Sowing and Sewing

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy and tiring day yesterday, but I'm happy to say the vegetable garden is planted now. We've lived in our house 24 years, as of June 1st. I can't remember the exact year we created our garden plot, but it was early on. I believe I can safely say it was within the first three years...so at least 20 years ago. In years past, we've planted the whole thing. Here's one of the pictures from early on.

A few years ago, we decided to plant a smaller garden, and we planted perhaps three-fourths of it. This year's garden has been scaled down to half the plot, and much of that is in sunflowers and zinnias. After scooching around on the ground planting those sunflowers yesterday, my knees are thanking me for not being more energetic. So here's our scaled down garden for 2026:

In the foreground, you can see three rows of corn. We cover it with gutter guards because the crows will pull the newly-sprouted seedlings right out of the ground. When they start growing through the gutter guards, we can remove them, and they'll be safe from pecking beaks. 

Beyond the white fencing is the "bee garden." Weeds and wildflowers grow there. Each year, I broadcast a new quarter-pound of wildflower seed and then wait to see what I'll get. On this side of the white fence and along the northern fence line, I've planted a dozen different varieties of sunflowers. Along the south fence line are some zinnias. Toward the end of the corn rows, I've planted three hills of zucchini and three hills of pickling cucumbers. 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, a gopher killed the entire green bean crop in our last garden (2023) by chewing off every single vine at ground level. It broke (and hardened) my heart. Here's a picture from when I first discovered the damage. You can see it there on the right. Eventually, the same thing happened at every trellis pole. 

In the image below, you can see our solution for the green beans. This year, we've planted the seeds in pots. They're sitting on boards in order to maintain good drainage, and we're hopeful that will thwart the gnawing vermin.

Interestingly, we've grown green beans every year we've planted a garden, but we never had this problem until our 2023 garden. In fact, the 2023 garden disappointed in many ways because of gnawing critters. It's probably good that our travel schedule forced us to take two years off from growing vegetables. The sting of that last garden has subsided some, but we haven't forgotten it.

When we finished the planting, we sat, our limbs throbbing, on the garden bench and enjoyed our Mike's lemonades. Eventually, I felt I could move again, and I made my way into the house for some lunch, a shower, and a nap.

It was touch and go working up enough energy to do anything else, but I made my way to the quilting eventually. Smitty was there to make sure I didn't go too fast...speed demon, and all. (Good thing they don't hand out speeding citations for quilting.)

My goal was to quilt the vertical sashings, and mission accomplished. Here's how they look where horizontal and vertical intersect.

Here's a peek at the back.

Also, I found enough energy to sew the yellow Stair Steps block together. I'll keep going with these today. The next common color diagonal stripe will be purple.

It was late in the day by then. I tried a new recipe for Creamy Tuscan Ravioli. This was really good. We liked it a lot.

It's made with Italian sausage, canned fire-roasted tomatoes, oil-packed sundried tomatoes, onion, garlic, and spinach. Oh yes, and of course, 4-cheese ravioli. The recipe suggested frozen ravioli. I bought the unfrozen refrigerated kind, and so mine was ready to go into the mix without needing to allow it to thaw. Nevertheless, I left it sitting out while I did the rest of the cooking and allowed it to warm up a little before adding it at the end. I've always boiled fresh ravioli. For this recipe, it was added at the end, then the pan was lidded, and it steamed until it was done. I had my doubts about whether it would actually cook enough, but it did. 

I've linked to the recipe above the image. Aside from using fresh ravioli, I also substituted white wine for the chicken broth. (I was too lazy to make any "Better than Broth" chicken broth.) We liked the slight tang added by the wine. Also, I did a rough chop on the sundried tomatoes, although the recipe doesn't say to chop them. They seemed too large as they came from the jar, but a rough chop was just right.

Okay, so my bum knee was absolutely killing me after planting the garden yesterday. I iced it three times, took some Tylenol, took some naproxen, and rubbed some anti-inflammatory gel on it at bedtime. It feels a little better today, but it's still painful. I'll give it a day off today and focus mostly on my sewing. I've moved to the border of my quilt now, and I expect to have it ready for binding by the end of the day. Also, I'll aim for at least one more block for the Stair Steps project. There are a couple of easy housekeeping chores on the calendar for today, but mainly, it's going to be all sewing all the time. 

We have several days of warm weather ahead of us. Fingers crossed those newly planted seeds get to work making little sprouts. Also, I'm on peony watch. We might see a new peony today.

PT Graduate

Good morning, my friends. It gives me great pleasure to announce the end of my Wednesday treks to PT. It also gives me great pleasure to say that my shoulder is nearly pain free. And who among us doesn't have some ache or pain somewhere in their body? I'm hopeful that I can eventually put this annoyance behind me completely. For now, I'll just say it feels better on the days when I do my exercises. That alone will motivate me to keep doing them. Nevertheless, I'm happy not to be making that drive to the next town over each week.

My appointment made for a short day sewing-wise, but everyone is better off when I take some time for slow-stitching in the morning. Yesterday's session had me finishing off the third Santa in the Santa Quartet.

Now I've moved my hoop to the right, and you can see that I've encompassed most of what remains. I spent some time on this yesterday evening while we watched the news. Probably I still have several days before this is finished.

From there, I filled the bird feeders and checked on the seedlings. I noticed the purple rhodie is getting more flowers.

In other shades of purple, the lavender is beginning to bloom. This can only mean one thing: it's time for Bees Knees Cocktails. 

When I'd finished with my outdoor activities, I could spend some time on the quilting. For the sashings, I'm doing this "Paperclip" motif. This is one I saw on Lori Kennedy's website. I've used this motif on many quilts. I like how it looks, but mainly, I like it because it's easy to do.

Where the vertical and horizontal sashings intersect, I quilted a diagonal line. 

Now, I've finished the horizontal sashings. If there's time today, I'll start on the vertical sashings, and I'll do the "cross" of the crisscross there. I left it needle down right here. 

From there, I was ready to start sewing together the first block for the Stair Steps project. The first one has a pink diagonal running from corner to corner. When it was time for me to leave, I had it mostly sewn together.

When I returned home, Smitty joined me to help finish it off.

There it is...the first of five blocks. In this row, there will be one more pink.

There was time in the day to start on the second block. The second block has a yellow diagonal. I had the pieces laid out when I needed to stop. If I have time for sewing today, I'll start sewing this one together.

And I'm happy to announce that Mike's new 3D Printer has arrived. His first printer looked like this:

Think of this like a sewing machine. The print head at the top was adjustable, but stayed stationary while it printed. As it printed, all the movement was from the "plate" at the bottom. The new one looks like this:

Kind of looks like you could use it to cool some soft drinks, doesn't it? Now, I can't explain much about this, but I'm told by the Resident Retired Engineer that the print head moves on this one, and the plate stays stationary. This means that tall things can be printed without having the movement of the plate cause them to topple over. Also, it's an enclosed space, which means he can use heat for some of the filaments. If he wants to, he can print with filaments that produce noxious fumes. There is an attachment that allows the fumes to be vented out a window.

At the top...these spools of filaments. His are all neutral colors in this picture.

But he has some other colors in the stash beside his desk.

Already, he's happily printing away...for now, mainly stuff that is used with the printer. And if you know how it feels when your sewing machine is in the shop for a spa treatment, consider how Mike has been mooning around the house waiting for his new printer to arrive. Death was imminent. Phew. Close call.

Speaking of close calls...Smitty. He's sitting close by as I'm writing, enjoying a morning sunbath. It's his favorite time of the year when the sun shines through the windows in the morning.

Okay, so today is the day we've designated to plant our vegetable garden. We'll put up our little fence to mark the boundary between the "groomed" part of the garden and the rather chaotic "bee garden." This will be our first garden since 2023. (We were traveling in 2024 and 2025.) It's going to be much smaller than the one you see in the image below, but we'll use the same little fence you see at the far end.

The garden in the image above was rather disappointing. The critters killed the green beans. They ate all the carrots. They gnawed at the beets. Thus, we're not putting as much work into this year's garden. We'll plant a few rows of corn, and I'll try the green beans again. We have an idea how to plant them in such a way they'll be protected from critters. I'll show you when we have it set up. Also, zucchini. Is it possile to have a proper vegetable garden without zucchini? I think not. Also, there will be pickling cucumbers. And, of course, lots and lots and lots of sunflowers. This year I'll also plant some zinnias. I don't expect this planting effort to take all day, but it does have a way of taking all of one's energy. Whether there will be any time/energy leftover for sewing is anybody's guess.

Okay, and we're expecting a warm day today, so we're going to get out early. That means now. Hopefully, I'll have something to show you tomorrow. I'll have something...but it might not be sewing.

Home Stretch

Good morning, my friends. It's a day for celebration. Today will be my last day of physical therapy. As I've grudgingly admitted, it has been very helpful. I was to return to the doctor tomorrow, but I canceled that appointment. My shoulder isn't completely pain-free, but it's improved enough that it isn't a constant annoyance. When I got into bed last night, I realized I hadn't thought about it all day. For now, I'll just keep doing the PT exercises at home. Surprisingly, it feels better on days when I do some exercise.

I've finished quilting all the blocks for the Homestead quilt. This first one is called "Anvil."

Here's how that looks from the back.

For this big Log Cabin, I used a motif I saw on Pinterest, which consists of diagonal lines round and round and round.

Here's how that looks from the back

Finally, this block called "God's Eye."

On the back, I didn't quite capture the whole thing in my image, but you get the idea.

Now, I've left it needle down at the middle horizontal sashing. Today's goal is to quilt all the horizontal sashings. I'll do the vertical ones tomorrow. After that, it will just be the outer border, and then it will be ready for binding.

From there, I checked on the watering in the greenhouse and took a walk around the yard. The Coral Sunset peony is fully opened now. There are two open flowers and many more coming.

Also, another flower has opened on the Edda clematis. Neither of these is completely open yet. When they're open, you won't see the ruffly edge to the petals.

And I noticed I could see the cherries on the cherry trees at a distance. It's going to be a big crop this year.

Back inside, I made good on my promise to get started on Row 5 for the Stair Steps project. Thankfully, Smitty was there to keep me company while I did all the cutting.

If you can remember, each block has a common color running diagonally from corner to corner. In this row of five blocks, there will be two pinks, one yellow, one blue, and one purple. I've cut all the blocks for those parts. Also, I've cut the "stair steps" from neutral fabrics. In some cases, I'm using the back side of the fabric.

And then, each block requires an additional 32 scrappy blocks. When I cut these, I neglected to subtract the eight common color blocks, and so I ended up cutting 40. I can use the eight additional ones on the next block.

As I dig through my scraps looking for appropriate pieces, I'm cutting as many as I can from each one and tossing the extras in a bin to be used on other blocks. Now that I've cut everything for the first block in the row, the remaining blocks will not require as much cutting (if that makes sense).

Before I sat down here, I started some laundry. It's early for something like that, but I want to get it finished before I need to leave at 2:00 p.m. Leaving mid-afternoon makes for a short day. The bird feeders are empty again, and so I'll need to fill those. I'll check on the seedlings at the same time. We're hoping to get started planting our vegetable garden tomorrow. The garden will be small this year, and we have the next four days to do it. Rain is forecast for Monday, and so the time is now. I don't expect it will take longer than a day.

As for the rest of today, my first priority is always going to be the quilting. I'll aim for getting the horizontal sashings done today. If there's still time in the day, I'll get started sewing together the first block for the Stair Steps quilt. With a shortened day ahead of me, it's best I get started. It's Hump Day today, and with it being my last day of physical therapy, it feels celebratory at this end. What are you celebrating today?

A Finish!

Good morning, my friends. It's a sunny day. The promise of a warmer week seems to be coming to fruition. I was out early yesterday morning. The birds had emptied their feeders...again...and I needed to check on the seedlings in the greenhouse. (Both things are new additions to my morning routine.) While I was out, I checked on the flowers. (Checking on the flowers is also part of my morning routine.) I'd hoped the Coral Sunset peony would have bloomed, but it was still hiding itself. Nevertheless, the other peonies were putting on a show.

Also, this single flower on the Edda clematis is nearly open. Lots more flowers are coming. I figure they send out a scout flower to reconnoiter before they'll commit to blooming.

Back inside, my first priority in the sewing world was to finish the binding for the Merry, Merry Snowmen. And how could I not finish it when I had the help of my loyal stitching cat?

We spent about 45 minutes on the hand-stitching, and my quilt was finished. I started on the Merry, Merry Snowmen on July 29, 2024. Now, it is boxed up and ready to go to its forever home in southern California.

Here's a little peek at the back.

Quilting and binding the Merry, Merry Snowmen was my goal for May's

I'll link up there when the party starts next week.

With that finished, I was ready to quilt another row of blocks for the Homestead quilt. This is the "Schoolhouse" block. I wasn't really sure what to do here, and so I quilted it lightly. I might decide to do more on this.

Here's how it's looking from the back.

The next block is called "Lincoln's Platform."

Here's how that looks from the back. 

Finally, the "Nebraska Pinwheel." This block is also known as the "Dempster Windmill."

Here's how that's looking from the back.

It was afternoon by then. When the weather warms up and the sun shines, the peonies will show themselves. I decided to check on the Coral Sunset peony one more time. I found Sadie on her catio, scanning the landscape for any furry mammals.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear? There it is! About half opened.

Here's another one!

I expect these will open all the way today. Then, I can start obsessing over the two that have not bloomed yet. 

Today is a grocery shopping day. Other than that, there's nothing else on the to-do list. We have a relatively short list today, and then I can get back to my sewing. When I came upstairs just now, I found Smitty catching some rays on his kitty pole. It's his favorite time of the year when the morning sun shines in his window.

There was no progress made on the Stair Steps quilt. I swear I'm going to do something with that today. However, I've come to the conclusion that there's not enough time/energy in any given day to work on more than two projects. Now that the quilt binding is finished, I'll have the time/energy to devote to my list of WIPs. As things are going, I probably have at least three days before I'll finish the quilting for the Homestead quilt. When I start on that quilt binding, it'll be my second project in a day. 

Next up for quilting will be "The Story of My Day." Already I have some ideas about how to do this.

Okay, so Mike is ready to go, and I'm still sitting here in my pajamas. Probably, I should be on my way. Good chat this morning, my friends! Have a good day today!