A Finish for Ruth McDowell

Good morning, my friends. It was a productive day in the sewing room yesterday, and the kitchen too, if you're keeping score. Of course, nothing could happen until I'd done my slow-stitching. The bottom right corner is finished, and I’ve moved my hoop to the left. Probably I still have a couple of days of work on this, but I should start thinking about getting the next one ready to go.

After that, I went on the hunt for more blueberries. There are a few more ripe ones each day. I probably have enough for baking something now, but I want to wait another day. We’ve been putting them on our granola cups, and this is a tasty and surprisingly filling breakfast. We need to have some blueberries left for that.

Since I was opting to conserve the blueberries, I went ahead with my plan to bake a skillet cherry cobbler. The cherries are so nice and firm when they come straight from the trees.

While that was baking, I went to work finishing up the binding for Ruth’s Legacy. Sadie was my helper cat for this.

It went faster than anticipated. I turned the fourth corner…

And I had a finished quilt in less than an hour.

Here’s a peek at the back.

Okay, and then I went to work in the sewing room. I needed to make and trim 20 HST’s.

And then I needed to make five 4-patches.

Sadie helped with that too.

With those sections made, I could sew the blocks together. Here are the five blocks for the third row.

And here are the three rows of blocks I have for this quilt so far. The blocks are half finished now.

Heading upstairs, I looked out the window to see these two deer lounging at the far end of the field. A doe has been hanging around, eating the birdseed we put out for the birds. I have an idea these two studly bucks are looking for a date. These photos were taken from inside the house, and the deer were at the far end of the field...about 100 yards away. This was a pretty good test of my new camera’s zoom capability.

Okay, so I’m still wanting to get out and experiment more with my new camera. I have in mind to go for a walk today and take some random shots. It’s a little gloomy out as I’m writing. The sun is supposed to make an appearance around 11:00 a.m. It would be nice to have some good light if I’m going to be taking pictures. I’ve been wanting to try out some of the pre-programmed “scene” settings and see how those work.

There should be some time for sewing today. Up next for quilting is the Shop Hop 3.0 quilt. I’m still trying to decide how to quilt this. Something will come to me.

If I get time in the sewing room today, I’ll get started on the third block for Where the Cows Come Home. These are the two blocks I have for this quilt so far.

And that’s probably enough to keep me busy for the day. The garden can probably wait another day for hoeing, but the birdfeeders are empty again. Filling the birdfeeders is a good way to get me out of the house and checking on things. Keeping my fingers crossed for some sunshine today. How are things at your end? I’m hoping any Missouri readers are safe from the heavy rain. If that’s you, then be safe.

Three Corner Thursday

Good morning, my friends. As usual, it was a full day yesterday. The bird feeders were empty and there were flowers to water. There were a few more blueberries to pick, but first, I took a walk around to see how things were growing.

The lavender is just about bloomed out, but it is still crawling with bumblebees.

This next one is blooming thyme.

This calla lily might take over as the most watched thing in the garden. It’s putting up yet another shoot. It sure seems as if it has plans to bloom this year.

The first petals are appearing on one of the echinacea blossoms.

The hydrangeas are the stars of the garden right now. This is the variegated one on the back side of the house.

This one has turned a dark purple now. It is on the front side of the house.

Checking the greenhouse, we’re picking both green leaf and red leaf lettuce these days. Also, I planted seeds for another round of the red leaf lettuce there on the left. I can plant more if I need to.

I’m going to estimate there are more than two dozen tomatoes on our three plants. This cluster toward the back side has the largest of the tomatoes. The largest one that is more to the right than the others is larger than a tennis ball. I’m excited for these to ripen, but I suppose it’ll be a while yet. Tomatoes are more of a fall thing.

Outside the greenhouse the dahlias are blooming to beat the band.

Checking the vegetable garden, the largest of the zucchini has about half a dozen zucchini so far. They’re all too small at this point. I’m going to have to keep an eye on the one at the left. Look carefully, and you can see a very dark green zucchini near the stake, and hidden behind a leaf. And that’s how they do it. They sneak around hiding behind leaves. One day, it’ll be eating size and then the next thing you know, it will have grown to baseball bat size seemingly overnight.

This next plant is a little smaller, but I can see flowers forming there too.

Some of the sunflowers are sprouting buds. I can’t wait for these to bloom. There are about a dozen different varieties, including two different “giants.”

Recently, I read a post on Facebook claiming that ladybugs are the GOAT (greatest of all time) of the insect world. They don’t bite, sting, or eat plants. They just eat the aphids and keep our gardens healthy. So, when I saw this guy, I took his picture. Or maybe it’s a she bug. Who can tell? It seems as if it would be rude to ask to see their private parts.

So let’s just back up a few steps and see the whole garden. It’s all looking good so far. There are sunflowers lining the fence on the left, then three rows of corn, and then the green beans. At the bottom of the image are two of three zucchini plants…the ones pictured above.

Turning a little to my right, you can see more sunflowers lining the fence where the bee garden is. On the far side, are three clusters of zinnias. Starting at the lower left corner and moving toward the middle of the image are the three zucchini plants and then there are three pickling cucumbers. I’m really hoping for a good cucumber harvest this year. It took me years to find a pickle recipe that we liked. We’re out of the pickles I made last time around, which was probably back in 2023.

Okay and on my way out the gate, I stopped to snap a picture of this blooming grass. It’s the bane of my existence at this time of year, but I still think it’s pretty.

From there, I watered the flower pots. While I was watering the flowers, Sadie was imbibing in catnip at the Gracie Memorial Catnip Garden. Sadie is grateful to Gracie for all her hard work being one of the original three cats of the Three Cats Ranch.

Okay, so back inside, I sat and stitched on the quilt binding until I’d turned three corners. This might be finished today, but it will probably be tomorrow.

And in the downstairs sewing room, I did all the cutting for the next row of Jawbreaker blocks. The squares in the upper left will be turned into HST’s today. The smaller squares to their right will be sewn into 4-patches. When those pieces are made, I’ll be ready to sew five more blocks together. They should go pretty fast.

Okay and with my quilt binding nearly finished, it’s time to think about which quilt is next on the list to finish. As it turns out, it’s the Shop Hop 3.0 quilt. I’m still thinking about how to quilt this. I might have to spend some time on Pinterest looking for inspiration.

Today should be a pretty easy day. I’m going to try a new recipe, and that will go into the slow cooker this afternoon. There’s a side of coleslaw to go along with that, and so I’ll make that too. And with two jars of cherries in the refrigerator, it seems I must make an obligatory cherry cobbler. On the other hand, I might find enough blueberries to do something with those. If that happens, then all bets are off. None of that should take very long, and so I have high hopes for accomplishing my sewing goals for the day.

All right. Breakfast and slow-stitching await my attention. Time to get a move along.

A Day for Firsts

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy day yesterday, but it doesn't feel as if I have much to show for it. We mopped the floor in the morning, and I mopped myself out the door so that I could hoe the garden. While I was out, I was thrilled to find enough ripe blueberries that it made sense to pick some. Up until now, they've been ripening one at a time. Now, they are ripening in clusters, giving me hope I can actually do something with them. Just look at these babies:

So, I picked the first of the blueberries. Probably I have about a cup here. It isn’t enough to do any baking with them. Most of my recipes require 2 cups or more. There are plenty more on the bushes, and I’ll be checking them every day for a while. Eventually I’ll have enough for some muffins. Or bread. Or cake. The mind reels with possibilities.

And then I tried this recipe for Granola Cups for the first time. And this gave me an idea for using the blueberries. So, I’m a little disappointed with how these turned out. I’ve linked to the recipe, and I’ll tell you my thoughts. First of all, it says it makes 8 servings. And since it’s cooked in a muffin pan, my thinking is that I should have filled eight of the muffin cups. But I had enough for more than nine. I’d only sprayed nine of them, and so I stopped when I’d filled them. They looked like this when they came out of the oven.

It’s hard to see in the image above, but I used a small ladle to press the centers down, making a bowl shape for them. The recipe suggests refrigerating them for 20 minutes after taking them from a 350 degree oven. That just seemed weird to me. Who puts something that hot into their refrigerator? 

So, I allowed mine to cool on a rack. When they were completely cool, I tried removing them with a plastic knife. All but a few broke into pieces. I ended up removing them to a custard cup to hold them together. (It also held the bowl shape intact.) Possibly if I’d refrigerated them for a bit after they cooled off, they might have held together better. I’d like to try them again sometime and see if it helps.

This morning we made breakfast from them. Here’s where the blueberries come in. The recipe would have us drizzle them with honey, add a dollop of Greek yogurt, and some sliced strawberries. We used the blueberries in place of the strawberries. Also, I wanted something a little more flavorful than plain Greek yogurt, and so we used vanilla yogurt. Here’s how they looked before we ate them. Even if they didn’t come out looking like cute little bowls, they are pretty tasty.

So, I’d like to try this again now that I have some other ideas about how to make them work. Cooling them and then refrigerating them before removing them from the pan could be all they need.

In other firsts, I turned the first corner on Ruth's Legacy. I was nearing the second corner when I stopped.

It should be short work to turn the second corner today. If I’m feeling energetic, I’ll try to get around the third corner too.

And then I made the first row of blocks for the Butterfly Garden quilt. So far so good.

Okay, and that was the end of my sewing day. 

Mike has spent the last couple of days changing our cell phone service provider from Verizon to T-Mobile. We’ve had Verizon for a long time (AT&T for a long time before that). Verizon kept increasing the price, and so we decided to make the change. Part of the deal with T-Mobile meant new phones for us, and so we spent the rest of the afternoon “porting” our old phone numbers to the new phones. It ended up being quite a hassle, as those sorts of things are apt to be. It’s all set up now, though, and things seem to be working as they should. I suppose we’ll find glitchy things here and there, but the new phone is operational, and the old one is dead. It must be my week for new electronic gadgetry. 

Now here’s the thing: I’m a person accustomed to change. When you grow up a military brat, you learn early on that the only constant in your life is change. So change is good. I’m one who likes it. But when it comes to electronic gadgetry and computers, I absolutely hate change. It’s as bad as when they rearrange the grocery store. Just tell me the rules, and then don’t change them, and we can avoid bloodshed. I’m just sayin’…the new phone better not give me any trouble, or we’re gonna lock horns.

Mike is heading out today for his first vision exam since his cataract surgery. He’s pleased as punch with his new eyeballs. Colors are noticeably brighter, and his vision is much improved. He’ll be fitted for some sort of reading glasses at today’s exam. As for me, I have a couple of housekeeping chores on the agenda, and I want to water the flower pots. Of course, I’ll be checking on the blueberries. 

When I get back to my sewing, I’ll continue on with the quilt binding. And then I’ll start making the third row of blocks for the Jawbreakers quilt.

As you might know, I’ve made this quilt before in reds, pinks, and purples. It was so much fun making it that I decided to do another one in greens, blues, and aquas. I have my messy scrap bins pulled and I’ll start doing the cutting today.

This is another project that requires a lot of cutting, and so I’m not sure if I’ll get very far sewing the blocks together. Once the cutting is done they go together pretty quickly.

So, off I go. Fingers crossed about the blueberries. I’m really in the mood for something baked with blueberries. What kinds of fruits are ripening where you live?

Math is Hard

Good morning, my friends. It was good to get back to my sewing yesterday, even if I was determined to do most everything wrong. The only thing I was able to do right yesterday was to stitch my way across the “[L]ove" portion of my embroidery piece.

From there, I had to decide whether I wanted to move to the left or else down. I opted for down since I can continue stitching the border all the way around. It hardly matters, but it made more sense in the moment to continue around clockwise rather than back and forth.

Next, I was ready to square up and sew the binding on Ruth’s Legacy. When I cut binding strips, I probably do it like most people. First I figure out the total distance around the perimeter of the quilt, and then I add 20 inches for good measure. I’ve never had a binding come up short until yesterday. What? How is that possible?

Okay, well I suppose there’s a first time for everything. There was plenty of that same fabric to cut another strip and sew it on. So, I did that, and then headed back to the sewing machine where I noticed this as I sat down. Doh!

Oh well…I just continued on with the strip in my hand. I put the strip from the floor back with the remaining yardage. I’ll use it another time. Now the binding is ready for hand-sewing.

From there, I turned my attention to the project I’m calling “Butterfly Garden.” As I’ve mentioned, I’m working from a photograph I found somewhere at some point in time. As it so happens, this is the "Arcade" pattern from Fabric Cafe. I'll be doing mine differently from theirs. My blocks will be larger, and I'll be doing five blocks across and six down. Here’s the photo I’m working from.

Some time ago, I figured out measurements for the various pieces in the blocks. Now, I needed to be certain I had enough of all the fabrics I’d selected.

Sadie helped me figure this out. 

As it turns out, I have plenty of fabric, except for the black. Since I keep black on hand all the time, ordering more was an easy decision. As for the rest, I’ll probably have enough to make another quilt at some point in time. 

Well, you might know all that thinking and adding and measuring nearly broke our brains. Sadie was so ‘zhausted, she curled up for a nap when we were finished with that part.

From there, it made sense to try making at least one of each of the two blocks in the quilt. This first “+” was pretty easy. It ended up at the 9-1/2 inches I was expecting.

Then, I moved on to the second block, only…somehow I had my thinking all wrong on this. I probably added the middle section to the strips on the left side and came up with the 9-1/2 inch measurement. But that completely ignores the strips on the right side. Duh. So, the block actually ends up at 13 inches (unfinished). 

And, ya’ know? That ain’t workin’.

It was easy enough to refigure it and bring the block on the left up to size.

I’m just sorry I cut those pieces too small and generated an orphan block. I suppose I’ll use it at some point in time…maybe on the quilt back somehow. For now, it’ll just go into the project box and I’ll be able to figure a way to put it to work.

Okay, so those are the two blocks I’ll be making for this quilt. There will be 15 of each. I’ve decided to make two of the block on the left and one of the block on the right to finish up the first row. And that’s probably how I’ll fit this project into my workflow…one row per go-round until I have six rows. I’ll finish it off with a couple of borders when it gets that far.

Today is a floor-mopping day, and the floor really needs it. It’s kind of a sticky mess after the canning I did over the weekend. Also, I have in mind to do a baking project. It was one summoned up to use all the frozen egg whites I was hoarding. I ran out of egg whites before I ran out of ways to use them, but I still want to try this recipe for “Granola Cups.” If they’re good, I’ll link to the recipe in tomorrow’s post. 

As for sewing, I’ll get to work had-sewing the binding for Ruth’s Legacy. In the sewing room, I’ll finish the first row of blocks for the Butterfly Garden. If there’s still time left in the day, I’ll make another row of blocks for the Jawbreakers project.

That’s an ambitious day I’ve laid out for myself. Let’s just see if I can fit it all in. What’s keeping you busy today?