I Think I Can

Or maybe this post could be more accurately titled, "I Think, Therefore I Can." Can I get through one more day of canning tomatoes? I think I can.

Before I started yesterday, I worked just a few stitches on the latest Snow Globes block. When I start a new block, I always find the floss bobbins with bits of leftover floss from the last time I used that color. It tidies up the floss for the work on the rest of the block, and it sets up an opportunity for me to mess it up again.

When I'd used up all the leftover bits, I went to work on the tomatoes. Yesterday's yield was 5 more quarts of pasta sauce and 3 more pints of salsa. There is also a nearly-full jar of salsa in the refrigerator. I'll fill it up with today's batch.

When I was finished yesterday, I harvested another four pounds of tomatoes from our own plants. Those will go into today's salsa, and then I'll just keep going until the tomatoes are all gone. My goal is to make one more batch of salsa and one more batch of pasta sauce. Any leftover tomatoes will go into jars as plain 'ole tomatoes. With my new roasting technique to remove the skins, it should be pretty quick and easy to drop the hot skinned and roasted tomatoes into hot jars for canning. The only other thing that goes into the jars is one tablespoon of lemon juice to bring up the acidity level, and then they are lidded and lowered into a boiling water bath for processing. Simple.

It was mid-afternoon by the time I finished with the day's canning. There was just a little bit of quilting to do on the Welcome Home mini mystery quilt. I finished the outer row of blocks with a motif I'm calling Faux Cathedral Windows.

The corner blocks were shooflies, as opposed to the square-in-a-square, but I quilted them just the same way. There is nothing wrong with your eyesight. My picture is blurry. Sorry.

And that took just about 20 minutes, and the quilting was finished. It's not the best quilting I've ever done, but it was good practice.

Here's how it's looking from the back.

I'm hoping I'll have time today to get the binding sewn on by machine. If memory serves, I've already cut the binding strips.

The last thing I did yesterday was to put Smitty's painted pawtrait into a frame. His pawtrait is 8-1/2 x 11, which is kind of a weird size for a frame, unless you're framing some sort of document or diploma. I wasn't able to find a frame that would work in our local megamart, and so I inquired of my good friend Amazon Prime whether they had anything. I found something I liked in this Rustic Barnwood Frame. There were other colors available, but I liked the natural wood color best.

Here's what the product description says:

Made right here in the United States, each beautiful handmade frame is crafted from reclaimed and recycled wood — so you can beautify your pictures without harming a single tree!

When I took the painting out of its protective sleeve, I found these items on the back. I have a feeling I would like Melissa.

This was her "business card," on a 4 x 6 postcard sized piece. Does that look like a quilt to you?

In fact, it is. You can read about her at her website right here. As it turns out she IS a quilter...a winning one at that! Her quilt, My Brother's Jeans, won Best in Show at QuiltCon 2016. Whoa! You can see the quilt and its story right here. Impressive, no?

She's also a designer of leggings. They are so cute! You can see them right here.

She even has a book called "Making Faces in Fabric." You can see her book right here. And you've gotta love someone who describes herself as a "good listener," and an "excellent hugger." So, cool. Melissa is one talented woman.

As for me...I'll be spending most of my day in the kitchen today, but the end is in sight. If I'm very, very lucky, I'll get that binding sewn on today.