Overcoming Inertia

Good morning, my friends. My day was a little mixed up yesterday. There was a pedicure scheduled around lunch time, and so the hours I could work with came both before and after. The garden got a good hoeing, and there was some time after that to work on my quilting. I quilted two more blocks on Ruth's Legacy, and then finished the third after I got home.

It’s going pretty well, and I’m happy with that filler motif I’m using. Here’s a little peek at the back.

Now, I’ve turned the quilt upside-down, and I’ll start quilting the top (and final) row of blocks today. With those finished, I’ll be ready to start on the borders and sashings tomorrow.

This being July 1st, it's time to choose a goal for July's 

It's tempting to go with Ruth's Legacy, but I'm going to challenge myself with the next quilt in line for quilting. That means my July goal will be to quilt and bind the Shop Hop 3.0 quilt.

The spa where I get my pedicures is a part of a larger hotel complex. It has beautiful grounds and gardens. As I walked in, I took a few pictures. My phone tells me these next three are all hydrangeas.

It also says this next one is a rose. The flower looks like a rose, but the foliage doesn’t. Also…no thorns.

However, it has rose hips the size of cherry tomatoes.

Okay, so back at home again, I went back to my quilting, and then I forced myself into the sewing room to work on the Stair Steps project. I might have had some kitty help, but Sadie purrfurred to spend her afternoon in her catio.

I needed to cut some more scrappy pieces for the first of five blocks. When they were cut and laid out, they looked like this. Some of you with sharp eyes might notice there’s an extra pair in the lower right corner.

With the cutting finished, I could sew it all together. That’s one down, four to go. 

When it was sewn together, it was time to stop. I’ll start on another one today. The next one will have a pink diagonal row. 

When I got home from my pedicure, I started a new recipe in my slow cooker for Bourbon Barbecue Chicken Tacos. It needed four hours to cook. It was super easy. I mixed up what amounts to a barbecue sauce in the slow cooker, and then added two boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It cooked for four hours, and then I used two forks to shred the chicken. Earlier, I’d made a salsa from corn, red onion, red bell pepper, and some other seasonings. This turned out great. We liked it a lot. The “salsa” has the zest and juice of two limes, and it was a very nice accompaniment with the chicken.

I made the recipe as written. It contains three tablespoons of bourbon. If you don’t want that alcohol, you can substitute apple juice or chicken broth. I doubt you’d taste the difference. We each started with two tacos, but then we each had one more. Now, there’s enough for another meal. It’s easy enough to do in the RV…always a bonus.

Okay, so today will be sort of a regular day. I’ll continue on with my quilting and my sewing. I’m also going to use up six more egg whites making a “Dandelion cake.” Basically, it’s an angelfood cake with an orange glaze. Mike’s mother and his grandmother made a cake called a “Sunshine cake.” It was a favorite of Mike’s. I tried a few times to replicate it earlier in our marriage. Then, after Mike’s mom passed away, I ended up with her recipe box. It contained his grandmother’s recipe for Sunshine cake. Only, the recipe was written so weirdly that I never actually tried to make it. One of the phrases that comes to mind was to cook some sugar in water “until it hairs.” Huh? I think I know what she meant, but it still discouraged me from ever attempting it. 

This recipe popped up when I Googled things to do with the egg whites I was hoarding. It occurred to me that it might be a good stand-in for the Sunshine cake. Mike will have to be the judge of that. And maybe enough time has passed that he won’t remember what the original Sunshine cake tasted like. In any case, it will be fun to give it a try, and I’ll be happy to use up the rest of the eggs whites.

All right then. Time to get going. Busy day ahead. Hopefully, I can end the day with another block for the Stair Steps quilt. Two blocks would be a bonus.

A Little Sewing

Good morning, my friends. It was a rather unproductive day yesterday. A lot of my morning was spent sitting on the couch. My treadmill and Bow-flex workouts have been completely abandoned over the past month. I tried unsuccessfully to talk myself into a Bow-flex workout yesterday morning. Even when I speak sternly to myself, it’s hard to overcome my level of stubbornness. After more than 50 years of cat ownership, it’s completely understandable that I would adopt their attitudes in my daily life. 

Instead, the bird feeders needed filling, and I wanted to check on the vegetable garden. The garden was too wet for hoeing. It was still worth checking though, because I needed to stake up two of the tallest sunflowers. They were leaning over after the recent rains.

This morning, I'm aiming for an early start to my hoeing. It's also the day for my monthly pedicure, but I believe I'll have time to hoe before I need to leave.

Back inside, I spent some time with my slow-stitching. After a time, I realized I was dragging my feet getting at my sewing. No worries. I could still procrastinate a little while longer by baking some Chocolate-chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries for Two. I'm still on a quest to use up some ingredients that are approaching their "use by" date. We didn't eat these. I froze them for future cookie emergencies. You just never know when disaster will strike, and our very survival could depend on the availability of cookies. (And, honestly, aren’t we all in a state of emergency all of the time when it comes to cookies?)

What with the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Oregon coastline threatening to cause mayhem at any moment, it's important to be prepared. Those cookies will get us through the rough times.

Okay, so after lunch, I forced myself to get a start on the quilting. Since I’m not a terribly confident quilter, it’s sometimes hard to get myself over the hump when I’m starting something new. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was trying to decide between two "fillers" for the pieced blocks. I ended up doing the one that seemed harder. It's pinned in my Pinterest files and identified as a "Meandering Comma Curl." You can see a video of how it's done right here.

Okay, so that seemed easy enough. I committed it to the middle row of blocks on my quilt. This is the third of the three blocks, and the muscle memory was pretty well set by then.

If there's time this afternoon, I'll start quilting the bottom row of blocks.

From there, I really started dragging my feet. The blocks for the Stair Steps quilt are a pain to make because there is so darned much cutting. And since they're all scrappy, I end up picking through my bins a lot. Even Smitty was looking askance at this project.

This is the final row. I needed ten of each of the neutral “stair step” pieces.

Remember that these blocks have a color diagonal running through them. The first block in the row is a blue block. I needed eight blue 2-1/2 inch pieces for that.

And then I needed 32 scrappy 2-1/2 inch pieces. I have some left over from the last time I worked on it, but not enough.

So, I picked through my scrap bins and pulled out pieces large enough to cut more squares. They’re pressed and ready for cutting.

While I was picking through my bins, I remembered something I wanted to do outside. Think of it as a squirrel rescuing me from the drudgery of all that cutting. 

So, I’ve been watching some wild foxgloves growing along the roadsides and along the driveway we share with our three closest neighbors. Some years ago, I purchased some foxglove seeds, hoping to get some started out by our hot tub. They are mostly shade-lovers and there’s an open space beneath one of our Japanese maple trees where I think they would thrive. So, I planted my purchased seeds, and they were growing. Then, Mike mistook them for weeds and sprayed them with herbicide. He knew instantly what he’d done, and rinsed them off with water from the hose. It was already too late, and they all died. (Sigh.)

Okay, so fast-forward several years to yesterday, and I had in mind the wild foxgloves were far enough bloomed out that I could harvest some of the stalks for their seeds. As I walked down the driveway, I noticed one of the newly-arrived spotted towhees at our feeder and tried to get a picture. My picture didn’t turn out, as I’ll explain in a minute, but I found this one online. I like watching the birds return to the feeder seasonally.

Okay, so here is where I tried to take a picture of our own bird, but he moved around to the back side of the feeder as I took my shot. I was some distance away, and so I was looking through the viewfinder to try to get good focus…

When what to my wondering eyes should appear

But a sneaky black sunflower seed stealing deer!

Well. Doncha know she was just waiting for me to move along so that she could empty our bird feeder. This seems to be a thing now. After 24 years in this house, the deer have never done this before. 

As I started to continue walking down the driveway, she moved closer to the feeder. You little stalker, you.

Well, I chased her off before I moved along. That bird seed is kind of expensive, and I’m not putting it out for the deer. [Loud Harrumph, as I walked on.]

At the end of our driveway, I noticed this. I’m told this is called “goats beard.”

These little asters are about the size of a dime. Cute.

There were lots of these little wild violets.

And these . . . Oregon blackberries. The berries are good to eat, but man, the plants are invasive, and thorny, and hard to eradicate. When they pop up anywhere in the landscape, we dig them out immediately. 

Okay, and so here was the object of my desire…nearly bloomed out wild foxgloves.

Walking up the hill just a few feet, I found some white ones too.

So I looked for the longest stalks with the fewest living flowers, cut them at the bottom of the bloomed out seed pods, and then carried them home in a paper grocery sack. I’ll let them dry for a while. As they dry, I’ll shake them some to dislodge the seeds. The grocery sack is lined with parchment to make it easier to collect the seeds when the time comes. This might not work at all, but I’m hopeful. Fingers crossed. If I don’t get viable seeds from these, I’m going to buy some. Life is short. Grow the foxgloves.

Okay, so that was the end of my day. As I mentioned, I have a pedicure this morning. I’m kind of determined to get out early and hoe the garden before I go. When I get home, I’m going to try something new in my slow cooker. I’ll tell you about it in tomorrow’s post. If there’s still time left in the day, I’ll get back to my quilting. Quilting is my first priority these days. If there’s time left in the day, I’ll try to make some progress on Stair Steps. I keep claiming that I like the Stair Steps quilt, and I do. Still, it’s one of those I wish I’d never started.

All right. The garden awaits. Enjoy your day, my friends!

Early Start

Good morning, my friends. Mike and I are early risers, generally. After all, we have furry alarm clocks who want to make sure we’re awake to see the sun rise in the morning. Yesterday was no different, and I was ready to make our usual Sunday morning pancakes around 8:00 a.m. Knowing I was going to be making a breakfast item with those egg whites I’ve been hoarding, I asked Mike if he’d be up for a change. Indeed, he was. And so for breakfast I made these Freezer-friendly Egg White Muffins. Here’s how they looked when they came from the oven.

When I went looking for this recipe, I was looking for something specifically using egg whites. Honestly, you could do this with whole eggs too. I needed 2-1/2 cups of egg whites. (Yikes. That seemed like a lot.) As it turns out 20 egg whites equaled 2-1/2 cups. I was happy to be using so many of them in just this one dish. So, it was easy. I added chopped spinach, cherry tomatoes, grated cheddar, and green onion to the muffin cups, and then ladled the egg whites over. Then, it needed 25 minutes in the oven, and voila! Breakfast is served. We waited five minutes for them to cool, and then added a dollop of guacamole. I added some tomato jam to mine, pictured below. We each ate one, but two would make a more filling meal.

The rest were loaded into zip-lock bags, and frozen. This morning, we’ll give them 45 seconds in the microwave, and that will be our breakfast. Mike has already done his. He gave it 45 seconds, but then gave it an additional 15 seconds. He doesn’t recommend a full minute from the get-go.

As long as I had the oven warmed up, I mixed up and baked some more Irish Brown Bread. It’ll be a good accompaniment to the eggs. It allowed me to use some buttermilk I needed to finish off.

So, I still wanted to make some watermelon sorbet, but my baking goals were complete. Time for some slow stitching. I took the first stitches on the Love Sampler.

And then I ventured outside briefly to pick some more lettuce from the greenhouse. I noticed the Stargazer Lily has put out more flowers. We don’t always get to see this, and so it’s a treat when it flowers so prolifically.

While I was out, I heard a rustling in one of the cherry trees. I thought it might be Sadie, and so I stopped to watch. As I did, I saw a crow fly from the top of the tree with a cherry in its beak. (Shakes fist skyward.)

I had one housekeeping chore standing between me and my sewing. It seemed a good time to get the watermelon sorbet churning. When I was finished with my housekeeping, the sorbet was finished too.

Okay…sewing…finally. It’s time to continue on with my quilt-all-the-quilts-or-die-trying quest. Next under my quilting needle is “Ruth’s Legacy.” The original name of this quilt was “When Quilter’s Gather,” done in the style of Ruth McDowell. When Ruth passed away last year (or maybe the year before), I decided to name the quilt for her. As a reminder, this is what it looks like. The block designs are Ruth’s. The block setting is mine.

My goal for yesterday was simply to get the machine set up for quilting. I’ll start the quilting today. In the bobbin, I’ll use an off-white Bottomline thread. It’s a 60-weight thread, and I still have a little left on a bobbin from a previous project. For the quilt blocks, I’ll use another off-white YLI thread on top. It’s a 40-weight thread. Already I’ve adjusted my tension, and these two will play well together. By the way, don’t you love that backing fabric? One of you put me onto that fabric when I finished the quilt top. I’m afraid I can’t remember who it was, but if it was you, then thank you.

In the borders/sashings, I’ll use this pretty variegated King Tut thread. I wanted something colorful, but not too bright.

It’s a 40-weight thread like the YLI thread I’ll be using on top. I’m constantly checking my tension these days, but I shouldn’t notice much when I change out the threads.

Spreading that out on the fabric, it looks good to me. It has the same colors, but it isn’t too obvious. (Thank you, Ila.)

Okay, so there are nine blocks in this quilt. I’ll endeavor to quilt three per day before I move to the sashings/borders. I figure it should be ready for binding within a week or so. For now, I left it needle-down at the middle block, and I’ll start there today.

I have in mind to do one of the two designs you see below in the pieced blocks. It’ll be an all-over design. I’m leaning toward the top one of the two choices. It’ll be easiest for me.

I’ll admit I really like the one below too. Maybe…maybe…maybe I’ll be very brave and give it a go. I’ll practice first and see if I can pull it off.

Okay, so that’s where I’ll start my sewing day today.

Backing up to yesterday again, I was able to sew the borders on Block 8 for “Le Jardin.”

There’s just one block left before I can sew this into a finished quilt top. Here are the eight blocks I have so far.

And, finally, July’s aqua block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Here are the seven “Inverted Star” blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Okay, so I’ll get started with my quilting, and then I’ll be ready to start with my list of WIP’s. I’m ready to make the final row of blocks for the Stair Steps project. I like this quilt, but all that cutting has been a pain. I’ll be glad to have all the blocks finished.

It usually takes me several days to finish a row of blocks for that quilt. When I’m finished, I’ll be ready to make another row of blocks for this quilt I’m calling “Jawbreakers.”

Today will look a little like yesterday. I have some more ingredients I want to use up, and so I’m going to bake some cookies for two. It’s been raining off and on for the past several days. I want to check the vegetable garden. It’s probably time to hoe again, but if the ground is too wet, I’ll give it another day or two to dry out some. We’re expecting drier weather as the week wears on.

All right, my friends. Enjoy your Monday. Off I go.