Final Four

Good morning, my friends. Our weather has returned to Portland gloom today. We're expecting sun breaks off and on through the week, but rain most every day. I haven't checked the forecast to see when the sunshine will return, but it won't be for several days. 

My first stop yesterday was to stitch Tiny Treasure #46. This one has stem stitch, satin stitch, and fly stitch.

Since we were out of ice cream, I baked a skillet cherry cobbler for two. (Actually, this is a cobbler for four.) We had only vanilla ice cream, and so the evening could be saved if I baked something to go with it. This was my mother's recipe, scaled down and adapted to be baked in an iron skillet. It can also be made with canned peaches. And if you want to feed a crowd, you can triple the recipe and bake it in a 9 x 13 inch cake pan.

While that baked, I quilted four more panel blocks. Now I'm down to the final four. After today, this quilt will be ready for binding.

Moving into the sewing room, I had the pieces cut to make the first row of blocks for the new "Jawbreakers" project. I'm using the same Gumballs quilt pattern, but giving it a different name for this second go-round.

The first step was to make and trim 40 half square triangles.

Also, I needed five 4-patches.

And then I could stack all the pieces for sewing into five quilt blocks.

Sadie helped me with this.

When I had all five sewn together, I laid them out as they'll appear in the row.

This quilt is created using just one block. As each block is added, it is turned 90° from the one before it. It's a little difficult to see what's going on, and so I've marked the image below to help some. 

The red dot appears where the four patch appears. The yellow vertical line shows the break between each block. Look carefully at where the four patch appears, and I think you can see how it works. The fifth block is oriented the same as the first one, but when I start the second row, I'll also turn that block and orient it like the second one.

Okay, and that was the end of my sewing day, but I took some time to trim the stack of half square triangles I've been sewing together as leaders and enders. I'm doing a better job of remembering to do these. And all that trimming of half square triangles gave me a sore wrist. I had a splint on it last night, but it feels fine today.

Okay, so I'm planning a pretty easy day for myself today. I'll finish the quilting on the Amish Sampler. But then in the sewing room, I'm starting something new. I bought this pattern ages ago...ten years, maybe. This is the picture from the cover of the spiral-bound pattern. It was designed by Kathy Cardiff and Taylor Olvera.

On the back cover is "The Story Behind the Barns." Oh my gosh, this tickled me so. I believe I've found my people!

Even her love of barns originated similarly to mine. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents were farmers. My brother spent quite a bit of time at the farm of my paternal grandparents. He was seven years older than I, and I have very little memory of their farm. On the other hand, my maternal grandfather was a dairy farmer, and I have vivid memories of visiting their farm. I loved their traditional red barn, and I have happy memories of playing in the hay loft with my brother. So, when I read this story (for the first time yesterday), it only increased my enthusiasm for this project.

This is the first block I'll make. It's intended to have cotton fabric as the background with wool applique. I'll be using all cotton for mine, and I'll be working with my scraps.

Already, I've pulled these next two fabrics from my yardage stash. I'm not exactly sure how much I have of either, but I'm hoping I can use one or the other for a border. It'll be a decision for down the line.

It was nearing dinner time by then. My last gasp was to check on the peonies. I was happy to see multiple buds on three of the five plants. (The others are still waking up from their winter slumber.) The first one is the "Lavender Whisper" peony. We planted this one back in 2023. I've yet to see it bloom because we've been traveling the past two springs. When we've arrived home, I've found only the spent blossoms.

I found a picture online, and so I have an idea how it will look. I chose it because it is fragrant as well. Here's how it will look when it shows itself.

(Image credit: Origami, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons)

This next one is showing a little bit of color, but I'm certain it's still weeks away from blooming.

To its left, is the coral sunset peony. It is the tallest of the bunch with at least a dozen buds showing.

Okay, so that was my day yesterday. We've already had our breakfast, and so my next stop will be slow-stitching. After that I'll get back to my quilting. And after that...barns! I'm excited to get started on that project. It's going to be a good day for sewing. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself too.

Something New

Good morning, my friends. Before I say another word, please join me in wishing this handsome hunka mancat a very happy 14th birthday.

My, oh my. How time flies. It seems only yesterday we brought home this little squirt.

He shows his age a little more now. Just like the rest of us, he has good and bad days. (Read that: "fast and slow days.") He's at an age where we know we won't have him for very much longer. Our first cat, Benjamin, lived to be 16. We also had a tortie named Krissy, and she lived to be 19. He's doing fine in his old age so far, but we remind ourselves daily to love him up while we still can.

It was a good day of sewing yesterday after taking a day or two off during the week. Of course, every morning starts with some slow stitching. This is Tiny Treasures #45. It has stem stitch, straight stitch, satin stitch, and lazy daisy.

There are three more days of these (including today), and so I decided to trace out Block 5 for "Home is Where My Flock Is."

Probably I'll get started on it by Tuesday morning.

I was in the mood to bake something, and so I baked us some Chocolate-Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries. I've linked to the original recipe there, but I've scaled it down to make it a "for two" version. Actually, what you see here are cookies for four. (They're big cookies.)

Usually when I bake these, I'm only baking two. Since I can fit four in my toaster oven, I decided to bake them for two plus two, and I'll freeze the extras for another day.

Okay, and then I got back to my quilting. I've been dragging my feet about this a little bit. Although I like my "Line Tamer" ruler for quilting straight lines, it's still difficult to hold onto the ruler while free motion quilting. I'd stitched a few inches on the first line when I remember...duh...that I had these square feet purchased some time ago. 

My machine is a Babylock Tiara II, but it is identical to the HandiQuilter Sweet 16 machine. Anything that will work on the HandiQuilter Sweet 16 will also work on my machine. I bought the feet in preparation for quilting this Strips & Stripes quilt back in 2023. It worked great for that.

So, I had to remind myself how to attach this foot to my machine...

And I especially like how I can snuggle it up to those corner seams so that I can quilt a nice square corner.

And that was a whole lot easier than trying to hold onto the ruler.

When I started on these borders, I was thinking there were ten bordered blocks. As it turns out, there are 12. And so I decided to break them up into groups of four. I did four yesterday. I'll do another four today and another four tomorrow. After that, it will be ready for binding. Here's a little peek at the back.

There was plenty of time left in the day to start on the next "Gumballs" quilt. As I've mentioned, I enjoyed doing this red version so much that I'm going to make another one in a different colorway.

This new one will be done in blues, greens, and aquas. So, I pulled out all my scrap bins, and went to work on the cutting for the first row of five blocks. Also, I didn't want to refer to them as the "Red Gumballs" and the "Green Gumballs." So, I started thinking of what else looks like gumballs. I know! Jawbreakers! So, these are the scraps I'll be using in my new "Jawbreakers" project.

Smitty read the cutting dimensions to me.

And then he helped me count them out as I cut.

It took what remained of my sewing day, but the cutting is finished now. I can start sewing these together today.

There was some time to get outside to see how the garden is growing. The Andromeda is developing its red foliage now.

And it's amazing what a few days of sunshine did for the tulips. There is another yellow one around the other side of the house. Apparently, the deer do not like the yellow-flavored tulips.

The Black Tartarian cherry tree is covered in cherry blossoms now.

The laggardly Bing is always about a week behind its brethren to the left.

Smitty was keeping an eye out for any furry mammals. 

The rain has returned for most of this week. It'll be good sewing weather. I'll continue on with my quilting, and make a stab at getting the first row of Jawbreaker blocks sewn together. Also, I want to bake a skillet cherry cobbler for two. We're almost out of ice cream, but flush with vanilla. That will go with our cobbler. 

If I run out of things to keep me busy, there are two quilt backs I need to make. I've not been in any hurry with those since I'm still waiting for a string of warm days to set up the sawhorse and plywood tables for sandwiching the 14 quilts that are in need. The most recent warm weather has been spent doing gardening things, but I'm reserving the next stretch of warm weather for making quilt sandwiches. 

Okay, so Happy Saturday, Everybody. I'm on my way to do some slow-stitching. What's on your to-do list for today?

Bridge Walk

Good morning, my friends. It was a good and tiring day yesterday. As I mentioned, my friend Sue and I walked across a newly-opened pedestrian bridge in the neighboring community of Sherwood yesterday. We started on the far side of the bridge and walked across to where the new high school is located.

It was hard to position myself to see the whole bridge without getting a lot of lamp posts and power lines in my photo.

And then we walked back to where we started and headed on down the road to find the historic part of Sherwood.

We passed some pretty blooming things along the way. I haven't tried identifying any of these blooming trees. 

There were pretty two-toned iris.

The sun shining on these tulips makes them look as thought they're emitting light from within.

Here's another blooming tree that I don't know.

We walked around the block in Sherwood and happened upon this memorial dedicated to Sherwood's sons and daughters who served during World War II.

It was a nice day for a walk. We probably walked about 4-1/2 miles all told. Back at home, I iced my aching knees, had some lunch, and took a nap.

When I woke up, I had to decide if I had enough energy to plant the annuals. There was rain in the forecast for Friday (today), but not until late in the day. I could have waited if I trusted the forecast. But with rain in the forecast all next week, it seemed most advisable to do it while I knew the weather was cooperating. I'm glad I did, because it's done now, and it really wasn't that taxing. 

In the three patio pots, I planted African daisies, alyssum, and calibrachoa. I'm told the common name for that last one is "million bells." They're looking a little bedraggled after being roughed up in the transplanting process. There's also a volunteer snapdragon in the mix.

All three pots have the same combination, but in different colors.

I'm realizing that I need to give them some fertilizer too. I'll add that to today's list.

To their left, I planted a Sun Gold cherry tomato in the whiskey barrel there. It has a lot of equipment associated with it...a tomato cage with a stake to prevent the tomato from pulling the cage over with it and falling down. Also, we put fencing around the bottom to keep the squirrels from eating it.

In the pots that line the sidewalk, I planted geraniums. The squirrels won't eat them, and so that's what I plant. I like the variegated one in front.

Something else the squirrels won't eat...marigolds. (Sorry for the blur.)

The next two pots are in shade for most of the day, and so I planted shade-loving impatiens...

And begonias. I've never tried begonias in these pots, so I don't know if they'll become squirrel food, and I don't know if they'll be happy in this level of light. The tag said partial shade, and that's what they'll get here.

Finally, I re-established the Gracie Memorial Catnip Garden. The little rock to the right of the Gracie stake says, "I came, I purred, I conquered." I have to put rocks around the catnip. The kitties get overly zealous. They like to roll around in it, effectively killing it. The rocks are there to protect it.

I still need to plant three slicing tomatoes. Those will go in pots in the greenhouse. Also, I want to plant some lettuce seeds. That stays in the greenhouse with the tomatoes. There's also some tarragon for the culinary herb garden. I started to plant the tarragon yesterday, but the ground was dry and hard after a week of dry weather. I'll get to that next week after we've had a little more rain and the ground will be softer for digging. I have other seeds to start as well, but I'll hold off on those for a little while longer.

So that brought me to the end of the day. I had about a half hour to rest before I needed to start dinner. For dinner last night, I tried this recipe for Creamy Lasagna Soup. It's not hard to make, but it took a full hour. I used bulk mild Italian sausage in mine, but otherwise followed the recipe as written. It's made with broken up lasagna noodles, and it was tasty.

Mike was expecting something more like traditional lasagna. He was expecting a tomato-based soup. His comments caused me to write a note for another time. I'd like to try reducing the amount of chicken broth by one cup and adding in an undrained can of diced tomatoes. It might be good that way, and it will give Mike the tomatoes he's expecting with something that has "lasagna" in the name.

While we cleaned up, I noticed Smitty enjoying the afternoon sunshine on his catio. It's a good time of the year for kitties.

Today will be an easier day. I'm going to debone a turkey carcass. I'll divide up the meat into two-cup portions and freeze it in sandwich bags. Then, I can use it in casseroles or soups. Also, I'm going to make a stab at the Bow-Flex. I've been threatening to do it ever since we got home from our trip, but so far, I haven't attempted it. With my shoulder hurting, I know I won't be able to do all the exercises, but nothing is stopping me from doing some of the leg work. It'll be an experiment to see what parts of my body haven't yet given up the ghost.

Right now it's time for breakfast and some more slow-stitching. I'm coming to the end of the Tiny Treasures for this go round, and so I should probably trace the next block for Home is Where my Flock Is. These are the blocks I have so far.

Also, I want to get back to my quilting today. And if there's time, I'll get started on the new Gumballs quilt. It's a lot for a single day, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?