The hubby and I are off to LA tomorrow.  I’ll be there for a few days.  He’ll be there through the weekend to catch up with friends and have some time doing what boys do.  I’d like to stay with him and meet up with the wives of the boys but I’ve got to head back to take the girl to her cheer comp on Saturday.  As I usually do when I head to LA, I prepped some hand work to take with me for the trip.  And right now, that hand work is Raining Cats and Dogs.  I considered doing something different like the Hawaiian Quilt from PIQF or getting some hexies together for the Flower Garden.  But I held off, I only have 2 blocks left on this quilt and there is no point in getting me sidetracked with an old UFO.  So I already started on Block 2  with a couple of umbrellas and a dog/cat combo a couple of weeks ago.

Raining Cats and Dogs
top of Block 2
as of 12/2/13

All I have left here is the dog.  Now, I am off to LA with the hubby so I may not even touch this project.  However, there is the chance that I do and if I do – I know that this wouldn’t be enough for me to do in 3 days.  So, I had to prep the next few pieces for me to move on.

I pieced the backing for the main part of the block.  I have to digress and say that this block is huge!  From top to bottom, it’s about 18″ high.  It might be a little smaller as I’m just estimating and I don’t want to go to the other room to retrieve the accurate information from the pattern.  It’s part of the reason why I decided to do the top part separately from the main part.  The edges of the fabric unravels fairly easily so I didn’t want the ends to fray too much by working on it a lot.  This way, I can get parts done with a little less fray.   And even with all that, the backing isn’t really done.  I’ve got another 2.5″ to the left of fabric that I have to piece together.  But since nothing will be appliqued onto it, I’ve left it off for now.  Next, I traced the pattern onto the backing.

Raining Cats and Dogs
Block 2
as of 12/2/13

Then I traced the next few parts onto their corresponding fabrics. I use the Frixion pen to trace.  I love this pen.  It puts on a dark clear line and when I want it gone, all I have to do is iron it.  Surprisingly, I heard from a number of people some negative comments about these pens.  I have a couple of issues but they work better for me than other marking tools.  I do not like the pencils because I often cannot see the line.  I do not like the light blue pen because when I want to remove it I have to spend so much time wiping it away.  It’s irritating.  But with the Frixion pens – all I have to do is iron.  The issues I have is that it seems to dry up faster than other marking tools.  The second issue is that after a little bit of using it on a lightbox, it’s harder to mark.  So I usually end up drawing and re-drawing and re-drawing to make sure I can see the line once I remove it from the lightbox.  Anyway, compared to the pencils and the light blue water pen, the Frixion pen is the best for me.

Raining Cats and Dogs
Block 2
as of 12/2/13

It’s hard to see as the lighting wasn’t very good and I had to do these pictures in the dark with a flash.  But you can get the idea.  Now I’m ready for the plane trip and a few days without children. 🙂

Linking up with A Quilting Reader’s Garden for Applique Tuesday.