Every Little Thing

When I finished writing yesterday's post, I promised myself that housework was next. It was housework I'd put off since the day before Thanksgiving. Did I tell you I dropped an entire 16 oz. jar of vanilla extract on the floor last Wednesday?

Yes, I'd just opened it, used exactly 1/4 teaspoon, and then dropped the rest on the floor, in a shattering mess. Oy. It's absolutely amazing how many square miles broken shards of glass can cover before coming to a complete stop. And since I didn't have anything else to do on the day before Thanksgiving, I used my house cleaning time to mop the kitchen floor, trying not to cut myself in the process. It was a "yuge" mess. (Look for me to use that word again and again over the coming four years.) I was less upset about the mess than I was about wasting so much expensive vanilla, but life goes on. Nobody died, which made it a very good day.

So fast forward to yesterday, and I'm again promising to do certain housekeeping chores. Then, I looked out the window and noticed a strange brightness in the sky. And Jumpin' Jehosophat Jiminy Christmas! It's the freaking SUN!!!!! Well. I could hardly stay inside doing housework when this extraordinary opportunity revealed itself, now could I? It could have been a quick walk if I hadn't taken pictures of every little thing...which is my current take on every blooming thing when nothing is blooming. Here's what I saw.

The raindrops glistening in a rare moment of sunshine make for an enchanting landscape. I love how the background appears upside down inside them.

This pine cone is about the size of my thumb.

In our wet climate, late fall brings a veritable forest of toadstools, each about an inch tall.

It's not true to say that nothing is blooming. The weeds are still going great guns.

The echinacea are pretty much bloomed out, but I'm still holding out hope for these two little side blossoms. We haven't reached freezing temperatures even at night yet, and so I remain somewhat optimistic.

My little cat was cold. He'd been out with me for about half an hour at this point. His tail is all fluffed up, and he wants to go back inside.

Finally, lots of downed leaves. 

So that was our walk. We fed the birds, and came back inside, ostensibly to do housework. And I did. Yay me!

Then I was free to sew. I figured I could wait a day to head back to the barn, which is my new most hated project. Instead, I was kind of excited to see that Lori Kennedy posted a Poinsettia Sampler on her blog. The piece is marked the same way as the Sunflower Sampler, and so I got straight to work on that. My red isn't a true red...it has quite a bit of orange in it. My only other red was too purple, and so I went with the orange version of red.

I'm using this pretty Christmas batik on the back. I've had this in my stash for ages. (I really need to make more Christmas quilts.)

This is a worthwhile project for a couple of reasons. First, I'm having a blast making these little samplers. It's great practice, and I end up with a finished quilt in the end...and that's pretty much the only way you're gonna get wild horses to drag me in to practice. Also, it'll make a cute table topper. It'll give me a chance to spend some time working with this white metallic thread that I want to use when I quilt Gingerbread Square next month.

 I can even use some of the same motifs when I fill in the background of the sampler.

So I threaded the machine. Experience has taught me that using only two holes on this insy-outsy thing is best with metallic threads.

Since I'm using the same Bottom Line thread in the bottom (only the color has changed), I decided it would be okay to just start stitching without checking the bobbin tension. And I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say that there's a problem here.

Okay, so I checked the bobbin tension, which turned out to be very loose (go figure), and then I made sure I'd really flossed the upper thread into the tension disks. Next try...perfect.

Before I quit for the day, I started having trouble with thread breakage, which was frustrating. Nevertheless, it gave me a chance to look at the back. Not bad at all.

Just before quitting for the day (I was having a problem with kitty paws at that point), I massaged some Sewer's Aid into the thread. I let it rest overnight and gave it some time to think about its behavior. When I start up later this morning, I'll be right here.

By the way, I went with the veined petals of her first tutorial. The one currently posted is just the simple petals. Since I still have a ways to go on this, I might decide to do some petals without veins. It might get too busy if I keep going around and around like that. We'll see. (I never know what I'm going to do until I see what I sew.)

The CSA is over for the year, but we'll still be picking up farm fresh egg shares every two weeks. This morning is the first until the chickens stop laying. When I get back, I'll continue on with the sampler. If I'm feeling frisky, I might continue on with the barn too.