Another Birthday

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy day yesterday. I managed to get everything done that I wanted to before I needed to leave for physical therapy. I left around 2:00 p.m. for the 35 minute drive west, and I had plenty of time to make my 2:40 p.m. appointment. Still, I'm kind of a speed demon when I get behind the wheel. I'm not driving fast intentionally, but I rarely know what the speed limit is. I'm just driving at what seems like a reasonable speed. Apparently the county sheriff disagreed with me yesterday because I got pulled over and received a speeding ticket that I most assuredly deserved. Oops. It was a pleasant enough exchange, and I thanked him as he handed me the citation. Oy. Certainly I didn't need that, even if I earned it fair and square. Oh well. That'll teach me. Not.

In better news, I managed once again to make Creme Brulee for Two for dessert tonight. When I make this "for two" version, I can do it in my toaster oven, and the whole getting it in and out of the oven without getting water into the custard is easier. They needed a little extra time in the toaster oven, but they turned out beautifully.

After that, I made a meatloaf for dinner and then there was time to get back to my quilting. For Block 6, I pretty much followed what they did on the pattern picture. I quilted looping vertical lines up and down all the way across and some drifting snow at the bottom. I used a sort of "braid" motif in the right rectangle, and I outlined all the applique.

It might be a little easier to see on the back. Maybe.

As long as I was looking at the back, I took a picture of Block 5...

And Block 4.

And then I left it needle down in Block 7. That's where I'll start today.

I've adjusted my goal for this project. The blocks are large, and one block takes quite a while to quilt. So my goal now is to quilt one per day. If there's time, I might attempt two. In no case, can I quilt for more than an hour. I've learned to protect my wrists and shoulders by limiting my time. (Too bad that doesn't work for speed limits.)

When I was home from PT, I spent some time on my slow stitching. The first Santa is nearly stitched. I'll probably finish this section today, but I'll also need to move my hoop down to get his boots.

Already this morning, we've had our Eggs Benedict. It's traditional for Mike's birthday. 

Today's activities will be a little more routine despite his birthday. I'm making him his favorite Enchiladas Suizas for dinner, but there's nothing special required for that. As for the rest of the day, I'll do some quilting and some slow-stitching. I'm hoping to get time in the sewing room to make May's orange inverted star for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Also, I'll probably spend some time in the greenhouse today. I want to start my sunflower seeds. Probably I'll also start the pickling cucumbers and the zucchini. We're planting a smaller garden this year. The rest of the seeds will get planted later...probably during the last week of May.

So that's it from me. Regarding the speeding ticket, my court date happens to fall on a day when Mike has a second cataract surgery scheduled. (The first is next week.) I called the court yesterday to request a different court date. (If I go to court, rather than mailing it in, I can get a reduced fine.) The woman I spoke with was very helpful. She told me they only hold court once per month...small rural town...and so it'll probably get pushed out to July at this point. Okay by me. It'll give me time to think about what I've done. 

And talking about all this court business has me longing to get to my slow-stitching. It's always a good distraction. I hope y'all have a good day planned for yourselves. If you're out in traffic, keep an eye in that rearview mirror. If you see flashing lights, pull over.

A Good Day

Good morning, my friends. Thanks to the many of you who stopped by to wish me a happy birthday yesterday. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we had to make a short grocery shopping trip, and it was “senior discount day” at our store. One must be at least 50 to qualify. I told the young man at the checkout stand that we were seniors, and that I supposed he might be surprised by that, given our youthful appearances. When Mike told him it was my birthday, he said, “Oh, today must be the first time you’ve qualified!” If there had been a tip jar, I’d have left him $10. Growing older is a privilege, and I’m grateful to have so many good friends along for the journey. I like this quote from John Lennon:

“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” 

With all the running around I did yesterday, there wasn't much time for sewing. I managed to get another block quilted on the Merry, Merry Snowmen. These are large blocks. I'm realizing that one block in a day might be my limit. I broke yesterday's block into two images. This is the bottom half. I outlined the applique, did some filler in the background, and some criss-crosses in the line of blocks at the top.

For the top half, I did pretty much the same thing. I quilted snowflakes into the four blocks at the top, using a cookie cutter as a template.

Now I've left it needle down at Block 6. Since I have PT today, I'm not entirely sure I'll have any time for this. 

Also, being a PT day, I need to make dinner this morning. I'm going to put together a meatloaf, and then I'll just need to put it in the oven when I get home. Also, tomorrow is Mike's birthday. He's requested Creme Brulee for Two for dessert tomorrow, and I'll make that up today.

The rest of this post will be about our dinner out last night. If you're not interested in these food posts, then feel free to jump off here. No hard feelings.

We went to the Charthouse, which has one of the best views in the city. This was the view from our table. It was a cloudy day yesterday, but the sun peeked out just about the time we arrived.

We enjoyed a nice bottle of wine. This was a gift from Erik and Mae. They brought several bottles with them when we had our family dinner last month. They left this unopened bottle with us, and so we took it to the restaurant last night. So good. That's somebody's husband sitting across the table from me. Don't tell anyone, okay?

We each started with a Caesar salad. The Caesar salad at the Charthouse is especially good.

I had my favorite coconut crunchy shrimp. The dipping sauce on the right is my favorite.

Mike had the prime rib.

We each had this mini hot lava cake for dessert. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

I was given this little red velvet cake as a bonus for my birthday. That little "Happy Birthday" piece is made of chocolate.

So that was a good dinner and a good day. The next day or two are going to be pretty busy for me. I'm looking forward to some R&R by Friday. For now, it's time for some slow-stitching, and then I'll get busy with my kitchen tasks. Have a good day, Everybody!

Cinco de Mayo

Good morning, my friends. I'm just home from a nice breakfast with Sue. Aside from that, not much has happened this morning. There hasn't even been time for slow-stitching. As I write, I'm waiting for Mike to drink a cup of coffee, and then we'll head off to the grocery store. We're eating dinner out tonight, but the afternoon will be my own. No plans except doing whatever I want to do.

So let's back up to yesterday, shall we? It was a luxuriously slow day. Not having to sandwich any more quilts put me in a good mood, right from the get-go. Since I'm focusing on getting more quilting action this year, it seemed like the best place to start was at the quilting machine. The Merry, Merry Snowmen are from Bunny Hill Designs.

One of the things I like about these patterns is that there are photographs of the quilt that show the quilting. Each block is shown on heavy card stock, and it gives me some ideas about how to quilt the blocks. You can see how they did the first two blocks in the image below.

Of course, it took me a bit to get the machine set up. I needed to switch out the foot for the regular universal foot. (My last project was using a square foot to quilt straight lines.) As usual, my quilting fairy godmother, Ila, made sure I had the right threads for the job. Thank you, Ila. On top, I'm using this Coats & Clark 30 weight variegated thread.

It's only slightly variegated, but mainly tan.

On the bottom, I'm using this light tan Omni thread from Superior Threads. This is a 40 weight thread.

It's all one color, and a good match for the quilt back.

Before I could start any stitching, Smitty checked outside for signs of any impending invasion. With his reassurance, I could quilt in complete safety.

So let's just check the tension. I flipped a piece from the back to the front. Top tension looks good.

And the back looks good too. It's always nice when everything is properly adjusted without having to fiddle with any knobs or screws.

There are nine blocks in this quilt. I started at the left edge in the middle with Block 4. First, I quilted around the edges of the applique.

Looking at the pattern image, the background here was just a simple filler. I didn't use the same one they'd used, but I found one on Pinterest that I liked. A hook and two loops followed by another hook, and on we go.

For this square in a square cornerstone, I did pretty much what they did in the pattern.

For this rectangle, they'd done a diagonal grid. I did a Christmas tree here. Sorry it doesn't show up very well. I've messed with the brightness and contrast to try to make it more visible.

And here, I outlined the snowman and then did a little looping line.

Here's how that looks from the back.

My goal was to do three blocks per day, but I spent so much time setting up the machine, I decided to stop after this first one. If I do two blocks per day from here on, I'll have this ready for binding by the weekend. When I left it yesterday, it was needle down on Block 5. If there's time today, I'll start there.

It was lunch time. I first went outside to check the watering on the annuals. While I was out, I took pictures of every blooming thing. This is my favorite rhododendron, pretty much in full bloom now. You can see the dogwood in the background.

There's a carpet of blue from the lithodora.

This azalea is so bright I have to back off on the saturation when I edit my pictures.

This rhododendron has more buds than open flowers, but it's trying its best to catch up with the one at the front of the house.

There are lots of flowers on the blueberries. I'm excited about these.

We're seeing some cherries on the cherry trees. They bloomed at a good time. We should have lots of cherries this year.

The first flowers are appearing on the tomatoes.

And after a long wait, the replacement poppies have finally sprouted.

This peony is still being a teaser. I'm thinking by next week, we'll see some flowers.

Here's another rhododendron with more buds than blooms.

Okay, and on the slow-stitching front, I finished Block 7 for Le Jardin.

My first stop in the sewing room was to trace the Santa Quartet.

After that, I wanted to put borders on the block for Le Jardin, but I first fixed the border on the previous block. I neglected to add the cornerstones to this originally, and so I did that first.

Sadie helped me with that.

And then I could put borders on Block 7. This one will be in the middle of the quilt, and so it has cornerstones at all four corners.

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

While we watched the news last night, I took the first stitches on the Santa Quartet.

Smitty was exhausted after a day of guarding the furtress. I found him napping in the afternoon sunshine.

Okay, so that brings me to time to head out to the grocery store. It's not my favorite thing to do on this, my birthday, but Mike's birthday is Thursday, and need to pick up some things to make his birthday breakfast of Eggs Benedict. Since I have PT tomorrow, today will have to work. And so I need to be on my way. Happy Cinco de Mayo, everybody. Don't drink too many margaritas tonight, okay?