Dog Day Afternoon

Good afternoon, my friends. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we had grocery shopping to do this morning; thus, the lateness of my arrival here. You guys have probably already finished your coffee. I'm only on my second of three cups. If I seem a little addled, just know I'll improve with the addition of caffeine. Maybe by the end of this post, I'll even be able to speak coherently. A nap can't hurt either.

There wasn't a lot of time for quilting yesterday. Mike was busy taking measurements on my machine in order to build his 3D thread path guard. He has it all figured out and printed now, but nothing has been installed. You'll be my first call when it's all finished...probably in tomorrow's post.

So, I spent most of my afternoon in the basement sewing room. First, I finished off the second of the two blocks I was stitching for The Story of My Day quilt. This is "Making a Daisy Chain."

I needed to add borders to both blocks, and that's how I spent my sewing room time. Sadie was absolutely appawlled to see I had stitched a woofie.

Smitty was equally put out.

That is pawsitively disgusting.

Much to their dismay, I purrsisted in my efforts. When it was finished it looked like this:

They were not happy about this. Not one little bit. And so they were relieved to find no woofies on the next block.

We puurfur this one.

When it was finished, it looked like this.

When this project comes up on my embroidery dance card next time, I'll finish off the last three blocks. For now, these are the 22 blocks I have for this quilt.

It was late in the day by then. I still had a full hour to spend on my quilting. I started with the boot. It was done just by outlining the outside of the boot, and the inner lines near the lacings. The "foot powder" was also outlined, and I did some pebbling where the lid is. 

Then, I added a spiderweb to the branches above and a dangling spider hanging down.  I'm sorry it isn't easier to see the quilting. Imagine how my eyes feel when I'm trying to see what I'm doing.

But things are looking up because the lamp I ordered from Amazon arrived while I was doing my quilting. I had it clamped to the edge of the table, but there's a space on the machine that actually give me better light. It's a gooseneck style, and so I can maneuver it to put the light right where I want it.

Okay, and then moving to the right, Smitty directed the quilting on this embroidered block.

I ended up just outlining the books and the quill pen. Then, to finish it off for the time being, I outlined the dome. I'll finish the clock when I come back the other direction.

That was all I had time for. I rotated the quilt sideways and left it needle down for these two flying geese. At the bottom of the image below, you can see where I left off quilting the broom when I made my first pass. Today, I'll quilt where the broom straws are bundled together. There's also a broomstick above, but that will wait for another day or two.

While we watched the news last night, I took the first stitches on February's block for A Year in the Garden. Since I haven't done this morning's slow stitching yet, I'll work on that next.

But first, some lunch. And probably more coffee. Care to join me?

Mini Mania

Good morning, my friends. It looks as if our weather will clear up a day earlier than expected. I'm looking out my window at bright daylight and blue skies. You can't ask for more than that in Oregon in December. It has been chilly. Recently I realized I was going to need to start wearing my heavier winter coat. My Gore-Tex rain parka is no longer doing the job of keeping me warm.

So just what's going on around here? Well...I finished stitching the last block for Joy in the Ordinary.

It just needed borders. When I headed into the sewing room, I did that first.

Here are all the blocks I have for this quilt now.

This was a free stitch-along from Jenny of Elefantz. I always enjoy her annual small stitch-along projects. She's made some decisions about changes to her blog recently, and so I'm hoping she'll still do another of her small stitch-alongs next year. 

The kitties joined me in the sewing room. These next two pictures had laser eyes when I took them off the camera. I've realized I can fix their eyes with the red-eye correction in Photoshop Elements. It makes their pupils round, however, which makes their eyes look a little weird. Still, they look better than laser eyes, IMHO. I only mention this in case those of you with sharp eyes get to wondering what's going on with these weird-eyed cats.

Can you paws your activities long enough to tell me what we're making today?

Oh, Smitty...is she still working on that meownstrous mini quilt?

Oh...well if its just this little thing, then please purrmit me to assist you.

Of course, as soon as the mini quilt pieces came out, she fled the room. You might recall I needed to remake one of the strip sets for the mini. I'd left these pieces ready to be sewn together.

When all four strip sets were the proper length, I could sew them into these little blocks.

The blocks looked terribly complicated in the picture included with the instructions. They're actually pretty simple. Just four of the same set of strips sewn together pinwheel style.

Just to be sure, I made a sample block before I started sewing everything together.

There were nine of those. All sewn together, I had a finished quilt top. It finishes at 15-1/2 inches square.

These are kind of fun to make occasionally. My goal is just practice for cutting and piecing accuracy. This one looks pretty good. I can see a few places where the seams want to curve a little or else get wider or narrower in spots. Still, I'm pretty happy with this. Mostly, I'm happy to have it finished. Today I'll cut a back for it, and then it will go on the Small-Quilts-to-be-Quilted pile. There are a couple of projects in line ahead of it.

Today I'll be doing a little baking. I'm going to bake some Cranberry Ecstasy Bars. This is a copy-cat recipe of Starbucks' Cranberry Ecstasy Bars from our local newspaper. I only make half the recipe and bake it in a 9 x 9-inch baking dish. It's a very good copy-cat, and I happen to love those bars from Starbucks, although it's been quite some time since I've been to a Starbucks. And that reminds me that I still haven't had my one annual white chocolate peppermint mocha. Maybe on Tuesday. I have to go pick up my camera from the camera shop. (It was getting a spa treatment. Why should sewing machines get all the fun?) Maybe I'll stop off at a Starbucks for my one annual treat.

On the sewing front, I'm going to tackle the quilting for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage today. It's a large quilt, and so it will probably take me several days to a week to get it all finished.

I'll probably do some dot-to-dot style quilting in the pieced quilt blocks. I'll either outline or add details to the embroidery, and I think some quilted spiderwebs and spiders are called for. It shouldn't be too difficult to quilt, but I'll have to limit my time to avoid breaking myself. I'll use a splint to take some of the strain off my wrist, but it's awkward quilting that way. So, I'll probably continue on with some of my other projects when I need to take a break from quilting. 

Next up to be pieced is the "Seasons" quilt, and so I'll probably get a start on that.

This being Sunday morning, I'll be making our Sunday morning pancakes. And then I'll take the first stitches on Walk the Dog. 

It's hooped up and waiting for me downstairs...and you know how a dog is when it's time for a walk. No patience whatsoever. 

So there's plenty to keep me busy on this Sunday. How are you keeping busy today?

Many Blocks

Good morning, my friends. It's a grocery shopping day, and so I'm writing fast this morning. It's another frosty morning. We'll be bundling up to venture out into the cold, cold world. 

It was a fairly productive day yesterday. Lately I've been echoing Pennsylvania's Governor Shapiro who is fond of saying he "gets sh*t done." That's GSD to you. And that summarizes my day yesterday. I GSD. Maybe I'll just start writing in acronyms from now on. Figuring out what I'm talking about could be a good brain exercise. And, now that I think of it, maybe you're already trying to figure out what I'm talking about. 

In any case, I filled my embroidery hoop yesterday morning.

And now I've moved my hoop to the left to encompass almost all the rest of it. There's just a little bit at the top left that I couldn't capture. I'll stitch a little in the lower right first, and then I'll move my hoop to capture the remainder. It cannot escape my hoop of doom for very long.

After that, I did a Bowflex workout, and then I finished my housekeeping chores. The rest of the day was devoted to sewing. I was starting with these six half square triangles made the day before.

To those, I added some scrappy strips.

And then sewed them into a row to be added to the rows already finished. Here's what I have so far. Half the rows are finished now. 

There was still sewing time left in my day. I didn't think I had enough time to finish off December's cat for the Cats in Pajamas, but I decided to go ahead and do all the cutting. These blocks have been fun to make. They are time-consuming, however. Here are all the pieces that go into a single block.

There was still time left, and so I went to work sewing it together, reasoning I could quit whenever I wanted to. But lo and behold, I was able to finish it off. That's the last block I needed. Now, I'll be able to sew it into a finished quilt top.

Sadie showed up just in time to be no help whatsoever.

Please tell me the purrpose of cats wearing pawjamas. Cats purrfur to sleep in the nude. They've been doing it since time immemeoworial.

I'll admit she has a point. Here are all the cats I have for this quilt.

They'll be offset on the finished top. Here's the picture from the pattern cover.

All the background pieces are cut and just waiting for all the cats to arrive. When I get to that section of my whiteboard, this will be the next quilt top to be sewn together. I used to sew them together in the order I finished all the blocks. Now, I'm starting with the oldest projects first.

So next up, I'll be making at least two more pieced blocks for the Girls' Getaway quilt. These are pictures from the pattern cover. Today's blocks will include the small embroidered pieces I finished recently. There are two of the churn dash blocks. I made the first one earlier, but this one with the embroidered center has been on hold until the embroidery was complete. Sorry about the blur. It's blurred on the pattern cover.

Also, this one. There are actually two embroidered blocks in this configuration, and I'll probably do both of them. It'll help me to stay organized.

So that's a good amount of sewing to keep me busy. If there's still time left in the day, I'll start making the first blocks for the Shop Hop 4.0 quilt.

After yesterday's post, several of you wrote to ask about the Kittens in Teacups pattern. Those who asked are no-reply, and so I'll have to answer your question here. I linked to the pattern in yesterday's post, but maybe it wasn't obvious. You can find the pattern right here.

And now that I'm finished with the cats in pajamas, I'm kind of excited to get started on these kittens. That will have to wait until next year...which is closer than you realize.

Okay, so that's all I have time for today. Grocery shopping awaits. I'm starting a frozen turkey breast in the slow cooker today. When someone else hosts Thanksgiving dinner, I still do a turkey breast in the slow cooker for those delicious hot turkey sandwiches. It's a good way to end any day that includes grocery shopping.

Catssistants

Good morning, my friends. Well, lucky me! I had so much kitty help yesterday, you absolutely would not believe it. With their help, I was able to finish off the Color My World quilt.

Before we went to work on that, though, we had slow-stitching to do. I stitched up the third of five snowmen, and then I got a start on the fourth.

Here's how it's looking. I'm more than halfway finished now.

From there, I moved my hoop to the right. Later in the afternoon, I did a little more stitching on this. I should reach the fifth and final snowman during this morning's session.

While I was doing my slow-stitching, Smitty and Sadie were outside terrorizing the mammals smaller than they are. Sadie was on the hunt.

Smitty stood guard. Sadie likes to catch things, but then she gives her catch to Smitty. It's like most partnerships. Of course, there are plenty of men who plan the menus and do the cooking. For these two, it's the more traditional arrangement. She's the hunter gatherer. He's the lucky diner. He is an excellent purrtector, however. Also, he wants her to get plenty of hunting purractice. 

When we made our way to the sewing room, our first task was to square up the quilt for binding. Smitty walked all the way around measuring and making sure those corners were all cut to a 90° angle. 

Smitty has been a quilting helper for long enough that he's learned to keep a purrotractor in his pocket at all times.

When he was satisfied, he held the quilt down while I sewed the binding strips together. Happily, I had just the right amount of yellow fabric to finish it off.

With Smitty's help, I got the binding ready for hand-stitching.

Sadie gave it the all-important snuggleability test.

I purrnounce it acceptable. You may purceed with hand-stitching.

So I took up residence for most of the afternoon in our comfy recliner. Smitty took the first shift assisting me with the hand-sewing.

When his shift was complete, Sadie took over. And just FYI, this is why every household needs at least two cats. One cat cannot be expected to do all the work. Union rules, you know.

I didn't really expect to stitch around all four corners in a single afternoon, but how could I miss with so much help.

And then...my quilt was finished. That's five days from start to completion.

Here's how it looks from the back. I love that quilting design. So simple, and yet so pretty.

Okay, so it's a wet and chilly day out. There's nothing else on today's agenda until it's time to make dinner. Except for getting in a walk on the treadmill, it's going to be an NBS day. With the "Snow Happens" piece nearly finished, it seems like a good time to make up the next block for Grandpa's Bridges. Here are all the blocks I have for that quilt so far.

Also, as I work my way through my list of WIPs, I'm going to be starting a new Shop Hop quilt. This will be Shop Hop 4.0. As I've mentioned, this one will be make up of blocks that look like suitcases. This is a free pattern from PBS Fabrics.

For this one, I'll be embroidering the name and location of the shop below the suitcase. Yesterday, I selected the first two fabrics, and I've printed out the name and place. Before I reach the end of my WIPs list, I'll want to have the embroidery finished so that I can sew the quilt blocks together. It'll all make sense when I create the first two blocks. My plan is to make this quilt two blocks at a time.

And...I promise...no more delays. I'm going to get to work on the third block for the Merry, Merry Snowmen. 

They've been waiting patiently in the closet (which is hard when you're a snowman). Today is their day to shine.

So next up...Sunday morning pancakes. Then some slow-stitching. Then sewing, sewing, and more sewing. It's going to be a good day.