...but once I get started...

Last week I shared what it took to get me started quilting again (a very dire diagnosis) and this week it seems I can't stop!

First I worked on the quilt for Chuck's dad...

Laying out a few blocks just to get my mojo flowing before I started sewing.  (And trimming a bazillion geese...)

Matching things up as I go...

AAAHHHH!!!

(Just kidding.)

Starting to look like something now!

You can't do much around here without help...  I wish they'd learn how to trim blocks instead, but I suppose contributing extra loves counts as something.

Was this the end of day two or day three?  I think three.  Whatever.  Blocks are in thirds and this feels like almost done.  (Please don't remind me about the upcoming long seams, okay?)

And they're done!

Seems the same block ends up on top most of the time, but that just means I kept everything in order.  No seams ripped!

I got the blocks on the floor and Salem wanted to pose.  She does look nice with those colors, doesn't she?  (I may be biased - she looks good on everything.)

I also have a couple of scratches on my wrist from where Lily (looking so sweet above) was "helping" and when I tried to move her so I could rearrange blocks, she ninja kicked me.  She literally came up off the floor from lying on her side and was a foot off the ground before I knew what was happening.  She does NOT like to be told what to do.

And then she knocked this off the bin it's next to (it was up there from when I vacuumed a few days earlier) and thought it was great fun this way.  Right-side-up?  Nope.  She and Salem love it this way.  Of course, she stole one of the balls out of it and I think that's now downstairs behind the litterbox in the bathroom, but...well...I'll dig it out if she figures out how to liberate the other two in there.

With Lily occupied, I was able to cut sashings and borders and get things going together.  The dreaded long seams are coming, but there are no corners to match at this point, and I'm looking for silver linings here.

Woo hoo!  It's a top!

(Not sure if that's Salem or Freddie, but looking kinda round, so probably Freddie.)

I've been to my local quilt shop for a back and that's been washed but not pieced.  If I remember, I'll get a photo and insert it, but it's a pain to get it from my phone to the big computer, so I'm not doing it right now.  You'll see it eventually either way, I promise.

And with that, I was left wondering what to do next.

The hubby is up north fishing.  His annual trip.  Last year I went and this year I asked for the week off, debating whether or not to go.  I ended up deciding not and it's for the best since my mom, our cat-sitter, ended up planning something out of town that overlaps.  (Shhh...don't tell the boss.  She thinks I'm out of town!)

So I'm off work for the week and home alone.  It's so quiet!

I decided to give up on finding an alternate block that I like for the butterfly quilt and just raid the stash and make more butterflies.  I can always hit the local quilt shop (again - twice in a week?!) if I need it, but let's see what the stash gives.

Well..

I had hoped to make two more red-purple, two purple-purple and one turquoise, but the stash did not provide.  So I lost a purple-purple and gained a turquoise.  My stash of blues is biggest, but that encompasses everything from navy to barely light blue to blue-green to green-blue and everything between.

Every one will be a little different, unlike the first four that are two sets of matching fabrics.  Each butterfly will have matching wings - I didn't get THAT crazy - but as I was cutting, I realized I didn't have enough of some fabrics.  This pattern wastes a lot with lost corners, but I'll play with those later.  Other than the smallest ones, they're not going to be wasted.

So above are all the parts.  There are four fabrics in each, so these are sorted by fabric 1, 2, 3, and 4, to make it easier on me when sewing.  (For previous blocks, I didn't do this and it resulted in some ripping.)

After a LONG stretch cutting four bazillion pieces (I swear the star quilt took less time), I got to start sewing!

The top halves of the upper wings are together.  This feels like the hardest part - maybe because of that big background triangle at the top where you lose a fair amount of print - but I'm on the way.

Today will be more butterfly sewing.

I did some chores this morning (not the least of which was washing the quilt that Salem used as a furball presentation surface shortly after I went to bed last night) and now I'm just about ready to really start the day.

When this is done I suppose I'm going to have to buckle down and start quilting and binding some things!  I hope to have enough batting on my roll to do both quilts I'm working on here, but at least I'll have enough for the star quilt.  And then I'll have to order more - a pricey task I'm not excited about.

As for reading, it's only been a week, but it's been a fairly busy one - obviously!  But I still manage to sneak some in every day.

With all those apples on the cover, who could be surprised when Johnny Appleseed makes an appearance?

A family moves west from Connecticut to settle in Ohio.  50 fruit-bearing trees are part of the deal to claim the land for their own, so the father brings a few branches from the family orchard back home, intending to graft them in the new place.  He also purchases trees from Johnny Appleseed.

They also clear the land and build a home and begin farming, but it's a hard life and many of the children die from "swamp fever" (I think it's malaria).  The family is fairly dysfunctional as well, making everything harder.

After a tragedy, the youngest son leaves.  He's always been the quiet odd-duck, but his father taught him about the apple trees and nature in a way.  He travels west and west and west, eventually landing in California and finds the sequoias and redwoods and ends up with a job working with them

The story jumps around time-wise, and is told from multiple perspectives (something this author likes to do), but it's not too jarring once you figure out who is who.  I enjoyed seeing the gold rush and the general push west from this perspective.

The end felt rushed (as in the last book),  but maybe it needed to be.  A lot happened all at the end, but it felt like I needed to just finish the story so the people could get on with their newly complicated lives without my prying into them.

I'm nearly through the next book and it's another good one.  I should finish it today!

Happy quilting and reading!
Katie