A Good Sewing Day

Good morning, my friends. Following through on my promise to sew my guts out yesterday, I did exactly that. Early, I hoed the garden. Everything is looking good out there, happily. I uncovered the zucchini and the cucumbers. They had wire baskets over them to protect them from gnawing critters. I think they've grown large enough to stand on their own now. After that, I needed to put away the laundry from the day before. And then...all sewing, all the time.

There were two more embroidered blocks to quilt for the "Seasons" project. For summer, I did some pebbling in the sunflowers, and then a looping beeline connecting the various bees in the piece.

For the final block...just some swirls. I couldn't really see any particular theme in this one that would lend itself well to quilting, and so I just endeavored to fill in all the little nooks and crannies.

I'd only been at it for about 20 minutes at that point, and so I decided to go ahead and quilt the sashings. For this I did a double upsy-downsy ribbon motif. There are five horizontal sashings and two vertical ones. I ran out of bobbin thread as I was finishing the fourth of the horizontal sashings.

It's difficult to wind a bobbin with that monofilament thread, and I spent the rest of my quilting time on that. It killed my motivation to do anything more, and so I'll finish up the sashings today (hopefully). After that, I'll move on to the many thread changes for the pieced blocks.

From there, I headed into the sewing room, determined to get at least one of the Yoder sisters fused together. At first glance, this is a complicated and scary pattern, and short on instructions. Already, I'd taped the placement diagrams together.

But then I realized I needed to do more taping for the applique templates themselves. Probably I spent about a half hour figuring all this out.

When I was ready to sew, Sadie joined me. She likes doing "girl" stuff, and she thought this yellowish-gold dress would go purrfectly with her furs.

So after giving it some thought, it became clear that the first step was to make the dress. I'm assembling these on a teflon pressing sheet. I can fuse fabric to the pressing sheet, but it can be peeled up and repositioned if I need to.

Next, I needed to make the apron. There are two versions of the apron. I'm following along with the image included with the pattern. I'm making the second sister from the left.

Sadie can become a little overly-exuberant with her "helping," and so she was encouraged to find another job.

Then I went to work cutting six pieces for the apron. (There is a knot where the ties are that isn't visible in this image.) Keeping in mind that once I fuse fabric to fabric, I cannot reposition it, and so I gulped hard and fused the apron pieces to the dress.

Phew! No problem. And then I could finish the rest of her.

And lookie there...I can peel the whole thing off the pressing sheet in preparation for fusing it to the background.

I want to make all four sisters before I fuse them to the background, and so I set her aside to wait for the rest of her party of four to arrive.

Smitty showed up for the second sister. We don't like to talk about this often, but Smitty sometimes likes to dress up in drag. He thought the blue dress would be best with his furs.

And so I went to work making the second sister. This one is second from the right in the pattern picture. Her apron is different. There's an applique template included for a traditional Amish bonnet, but I kind of like the hats. I thought about doing a bonnet or two, but then I really liked the symmetry of the hats. I decided to stick with that.

And now these two are ready to go. 

It was past time to stop by then, and so that was the end of my sewing day. I should have plenty of time to finish the remaining two sisters today, and then I'll be able to fuse them to the background for top-stitching.

When I went back upstairs, I was surprised to find a deer eating the sunflower seeds I put out for the birds! A friend of mine who lives in Idaho said deer eat her sunflower seeds all the time. In 24 years in this house, I've never seen this before. Weird.

Okay, so I don't really know how the day is going to go. I'm hoping to have plenty of sewing time, but my asthma is simply not improving enough. I'm going to have to head to an urgent care clinic this morning, and I expect I'll get another nebulizer treatment. In my 72 years of living, I've never had an asthma flare-up like this one. I barely slept last night with all the coughing, and my rescue inhaler just doesn't seem to be doing enough to ameliorate my symptoms. I'm hopeful the wait won't be long. We also need to pick up a few groceries, and so I'm afraid the morning will be shot. With so little sleep last night, I foresee a nap this afternoon as well.

So, it's anybody's guess how the day will go. I'll be happy if I can start feeling better after nearly a full week of coughing. And with that, I'm off. The earlier I get going, the sooner I can get back to my sewing.

A Little Sewing

Good morning, my friends. By day's end yesterday, this is how I felt:

Looking back over the past several days, I realized we began to pack for our "star party" one week ago today. There was more packing the next day, then driving, then camping, then enjoying the stars while coughing nearly to death, then more driving, then several hours in the emergency department, then unpacking, then surgery, then post-op visits, then (and this was the good part) dinner last night with Erik and Mae. It was a mix of good and bad, and it was a full week of being out of my all-important life's rut. Today will change all that. It's going to be a run-of-the-mill-day-in-the-life, and I'm looking forward to it.

As for yesterday, after I left you, I had a few small chores to take care of...finishing the laundry, for one thing. Of course, I'd just finished washing a load of jeans when an Amazon delivery arrived with two more pairs of jeans. I decided to wash the denim blue rugs from our bathroom with the jeans, so I could get those ready for wearing. And since cleaning the bathroom was one of my small chores, it fit hand in rubber glove with my plans. After that, I ran around filling bird feeders, making more hummingbird food, finishing up one other small chore, and about a dozen other little minute-long tasks. I wanted to get everything finished so that I could sew without feeling as if I should be doing something else. By the time I was able to get to my sewing, I was feeling almost too tired to sew.

Nevertheless, I quilted two of the embroidered blocks for the Seasons quilt. Starting with autumn's block, I did some swirls and some backsy-forthsy stuff in the field. (Technical quilting terms. Try to keep up.) The swirls are a good choice for these densely embroidered blocks. They are functional, and they allowed me to get into the tight little spaces.

From there, I turned my attention to winter's block. There, I quilted some snowflakes and some snow drifts. In both blocks, I've outlined the square of the quilt.

I might have done more, but I really was too tired. Inspiration was not coming to me. So I turned the quilt around (to keep the bulk on the table, rather than in my lap), and left it needle down for spring's block. 

To be honest, I'm not sure I can quilt this upside down. I have in mind to do some pebbling in the centers of the sunflowers, some beelines between the bees flying all around on it, and maybe some more swirls. That all seems easy enough, but I still have a hard time up-ending my thinking that way. Since I can't draw under the best of circumstances, drawing upside down is even harder, as you might guess.

Okay, and then it simply felt too late in the day to start on the first sister for "The Yoder Sisters." I decided to do a little stitching on November's block for "A Year in the Garden." I wasn't able to get very far before it was time to leave to meet up with Erik and Mae.

Seeing my kiddos was probably the high point of a busy week. They treated us to dinner, we saw their new (used) van and how they had it decked out for camping, and we gave them our Blackstone grill. It's been a while since I've seen them in the flesh, and so that was a good way to end the day.

Okay, so today is going to be a day to recharge. The only sort of "work" I'm going to do today is to hoe the garden. I'll get out early. It's still damp and there isn't a breath of wind. I should be able to get it done without stirring up the dust too much. Also, I'm breathing easier...using my inhaler less...and generally feeling better. If I have trouble with the hoeing, I'll stop immediately. Not feeling like today is my day to have a fatal asthma attack.

But here's the best thing: When the garden is done, it's going to be nothing but sewing. It's been a while since I've had a day to sew, and sew, and sew, and I'm going to sew my guts out. Just you wait and see. I want to finish quilting the two remaining embroidered blocks for the Seasons quilt, and then I'm going to turn my attention to the sisters of "The Yoder Sisters." I think it will all fall into place when I start on it, but it's been a little nervous-making in the anticipation. Right now, I'll have some breakfast and spend some time with my slow stitching. After that the garden. And then sewing. It sounds like a good day. 

Thankfully, things should settle down some now. There's nothing on the calendar for at least a couple of weeks. Father's Day...of course...but that doesn't require much of me. Eggs Benedict for Mike and then I promised him a Lemon Meringue Tart. (I want the tart too. Father's Day is just a good excuse.) We'll have to make a short grocery shopping trip tomorrow, but otherwise, it'll be just the regular rut. Sounds like heaven.

All right...so off I go. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself too. You folks waiting to see what Tropical Storm Arthur is going to do...stay safe, y'all.

Late Post

Good afternoon, my friends. I'm slow on the switch this morning, but I have a good excuse. A whole lot of water has passed under the bridge in the last 24 hours. Mike had his second cataract surgery yesterday afternoon. We got lunch afterward. Then this morning we were up at the butt crack of dawn to see the doctor for his post-op appointment. We got breakfast afterward. I started a load of clothes before we left home this morning, and the last load is washing as I'm writing. There are a couple of easy housekeeping chores on the day's calendar, but the rest of the afternoon should be mostly sewing. I'll fit those chores in between sewing efforts. Priorities, people.

So let's back up to yesterday morning after I left you. You might recall I'd stitched the 10th Snowmen and Reindeer block this far.

My wait for Mike was long enough that I nearly had the whole thing finished when it was time to stop.

I didn't have it with me for this morning's appointment, but it was my first stop when we arrived home, and now it's finished. Ta Da!

Here are the ten blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Knowing that one was close to being finished, my first stop in the sewing room yesterday was to trace out November's block for "A Year in the Garden." This is the 11th of 12 blocks for this quilt.

Here are the blocks I've stitched so far.

With that finished, I turned my attention to the background for "The Yoder Sisters" project.

It was too late in the day to start the applique, but I spent some time looking over the instructions. This will probably best be done by creating the sisters on a teflon pressing sheet before fusing them to the background, and so I left it ready for my return.

Instead, I wanted to get the Seasons quilt set up so that I could start on the quilting. As a reminder, the whole quilt looks like this. 

It was created from a set of four embroidery patterns from Kathy Schmitz. I believe they were intended to be small wall-hangings. I wanted to put them into a whole quilt, and so the design of the quilt is my own.

With so many colors in this quilt, I've spent some time thinking about what colors of thread I want to use. I haven't been happy with the quilts I've finished where the quilting thread has too much contrast with the background, and so I decided I'd use multiple colors of thread on top. In the bobbin, however, I'll stick with a black monofilament. If I'm remembering right, these are about a 60 weight thread. I already had a partially-wound bobbin.

For most of the top, I'll use this light tan Omni thread. 

This is a 40 weight thread, and so that makes getting the tension correct a little tricky. (It is ever thus with my machine.)

In other parts of the quilt top, I'll stick with a black Essential thread.

This is a 50 weight thread. Yeah...black. What else can I say? It's black.

Okay, so with the pieced blocks, I'll use a different color for each. This variegated yellow on this summer sun block.

This variegated thread for the autumn leaf block.

A variegated blue for this winter snowflake.

I wanted to use a green on spring's tulip block, but I didn't have a nice bright green. Instead, I'll stick with this pink.

Okay, and with my threads selected, I endeavored to get the tension right. It looks good on top.

But ugh...the bottom doesn't look so good. I needed to tighten my top thread tension.

And then, it looked pretty good. It's best to check often when using a monofilament in the bobbin (or anywhere, for that matter). 

So I left it needle-down and I'll start quilting the background for the fall harvest section today. I'll stick with that tan thread until I've used it in all the places I want to, and then I'll start somewhere else...probably with the pieced blocks next. And in keeping with my effort to catch up on my quilts-to-be-quilted pile, this will get first priority for my sewing days until it's finished.

It was a warm afternoon yesterday. When I went downstairs, I found Smitty trying desperately to cool his tummy furs. He had to stretch out to his full length.

When we arrived home this afternoon, I checked on the garden. The hydrangeas are beginning to color up.

This dahlia is the most watched thing in the garden right now. If I'm right, I think this is the Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia.

When it blooms, it will look like this:

Checking in on the vegetable garden, I'm happy to find three beans plants in all of the bean pots. One has four plants, and one has five. I'm just going to leave all of them and let them grow. Think of it as insurance against critter calamities. And, honestly, doesn't this seem like a lot of effort just to grow lowly green beans?

The corn is about five inches tall now. I'll be glad when I can remove the stakes and string, but for now, it reminds us not to walk there. I think I can avoid hoeing for one more day. I'm breathing a little easier each day, but I'm still dealing with coughing spells. Probably best not to stir up too much dust.

Gazing into the "bee garden" section, I note the usual yellow and white propeller flowers. We expect to see this in areas allowed to grow wild.

Each year, I broadcast about a pound of wildflower seed. Today I noticed some lupine has appeared.

Here's another one over here.

And I'll finish up with this one photo Mike took with his astral camera when we were at the star party. Okay, so what is it? 

He’s not proud of this image, but it’s a picture of Jupiter and three of its moons. There was a fourth moon visible as well, but it was too far below the moon on the left, and he couldn't capture all four moons in a single frame. He’s still learning, and this is his first attempt. I think it’s kind of cool. 

Happily, we're meeting Erik and Mae for dinner out this evening. They recently purchased a beautiful used van they intend to use for camping and tail-gating parties at Oregon State football games. (We haven't seen it in person yet.) We're going to hand off our Blackstone grill to them to use when they go camping and tail-gating. We rarely use it, and so we'll let them have it with "borrowing privileges" if we have a need for a grill that doesn't require open flame. (During wildfire season, flame grilling is generally banned in most campgrounds.)

And that's all I have for you now. My last load of laundry is calling. The bird feeders are empty. Gazing out my window, I can see the birds out there tapping their little birdie feet and wondering why the service is so bad at this cheap motel. I'll deal with the laundry, and then take care of the birds. Then...finally...I can get back to my sewing. I'll start on the quilting first, and then try to get a start on the first Yoder sister. It's a busy life for someone who's retired, let me tell you.