Productive Day

It was a busy day from start to finish yesterday, but a lot was accomplished. Of course, you know my days don't get off to a good start without a little hand stitching Right now I'm working on the second block for the Wine Country quilt.

When I'd had enough of that, I got to work canning all of the ripe tomatoes I had on hand. There were some more to harvest, but I decided to hold off canning them for a few days. Yesterday's yield was 10 pints of chopped tomatoes.

Someone mentioned tea towels from grandmothers recently, and so I was motivated to bring out one of my own grandmother's hand embroidered on a flour sack tea towels. There are stacks of these in my linen closet. Yesterday I started wondering what I was saving them for. Time to bring them out into the light of day, don't you think?

Here is some of the yield from Canning 2016. I have Apple-Pear Chutney; Plum Chutney; Green Pepper Jelly; Walla Walla Sweet Onion Relish; Pickled Carrots; Pickled Beets; Zucchini Relish; Calico Sweet Pickle Relish; Applesauce; Salsa Verde; Tomato Salsa; Pasta Sauce; Tomato Jam; Chopped Tomatoes. Quite a few jars have been given away to family and friends. There's still more to do, and it might mean cleaning out the pantry shelves to make room for more.

The canning took about two hours, and so there was plenty of time to do some work on the last section for Wind in the Whiskers. This is the section I'm working on, entitled "Don't be Koi."

The flowers and their centers were fused, but I needed to cut them out.

Then I made the upper bushes and grass, 

the kitties (always my favorite part), 

then the pond back and some of the stones. I'm not very happy with the fabric selection here. There isn't enough contrast between the pond backing and the stones, making it hard to discern the stones. Maybe when it's stitched they'll stand out a little more.

Finally, the lower bushes and flowers.

None of this is fused down yet, but I laid it on the backing for placement, and that's where I left it.

Today I'm hoping to finish the rest of this and then fuse the pieces to the backing.

This morning started early when I awakened at 3:00 a.m. and then couldn't get back to sleep. Some nights are like that, but most nights I sleep well. When I finish here, I might go back to bed for a while. Or not. One never knows.