the future, and so I've decided to stitch all those loose edges down. (I'm doing this quilting with the quilt sideways to me, and that's why the image below looks larger on the right.)

And then, I outlined the door, but added a little design on the wall of the house. After giving this some thought, I decided to let the fabric tell me what the design should be. In this case...a ladybug.

And that completed the first block. Continuing on...I started with the large gray triangle.

The rest of the gray section was stitched just the same as before. Also, I stitched down the ribbon.

The house wall was from a floral fabric, and so I gave it a tulip. Who doesn't want to see tulips in the spring?

Continuing on...I gave the next block a little cat. I'm thinking I need to give this cat a tail.

And then stitched the upper portion the same as before.

Finally...this fishing lure fabric was given a fish, and the rest quilted just as before.

And that completed the first vertical row. I got a late start on this, and so that was also the end of my sewing day. I took it off the machine to have a look at the back. This quilt has a pieced back. Happily, this first section of quilting is where it's easiest to see on the back.

So I'll continue on my merry way with this. The quilt has ten vertical rows. I'd like to make it my goal to quilt two vertical rows each day until it's finished. Any sewing when the two rows are finished will be in the sewing room with whatever I'm working on there. As I mentioned yesterday, my first priority will be to make January's and February's Inverted Star blocks. I believe I'll have time to at least get started on that today.

As for my quilts that need quilting, I'm turning over a new leaf in 2026. I've always had the quilts for quilting as a section of my white board, and I'd work on the same one until it was finished. Then, I moved on to the next thing. Well, the quilts that need quilting are beginning to pile up at an alarming rate. For now, I'm going to just keep going with them. By that I mean I'm going to start each sewing session by making progress on one of the quilts that need quilting before I move into the sewing room to work on a project there. I'm hoping I can make some progress on the stack that way. 

This morning, I'll spend some time on my slow-stitching. And I know I'm getting back to my regular routine because I have a couple of housekeeping chores on the day's list of to-do's. I've already planned out the week's menu, but I need to make up a shopping list for tomorrow's grocery shopping trip. It'll be senior discount day at our store, and what could be better than that?

Okay, then. Off I go. Much to do. I'm hoping to accomplish more today than yesterday, and then I'll know we're really home again.