Ending July

Good morning, my friends. Can you believe it's the last day of July already? My mind is still back in March, as if we've only just returned home from our winter trip. And now...here we are, halfway through summer. We'll be home all of August, but we have a trip planned for mid-September. As the time gets closer, I’ll say more about where we’re going. Also, we’re still sweating the possibility of a gas shortage. If that happens, the trip is off.

There wasn't much time for sewing yesterday. I had to deal with a basal cell on my shoulder. The doctor's appointment was quick. Once I saw the doctor, I was finished in less than 10 minutes. I'm really liking my new dermatologist. He seems confident and competent, and he's been very personable. Before seeing the doctor, I did a short grocery shopping trip and then dropped off an Amazon return for Mike. Since I didn't get home until after 4:00 p.m., it seemed too late in the day. Also, I was soothing my heavy-traffic-frazzled nerves. Really, I just needed to sit and pulsate for a while.

The day started as it usually does, checking in on the garden. Not much to report there, but I took a better picture of the red and white zinnia.

The bee on this orange zinnia seemed mesmerized by the flower. It sat perfectly still, as if asleep. As always, I was tempted to pet it, but resisted the impulse.

The bird feeders needed filling. On my treks back and forth to the seed bins, I noticed our poor deer-eaten rose had managed to produce another flower. This one was low to the ground, and the deer must not have seen it.

Back inside, I took the first stitches on Block 11 for the Snowmen and Reindeer project. This block is called "Reindeer with Fancy Antlers."

There were a couple of housekeeping chores on my list, and then I was able to quilt another row of Kittens.

These are pretty easy, and the threads are behaving nicely.

Now I've moved to the top row of kittens. I'll finish the blocks today, and then get ready to quilt the sashings and borders. Probably I'll have this ready for binding by Monday, if not sooner.

So with all that going on, I didn't get any time with the Lemurs. I'll have some time to work on this today. Here's where I left it. I'm afraid I chose a too-dark gray for the face, but maybe I'll feel differently when I get farther along. It's not too late to change it.

The garden needs hoeing, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Some of my day will be spent in the kitchen. My supply of Tomato-Jalapeno Jam ran out last week, and so I’m going to make more. I like it with eggs, and especially on a fried egg sandwich. You can think of it as gourmet ketchup. It's one of my favorite condiments. Happily, I can make just a small batch, and it doesn't take very long. For this, I'm using store-bought Roma tomatoes. 

Also, I want to bake some more granola cups. We’re loving those for breakfast. They’re light and filling at the same time. And since it’s Friday, I sometimes like to make us a dessert. I have some homemade apple pie filling in the pantry that needs to get used. I’ll bake us a Dutch Apple Pie for Two. 

It sounds like a lot, but I think there will still be plenty of time for sewing. I'm looking forward to getting back to the Lemurs. August's color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge should be announced by tomorrow, and so I'll need to make another of the Inverted Star blocks. These are the blocks I have so far.

With that, I’ll get on with my day. How’s the summer treating you so far? What's going on in your sewing room today?

Lemme at the Lemurs

Good morning my friends. It was a productive day yesterday. There were about a half dozen simple to-do's on my list, and I had everything done by lunch time. After that, I could get back to my sewing with no interruptions...except to let cats in and out. If you know cats, then you know they are always, always, always on the wrong side of the door.

My first stop was the garden to check the beans. It was the first day I didn't have to redirect any of them. I harvested two more zucchinis and another tomato. The zinnias are putting out more flowers.

In this next photo, the new flowers on the right were in shadow, and so I used fill flash for this photo. It blew out the colors of the flowers on the left. Oh well. You get the idea.

Back inside, I went to work on the final Tiny Treasure. This is Tiny Treasure #72. It has stem stitch, stem fill, backstitch and basket weave stitch.

Now all 72 Tiny Treasures are complete. I know what I'm going to do with these, but they'll have to wait their turn behind a few other projects I want to work on first.

And then I quilted the next row of Kittens.

These go pretty fast.

Last one of the day.

Now I've turned the quilt upside down to keep the bulk on the table, and I'll start with the second row of kittens. Thankfully, this quilting can be done in any direction without having to turn my brain upside down.

From there, I was ready to take the first steps on the Lemurs project. Sadie was my emotional support cat as I started this scary project.

As a reminder, here's my original photograph.

When I'm doing animals, I like to start with the eyes, and it seemed the most logical place to start was with the lemur on the right. I'll work my way from right to left on this project. With the one-hour rule in place, I started a timer for one hour. I went just a few minutes over because I wanted to try to finish the whole face. Here's what I have for my first day's effort.

So far, so good. The biggest challenge with these is going to be finding the proper shades of tans and grays. The lemurs have both colors in their fur, and the gradations are barely visible. For some colors, I'm using just a tiny spot of a larger more colorful piece of fabric. Now that I've started, I feel less apprehensive about it, but no more confident. Hopefully, future efforts will help boost my confidence.

Today is going to be kind of messed up. This afternoon I’ll return to my dermatologist for some more work on a spot he biopsied on my shoulder. It’s a basal cell. Nothing to worry about, but it is bothersome to have to deal with it. That’s probably going to take up most of my afternoon. I need to make a stop at the grocery store afterward. Thankfully, we’ll be having leftovers for dinner. There might be time for some sewing today. Maybe not. For sure, I’ll be taking the first stitches on Block 11 for the Snowmen & Reindeer. 

This was a take-along project for our camping trip, and then I never even touched it.

If there’s other time for sewing, the Kittens quilt is still my top priority. If there’s any more time, I’ll get back to the lemurs. For all they cause me angst, once I’ve started on one of these quilts from a photo, it’s hard to walk away from it.

Okay then…busy day ahead. Time to get going. Stay out of trouble today, okay?

It's a Start

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy day yesterday, with a trek into town for a haircut. Fortunately, the haircut was finished fairly soon...one of the benefits of short hair. I was home early enough in the afternoon to be able to fit in the day's sewing goals. There was some time in the morning, and so I was able to get my morning chores done too. As for sewing, I stitched up Tiny Treasure #71. This one has stem stitch, straight stitch, and fern stitch.

And if you’re keeping score, then you might know that the Tiny Treasure I’ll stitch today will be the last one. Yahoo! They’ve been fun to stitch, but I’m excited to sew them into a finished quilt top. I have some ideas about this, and I think it’s going to be cute.

Okay, and I’m visiting the garden every morning to check on the green beans. Today there were some new sunflowers. This first one is called “Ring of Fire.” 

It’s one of my favorites. The bees are loving these.

This is pale  yellow with a yellow center. Unless I’m mistaken, I think another one will bloom eventually with a black center.

This one is the Infrared Mix.

Okay…insert trip into town and a haircut here. Also, I made a stop off at one of our higher-end supermarkets. They have a shrimp roll that I like for lunch, and so I usually stop when I’m over that way. Today, I was also curious to see if they sold dill heads for pickling. I’m not ready for any pickling yet, but I’d like to know where I can find the dill heads. And, yes. They did. That was something of a load off my mind. 

When I got home, I had some lunch, and then I got busy with my quilting. I’m outlining the embroidered kittens, and then filling in the background with a hooking meander. There wasn’t a lot of room in the backgound of this one.

When my embroidery outline doesn’t have a heavy stem-stitched edge (note the left side of the one below), I did a sort of free-motion zigzagging line. 

And last for the day was this one.

That was pretty quick. Probably I could have done another row, but I’ll stick with my original commitment of three blocks per day. Now I’ve moved the quilt down to the bottom row, and I’ll start with the middle block there today.

Also, I wanted to trace out a pattern for the lemurs. As a reminder, this is the image I'm working from.

The traced pattern has a lot of detail. It’s always hard to know how much to include. As I was thinking about this later in the evening, I realized that some of the smaller details can be done by filling in with thread. As I work on these, I put an “x” in the pieces I’ve already done. For this, if a piece is very small, or if it can be easily done at the end with thread, I’ll mark that section with a yellow highlighter. That will make it easy to find when I start doing the thread work. These are collage (applique) quilts, but the thread work is every bit as important as the fabric.

It seemed as good a time as any to sort through my fabrics to see what I thought could be useful. Sadie gave them the snuggleability test. I told her that art quilts don’t have to pass the snuggleability test. My naivete and simplemindedness saddened her. What is the purrpose of such an item if it is not to be snuggled? The whole world could be a huge snugglefest if only the pawpulous would develop an appurropriately loving cattitude. Sheesh. How many times do we have to go over this?

As I organized my supplies, she considered taking a nap. Snuggleability nearly always purrcedes a nap, and so napping characteristics are also carefully considered.

So I think I’ve worked up the nerve to start working with fabrics today. For this, I’m going to institute the one-hour rule, meaning, I’ll work on it for a minimum of one hour. I can go longer if I want to, but I give myself permission to quit at that point and work on something else. It keeps me from going crazy. 

For dinner last night, I tried this recipe for Pineapple Chicken. It was tasty and simple. Mike grilled the chicken and the pineapple slices, but they could also be cooked on a grill pan. The chicken is marinated in a combination of seasonings, pineapple juice, and soy sauce. Prior to adding the chicken, ome of the marinade is set aside and then cornstarch added at the end to create a glaze. The glaze really makes the dish. We liked it. I served it with jasmine rice.

Our grocery store has been packaging different meats in $5 packages. It’s something different each time we go. This was one of those. For our $5, we were able to score four of these thin-cut chicken cutlets, and those worked well in this dish.

Smitty helped me write this post. I'd say he helped me with the editing, but you can see that he was asleep on the job. It happens when you're an old man cat. (Don't tell him I said he was an "old man.")

There are several things on the day's agenda. I’ll stitch up the last Tiny Treasure. My morning check-in with the green beans has been a pleasant way to start the day, and so I’ll do that too. There is a list of quick chores to do, but I think I’ll have plenty of time for sewing. I’m thinking I need to pick a day to get outside and pull some weeds. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but the movement would do me some good. (I swear I’m going to get back to my workouts…someday. Procrastination. Doncha love it?)

Okay, so I have a list of things to do…time to start checking them off.  Have a good day, Everybody!

Two Scary Starts

Good morning, my friends. Camping is fun. Getting back to normal is also fun. We had grocery shopping to do yesterday, but we were finished and home before noon. Earlier, I had time to stitch up Tiny Treasure #70. This one has stem stitch, stem fill, lazy daisy, and fishbone stitches.

The garden is looking good. The green beans are getting a once-over every morning as I train them to climb their poles. They’re getting the hang of it, and some are nearly to where the poles come together at the top. There are a few tendrils still too short to reach the pole, but everyone seems to have gotten the idea that they’re not supposed to wrap themselves around the protective fencing.

When I was able to get to my sewing, I did the top-stitching for the Blueberries block. 

Here are the 14 blocks I have for this quilt so far. There are two to go. When it gets my attention next time, I’ll finish the remaining blocks, and then ready it to be sewn into a finished quilt top.

Upstairs at the quilting machine, I turned my attention to setting up “Kittens” for quilting. Starting a new quilting project always makes me a little nervous. I have some ideas about quilting this. Probably I’ll outline the embroidery and then do some sort of simple filler in the background. In the borders and sashings, I have an idea for a specialty motif. So, there’s nothing fancy going on here, but I’m still apprehensive about getting started.

I’m going to continue with the same bobbin already in the machine from my last project.

It’s a 50-weight So Fine thread from Superior Threads. It behaved well on my last project, and so I’ll just keep it going.

For the embroidered blocks, I’ll ust a white thread. I don’t want to distract from the embroidery with another color or anything fancy. Keeping it simple. Plain vanilla.

It’s another 50-weight So Fine thread. 

For the borders and sashings, I wanted a variegated thread that would include the many colors seen in the fabric. The one pictured below did that better than anything else I had available.

It’s another 50-weight Valdani thread. The Valdani threads come in little spool-sized zip-lock bags. (As always, thank you, Ila.)

Okay, and then I threaded the machine, checked my tension, and left it needle-down at the first kitten. There are four rows of three embroidered blocks each. My goal will be to do three blocks each day before moving on to the borders and sashings. If I can stick with that goal, it should be ready for binding in about a week.

Okay, and that took me to the super scary part of my day. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m going to attempt to do an art quilt of some lemurs. This is a photo I took when we saw them at a Madagascar exhibit at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, Florida. And let me just say that the Florida Aquarium is well worth a visit if you ever find yourself near Tampa. It was the aquarium that hooked us on aquariums (aquaria?) in general. When we’re traveling, we’ll never miss a nearby aquarium, and we became scuba divers so that we could see the really big aquarium of our planet.

So I spent some time digging through my stash, looking for appropriate fabrics. While I was at it, I reminded myself that sometimes the wrong side of the fabric is the best choice. I’m not sure yet what to do about that bland background, but I pulled some fabrics I thought had potential. Now the photograph is taped to the table, and there is a piece of plastic sheeting taped over the top. The tape prevents anything from shifting. Today, I’m hoping to trace all the elements and details onto the plastic sheeting creating a pattern for myself. For this I’ll use a fine point Sharpie. It’s the only thing that will write on the plastic without smearing. And there, I gave myself a couple of attagirls for not letting my anxiety get in the way of getting started. 

Here’s the thing: If you’ve been reading for a while, then you know I’ve made several of these art quilts from photographs. For some of them, it took me years to work up the nerve just to get started. (Now that I think of it, this is one of the ones I’ve waited years to start.) And, knock on wood, so far I’ve not attempted any that made me decide to give up. The “Tin Cup” quilt was among the most challenging. When I was able to complete it successfully, it boosted my confidence. Still, each time I try one of these, it is with considerable angst that this could be the one to defeat me. And as I’m writing those words, I’m asking myself, so what? Yeah, really. It’s supposed to be fun. Okay…shaking it off. [Straightens posture.] Thanks, you guys. It always helps when we can have these little chats.

Okay, and so I promised you some kitty news. There was no kitty help in the sewing room, although some loud purring would have gone a long way to calm my nerves. You know how when you’re too warm under the covers, but it’s too cold not to have them, and so you stick one foot out to cool off? (Maybe I’m the only one who does that, but I’m betting you do it too.) So anyway, Sadie, being a black cat, is too hot in the sun. But it’s not warm enough to just choose a shady spot. She does the opposite. She keeps most of her body in the shade, and just puts her paws out to soak up the sun’s rays.

Smitty purrfers the full-face sunbath. 

Okay, so I’m getting a haircut today, which will cut into my afternoon. There might not be that much time for sewing today. If there is, I’ll start with the quilting. Getting my backlog of quilts finished up is my highest priority right now. If there’s time to work on the lemurs, I’ll do that too. It seems doubtful, but not impossible.

Have a good day, Everybody! Try to stay cool.