A Finish and a Start

Good morning, my friends. It's a red letter day, for sure. "The Story of My Day" is finished. It ends up at 62 x 62 inches. I started this quilt on January 13, 2023, so nearly 3-1/2 years in the making.

Here's a peek at the back.

While I was taking those pictures, Mike came inside and told me the family of violet-green swallows living in one of our nest boxes had fledged. Of course, I had to go see that for myself.

We think this might be one of the parent birds coaxing one of the fledglings out of the nest.

What're you looking at?

It's hard to tell when they're swooping all around, but we think there might have been as many as six. It would have made for a crowded home. 

Back inside, I wanted to trace out another embroidery piece. We're going camping this weekend, and I'm afraid the sheep I'm working on currently won't hold me through the whole weekend. And you know...better safe than sorry. I don't want a stitching emergency. And, yes, I did start the tracing with the wrong color of pen.

These are all the blocks I have for this "Snowmen and Reindeer" projects so far.

From there, I started on the "Yoder Sisters" project. As a reminder, this is how the finished quilt will look:

The first step was to spend some time reading the pattern. The applique is spread over several sheets, and those needed to be taped together. This is the placement diagram. The parts of the applique are on separate sheets. It all looks very complicated.

I'm ignoring that part for now. The applique can't go on until I've created the background. As I was cutting the pieces, Sadie showed up to see what I was doing.

Oh, do you need help organizing?

Here. Let me help.

She was encouraged to find a different job, which allowed me to make the first of three "quilts" for the background. I started with the Dutchman's Puzzle.

As I've mentioned, that gray fabric is some I used to make a shark Halloween costume way back in the 1980's. I held onto the costume for many years thinking a grandchild might wear it someday. When the grandchildren didn't materialize, I passed it along to a friend of Matthew's who has four little boys. It'll get plenty of use there.

I'm actually surprised I still have any of it. It's a testament to my packrat character.

Okay, so that was my day. There is a long list of to-do's on today's agenda. We're starting at the grocery store. It's a short list, and so that shouldn't take too long. Also, I need to hoe the garden. We're taking off on our weekend camping trip tomorrow, and so I won't have another chance to hoe until next week. I don't want the weeds to go that long. It's been wet the past couple of days, but the sun is shining today. We're expecting hot weather for the weekend, and so it's a good time to hoe. 

Food will get packed today as well, which means I'm also preparing food. I'm baking some Irish Brown Bread, making some coleslaw, and churning some watermelon sorbet to take along. There's one easy housekeeping chore I'm hoping to finish as well. So you can see, it's a busy day ahead. It's doubtful I'll have time for sewing.

I'll check back tomorrow with a short post, but then I'll be taking the weekend off. Look for me no later than Tuesday, and I'll be back to tell you about our weekend.