Quilting Commences

Good morning, my friends. Once again, I'm so happy not to be going anywhere this morning. There are a couple of little things on my to-do list, but otherwise, it's going to be a mostly quilting day (MQD). I can't spend too much time at my quilting because I don't want to give myself tendonitis in my wrist. And even as I write those words, I know my resistance is weak once I get started on something. When I'm in a rhythm, it's hard to stop.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Sue and I had breakfast together. The oatmeal and the conversation were good. After that, I needed to get some gas. Sometimes I'm in a position of being afraid to drive home without filling up. If I do that, will I have enough to get me to the gas station next time? Well. It seemed as good a reason as any to pick up the items that accumulated on my grocery list too. And so I was home around noon for the remainder of the day. Of course, napping was involved as well.

Before I left in the morning, I had some time to work on my slow-stitching. I'm making good progress on this densely-stitched piece.

It seemed like a good time to move my hoop to the left a little. I wanted to be able to fit the straight lines of the roof and what remained of the clouds within my stitching boundary. I'm going to estimate I have this about one-third finished.

When I arrived home around lunch time, I checked on our overdue dahlia blossom. This is the Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia. It's open, but I think it will put on more of a show in a day or two (if the rain doesn't ruin it). It's about the size of a golf ball here.

Here's how it looked when it bloomed last year...in August.

When they're fully opened, they're nearly the size of softballs. So, hopefully, it will do a little more, but the flower hour is late. We're already moving into our rainy season. Getting the pots out so late in the spring may have stunted its growth. This is only my second year with the dahlias, and so I can't say I have much experience with their growth habits.

Okay, so I was dragging my feet a little getting to the quilting. (I always drag my feet at first when I'm starting a new quilting project.) I've had some time to think about thread color. I decided I'd go with a gray thread both top and bottom. Already I had a bobbin wound from this one. I like Bottom Line in my bobbin.

For the top thread, I chose this one. These are both gifts from my quilting fairy godmother, Ila. Thank you, Ila.

There is just a partial spool of this one, and so I decided to order another. I don't want to run out halfway through my project, and this is a good neutral color I'll use again.

So I cleaned, oiled, and threaded the machine, and I gave myself a new needle for good measure. And then I stitched a short line of stitching to check the tension. That line in the middle of the image below is my test line. That looks pretty good. And yes, as a matter of fact, those are kitty paws at the bottom.

 

Checking the back, that looks good too.

When I moved to the actual quilt, I ended up loosening the top tension a little. And then I went to work with the dot-to-dot design I decided on. It's a little like a friendship star if it were pieced together with fabric. And this will be another project where I can practice hitting my marks at each corner. You can see I missed a little in the lower left. I might go back and fix that, but only if I can improve as I go.

Here's how it looks from the back.

Then, I moved to another block and stitched the same design. I'll do all the block centers the same way. It's a little harder to see on this fabric, but there you go. I did better hitting my marks on this one.

As a reminder, this is how the whole quilt looks. The block centers with the regional fabrics are 7-1/2 inches square. I'll stitch all the block centers the same way. Then, I have in mind to do some straight-line quilting, outlining each "photograph" and then one more outline about an inch from the outer edge. (It's hard to envision until I've actually stitched it.)

The question in my mind is how to quilt this center camera block. 

The idea I have is to stitch a 7-1/2 inch square around the middle, and then stitch that portion with the same dot-to-dot motif I've used in the other blocks. And then finish it off with two more straight line squares around it. So...not so different from the other blocks except to give it a 7-1/2 inch boundary like the other squares. (Clear as much, right?)

Okay, and that was all I did yesterday. I have a goal to finish one row of blocks per day. For today's stitching, I'll shoot for finishing the three remaining blocks in this first row. I'll evaluate how my wrist is feeling then, and decide whether I can do more.

There was some happy mail yesterday. My quilting fairy godmother, Ila, sent me some more thread. I love all these threads. I never have to wonder if I have the color I want when I set out to quilt something. These are mostly variegated with a few solid colors thrown in.

Also, she sent me a good supply of scrappy solids. My stash is light on solids, and so I appreciate these. I used to have more solids, but they've been mostly sewn into Amish quilts.

Thank you, Ila. I've already had an email conversation with Ila. I told her I'd been feeling a little down during the afternoon (no reason, really), and so the timing was good for this happy mail.

Before I came upstairs to write this post, I tucked Smitty in. Our mornings are growing colder, and our furnace is running most mornings now. Also, I've been turning on the space heater in my office to keep me warm while I chat with you guys. Everyone appreciates a little TLC on a chilly morning.

We've had our breakfast, and so it's time for me to settle in with my slow-stitching. We're getting a bit of a sun break right now, although it's been raining off and on for the past couple of days. I have one more gardening task before I can call it the end of the season. I still need to cut back the peonies and the dahlias, and we'll need to move the dahlias into the garage. I'm needing some dry weather for that, but I'm really hoping the Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia will get with the program and produce some flowers. Probably I'll wait a little longer for the cutting-back session, although I could do the peonies first. We'll see how energetic I am between now and the end of the month.

For now...slow-stitching. That's all the energy I have at the moment.

Next Steps

Good morning, my friends. Since I'm here writing, you can assume I survived my dental appointment yesterday morning. The traffic was terrible driving in, and then there was a minor snafu at the parking garage. Parking downtown seems always to turn into a snafu. The drive home wasn't bad. When I arrived home, I took a too-long nap, and that cut into my sewing time for the day. I'd awakened too early in the morning with dentistry on my mind, and found it hard to get back to sleep. Thus, the nap, but I probably would have done that anyway.

So I'm writing fast again today. Sue and I are having breakfast together this morning. She had a birthday last month. Mike and I were traveling at the time, and so we're just now getting around to celebrating her birthday. I happen to know she was off to Missouri to visit her son in the meantime, and so we'll have lots to talk about. After that, I'll make a short stop at the grocery store. 

Despite leaving early in the morning, I had some time to work on my slow-stitching. I decided to move my hoop up to encompass the clouds and I started from there.

When I woke up from my nap yesterday afternoon, I sandwiched the Beach Bum ladies for quilting. They'll spend some time in my office/quilting room until their turn comes up for quilting.

A couple of you with sharp eyes have let me know there are only four sets of flip-flops among the five ladies. And, yes, the pattern has it that way too. I'm guessing this was done for the sake of symmetry. I did it like they were done on the pattern.

There are also only three drinks between the five ladies. Two of them must be tea totalers, or maybe they've had enough already. I'm assuming one of them arrived barefoot.

In other sewing, I wanted to finish up September's and October's blocks for Joy in the Ordinary. Sadie was my reluctant helper.

I'm only here for the catnip.

After she'd imbibed in her catnip, she left and didn't return. Oh well. It's hard to get good help these days. And these kids and their drugs. It's appawling.

Okay, so I went to work finishing the borders on these blocks. Here's September's block:

And here's October's block:

She's already posted November and December, but I'll do those when we reach those months. Here are the ten blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Okay, well, I hate to run and eat (which one assumes is as bad as eating and running), but that's where I'm headed next. I have just a little time for slow-stitching. When I get home this afternoon, I'll get to work quilting the Shop Hop 2.0 quilt.

I'm pretty sure I know what to do with the blocks. I'm kind of stuck on how to do the sashings. I'll figure out something as I go.

Nearing a Finish

Good morning, my friends. I'm writing fast this morning. My morning starts early today. I have to drive into downtown Portland for a little meet-up with my dentist. I like my dentist, but on the other hand, I hate the dentist. As we've already established in a previous post, a visit with the dentist is the only thing I dislike more than taking the kitties to the vet.

Smitty is just glad he's not the one packing up (or being packed up) to go this morning. He's enjoying the one tiny patch of sunlight on our deck.

Mike and I indulged in a morning of sloth yesterday. It seems as if we both need to take a day now and then. For all my talk about the things I was going to do in yesterday's post, the only thing I was able to get finished was the quilt top for the Beach Bum ladies. The kitties haven't been around much for this project. Sadie gave it a good once over.

Smitty, I think my tail end is better than any of these, don't you?

You could be right about that Sadie. Certainly, your tail is more compact than theirs.

Take a look at that, ladies. Gaze upon it and weep!

Let me just say that the ladies were unmoved. We just went ahead and gave them some palm fronds. I think they need it, don't you? With all that pale skin showing, I'm hoping they wore some sunscreen to this little tete-ta-tete. 

The palm fronds took much longer than expected. Tracing and cutting them probably took the better part of an hour. Then positioning them was tricky too. They were hard to move around once the backing was removed...all floppy and leggy.

When they were positioned and pressed down, the top was finished.

From there, I cut and pieced a back to size. This backing was left over from when I made the Strips & Stripes quilt.

Also, I had some scrap binding and enough fabric left to cut binding strips from this fabric.

It still needs to be sandwiched, and then it will be ready for quilting. I won't get to that right away. There are a few projects in line ahead of it, but I'll probably have it finished before the end of the year.

Assuming the dentist doesn't kill me this morning (and there's no reason to think he will, but, you know...it's good to plan ahead), I'll get the borders sewn onto my two "Joy in the Ordinary" blocks today. After that, I'll get a start on quilting the Shop Hop 2.0 quilt. I'm still mulling over what to do there. Sometimes I just have to wait and see where my hands take me.

Okay...so I must hurry off. Wish me luck. If you never hear from me again, you can assume it was a deadly day of dentistry.

Five Fabulous Fannies

Good morning, my friends. The busy weekend is over, and it's a new day. The sky was pretty this morning.

We had a really nice visit with the kids yesterday evening. We were celebrating Erik's birthday from last week, but mainly, we were just visiting. Time spent listening to the things they're doing is always enjoyable.

There was a lot to do yesterday morning, but I took some time to stitch the first stitches on the 6th of Grandpa's Bridges.

From there, I went straight to work, baking some cookies. These were just a present for Erik. He's not big on sweets, but he likes these cookies. These Chocolate-chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries are so good, they're the only cookie I make any more. As I've noted at the link I've given you, they can also be made with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips to make them more of a Christmas cookie. (It's closer than you think.) 

While those baked, I went to work preparing an apple crisp. I'm riffing off the recipe from the Quaker Oats website.

After that, I did my Bow-flex workout and then headed outside to check in on the Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia. It's made a little progress, but it still has a long way to go. We're expecting heavy rain later in the week, so I'm really hoping it will open before then. 

And then I could get to my sewing, finishing off the fifth lady. 

Here they are all sitting together. Looks like a good party, no?

Today I'll add some palm fronds on both sides, and it will be ready for top-stitching. As I've been fusing the applique, I've been thinking about the top-stitching. Some of the pieces are small. The flip-flop straps are a good example of what I'm talking about. They're less than an eighth of an inch in some spots. Usually, I'll top-stitch applique using the blanket stitch on my sewing machine. In this case, even if I narrow the stitch, I still think it will be too much for those little pieces.

Instead, I'm going to sandwich this for quilting, and then straight stitch all around the pieces. The top-stitching will also serve as the quilting. I did the two McKenna Ryan quilts I've made the same way, and it works out well. When passing from one motif to the next, I don't cut threads, but leave a long jump thread to be trimmed away when it's finished. It ends up looking pretty from the back. You can see what I'm talking about at this post here.

It was tempting to finish off the palm fronds yesterday, but I was getting close to the time I wanted to make some Sangria. I have a couple of different versions of this. Sangria is Spanish, and so I used a Spanish red wine called Garnacha, which is recommended for Sangria. It was good. I used this large jug with a spigot for serving, and I set it on a frozen gel pack to keep it cold.

This is the recipe I'm using:

So that was a full day and a busy weekend. I'm happy to say there's absolutely nothing on my to-do list today. I'm still going to take a walk on the treadmill, but after that it's going to be NBS. (Nothing but sewing.) I'll finish off my Beach Bums ladies, and I'll probably sandwich them for quilting. The quilting won't happen right away. I'll add them to the "Small Quilts for Quilting" portion of my white board and take them in their turn. 

Other sewing I want to accomplish today will include adding borders to the two Joy in the Ordinary blocks I've finished recently. These two:

And that will bring me back to the beginning of my white board work flow. Next up will be to start quilting Shop Hop 2.0. It's been lounging over Eliza for several weeks, allowing its wrinkles to relax out. 

Probably I'm going to do some kind of dot-to-dot quilting on this, Angela Walters style, but I haven't got it all worked out yet. You'll be the first to know when I do.

There's been no kitty help for the past couple of days. All the activity over the weekend made them nervous. In my experience, nothing brings a kitty around faster than starting a free-motion quilting project. They're all about controlling the speed. So, my friends, it's going to be a good day of doing only what I feel like doing. And when one is expecting a good day, it's makes sense to get started on it as soon as possible. 

Foursome of Fannies

Good morning, my friends! We're nearly halfway through the month. How's everyone doing out there? It's been a busy weekend here, and we're not finished yet. The kids are coming for dinner tonight, and so I've been busy in the kitchen. Before I did anything else yesterday, though, I spent some time with my slow-stitching. I'd missed it the day before. Now October's block for "Joy in the Ordinary" is finished. 

I'll add that one to September's block, finished a few days ago. Both blocks need borders before they can truly be called "finished."

So that means I'll start on the sixth block for Grandpa's Bridges this morning. I made this one up before we left on our trip, and it went along for the ride. I never opened the box while we were on the road, and so it has been waiting a while for its turn.

These are the other blocks I have for this quilt so far:

Okay, so then I took a walk on the treadmill, and then went to work in the kitchen. On yesterday's list was to make a Seven Layer Salad. I suppose everyone has their own way of making this salad. I make it the way my mother did it, using this recipe. It's one of Erik's favorite salads. Since we're celebrating his birthday, he gets what he wants.

Also, I asked Mike whether he'd rather have Dilled Potato Salad or Tangy and Creamy Macaroni Salad. He chose the latter. This is a good macaroni salad. The ones I get at the grocery store deli always disappoint me, and so I'm happy to have a mixture that I like. 

With that done, I could finally get to my sewing. It was late in the day by then, and so I was only able to finish one more lady, her bag, and her flip-flops.

Here are the four ladies I have so far.

There is still one more to make. I don't know if I'll have time to get to it today. There is more cooking to do. I'm baking an apple crisp for our dessert, and a batch of cookies, just because. We don't exchange gifts in our family any more, but I usually make some kind of something to pass along. Also, I'm making a appetizer dip and some barbecue sauce for our main dish of burnt ends. Oh yes, and I decided to make a sangria. It's one I've made before, but I'm usually the only one drinking it, and so I haven't made it for a while. Mike told me he'd drink some with me, and I expect the kids will too.

For last night's dinner, I tried this recipe for Jerk Chicken Meatballs with BBQ-Pineapple Glaze. This was so yummy, and very easy to make. It's easy enough to do in the RV, which always gives a recipe bonus points in my kitchen.

They didn't have ground chicken when we were at the grocery store, and so we went with ground turkey. In my experience, ground turkey is less expensive, and there's almost no difference in flavor. Also, the original recipe called for "Jamaican jerk seasoning paste." I couldn't find anything like that in our grocery store, and I looked all over the store. I finally settled on this bottle of Caribbean Jerk marinade. I figured I could use it as a marinade if it didn't work in the meatballs.

It's more like a sauce than a paste, and so it made the meatball mix a little too wet for shaping. I doubled the amount of breadcrumbs in mine, and that worked out fine. It made 12 meatballs, and so there's enough for another meal. We had ours over rice, and that was a good way to soak up that delicious glaze.

So here's my adaptation of the original recipe. If you can find the Jamaican jerk seasoning paste, just know to use two tablespoons, and then add just half the amount of breadcrumbs listed here:

Okay...there's plenty to do today. I'm going to get any early start. Hopefully, I'll have some time for sewing today.