Building a Barn

Good morning, my friends. Our chat will have to be quick this morning. We're donning our suits of armor in an effort to get Sadie to the vet this morning. She needs her immunizations. It's hard to believe, I know, but this little kitty turns into a bearcat when she's being forced to do something she doesn't want to do.

We still have a few more hours to live. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, you'll know Sadie won the battle.

Yesterday started with me stitching Tiny Treasure #47. This one has stem stitch, stem fill, lazy daisy and a French knot.

There's just one more to stitch. If I play my cards right this morning, I might be able to finish it before we need to go.

From there, I went straight to work finishing the final four panel blocks on the Amish Sampler quilt. The quilting is finished now, and it's ready for binding. I'm hoping to get the binding sewn on by machine today.

Here's how it looks from the back.

Here's a little closer look at the back.

Okay, and there was time in the afternoon to start on the first block of this new project. It's a little weird working with this spiral-bound pattern. I'm having to flip back and forth in the pages as I work. I finally used a paperclip to mark the important pages.

The first block I'm making is "The Milking Parlor." I'm using my scraps for this project, and so I'm trying to match the fabrics in the picture with what I have available, being mindful of contrast.

The first step was to make the block background. The blocks are large at 14 inches square. They'll be trimmed down some eventually, but I'm advised to leave them as is until I'm ready to sew them together.

Usually when I'm doing applique, I'll fuse directly to the background. For this project, I'll be using a teflon pressing sheet to create the applique. This is another way the pattern is rather unconventional. The pieces are not numbered in the order they are to be applied, and so making them first on the teflon pressing sheet gives me flexibility to change things around if I need to.

I started with the small building, pressing it to the upper corner of my pressing sheet, and then I just left it there while I created the barn.

The drawings I'm tracing from are reversed for applique, but I noted the tree was not. It doesn't matter for this block, but I'll pay closer attention from here on.

With that finished, I could add the small building.

And then the silo.

With it all fused together, I could peel it up from the pressing sheet, and then fuse it to the background.

Now, it's ready for top-stitching. I'll do that first today. I like how the picture from the pattern shows the top-stitching done in a dark brown thread. It gives it a rustic appearance, and it adds contrast. So, I'm going to do all the pieces for this block in dark brown, except the windows. I'll do those in black.

Doing the top-stitching will be at the top of my sewing list this afternoon. Mainly, I want to get it out of the way so that I can square up the Amish Sampler and get the binding sewn on. Next on my list is to make backs for two finished flimsies. If I'm going to have to sandwich quilts soon, I want to do as many as I can. 

As I'm thinking about this, I'm realizing that I can sew the Raggedy & Friends project together and add it to the mix. Just now, I realized I don't yet have an image of all the blocks laid out together.

Already I have a backing fabric for this project, and so I might as well add it to the pile.

That's a lot to contemplate for a single day, and I doubt I'll get this far. But I'll just jump out there ahead of myself and say that when I have those three quilts ready to be sandwiched, I'll be ready to start another new project...this one:

It's another pattern I've had on my shelf for years. Time to get it going.

All right. I need some breakfast, and then I think I'll have a little time to work on my slow-stitching. As for packing Sadie into a kennel this morning, all I can say is wish us luck. Maybe I'll be back tomorrow if I haven't been reduced to shreds of flesh and bone.