One Row to Go

Good morning, my friends. It's a new week, filled with promise. I'm promising to finish the Shop Hop quilt this week. There's just one row of blocks to finish and then I'll need to quilt the border. After that, it will be ready for binding. In yesterday's group of blocks were these:

We were in Albuquerque (above) just before their annual balloon festival, and that was a great shop. Below, we were in Yakima to have some work done on our camper slides. This fabric was selected to honor the Yakima Nation.

This next one was a fun shop on the northern boundary of Tucson.

It was there that I picked up the free pattern for the Cactus Cat.

This was another great shop in New Mexico.

And this is one of my favorite blocks in this quilt. While most sewing shops sell vacuums as a side hustle, this one sold wind-surfing boards. They had several pre-printed blocks to choose from. I looked up the pattern I was using to see if this one was large enough, and it was. It was kind of a perfect choice for this shop.

Remember that Lake Havasu City is where the London Bridge is now located. You can read about it right here.

Okay, so my wrist has been giving me trouble, as I expected. Any time I'm doing free motion quilting, it flares up some tendonitis in my left wrist. Even when I'm limiting my time at the machine, it still seems to be a problem. I wondered if it was more about holding the ruler than quilting, and so I looked back at old blog posts to see if I'd whined about it even without a ruler, and I had. So it's the quilting, not the ruler. Oh well. I've been babying it, and I immobilized it with a splint yesterday. As it turns out, I can quilt with the splint, and so I'm probably going to have to use a splint whenever I'm doing free motion quilting. Aging isn't for wimps, and quilting is bloodsport. Who among us hasn't drawn blood while sewing? I rest my case.

Speaking of cases, I mentioned yesterday that I'm on a mission to clean out my walk-in pantry. I've committed to doing one shelf per day until it's finished. My friend, Rita, asked me to do a before and after. I was reluctant at first...it's a little like showing an effort to clean out a garage. My pantry is sort of like an indoor shed for cooking stuff. Anyway...I decided I'd go ahead and show you what I'm doing. You can read on or not...no hard feelings if you're not interested.

Okay, so are you still here? I'd already done yesterday's shelf before reading Rita's comment. So I'm showing you only the after in the image below. I wanted to move all my mason jars to the bottom shelf rather than continue to risk killing myself in a shower of broken glass. (Yeah, I like to think ahead that way.) So I moved all the jars from the upper shelf to the bottom shelf. I was chagrined to realize I couldn't stack them as high there, but then I figured out that the half-pint jars will fit under the shelf, and that gave me enough room for almost all of them. There are still a couple of boxes stacked on the floor to the right, but I'm hoping I'll open up enough space on some other shelves to get them up off the floor.

Moving the jars to the lower shelf meant moving the things I had there to the upper shelf. These things don't get used more than a few times a year, and so putting them up higher makes sense. What you see here from left to right are my pickle crock, my canning kettle for water bath canning, my pressure canner, and a plastic bucket we keep inside and clean. We use it for brining turkeys. Yes, the turkeys are our heroes.

Before I show you the rest of the pantry, let me just tell you a little about how it came to be. Our house is kind of a funny house. By that I mean it has funny little rooms with no closets where there should be closets. We've added closets in some of those rooms. We bought our place for the property. The house was merely acceptable, and it worked for the two of us. 

The pantry was formerly a room too small to be a bedroom, and there was no closet. Initially, I set it up to be a music room. It held my piano and my guitars along with my library of sheet music and books. Eventually, we moved the piano downstairs to the family room. When I learned to quilt, I completely abandoned my musical pursuits (it never gave me much enjoyment anyway), and over time, we ended up selling all the musical instruments. 

That opened the music room up to become my walk-in pantry. It's about five steps away from the kitchen, and we changed out the door with this one we found at Home Depot. Mike stained the frame to match another door in our entry way.

Also, the doors you see below were once a solid wall. They're located on the opposite wall from the pantry door. Mike's office is through those doors, but it was once a single-car garage. We still crack ourselves up when someone sees Mike's office for the first time and says, "This is a big room!" And we say, "Big enough to park a car." I know...comedians we are not. (Sorry for the blur in this image.)

Okay, so this is the shelving unit I was working with. These restaurant-style shelves came from The Container Store. The second "shelf" is actually a basket where I put bags and boxes of pasta, rice, beans, and noodles. I really need to sort through some of that stuff. Probably I'll do that today. The shelf below holds appliances and pots that are too big for a cabinet. There's also a lifetime supply of parchment paper there purchased at a restaurant supply store many years ago.

Turning around from there are two more shelving units. All the liquor on the left top shelf mostly came from Mike's mom who passed away 25 years ago. I've been using it in recipes, but a lot of it just needs to get dumped. We don't drink it, and it's never going to get used. To the right of that are candles and table decorations. There are more large pots and things too large for cabinets there. Also, all my bread-baking stuff on the right bottom shelf. The rest is pretty self explanatory. It's messy, and some of it just needs to go away. Fascinating, I know.

To the right of those shelves is a window. Here I used some wire cubes that formerly held all my music. I was able to repurpose it for cleaning supplies, paper towels, toilet paper, and food storage containers. It was just a happy accident that it was precisely the size I needed for this space.

And that's about all I have to say about that. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

As I've mentioned before, Smitty demands his lovefest after dinner. We were still eating last night when he started meowing at the bottom of the stairs. A cat has his needs, you know.

So, I'm hoping to finish the final row of my quilt today. I left it needle down right here. Yes, the picture is upside down. It's that way on the machine. I'll keep my wrist splinted, and I should be able to finish it without too much discomfort.

Also, I'll continue on with my pantry project. And we'll be doing our grocery shopping tomorrow, so I need to make up a list. When you think about it, you need food to live, right? So making up a grocery shopping list can literally save lives. It makes it kind of heroic when you think of it that way, doesn't it? Yeah. Those of us who manage the food for our families should really get some kind of medal. At the very least, we should all get participation trophies.

So, off I go. Heroes R Us.

Three Rows Done

Good morning, my friends. I think we're heading into a mostly dry day. It was mostly dry yesterday as well. I mention this because it seems as if I have a small window of opportunity to cut back the peonies for the season. Mike is going to drive the tractor around to where they're growing so that I can put the clippings into the bucket. Yesterday, he was able to burn three big burn piles that had accumulated over more than one year. The fire was hot, and everything is burned to a pile of ash now. I'll be happy to load another pile of peony clippings onto it. I'm thinking the field might be lonely now that the burn piles are gone.

There was more on my to-do list than I remembered when I wrote yesterday's post. I'd completely forgotten I needed to make a Sweet Potato Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing for last night's dinner.

We were having Gilgeori Toast, which is a Korean street toast with cabbage and egg. 

The original recipe was from the NYTimes, but I've adapted it to make it a little easier to prepare. You can see how I did it at that link I've given you back there. It was a tasty meal, and I'm very fond of both the salad and the sandwich.

So all of that to say, I had food preparation to do in addition to my one housekeeping chore and four loads of laundry. Of course, the laundry does itself once it's sorted. That left me plenty of time for quilting. I worried I was going to have to take a day off. My wrist was bothering me most of the morning, but then it felt better by the time I was ready to have at the quilting. I did it little by little as I have been all along. By day's end, I had another row quilted. Here are the blocks I finished yesterday.

When I purchased that fabric for Roxy's Quilt & Sew (above), I thought I was seeing casinos. Ft. Mohave is located where the pointy tip of Nevada meets with the states of Arizona and California. We were staying in Laughlin, Nevada, where there is plenty of gambling and casinos. It wasn't until later, when I made the block, I realized they were hotels and not casinos. Oh well. It still works.

Moving on...I purchased this next fabric when I made a trip north to deliver a Marine Corps-themed quilt to a Marine Corps veteran friend of mine. As long as I was making the drive, I visited a quilt shop along the way and picked up this star fabric.

The rest are probably self-explanatory.

This one honored the historic Coquille River Lighthouse.

When the row was complete, I took the quilt off the machine to try to get a good look at the back. It's hard to discern on such a busy fabric, but I'm hoping you can see the quilting.

The beauty of this design is that it's the same both upside-down and right-side-up. And so I can turn the quilt upside-down now and keep the bulk on the quilting table, rather than sitting in my lap. It's much more maneuverable that way. So I left it needle down, and I'll pick it up here later today.

Downstairs, I found two lazy kitties with the Do Not Disturb sign posted.

After breakfast this morning, I ventured outside to get some pictures of the fall foliage. Things are putting on a pretty show right now. This is the Japanese maple tree just outside our sliding glass doors.

This is one of the red leaf maples around by the hot tub.

This is a dwarf Japanese maple tree. We refer to this as Smitty's umbrella tree. It's a good hideout for him in the summertime. It's only just getting started with its color change.

This is our dogwood tree. I've never noticed it changing to fall colors before. It's very pretty right now.

This is a maple tree we planted at the far end of our field. We planted it for its fall colors, but far from the house to avoid having yet more leaves to rake.

There are others, and I'll update you from time to time. Fall has definitely arrived in Oregon.

Okay, so it's a not too busy day ahead, but I'm determined to get those peonies cut back. I'm babying my wrist a little right now. It was fairly painful last night. I rubbed it with some topical anti-inflammatory and also iced it. It was feeling better this morning, although it gave me a few twinges while I was making breakfast this morning. I'm still hopeful I'll be able to get another row of quilting done before day's end.

It was to be a Bowflex day of exercise, but cutting back the peonies will be my exercise for the day. I've also committed to cleaning out my pantry shelves. I have a walk-in pantry that I love, but it's been neglected for a few years. I really need to remove everything from the shelves, rid myself of some stuff that's been there too long, and I need to dust off the shelves. Also, I want to move my stash of mason jars from the top shelf to the bottom. It's downright dangerous the way it is now. I've done no canning this year for the first time in many years, and that means the jars are stacking up. That tower of glass is starting to make me nervous. I need to move it down where it has less distance to fall. So I'm committing to doing one shelf per day. At that rate, it will take me a couple of weeks to finish.

So there's plenty to keep me busy today. How is fall treating you?

A Little More Progress

Good morning, my friends. Probably I jinxed the weather yesterday when I told you the sky was getting brighter, and sunshine was in our future. Boy, was I wrong. It rained off and on most of the day. Looking ahead at the forecast, we're really not expecting any sunshine until early next week. After that...more rain. I'll need to be sure to get out and cut back the peonies when I have a chance. As for yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot on the agenda. Still, I managed to fill my time with some baking.

Another row is quilted on the Shop Hop quilt. These are a little tedious with so much measuring and marking, and so I had as my goal to stitch them one at a time, doing something else in between. With that goal, I managed to get another five done. I'd left my needle down on this block.

Later, I came back to do this one. Looks like I got photobombed by my camera strap.

And since my gardening was thwarted by rain, what else could I do but try this recipe for Apple-Spice Muffins with Oat Streusel. This was an easy and tasty recipe from Southern Living.

The recipe calls for either pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice to go into the muffin and the streusel. I used pumpkin pie spice. And if you don't have either, it's easy enough to make your own. There are plenty of recipes online for both. I was curious about this. As it turns out pumpkin pie spice is a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Apple pie spice is a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. So the pumpkin pie spice has more spices in it. One would assume it also has a "spicier" flavor. We liked it made with pumpkin pie spice. The glaze is made from confectioner's sugar and apple cider, although I used apple juice. They're a nice little snack before breakfast with our morning coffee.

While those were baking, I quilted another block.

Little by little, I got them all done.

Originally, when I bought this fabric from It's Sew Moab (permanently closed now 😥), we hadn't actually driven our Jeep in Moab. We'd only ridden our ATV's, and this fabric was as close as I could come. Now, it's officially Jeeping territory after our trip back in September.

It's a little hard to see how the quilting looks from the back. I've bumped up the contrast in this next image, and I'm hoping you can see it.

And five blocks completed the second row. Now I've left it needle down and marked for commencement of quilting today. I'll start right here.

Earlier in the day, I'd stitched quite a bit on this block for Grandpa's Bridges.

It was enough to make me want to move my hoop lower, and here's where I'll pick it up today.

There's still a lot of stitching to do on this one. I'll probably still make up the next to blocks for The Story of My Day. It'll be a good way to fill time on my quilting breaks. These are the blocks I have for that quilt so far.

Also on today's agenda is one easy housekeeping chore, and I need to do some laundry. With the quilting I'm doing, I'm starting to think about ways to fill my time between blocks. It makes for a fairly regimented day, but a lot gets done.

So with that, I'll get back to it. We received notification that our vote-by-mail ballots are on their way. They seem late this year, and we, along with our neighbors, were starting to feel a little nervous about it. It's reassuring to know they'll arrive soon so we can vote. Time's a wastin.

One Row Done

Good morning, my friends. We had some excitement here this morning just before I sat down to chat with y'all. I noticed Smitty staring out the window at something.

The shade was down, and so I got up to open it for him when I spied our friendly bobcat. 

He always appears around dawn or dusk, and so the light is never very good for pictures. He had a bead on something...probably a gopher...and he sat like this for around 20 minutes before moving on.

We were happy to see him. When he left our field a few days go, we heard gunshots from our neighbor's direction. We worried someone was trying to shoot him, and so we were glad to see him this morning. Smitty was put-out at this intruder to his purrsonal hunting grounds.

My morning was busy yesterday. I didn't make it into the sewing room until late in the afternoon. Nevertheless, I was able to quilt the first row of blocks. I'd already started this one the day before. I just added two straight line "frames" around the whole thing. One is in the white inner "polaroid" border. One is outside near the edges of the block.

I'd started this one the day before as well, and so I finished it off with the straight-line frames.

I'm using the Line Tamer ruler for the inner "star" quilting, but just eye-balling the outer lines. I realized, I couldn't keep the Line Tamer lined up with anything. The blocks want to bow and bend as I stitch over them, and I can do as straight a line without the ruler as I can with it.

For this one, I measured out a 7-1/2 inch square over the camera and gave it a border like the other "photograph" blocks. That gave me four corners where I could create the star. Then, I measured the same distances for the two outer frames. It doesn't look symmetrical on top, but it will look the same on the back.

And then there was one more block to complete the row.

So...I can't say I'm thrilled with this quilting, but it's all I can think to do. An edge-to-edge design might have been a better choice for this quilt, but I worried it would distract from the embroidered names and places. And what color thread would I use? I'll just keep going with this. In the end, it will all work out. And once it's washed, any bobbles will be hard to find.

Today I'll continue on with this. I'd like to finish one row per day, and then I'll spend a day on the outer border. If I can keep up that pace, I'll have it finished in about a week. 

I haven't looked at the calendar for today, and so I don't know what's on my to-do list. The weather is supposed to be nice today, and so I'll probably get out and cut back the peonies for winter. I'll give the dahlias a little more time before I retire them for the season. As I'm writing, the sky is getting brighter. It's looking like a good day. There won't be many left, and so we're enjoying the last of the good weather before the Big Dark sets in.