You all know how it can go . . .

I didn't get nearly as much done yesterday as I'd hoped. Funny how there can be so many errands needing to be run when one has an unexpected day off work. I was over in Portland at the butchers by 9:02 - they open at 9:00 - and my number was 16. They are a family owned business that's been in Portland for years and years, and they have the best meat around. Luckily they are staffed well and the wait is never all that long. I wanted a really nice roast for dinner tonight - I decided to do Fred's belated birthday dinner here instead of going out. We've not had a dinner here with all our kids together for months and months. I stopped at the bakery on the way back to pick up his cake - he requested German Chocolate. Got home about 10:00, which gave me time to put all the meat I bought away in the freezer and round up the dog to get him to Battle Ground for his "beauty" appointment at 10:00. While he was getting all spiffed up I visited the Primitive Thimble quilt shop. This is only the third time I've been there - last time I spent almost $300! I was SO proud of myself this time. I hardly looked at fabrics at all. It would have been much harder to be good if she'd gotten in the new things from market but she hadn't. So I bought the fat quarter of gold hand dyed felted wool I needed for one project, and a fat quarter of dark navy plaid I needed for another project, a new apron pattern for making gifts and that was it! I drove back to the groomers and sat in the parking lot reading until Shadow was finished.

In the afternoon I managed to make out a shopping list for the grocery store before I succumbed to tiredness. Fred did the shopping and I took a nap. I NEVER nap but just couldn't keep my eyes open. (Thank you, Shadow, for letting us know it was time to get up - at 4:20 a.m., even though I'd read until 11:00 p.m.!) He awakened me when he got home so I didn't have the horrible groggy feeling I usually get because I tend to sleep too long. Finally had a chance to get to the sewing room about 3:00 or so.

I finished the appliqué on another UFO at quilt camp last weekend, so I thought I could get the top finished. I guess way back when I started this I didn't know I needed to cut the background at least an extra inch bigger for "appliqué shrinkage". When I measured it to trim it to size it was too small!!!! I would have just readjusted the borders but they were already partially cut out and pieced! I started this piece in an all-day class with Jo Morton about 4 years ago. The morning was spent learning the starch and template method of invisible appliqué (I hated it! - I took it out and did it all needleturn) and the afternoon learning piecing tricks while starting the borders. So I had to stitch an extra 1 1/4" strip all around the outside, then trim it to size, trimming all the seam allowances to 1/8" so they wouldn't overlap. Considering everything it doesn't look too bad. I need to piece the rest of the pinwheels and then piece lots more flying geese. The outside border is supposed to be the same fabric as the pinwheels but I don't have enough, so I'll have to find something else.

I can sure tell how much I've learned about choosing and mixing fabrics for folk art and primitive. This quilt has a very limited number of fabrics, and it just looks funny to me. If I were to make it today I'd probably use at least four times as many fabrics as I did. This looks OK, but additional variety would make it look so much richer. I'm not going to have time to sew today, but hopefully tomorrow I can get this finished.