This 'n' That

It's been a fraught couple of weeks, filled with new challenges to lose sleep over (but ultimately meet successfully, while filled with dread at the newness of it all). I've found myself retreating not to my usual Killer Sudoku puzzles (Expert level, thankyouverymuch [she says smugly]) but to rereading fondly-remembered Dick Francis mysteries (fondly- but not always fully-remembered. The bad guy is often a surprise all over again!)

Still, I have done some sewing and will have four quilts and a block to present tomorrow at the Community First! Quilters' monthly meeting. The quilts have been discussed, but the block only mentioned briefly. I had the presence of mind to photograph it this afternoon.

The Chapel photo . . .

. . . and the raw-edge machine applique block I agreed to make (all the pieces already drafted by the instigator of this project, bless her!):

This will be trimmed down, so I hope the unfinished stone path at the left will be truncated in the final product. If not, the assemblers have scraps of the stone fabric.

Previous makers of this block cut out a big star-like feature for the light, but I opted to put down an oval-ish yellow shape and go over it several times with some gold Sliver thread I have lurking about. I used the same thread for the gold vertical stripe, secure in the knowledge that the more times you sew over something freehand, the better it starts to look. I think I sewed that stripe with 8-9 passes of straight stitching.

So, it was something new, but nothing I'd jump at enthusiastically to do again.

I'd been cataloging then cutting out all the pieces to the woven log cabin I wanted to make. Once done, I started sewing up all the logs that were interrupted by the red weave and by the middle of this week I had this hanging near the sewing machine:

All the parts, whole and pieced.

Having spent the entire day reading and finishing "Proof", I popped into the studio and put together the middles of half the blocks.

Up close and personal, those centers look less black and more dark red, as they are.

I started the middles of the other half of the blocks (there are two distinct constructions), ran out of bobbin thread almost instantly, and took that as a sign to go back to my comfy recliner and cuddly lap cats (and a glass of wine), pick up my well-worn copy of James Michener's "The Source", and continue to veg for the rest of the evening.