Lots of Sewing

Good morning, my friends. The morning is "good" despite being a grocery shopping day. The sky is clouded over and we're expecting more rain, but it's good sewing weather. That makes the day "good" by definition.

It was a productive day here yesterday. I stitched up the 48th Tiny Treasure. This one has stem stitch, fishbone stitch, and satin stitch.

And that was the last one for this go-round on the Tiny Treasures. It'll come up twice more before I have them all finished. Here's the batch I stitched for this go-round.

And here are the 48 (of 72) I have so far.

With that finished, I got busy top-stitching the first of nine blocks for Where the Cows Come Home. This block is called "The Milking Parlor."

After that, I squared up the Amish Sampler to ready it for its binding.

I gave it a black binding. I know I'm going to hate sewing on black fabric with black thread, but it's the best choice for this quilt.

With that finished, I made backs for two finished flimsies. The flimsies have been sitting on my table ever since we got home, and they've been pointing and laughing at me every time I come into the room. Time to make those backs and shut them up. Smitty helped with this.

We had a brief discussion about whether purple was a good color for him. I told him it was. He wasn't so sure.

The purple was added to another print to piece together a back for the Gumballs quilt.

This one:

And you might remember when I purchased this one in Henderson, Nevada.

It's destined to be the back for the final Shop Hop quilt.

From there, I had to decide what to do next. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I wanted to sew together the Raggedy & Friends quilt. But then, looking at my white board, I realized I had three quilt tops to sew together.

Okay so...Raggedy & Friends. I have all the blocks and a back for this. I could finish it off and put it in the pile to be sandwiched.

But then...what about the Kittens in Teacups? They've been getting into mischief as kittens will do. Probably, I should finish them too. I have all the fabrics I need for this, including a backing fabric.

And what about Land & Sea? All the blocks are finished for this scrappy quilt too. Perusing my stash, I'm sure I have enough fabrics to piece together a back as well.

Okay, so I'll make it my mission to finish all three over the next week or so. (I hope I have enough batting for all these quilts.)

Today, though, I'm determined to get a start on this new project. Yesterday, I spent some time reading the book.

Here's a portion of the introduction from the book. I was even more excited to start it when I realized it was about the women who crossed the plains in covered wagons.

The first block was about this woman, Luzena Stanley Wilson. Her husband had planned to leave her and their children behind on their Missouri homestead, and she basically said, "F*ck that!" She wanted to go too.

It was an arduous journey. Below are two journal entries she wrote.

And this will be her block. The pumpkin in the lower right will be added when the whole quilt is sewn together. For now...just the three baskets. That should be pretty quick, and then I can start sewing together the quilts listed above.

It was late in the day by then. I filled the birdfeeders. On my way, I noticed the Bleeding Heart is blooming now.

Also, there are blossoms on the plum tree.

And the azaleas are starting to show some color.

Okay, and so grocery shopping is next. For sure and certain on today's agenda, I'll get a start hand-sewing the binding for the Amish Sampler. It's clipped and draped over the arm of my chair.

Also, I'll start working on Block 5 of Home is Where my Flock Is.

With all of that going on, there won't be much time for getting into trouble today. What are you doing to stay out of trouble?