Yesterday afternoon, I worked on Row 3 of my Past President's Project--the applique row. I have to come up with a better name for this quilt instead of PPP--that's too hard to say and takes too long to type! All the pieced rows are named after animals--Cat and Mice, Puss in the Corner, Goose Creek, Bears Tracks, and so forth, so I may end up calling it "Animal Farm" especially since one of the paper pieced blocks is named "Farm Friendliness." Plenty of time to come up with a new name, but in the meantime, I continue to work on the rows.
I managed to cut out all the pieces yesterday and fused them onto the background fabric. I used a small buttonhole stitch on the vine and will continue today stitching the other pieces down with that stitch in black thread. The black buttonhole gives it a kind of folk art feeling that I like. So, my goal today is to stitch down all the applique, trim up the row to size and call it done! Then it's on to Row 2 which is pieced. I realized yesterday that I need to have Row 2 done before October since I'll be having surgery then and won't be able to work at my machine for a few weeks, and Row 2 needs to be finished before the November guild meeting early in the month.
I also realized yesterday, that I'll be gone to Alabama in February and will have to have that month's row finished as well and ready to hand off to someone else to bring to the meeting. So, I have some stitching to do in the next couple of weeks and months in order to be ready to present this project month by month. The good thing is that January and February are both pieced rows and then in March when I return, it'll be the border and paper pieced corner blocks. Oh, wait! That means I'll have to make up the corner blocks while I'm in Alabama and that's not good. I don't want to take all my Civil War fabrics with me. What to do! What to do! Easy, I'll switch out the rows and do the paper pieced blocks for January instead. Then it'll be regular pieced rows for Feb and March.
Actually, I think it would be good for me to go ahead and get all the rows completed ASAP and then I'll be ready for every month as it comes along. All I'll have to do is sew the rows together. Yes, that's the plan!
I saw an add for this presser foot on Facebook today for about the millionth time, and decided to check it out. I ended up ordering one and can't wait to try it out. I have a difficult time staying in the ditch and this might be just what I need to get better results. I also think it might be good to use when I want to do outline stitching as I will do on the applique row above. All I have to do is move the needle to one side or the other and keep the center prong on the edge of the applique. I'll let you know how it turns out as I experiment. The down side is that it take several weeks to get here. What's with that? Is it coming direct from the factory in China or someplace? In case you want to know more about it, I ordered it from Madam Sew. I have no affiliation with this retailer but I'm intrigued to find out how such an inexpensive foot will deliver the results I want. We'll see.
That's about all I have to say for today other than to brag a little about my home cooked meal last night. With Don being gone for 3 days, both he and I have not been eating as well as we normally do so cooking last night was a pleasure and eating the food, more so! No pics of our plates--I've never gotten into taking pictures of food very much--I just sat down and began chowing down! My favorite is the roasted beets with olive oil and thyme--so sweet and good! I just peel the beets--fresh from my garden is best--and cut them into 1 to 2 inch cubes. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and sprinkle with thyme, fresh if you have it. I line my baking sheet with foil, spread the beets on the foil, and roast at 375 for about an hour or more, depending on the size of the chunks. So good! And another best part is that there were enough leftovers to make up two meals for Johanna--or for us on a night when I don't want to cook!
Well, I'm going to hit the shower and then head for the sewing room. Have a wonderful, quilty day!
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