Birds of a Feather

If the length of my posts and the number of images is any indication of how I'm feeling, then this post should be a clue that I'm almost 100% this morning. I still have just a bit of a cough, but that could easily be from the work they're doing on the road. The road paving is scheduled for September 24th, but they're continuing to dig drainage culverts and install pipes, and so quite a bit of dust is being stirred up. I am mildly asthmatic, and the dust has been murder this summer. So after I wrote yesterday's post, I needed to get out and fill the bird feeders and water the annuals. While I was at it, I took some pictures of a few things.

The poppies from Ireland are looking great. Now that I know they are biennials, I can stop worrying about them and just enjoy them. The squirrels can still be seen looking longingly at that lovely soil, wishing they could plant their own little garden there. The only surprising thing about this is that they haven't yet figured out how to pry the fencing from the top. Any day now, I'm sure they will.

It's been a while since I showed you the tomatoes in the greenhouse. They are a determinate variety, and so this is probably as tall as they will get.

They're loaded with tomatoes too...still green as grass, but they're coming. Oh yes. They. Are. Coming. Batten down the hatches.

We moved the hanging cherry tomato into the greenhouse while we were gone to the lake. (We should have done the same thing with the petunias, but, oh well.) It never seemed to get enough water when it was hanging outside, and we were sure it would fry while we were gone. Now it's getting watered twice per day, and those tomatoes are ripening nicely.

And lookie there! The first harvestable zucchini!

Another of the sunflowers has bloomed. This one is called Floristan. It's about four inches across.

And, amazingly, there are still cherries on the trees. We're planning to pick some more this weekend. We were going to pick them last week, and then...you know. Anyway, we'll pick them today or tomorrow and call it the end of cherry season. I'm awaiting on some Pomona's pectin, which should arrive on Monday, and then I'm going to make some more sweet cherry jam. The cherries in the image below are the Black Tartarians. They were a little slower to ripen than the Bings, and so they are mostly still on the tree. They are sweet as can be, although I think the Bings might be a little bit sweeter.

When I came inside, I had the harvest below. Yay! The first significant harvest from the garden this year...except for the cherries, of course. We had the cherry tomatoes with our dinner last night. I'll say more in a minute.

While I was outside, the FedEx man arrived with a package from my dear and generous friend, Ila. Ila likes to send me little care packages from time to time. She's a little like having a fairy godmother. She sent these mugs, which are perfect for making the little desserts in mugs. These have already been relocated to the RV for future employment.

There were also toys for the kitties.

We have a beach outing planned for next month, and these will give them something new and novel to play with. Take a look at this catnip refillable turtle. Who knew turtles were stuffed with catnip?

And feast your eyes on these adorable patterns. These are all minis. Did you ever wish you could work on all the quilt projects at the same time? If only I had about 20 more hands and 50 more hours in the day. I love these first two:

And this one describes my philosophy of life purrfectly.

Here's a close up of the words, in case you can't read them.

Absolutely.

But I am pawsitively smitten with this one. Is this cute or what? It's the Alley Cat Quilter's Guild.

It took me a second to see what it was. Here's a closer image. Can you see what they're doing?

TOO MUCH!!! Oh. This is my next project. Just you wait. I've seen these Alley Cat Tales quilt patterns in quilt shops before, but I've never purchased any...no doubt in rare moments of extreme self-control. I looked for a web page devoted to the designer, but could only find merchants who carry the patterns. Here's one if you want to see more.

So, thank you, Ila. It was so much fun opening this box. Has anyone ever told you what a delightful enabler you are? Consider yourself told.

Okay, so that was enough fun for one morning. Time to get down to the real work...quilting. I know. I was having a terrible day yesterday. Fun, fun, fun...just way too much fun. It occurs to me that you might like to be reminded of the photograph I was working from when I made this quilt. Here it is...one of our own birds on our own birdfeeder (if one can claim wild birds as one's own).

First, I needed to finish this wing feather I was working on from wing to tail tip.

And then I needed to put a feather around the eye. I started at the top of the beak, and then...

took it in a U-shape around to the blue section on the breast.

And that pretty well took care of the blues. It was time to move to the gray sections. Recall that I'd already tested the blue steel color of metallic thread, and I really liked that.

But I wanted to test out the silver...it's okay, but I still like the blue better.

Tension is still looking good on the back, thankfully.

And then I tried the pearlescent metallic white. Oh, no, no, no. It makes great snow, but it's barely visible here.

Here are the three side by side. Definitely, I pick the blue. (It's nice to have a clear choice, isn't it?)

So then, I quilted a feather just above the eye and then on the cheek. Then I moved to the back.

And then the breast, and things were going along so smoothly I could scarcely believe it...

and there was a reason for that because I got this far when I looked across the quilt in horror and discovered...

CRAP! Crap, crap, crap! I knew it was too easy. I lost about an hour taking that all out, but then I was able to continue on and finish the bird. Here's how it's looking now.

Here's the back, and the quilting is barely visible. With smoky monofilament thread in my bobbin, you can safely assume that was by design. I'm having a little trouble with bearding, but it isn't as bad as I'd initially feared. Truth be told, I'm fairly certain I've loaded my batting in upside-down. I'm using Warm & White, which has a scrim. It was pure carelessness to get it upside down, but I'm stuck with it now. (If you're unfamiliar with "scrim," here's a link to the Warm Company website that explains it. Read the first question under their FAQ.)

So, I'm giving myself an attaboy for those feathers. I haven't quilted a lot of feathers, but these look pretty good to my eye. I have a couple of books for feathers on my shelf, but for this purpose, I found this one extremely helpful.

Now that I've done these, I might like to try something a little fancier. There are going to be more in the border...maybe I'll be brave and try something there.

And that was the end of my quilting day. I'd taken some time the day before to start on a new potato salad recipe that requires two days to make. One first needs to pickle the cucumbers and boil the potatoes, and then the salad can be prepared the day you plan to eat it. We had a treasure trove of cucumbers in this week's CSA share, and I still had radishes from a previous share. Also, there were potatoes and onions in this week's share. I just needed to add some fresh dill from the grocery store, and some mayonnaise from my fridge, and I had myself a nearly all CSA salad. Mae posted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen on our CSA Facebook page and said it was delicious. And I believe my daughter-in-law, who is an excellent cook, so I tried it too. Yummo! You must try this. Here's the link to the recipe for Dilled Potato and Pickled Cucumber Salad. I only made half the recipe, and there is still plenty to have with lunch today.
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And it was a day for cold dinner, so I served it alongside this chilled cucumber soup. I've been making this soup for a long time, and it's one of Mike's favorites. Here's the link to the recipe for Cucumber and Avocado Soup with Tomato and Basil Salad. It first appeared in Bon Appetit magazine some years ago. I used those cherry tomatoes from our greenhouse in this. It's made with buttermilk, and so it's low calorie and low fat. Just go easy on the fried prosciutto, or leave it off altogether. You'll miss the salty crunch though...just sayin'. Most everything from dinner last night was either home grown or CSA, so we were feeling pretty smug about our fresh veggies.

Today I'm going to do some laundry, but I'm going to spend most of my time quilting. I'm hoping to get well along on Working for Peanuts. The last thing I did yesterday was to peruse my thread collections for something to use on the bird's legs. I think that one on the right is just about perfect.

Time to get going. It's going to be a good day. I hope you have a good day too.