Laundry Day

It seemed only fitting that I should be washing clothes yesterday. It was finally time to take the step of adding the clothesline to Wind in the Whiskers. It actually went fairly smoothly, except for pinning the quilt to the ironing board. Fortunately, that was fairly easy to undo, but it was just a reminder of how the best laid plans go awry sometimes.

Before I headed into the sewing room, however, I finished up the 11th block for the Snow Globes quilt. This one is called "Silver Bells."

There's just one more to go before I can start sewing these blocks into a flimsy. After that, I got our dinner started in the slow cooker, and then headed into the sewing room to meet my fate.

The first decision was to decide how to end the clothesline on both sides of the quilt. The instructions for the quilt suggested leaving the applique open here and sliding the clothesline under the pieces. And I don't know if I just didn't like that idea, or I forgot, or what, but my applique is fused and stitched down. I could only try to create the illusion that it was tied to the post on this side...

and the tree on this side.

The forked pins came in handy for this task. I used the applique pieces and the diagram to help me with placement of the twine for the clothesline.

When I was happy with the clothesline placement, I fused down the applique pieces and then couched the clothesline into place. Also...somewhere in all of that, I top-stitched the appliques as much as possible. The little quilt is stitched into place at the upper corners.

From there I was ready to glue down the clothespins. I forget where I heard about this product, but it was when I made the Snips & Snails quilt.

I used it when I glued the Oshkosh buttons to the overalls.

I prefer it to a glue gun. I have trouble with the glue gun glue hairing and getting all over everything within a one-mile radius. This glue in the tube hairs as well, but it's already in liquid form, requiring no heat for use. The applicator on the tube is much to clumsy to use on a quilt, and so I squeeze out a portion onto a piece of cardboard and then use a toothpick to apply it to the item I'm glueing. When it was all done, it looked like this.

I can't begin to enumerate the many ways my cat has helped me with this quilt. Here, he's lending his weight to the glueing process. Actually, I was a little nervous letting him lie there so soon after the clothespins were stuck down, but it seemed I'd probably be worse off if I tried to move him.

Now I'm just letting the quilt lie for a day or two to give that glue a good chance to dry. The tube states that it needs a full 24 hours (about 4:00 p.m. today) to dry completely, but that a permanent bond might not be established for a full 72 hours. Fine with me. I'm sick of working on this for a bit, and so I'll just give it some time. I noticed one of the clothespins was not stuck as tightly as I'd like, and so I'll fix that one this morning.

When I was this far, I took some time to look up the photos I took when I visited the McKenna Ryan showroom in Portland several years ago. Walking in the front door, this quilt was hanging just off to the left, and I took some pictures of it for future reference.

If you look at her clothesline, the clothes are not attached to the quilt, but are simply held in place with the little clothespins. Also, the clothesline is not couched down. Making the quilt in my sewing room, I followed the instructions, which means that everything hanging to the right of the little quilt is applique...with fusible on the back...and so how does that work? Honestly, I don't get it. It's kind of like ordering a t-shirt from a J.Jill catalog only to find upon arrival at one's home that the edges of the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt haven't been hemmed...the dreaded "rolled hem," as it's described in a catalog. It's just a way of making women's clothing even more cheaply than previously. Okay, but I digress into ranthood now. Pardon me.

It also brings to mind something I heard in a class with Lura Schwarz Smith quite a few years ago. I didn't really care for her class, but she said something that made a lot of sense. She made a distinction between quilts for the "wash" and quilts for the "wall." In other words, some quilts are works of art, not intended for use (and occasional washing), but rather for hanging on a wall to be admired and never touched or used. I think there's room for both in the quilting world, but not really in my house. There are already lots of quilts hanging, and not a lot of wall space. This being such a large quilt, it's going to be difficult to find a use for it. Even with the clothesline couched and the clothes stitched down, it's still going to be too fragile to ever use. I'm afraid it's destined to hang in my sewing room for the rest of its natural life. Oh well. Live and learn. If I've learned anything from this quilt, it is never to make another McKenna Ryan pattern, and that's something worth knowing. And yes, there is another in the works in the And On that Farm quilt, but it will be my last forever and ever. Amen.

The next step with this quilt after I've given the glue time to dry is to work on the beads...and this is the last step too, so Hooray!!! I took some pictures of the beading while I was looking at the quilt in McKenna Ryan's store too. Here's what I have ahead of me.

I've been perusing YouTube videos since I've not done much beading in my time. In the process, I learned I'd need a certain kind of thread known as Nymo Nylon Seed Bead Thread. Apparently this is the best thread to use for beading. I ordered a set of colors from my friends at Amazon.com. I wasn't sure what color I should be using, but I figure having a supply of colors can't hurt. This is the image from the Amazon website. These are expected to arrive today.

It's good to be able to see these pictures from the quilt already made up. I never would have thought to do the iris in this configuration, but it works.

There are also black seed beads for the eyes of the chickadees and floss for whiskers on the kittens and antennae on the butterflies.

So, there's still plenty to do on this.

Okay, so Wind in the Whiskers is on vacation for a few days to give the glue time to dry. Time to do something fun. I've been salivating over this little mini quilt ever since it was gifted to me by my friend Ila. (Thank you, Ila.) Is this the cutest thing ever? Look closely to see what it is. It's cats sitting around a quilt like an old-fashioned quilting bee.

I looked for an online presence for this designer, Alley Cat Tales. Even though I found a website, clicking on any of the patterns there took me off into cyber-security-haunted-mansion land, and I bailed out. If the patterns are still available, the website may have been compromised by hackers somehow and you won't find anything you want there. In any case, this was printed on the pattern and it's my only clue about the designer's name.

So last week in my darkest of hours working on Wind in the Whiskers, I cheered myself up by digging through my stash for possible fabrics to use, and came out with these.

This next one will be great for the back.

If I get any more help in the sewing room, I'll have to start laying off purrsonnel. There comes a time when the workers start getting in one another's way and you get an example of the law of diminishing returns. (I learned that as a student of economics, so show a little respect.)

I found him another job holding down my sewing chair...for a while...until I wanted to sew.

The first step with this little quilt is to make the background quilt. It begins with four 4-patches.

Then I sewed those together.

From there it's built out log cabin style. I sewed strips to either side, but by then I was getting tired of sewing, and it was getting close to dinnertime anyway.

Dinner was in the slow cooker in the form of this Marsala Beef Stew. It rained pretty much the whole live-long day yesterday, and so this was a nice meal on a cold and wet day. I served it up with a loaf of baguette for dunking.

I looked for the recipe originally published in the NYTimes, but couldn't find it. The link may have been taken down. I made a few changes to it, and so I'll give you the recipe right here. You can also do this in a Dutch oven.

Beef Marsala Stew
adapted from NYTimes Cooking
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons canola oil
2 pounds boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes, divided
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
12 ounces frozen pearl onions
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sweet Marsala wine, divided
1 1/2 cups unsalted beef stock
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 thyme sprigs
8 ounces small button mushrooms
4 large carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add half of beef; cook 8 minutes or until well browned, turning to brown on all sides. Place browned beef in a 6-quart electric slow cooker; sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 tablespoon oil, remaining beef, and 1/8 teaspoon salt.

2. Add frozen onions to pan; cook 1 minute or until browned. Add to slow cooker. Add garlic to pan; saute 1 minute. Add tomato paste; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add 1/2 cup wine, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; cook 2 minutes or until half of liquid evaporates. Add stock and pepper; bring to a simmer. Carefully pour stock mixture into slow cooker; nestle thyme sprigs into liquid. Top beef mixture with mushrooms; scatter carrots over top.

3. Cover and cook on low for 7 1/2 hours.

4. Strain mixture through a colander over a Dutch oven or large skillet; discard thyme sprigs. Bring cooking liquid to a boil; cook 6 minutes or until liquid is reduced to 2 cups. Stir in remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons wine and flour, stirring with a whisk to form a slurry. Stir into cooking liquid; cook 1 minute or until bubbly and thickened, stirring constantly. Pour over beef mixture; toss gently to combine. Garnish with thyme sprigs.

To make this in a Dutch Oven: Using a large Dutch oven, follow instructions through step 2. Cover and bake at 300°F for 2 1/2 hours or until beef is tender. Proceed with step 4.

Okay, so there was one more thing accomplished yesterday. With the Snow Globes block done, I needed something new, and I traced out Block 7 of 9 for Friendship's Garden.

Now that's hooped up and waiting for me downstairs, so I'll head there next.

There's a little housework on today's agenda, but mainly, I'll be working on the Alley Cats Quilting Guild. It'll be a nice diversion after struggling all of last week with Wind in the Whiskers.