Smitty Goes to the City

The day started out innocently enough. I finished off the "Remember" stitch sampler. Filling in the basket with tiny "x" stitches took absolutely forever.

When it was finished, I took it downstairs for pressing, and here's how the whole thing looks.

There's something wrong with the "buttonhole fan" at the bottom right of the image above. Where I started on the left side of the blue floss, I think I stitched it backwards. The first stitch should have been vertical, with the other two fanning off to the right. When these were traced, just the bottom line and some dots for the French knots were traced in. I can recall looking at it and trying to figure out how to start. Now I can see the error of my ways, and so I'll fix that.

Eventually, I'll pair it up with the "Stitch" sampler and make a little wall hanging from it.  That won't happen anytime soon, but that's the plan.

Then it was time for Smitty's bad day to commence. He had to go to the vet for his annual physical and update to his immunizations. It was like rubbing salt in the wound of a summer that has gotten off to a very bad start for him. He got a clean bill of health, but those immunizations made him feel a little puny yesterday. Today he's back to his spirited self.

Just FYI, Coyote Man did not come yesterday, and so we left a voice mail message with him expressing our concern that the only thing he's done in the past month is to collect his fee for service. He called back and left us a message, expressing his apology and promising to come out today. Hmph. This is taking a ridiculously long time. Set the traps, Man. We're tired of waiting, and we're really tired of your excuses.

When I got back from the vet, I decided to work on finishing off the "When Life Gives you Scraps" mini redwork quilt. The last time it came out of the box, it looked like this.

This is a free project from Kaaren Johnston. You can find the pdf right here. When I took it out of the box, I found this old pattern inside with it. 

Apparently at some point, I got the bright idea to set it the same way as this project I made some time ago. It first appeared in the September/October 2013 issue of Quiltmaker magazine. I changed it up a little bit to say "Home Sweet Home," and made it as a housewarming gift when Erik and Mae bought their home several years ago. Also, I added their house number above the door.

I made this before I had a good concept of the use of contrast in quilts, and so my border didn't show off the star shape very well, but I still like this little quilt. I worked on it while we were traveling, if memory serves, and so it is infused with good feelings about that trip.

Sadie didn't want me to make the same "contrast" errors and so she helped me choose the fabrics.

This one will work purrfectly for the star.

Find yourself a solid red and you'll make something meowarvelous.

So, I cut the redwork piece to the same size as the original Home, Sweet, Home piece and then added this border.

Sadie liked this fabric for the background, and she was helping me choose the binding strips too. How could I ever get anything done in the sewing room without my little cat?

So I quilted the center portion pretty simply. I outlined the little girl and then stippled around her. I quilted the little embroidered quilt blocks too. I started quilting in the border, but didn't like how it was looking, and so I took it out before I'd traveled very far. I've given it some thought over night, and I think I'm going to leave the border unquilted. It doesn't need quilting from a functional standpoint, and I think the quilting will just end up being a distraction. With that decided, all I need to do now is trim it and sew on the binding.

Okay, so I've told you many times about my suspicions regarding the motives of kohlrabi. It's one of the CSA mystery vegetables. If you scroll to the bottom of this post from four years ago, you'll see where I've made it clear that I think kohlrabi is something of an abomination from a design standpoint. The only thing I'm more suspicious about is washing machines. As long as we're taking a trip down blog post memory lane, you can see how my washing machine phobia came about if you click right here.

But getting back to the kohlrabi, my fellow CSA members have been raving about this recipe for Kohlrabi Fennel Slaw with Blue Cheese and Walnuts. And, hey, they weren't just kidding around. This is really good! Even the Resident Engineer, who tends to be suspicious around new recipes, liked it. (Yeah! Mikey likes it!) I used the grater blade on my food processor to "julienne" the kohlrabi and the fennel, and that worked out just great. It has the added benefit of using a fennel bulb, another of the more sinister characters in our CSA shares.

Ordinarly, I'm choosing a main course before I choose the side dish. For this meal, I went in the opposite direction. With the vegetable crisper quickly filling up with kohlrabi and fennel, I decided to try the slaw, and we had it alongside these yummy Turkey Burgers with Cranberry-Apple Relish. This is one of the gems we found while we were following the Cooking Light Diet, and it's become a favorite of ours. If you're still undecided about your menu for the Fourth of July, I can highly recommend both of these dishes.

While Mike was grilling the burgers, I went outside to check on the status of the calla lily. Oh my gosh. The fourth flower has opened. Is this pretty, or what?

Also, in yesterday's mail, I was reminded of my previous poor decision to visit the Crabapple Hill Studios website, where I found all of these patterns on sale. I noticed the "Lemonade" first. Then, the "Margarita," then the "Root Beer Float." As I kept browsing more and more, I realized I could put all of these patterns into a single quilt, set 4 blocks x 4 blocks, and so how could I resist? Yeah, I knew you'd understand.

I have embroidery patterns to make beyond my life expectancy, but that's okay. It makes me happy just having them in my possession. I've always been one for cheap thrills.

So today I'm making a short trip to the grocery store. I have food that will take us into next week, but our plans for the Fourth have changed. Instead of going down to the Willamette River fireworks, as we do every year, we're going to have a smaller get-together here. Mike is going to smoke a couple of flank steaks, and the rest of us will contribute salads. It'll be a nice quiet celebration this year, and that's just fine with me. We love our days spent on the river, but it is a commitment to set up early in the afternoon, and then hang out all day and into the night waiting for the show to commence. After I get back from the grocery store, I'll get a start on July's pink blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.