Many Things Monday

Today I had a lot of things on my to-do list, and I managed to get them all done. We (that would be Smitty and me) started by filling the bird feeders, and then I had a couple of housekeeping tasks on my list. I'm pretty terrible at figuring out reasons to put off housework until tomorrow...or next week...or next month...but today, I got it all done.

While I was cleaning up my kitchen, it seemed a good time to try out a new recipe for Lemon-Blueberry Pound Cake that I've been salivating over.

(image source)

That's not my picture...that's the one from the recipe page. I think theirs has more blueberries in it than mine does, and so it was prettier. Nevertheless, mine was moist and tasty. It is made with lemon yogurt, and so the cake is nice and moist. Also, it has a glaze made from confectioner's sugar and lemon juice...not to mention the tablespoon of lemon zest in the cake. This is one lemony cake. Lemon lovers, pay attention. 

Usually when I put a glaze on a cake, I use a small ladle to ladle it over the cake and allow it to drip down the sides. The instructions for this cake suggested brushing it on 1/3 at a time, allowing it to soak into the cake completely, and then continuing on with the next third. By doing that, it gave a nice covering, and it add to the moisture within the cake itself. Then, when it was completely dry and cool, the glaze gave it a nice little crunchy coating. A very good cake. Not difficult. I will definitely be making this one again.

So while I was baking the cake, I finished up all of my housework. Oh, but before I go on, I wanted to tell you the latest seedling news. The tomatoes and herbs are doing well, although I never have much success starting Italian parsley from seeds. A couple of my seeds are growing, but one inexplicably died. I may end up buying starts for that because I do needs me my Italian parsley. The dill and basil are doing better. The tomatoes are starting to get their first true leaves.

I thought I might have another time lapse video for you, but when Mike tried to download the images from the memory card this weekend, he found that not a single picture had been taken. We are both a little perplexed about this, but he thinks he may have neglected to press "start" when he programmed it. It was turned on, but we think one must also tell it to begin taking pictures. Anyway...it's set up again, and hopefully we'll have another video by the end of the week.

Once I had my housework done, I made my way into the sewing room to start on the next of the Folk Art Cats. I'm making the one on the left in the second row this time. Mine will be completely different because my colors are different, but I wanted you to notice that this cat is bouncing a beach ball from his front paws.

I'm not sure how they did their background on their block, but I followed the pattern for mine. The top half is paper-pieced, and this is the background I ended up with.

Then I added the purple cat. The ends of his paws extend into the sashing above, and so they are only fused down about halfway up the leg. And as I think about this, I won't be able to top-stitch the whole of the leg until I have completed the whole second row of blocks. I'll need to sew it to the row above before I can fuse it down completely.

I made the beach ball today too, but I'll probably end up remaking it. It was surprisingly difficult to make those "slices of pie" come together in the center, and mine were sadly off. He'll need to be top-stitched, and then I'll be adding the checkerboard sashing around three sides. There is also some machine embroidery around his nose where I currently have a white chalk mark, and I'll give him a hot fix nailhead for an eye. The sashings on this quilt also have little mini pieced quilt blocks for cornerstones, and I'll be making two of those as well. There's still quite a bit to do on this, and so it probably won't be finished for a couple of days at least. 

Tomorrow is a swimming day, and I need to go to the grocery store. I might put that off until Wednesday. Wednesday I'm getting my monthly pedicure and Thursday I'm getting my hair permed. So it's a busy week with lots of away-from-home things to do. Not my favorite kind of week, but there you go. 

How about you? Are you going to have time to sew this week?