Countdown to Chaos

While I was writing yesterday's blog post, I happened to look over at Eliza (who has a window seat in my office) where the Solstice to Solstice quilt is draped over the sewing machine and my sewing chair. It's been folded at the bottom of my quilts-to-be-quilted pile for months. When I'm getting ready to quilt something, I give it a week or so to relax and enjoy itself before going under the needle. So, I glance over, and I notice Sadie has made a lovely little sitting place for herself.

Well, Smitty can't have that. Her head is above his head, and in the Kingdom of Smitty, that is not allowed. (See that glint in his eye?)

But Sadie is no pushover. She can't let a stupid boy cat challenge her like that.

And within 30 seconds, a rumble ensued.

As long as we're talking about this quilt, this is going to be my July OMG:

My goal is to quilt and bind this large quilt. You might recall this quilt is the one I made for the Solstice Challenge a couple of years ago. The blocks were released one per week from Winter Solstice to Summer Solstice. Each of my blocks represents something that happened during the week. I'm still mulling over whether to do an all-over design or whether to quilt each block individually. The latter would be good practice. The former would also be good practice since I rarely do all-over designs. My friend Marei often does a certain design that I'd like to try, and so I'm leaning in that direction. The linky party is up, and so I'll be linking up to the goal-setting party this morning.

Since I'm coming down the home stretch with my current embroidery stitch sampler, I traced out the next block for Appalachian Memories. I was thinking this was Block #7, but it might only be Block #6.

This one is called "Pine Tree." I've colored in the quilt block, and it's ready to go just as soon as I finish of the stitch sampler.

My only other sewing goal for the day was to do two more blocks for the CTC sew-along. The first one is called Shining Star, and it was designed by Carole Carter at My Carolina Home. And this one was so simple. Perfect directions, and easy to do. My blue star was made from a layer cake piece, and so I fussy cut the sun in the center. It was close to the edge of the fabric, however, and so I couldn't quite center it. I still like how it worked for this block.

And this next one is where the "chaos" in the countdown comes in. This block is called "Cup of Cheer." It was designed by Mona Phelps at Kentucky Whitaker Creations. And, Mona, I'm sorry if it seems like I'm picking on you, but I'm not. I'm just making a factual statement when I say the instructions for this block were messed up, literally, from start to finish. So, take a look at this:

You might notice the cut-off points in the center square-in-a-square. That's because the center measurements were off. My square-in-a-square ended up at 6 inches, but it was supposed to be 5-1/2 inches. The Moda blocks have a disclaimer at the bottom instructing the quilter to check for the final instructions before making the blocks. I downloaded mine as they came out, and I'll admit I didn't check first. Nevertheless, I went back and took a look yesterday, and nothing had changed. Further, the final comment from "Jane" noted the same problem I was having. There were no follow-up comments, and comments were cut-off from that point. No further comments allowed. Also, I went to Mona's own website to see if there were any corrections. Nada.

Okay, so I made a design decision and decided to trim the block to size and cut off the corners. My quilt, my rules, right? Besides, all the other pieces were cut, and so I either had to start over and redesign the block myself, or go with what I had. I chose the latter. And that was all going along just fine until I finished it off. It should have finished at 12-1/2 inches, but mine was 13-1/2. Oy. So I did what any red-blooded quilter would do. I cut off a half inch all around. Thus ends my demonstration of that age-old quilter's maxim: "Measure Twice, Cut Once, and then force that sucker to fit."

A few of the blocks for this Countdown to Christmas grouping have been wrong, but it's all going to work out in the end. I like the way they're turning out. Here are the 16 blocks I have so far:

My thanks go to my friend, Carolyn, for her suggestion of the name "Green and Blue-tiful" for this quilt, and that's what I'm calling it now.

With that bit of sewing chaos out of the way, I went to work making some dinner items ahead. Both of these dishes were a bit labor intensive, but it meant it was all oven-ready when it was time to actually eat. First, I made this Upside Down Sweet Onion Cornbread. We've been getting sweet onions in our CSA shares, and this seemed like a good way to use a few of them. It's really tasty and easy, but it makes a ton. I'd like to try cutting the recipe in half and using my new 8-inch skillet to bake it off. A couple of people asked me for this recipe, and one noted she would bake it for her Fourth of July celebration. This would be an excellent addition to any get-together for the Fourth.

It was a good side-dish for our main course of Baked Chile Rellenos. I'll say I'm a fan of poblano chiles and I'm also a fan of chile rellenos. But there ain't no way I'm deep frying those puppies, and so this is a good substitute. It can be a dish for either dinner or breakfast, and it can be made ahead, which makes it a winner in my book. So these two dishes were a bit of a to-do for early afternoon, but they made for an easy dinner.

Today is Smitty's turn to have a bad day. In just about an hour or so, I'll be loading him up in a crate for his annual trip to the vet. He looks excited here, doesn't he?

And Coyote Man better show up and set some traps today. Just sayin'. Because after my chaotic day of sewing yesterday, I'm not messin' around.