Recharging

Good morning, my friends, and a fine morning it is! The sun is shining, and it's still warm from yesterday's nice weather. It's going to cool off a little bit by tomorrow, but then we're looking at warmer weather for the remainder of the week. Is it possible that spring has sprung? I sure hope so.

There was no negotiating about getting in some exercise yesterday. I forced myself onto the treadmill, and I felt better for it. There's no way to know for sure if it gave me more energy for the remainder of the day, but it seemed like it. Mind over matter, you know. 

Before I could do anything else, though, I stitched Tiny Treasure #40. This one has backstitch, satin stitch, lazy daisy, stem stitch, straight stitch and stem fill.

It has occurred to me that this ongoing shoulder pain is probably interrupting my sleep more than I realize. And I can't recall if I mentioned this already, but my health insurance won't authorize the MRI my doctor has ordered until after I submit to six weeks of physical therapy. Rats. Oh well. I'll play their game, and it starts next week. Still, it means I have at least 7 weeks more of chronic pain in my shoulder, and then even more delay getting the MRI and whatever else needs done. I've resigned myself to at least another six months of this, and probably longer.

After my treadmill walk, I spent some time icing my knees, and then I got busy with the next row of quilting. There were three panel blocks in this row, each one has already been quilted somewhere else on the quilt.

There were just two pieced blocks in this row. This first one is a Sawtooth

And this one is called "Hole in the Barn Door."

I left it needle down at this Pinwheel block, and that's where I'll start today. There is just one row left to quilt.

After today, I'll quilt the black borders around the panel blocks. Depending on how much time it takes to do each one, I'll spend one or two more days on it before it's ready for binding.

From there, I filled the bird feeders and took a walk around outside. Finally, I was able to get a better picture of these little mini daffodils. They're only about four inches tall, and very cute.

Also, another new one has bloomed. This one is known as Kiwi Sunset.

Checking around the back, I was amazed at this over-achiever. I think this is the peony known as Coral Sunset, although I haven't checked the tag. (I'm relying on my memory, and that's never a good idea.)

But look how it compares to its brethren. It has at least a foot of growth over the next tallest one. I checked it for buds, but didn't see any.

Also, I'm happy to see flowers forming on the blueberries. We're hoping for a big harvest from them this year.

While we were in Alaska last year, they had their best year ever. Our neighbor enjoyed these in our absence.

Also, I noticed our cherry trees are starting to bloom. There are just a few flowers so far, mainly on the left side of the image below. I expect they'll be covered in flowers within the week. They're blooming at a good time because there's almost no rain in the forecast. Our plum tree is usually right behind the cherry trees, but I haven't seen anything from it yet.

Back inside, there was enough time left in the day to do the cutting for the March and April Inverted Stars. With the cutting done, I should be able to sew them together pretty quickly.

Back upstairs, I found Smitty trying to outdo Sadie for having the worst life in the world.

And we got our wish to eat outside last night for the first time this year. Mike was able to get the mowing done yesterday. One of our neighbors was firing a gun. (It happens in rural areas.) We hoped he'd stop, and he did. It was a peaceful way to end the day.

As I've been writing, Smitty has joined me to enjoy the morning sunshine from his window sill. 

Poor kitty. The misery never ends for him. 

Today will look a lot like yesterday. I'll finish quilting the blocks on the Amish Sampler, and I'm hoping to get the two Inverted Stars finished. If I can get those done, I'll start working on the second Gumballs quilt. Right now, I'm heading off to do the day's Tiny Treasure. Have a good day, Everyone! I hope you're enjoying some nice spring weather too.

Happy Easter!

Good morning, my friends, and Happy Easter to those who celebrate!

I gave myself a lazy day yesterday, although lately it seems as if every day is a lazy day. Since we've been home from our trip, my energy level has been running on low. It occurred to me that this could be a side effect from my having started alendronate (generic for Fosamax). Fortunately, I've had no other side effects. I might ignore the lack of energy, thinking it's just from being busy during the day, but it seems unusual for me. 

Whatever the case, I'm turning over a new leaf today. If it's the medicine, then I believe I can overcome that by just getting back to more movement in my day. Today I'm determined to do some walking. Whether it's outside or on the treadmill will be decided when the sun makes up its mind whether to shine or hide behind the clouds. We're expecting a warm day today. So far, it's clouded over, and not particularly inviting.

Getting back to yesterday's sloth, I started by stitching Tiny Treasure #39. This one has satin stitch, leaf blanket, stem stitch and straight stitch.

Smitty was outside when I finished that, and so I joined him to see if anything new is blooming. One of the new daffodils has opened. It might not appear different at first glance, but if you look closely at the image below (sorry it isn't sharper), you can see that the yellow from the "trumpet" extends into the white petals behind. This one is called "Golden Echo."

Smitty joined me back inside for the day's quilting effort. He guarded the high road. It's dark in the stairwell, and so he turned on his lasers to be extra cautious.

Sadie guarded the lowlands below.

The third row had three pieced blocks. First, the churn dash.

Here's a peek at how that looks from the back.

This next one is the Diamond Star.

And, finally, this Anvil block.

There were two panel blocks. Each panel block appears twice in the quilt. I've already done the first one of these. This was the second.

And then this one...I just outlined the house and the pillars at the front.

And that was pretty much the extent of my activities yesterday. The bottom half of the quilt is finished now, and so I've turned it around upside-down to keep the bulk of the quilt on the table, rather than in my lap. I'll start with this panel block today.

And I really want to get back in my sewing room today. I haven't done any sewing on my domestic machine for a couple of days. Big Bertha and I are missing one another. My first task there will be to get to work on the Inverted Stars for March and April. Probably that's all I can finish in a day, but if there's time (and energy), I'll get a start on the Green/Blue/Aqua Gumballs quilt. Also in the sewing room, I need to get serious about making backs for two of my flimsies. The weather is warming up enough to consider setting up the sawhorse tables in the garage and sandwiching more quilts for quilting. Unless I've miscounted, there are 14 flimsies to sandwich. (Yikes.)

Okay, so Sunday morning blueberry oatmeal pancakes are next, and then I'll get on with my day. Hopefully, I can generate a little more energy today. It's Easter, right? And instead of the Easter Bunny, I'm summoning the Energizer Bunny. No chocolate bunnies required.

Good Food on Good Friday

Good morning, my friends. We're pretty happy about our weekend weather...although the weekend has nothing to do with it when you're retired. Every day is Saturday. In any case, we're gearing up for the warmest weather so far this year...into the 70's today and tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll be able to eat outside for the first time.

Yesterday was another busy day, and it ended with a wonderful family dinner. Before I did anything else, I spent a little time on my slow stitching. This is Tiny Treasure #38. It has stem stitch, backstitch and straight stitch.

And then I went to work setting the table. With Easter so close, I was motivated to create an Easter table.

There were a few other things to do, but I managed to fit in some quilting in the afternoon. Smitty positioned himself in his usual spot, gazing out the window on the lookout for any invading forces. None yesterday, thankfully.

Yesterday's row contained three panel blocks. I outlined these little people.

And the clothes hanging on the line.

Here, I outlined the buildings.

There were two pieced blocks. This one is the Dutchman's Puzzle. I did it in my usual go-to motif when I'm quilting flying geese.

Remembering what I said yesterday about how the block above is made up of four sections of two flying geese. And the block below is pieced together the same way...four sections of two flying geese. And yet, look how different they are with a different arrangement of color. 

And finally, this one. I'm not as happy with the quilting on this one. I'm thinking it will look better when the quilt has been washed. On the other hand, if it bothers me enough, I might take it out and redo it. I haven't decided yet.

And that completed the 2nd of five rows. I left it needle down, and I'll start here today.

There was a little free time in the afternoon. I walked around the house to check on things. I'm happy to see the Bleeding Heart forming buds.

There are more grape hyacinths.

The rhododendrons are forming fat buds. They'll be the stars of the garden soon.

There are a few tulips forming buds. We'll see tulips soon if the deer don't eat them first.

Also, I've been meaning to show you this tree. This was our Christmas tree back in 2018. 

We don't put up a tree any more, but sometimes I'll find some potted thing that captures my heart. This was one of those. I'd seen it sitting outside a grocery store. The first time, I didn't buy it, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. When I saw it again at the same store a few days later, I decided to buy it. (When something sticks in my mind like that, I usually regret not acting on it.) When I had it home, we decorated it. It looks like a tree you might see in a Dr. Seuss book...maybe in Cindy Lou Who's house. It's a Blue Pyramid Cypress.

It started out about three feet tall. Now, if I stand beside it, it towers over my head. 

Like Linus said in A Charlie Brown Christmas, "I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love."

And speaking of love...Matthew really got into the swing of things when we bruleed the creme brulee. It was great fun. 

Mae added a little more flame to hers. We figured out that the amount of "burn" one likes is directly associated with how one likes one's marshmallows toasted. I like mine sort of tan-ish. Mae likes hers burned.

So that was a good day...busy, and a lot of fun.

Today I'm going to take it easy. I'll get some more quilting done, and I'm hoping to get a little more sewing done in the sewing room. I'm looking at catching up on the two Inverted Star blocks I need for my Rainbow Scrap project. Right now, though, I need some breakfast, and then I'll get on with my day.

Busy Kitchen Day

Good morning, my friends. Our weather seems to have taken a turn for the better. We were expecting rain all this week. Yesterday turned into a pretty nice day, and it's even nicer today. It makes me happy since we're getting together with the fam. It's always nicer when we're not confined to the house. The temperatures this weekend are supposed to reach into the 70's. That's what I'm talkin' about! If our dreams come true, we'll be able to eat outside on Sunday for the first time this year.

As for yesterday... before I could do anything else. I took the first stitches on the Tiny Treasures. This is Tiny Treasure #37:

Pretty simple...all back stitch.

Moving into the kitchen, I made some dishes ahead for our dinner tonight. First off, I started the long and scary process of making the custard for creme brulee. I did a lot of talking to myself through this process. They're made in 1-inch deep fluted custard dishes. That wouldn't be so scary, except that they're baked in a water bath. And so with a 1-inch deep dish, I had to be super duper careful not to splash water into the still-liquid custard. They were all placed in a roasting pan, so that I could move them around. Throughout, I was saying, "Careful, careful, careful...don't bump into anything...careful, careful, careful..." I'm telling you, it was downright petrifying. In the end...Perfection!

We'll brulee them this evening. I figure with three grown men in the household, everyone will want to get into the act. Don't worry. I'll keep the fire extinguisher handy.

While those were baking, I made the deviled Easter eggs. Kind of fun. Mine were in the dye a full 20 minutes to get the depth of color I wanted.

It was late in the day before I could get to my quilting. Long ago and far away, I spent an obscene amount of money on some templates. It became clear to me pretty quickly that I can't use these while I'm sewing. I seem utterly incapable of keeping the template butted up against the foot on my machine. Oh well. Still, they make it easy to mark my quilts using a hera marker, and I'll be using these in this quilt.

My plan is to do some dot-to-dot quilting, Angela Walters style, but I want to preserve the traditional style of the Amish by using curved, rather than straight lines. Thankfully the boss was there to offer his imput. 

Don't mess up.

So I've been perusing Pinterest for inspiration. For this Friendship Star, I did a bunch of curved lines to create this pattern. 

This next block is known as a Virginia Reel. It's really just eight Flying Geese arranged in an interesting way. You'll see later that a switch-a-roo of the colors yields a Dutchman's Puzzle block. (I love that about quilting...the geometry and the color.) And this is my go-to motif when I'm quilting Flying Geese.

The only other pieced block in this first row is a Nine Patch, and these Terry Twists are my go-to motif for a nine-patch.

Also, in yesterday's post I mentioned quilting the sashings and the border. As it turns out, this quilt has neither, but each panel block has a border around it. Thinking about how to quilt these, I decided to think of them as applique. For now, I'm just outlining the design in the panel for functionality. I didn't want to do anything too fancy here. I'll decide what to do in the borders later.

The only other panel block was this one. It was hard to decide what to do here. I started and ended with the tree.

Here's how it's looking from the back. It's pretty hard to see the quilting, and so I've messed with the color and contrast in an attempt to make it visible. If you can make it larger, it's easier to see.

And that was the end of my quilting day. I left it needle down at this panel in the next row.

And then it seemed like a good time to fill the bird feeders. While I was out, I noticed another one of the new daffodils has bloomed. This one is known as "Pink Charm."

And can we all pause here for a moment to consider the deplorable conditions of Sadie's life. Malnourished...abused...forlorn...cold. It can't get much worse than this.

Okay, so the hardest parts of tonight's dinner are finished. Mike will be roasting the turkey in our Traeger grill. I'm going to make mashed potatoes and gravy. That will wait until later. Earlier, I'll mix up some Thanksgiving Slaw. We're having roasted asparagus as a side dish. Sounds yummy, no? The only other thing I'll need to do is to set the table. I pulled out some of my Easter table decor. With my Easter Egg table runner, I think the table is going to be cute. I'll take a picture and post it tomorrow.

So there isn't too much to do today since I did most of it yesterday. I should have plenty of time for sewing. I'll get back to my quilting. When the next row is complete, I want to catch up on the blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I need to make March's red block. April's block will be pink. Here are the blocks I have for this project so far.

That's it from me today, my friends. I'm hopeful the weather will cooperate for your weekend. I don't know about you, but we're looking forward to spending some time outside for a few days. Probably I have time for a walk today. How are you spending your Easter weekend?