Something New

Good morning, my friends. Before I say another word, please join me in wishing this handsome hunka mancat a very happy 14th birthday.

My, oh my. How time flies. It seems only yesterday we brought home this little squirt.

He shows his age a little more now. Just like the rest of us, he has good and bad days. (Read that: "fast and slow days.") He's at an age where we know we won't have him for very much longer. Our first cat, Benjamin, lived to be 16. We also had a tortie named Krissy, and she lived to be 19. He's doing fine in his old age so far, but we remind ourselves daily to love him up while we still can.

It was a good day of sewing yesterday after taking a day or two off during the week. Of course, every morning starts with some slow stitching. This is Tiny Treasures #45. It has stem stitch, straight stitch, satin stitch, and lazy daisy.

There are three more days of these (including today), and so I decided to trace out Block 5 for "Home is Where My Flock Is."

Probably I'll get started on it by Tuesday morning.

I was in the mood to bake something, and so I baked us some Chocolate-Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries. I've linked to the original recipe there, but I've scaled it down to make it a "for two" version. Actually, what you see here are cookies for four. (They're big cookies.)

Usually when I bake these, I'm only baking two. Since I can fit four in my toaster oven, I decided to bake them for two plus two, and I'll freeze the extras for another day.

Okay, and then I got back to my quilting. I've been dragging my feet about this a little bit. Although I like my "Line Tamer" ruler for quilting straight lines, it's still difficult to hold onto the ruler while free motion quilting. I'd stitched a few inches on the first line when I remember...duh...that I had these square feet purchased some time ago. 

My machine is a Babylock Tiara II, but it is identical to the HandiQuilter Sweet 16 machine. Anything that will work on the HandiQuilter Sweet 16 will also work on my machine. I bought the feet in preparation for quilting this Strips & Stripes quilt back in 2023. It worked great for that.

So, I had to remind myself how to attach this foot to my machine...

And I especially like how I can snuggle it up to those corner seams so that I can quilt a nice square corner.

And that was a whole lot easier than trying to hold onto the ruler.

When I started on these borders, I was thinking there were ten bordered blocks. As it turns out, there are 12. And so I decided to break them up into groups of four. I did four yesterday. I'll do another four today and another four tomorrow. After that, it will be ready for binding. Here's a little peek at the back.

There was plenty of time left in the day to start on the next "Gumballs" quilt. As I've mentioned, I enjoyed doing this red version so much that I'm going to make another one in a different colorway.

This new one will be done in blues, greens, and aquas. So, I pulled out all my scrap bins, and went to work on the cutting for the first row of five blocks. Also, I didn't want to refer to them as the "Red Gumballs" and the "Green Gumballs." So, I started thinking of what else looks like gumballs. I know! Jawbreakers! So, these are the scraps I'll be using in my new "Jawbreakers" project.

Smitty read the cutting dimensions to me.

And then he helped me count them out as I cut.

It took what remained of my sewing day, but the cutting is finished now. I can start sewing these together today.

There was some time to get outside to see how the garden is growing. The Andromeda is developing its red foliage now.

And it's amazing what a few days of sunshine did for the tulips. There is another yellow one around the other side of the house. Apparently, the deer do not like the yellow-flavored tulips.

The Black Tartarian cherry tree is covered in cherry blossoms now.

The laggardly Bing is always about a week behind its brethren to the left.

Smitty was keeping an eye out for any furry mammals. 

The rain has returned for most of this week. It'll be good sewing weather. I'll continue on with my quilting, and make a stab at getting the first row of Jawbreaker blocks sewn together. Also, I want to bake a skillet cherry cobbler for two. We're almost out of ice cream, but flush with vanilla. That will go with our cobbler. 

If I run out of things to keep me busy, there are two quilt backs I need to make. I've not been in any hurry with those since I'm still waiting for a string of warm days to set up the sawhorse and plywood tables for sandwiching the 14 quilts that are in need. The most recent warm weather has been spent doing gardening things, but I'm reserving the next stretch of warm weather for making quilt sandwiches. 

Okay, so Happy Saturday, Everybody. I'm on my way to do some slow-stitching. What's on your to-do list for today?

Bridge Walk

Good morning, my friends. It was a good and tiring day yesterday. As I mentioned, my friend Sue and I walked across a newly-opened pedestrian bridge in the neighboring community of Sherwood yesterday. We started on the far side of the bridge and walked across to where the new high school is located.

It was hard to position myself to see the whole bridge without getting a lot of lamp posts and power lines in my photo.

And then we walked back to where we started and headed on down the road to find the historic part of Sherwood.

We passed some pretty blooming things along the way. I haven't tried identifying any of these blooming trees. 

There were pretty two-toned iris.

The sun shining on these tulips makes them look as thought they're emitting light from within.

Here's another blooming tree that I don't know.

We walked around the block in Sherwood and happened upon this memorial dedicated to Sherwood's sons and daughters who served during World War II.

It was a nice day for a walk. We probably walked about 4-1/2 miles all told. Back at home, I iced my aching knees, had some lunch, and took a nap.

When I woke up, I had to decide if I had enough energy to plant the annuals. There was rain in the forecast for Friday (today), but not until late in the day. I could have waited if I trusted the forecast. But with rain in the forecast all next week, it seemed most advisable to do it while I knew the weather was cooperating. I'm glad I did, because it's done now, and it really wasn't that taxing. 

In the three patio pots, I planted African daisies, alyssum, and calibrachoa. I'm told the common name for that last one is "million bells." They're looking a little bedraggled after being roughed up in the transplanting process. There's also a volunteer snapdragon in the mix.

All three pots have the same combination, but in different colors.

I'm realizing that I need to give them some fertilizer too. I'll add that to today's list.

To their left, I planted a Sun Gold cherry tomato in the whiskey barrel there. It has a lot of equipment associated with it...a tomato cage with a stake to prevent the tomato from pulling the cage over with it and falling down. Also, we put fencing around the bottom to keep the squirrels from eating it.

In the pots that line the sidewalk, I planted geraniums. The squirrels won't eat them, and so that's what I plant. I like the variegated one in front.

Something else the squirrels won't eat...marigolds. (Sorry for the blur.)

The next two pots are in shade for most of the day, and so I planted shade-loving impatiens...

And begonias. I've never tried begonias in these pots, so I don't know if they'll become squirrel food, and I don't know if they'll be happy in this level of light. The tag said partial shade, and that's what they'll get here.

Finally, I re-established the Gracie Memorial Catnip Garden. The little rock to the right of the Gracie stake says, "I came, I purred, I conquered." I have to put rocks around the catnip. The kitties get overly zealous. They like to roll around in it, effectively killing it. The rocks are there to protect it.

I still need to plant three slicing tomatoes. Those will go in pots in the greenhouse. Also, I want to plant some lettuce seeds. That stays in the greenhouse with the tomatoes. There's also some tarragon for the culinary herb garden. I started to plant the tarragon yesterday, but the ground was dry and hard after a week of dry weather. I'll get to that next week after we've had a little more rain and the ground will be softer for digging. I have other seeds to start as well, but I'll hold off on those for a little while longer.

So that brought me to the end of the day. I had about a half hour to rest before I needed to start dinner. For dinner last night, I tried this recipe for Creamy Lasagna Soup. It's not hard to make, but it took a full hour. I used bulk mild Italian sausage in mine, but otherwise followed the recipe as written. It's made with broken up lasagna noodles, and it was tasty.

Mike was expecting something more like traditional lasagna. He was expecting a tomato-based soup. His comments caused me to write a note for another time. I'd like to try reducing the amount of chicken broth by one cup and adding in an undrained can of diced tomatoes. It might be good that way, and it will give Mike the tomatoes he's expecting with something that has "lasagna" in the name.

While we cleaned up, I noticed Smitty enjoying the afternoon sunshine on his catio. It's a good time of the year for kitties.

Today will be an easier day. I'm going to debone a turkey carcass. I'll divide up the meat into two-cup portions and freeze it in sandwich bags. Then, I can use it in casseroles or soups. Also, I'm going to make a stab at the Bow-Flex. I've been threatening to do it ever since we got home from our trip, but so far, I haven't attempted it. With my shoulder hurting, I know I won't be able to do all the exercises, but nothing is stopping me from doing some of the leg work. It'll be an experiment to see what parts of my body haven't yet given up the ghost.

Right now it's time for breakfast and some more slow-stitching. I'm coming to the end of the Tiny Treasures for this go round, and so I should probably trace the next block for Home is Where my Flock Is. These are the blocks I have so far.

Also, I want to get back to my quilting today. And if there's time, I'll get started on the new Gumballs quilt. It's a lot for a single day, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Early Bird

Good morning, my friends. Yes, it's true I said I'd be posting later today if I posted at all. And so if you thought you were going to be able to drink your coffee in peace this morning, you'll be disappointed. Here I am flapping my lips again. There was an early start to my morning, and so I find myself with time to spare.

Since I knew I'd be leaving early this morning, I did this morning's slow-stitching yesterday evening while we watched the news. And so I have two Tiny Treasures to show you this morning. This one is Tiny Treasure #43. It has stem stitch, straight stitch, and backstitch.

And this is Tiny Treasure #44. It has stem stitch and satin stitch.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it was a pedicure day, and so I left around 11:30 a.m. Before that, I had some time to spend in the sewing room. My first task was to rework those half square triangles I'd sewn together wrong. They also needed trimming. There were 16 of these.

Smitty helped me with that, and then he helped me arrange them.

When they were sewn together, I could finish sewing the blocks together.

When it was time to leave, I had them this far.

After I got home, I finished sewing them together. They just needed borders from here.

And there's March's red block.

And there's April's pink block.

With those finished, I'm caught up on my Rainbow Scrap project for 2026. Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

That pretty well used up what remained of the day. I was outside for a bit and noticed the first tulip has bloomed. There are about a half dozen tulips in this whiskey barrel, and there's one around the front of the house. The tulips are celebrated only when the deer don't eat them first.

Okay, and as I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm leaving early this morning to walk with Sue. We're going to cross a newly-opened footbridge in a neighboring town. It'll be a short walk back and forth across the bridge, and then we'll walk to the historic part of the little town of Sherwood. Sherwood has expanded in the way small towns do, and it borders the highway leading to the Oregon coast. Most people only see that "highway" part of Sherwood. There is, however, and older and more charming part of town about two miles from the main road. When we've walked over the bridge, we'll walk the rest of the way to Sherwood proper and get ourselves a snack there before heading back. Sounds like a nice way to spend a sunny morning, no?

And with that, I must go. Have a good day, Everybody!