Return to Plan A

It seems I'm doing a lot of that these days...trying something new, and then going back to the old way. I have both good news and bad news to report. After writing my post yesterday about the sad trial of the Sulky heat transfer pens, I went back and looked at the pieces again. I was quite distressed to find that after a period of less than 24 hours, the ink had actually bled into the surrounding fabric in the most "marker-intensive" areas. I hope you can see it in this image:

Can you see in some of those areas where the fabric has gone from cream to a light brown? Good grief. Clearly, this is a terrible product for embroidery. It might have some other use, but I won't be using it to transfer embroidery designs again. Those went straight into the pile of scraps I use for testing out this or that thing before actually using it on a quilt project, and I re-did the embroidery motifs on new fabric.

Updated to say I'll be linking this post to:

I wish I had some good news to report for my "New to Me", but alas. Not every new try has a happy outcome.

Don't ask why I used red on these. I thought it was brown. Oh well. Anyway, one piece of good news is that I cut all the fabric for the remaining embroidery blocks in this quilt, and I had a little fabric to spare. It's good to know that I won't run out before I'm finished.

I started stitching on the birdbath last night, and this morning I worked on it until it was mostly finished.

The other piece of good news is that I took another look at the Vintage Tin pieces I've done with the Sticky Fabri-Solvy. Of the different transfer methods I've tried, this one seems to be the best. I know some of you have not liked it; but for me, it beats tracing onto fabric, especially on large and complicated designs. I still have the largest and most complicated pieces yet to do on the Vintage Tin quilt, and that was the reason I tried it out in the first place. 

I was saying in an earlier post that I thought the rinsing process had caused some shrinkage on one of my pieces. I've concluded that isn't the case. I think the shrinkage occurred because I'd worked around the outside of the piece first, and then embroidered the center. 

The pieces that have an outline around the outside fairly scream out to be worked in that order, but I've decided that, like quilting, embroidery of large pieces is best worked from the center out...or from one side to the other. But starting around the outside first and then working toward the center causes the slightest amount of bunching in the middle. At least that's my working theory. If you've been reading for long, then you know I change my mind about these things all the time.

So once I had my embroidery debacle fixed, I had a little argument with myself about going swimming. It went something like this:

Me: (In my whiniest voice) But it's raining! I don't want to leave the house.
Other me: (In my mother's voice) You know that the possibility of getting wet is the stupidest reason ever not to go swimming.
Me: But it's cold! I want to put on my comfy sweats and stay home.
Other me: But you're going to that reunion in July. Don't you want to lose some weight and look all buff?
Me: Yes, but, but, but...I hate it when I can't think of any good reasons to be lazy.
Other me: And didn't you just tell all your bloggy friends how you had worked swimming into your morning routine, and you were all proud of yourself about how consistent you'd been?
Me: Well, yes, but they won't know if I don't tell them...
Other me: I have a voice in the blog too, and you know that I will tell them, and then you'll look like the slacker you actually are.
Me: You are so mean to me...after all I do for you...taking you swimming and everything, letting you buy fabric and thread and everything...baking cookies for you! I'll go, but I will be very unhappy about it, and I won't speak to you ever again.
Other me: Yes, but you'll be glad you went when you're finished swimming and you feel good about it.

I hate losing arguments with myself. So I went. And "other me" was right about being glad I went. I imagine we'll have the same argument tomorrow.

After that I went home and finished top-stitching the Duluth Trees quilt. I need to give this another name, but I haven't decided yet. Some I've tried on have been "Yamhill Trees" for my home county of Yamhill, "Dark Sky Park" for the sky-watching Mike and I like to do. That one came about when I considered adding some crystal stars, but then I discarded it just as quickly because a full moon does not make for good sky-watching. Or maybe "Clair de Lune" (translation: Moonlight) for the piano piece I used to play back in the 14th Century. Or maybe Blue Moon or Harvest Moon or ....... Any good ideas out there? Chime in.

Now it's ready for quilting. I have several small quilts ready for quilting now, and I think when it comes time to set my March goals, quilting these little table runners and wall hangings is going to take top priority.

So that brings me to today, and today really is a stay-at-home-in-my-comfy-sweats day, which I'm going to enjoy all the more for having gone swimming yesterday.There are quite a few little jobs on my to-do list today. I absolutely positively must get my tomato seeds planted if I am going to have tomatoes for canning this summer. I could always use starts, but I can never get the tomatoes I went when I depend on local nurseries to choose the seeds. Last year I used the Super Marzanos, which make a nice meaty tomato with very few seeds. They were great in my pasta sauce and salsa. Also, I used a variety called Heinz for some added flavor. I'll plant a couple of slicing tomatoes too, but I'm really interested in the sauce tomatoes. Also, I want to get my dill, Italian parsley, and basil started. I'll wait until I can move things out to the greenhouse to start the lettuce.

If I'm feeling really energetic, I might try out a new recipe for Orange-Pecan Tea Bread that came in yesterday's email. I happen to have a half-zested orange and a small amount of leftover buttermilk in the fridge. Mike is a fan of anything orange, and so this seems like an easy way to get rid of those leftovers and make something yummy. Also, I need to plan my menu for a grocery shopping trip tomorrow and do a little bit of housework. If I can get all that accomplished, then I'm going to get started quilting my strawberry table runner.

This quilt isn't thrilling me as much as the pattern picture did. I'm hoping I'll like it better once it's quilted, but either way, it'll be a nice table runner for my spring table.

What's on your to-do list for today?