Saturday Sewing

It was an easy-going day yesterday. I'm still taking it slow since my Mohs procedure, although it's healing well. The pain has nearly gone away completely, and the swelling is likewise nearly gone. I had sincere thoughts about getting some housework done, but then decided to rearrange the calendar so I could avoid it until after we get back from our camping trip. We're not expecting visitors...ever. So, what the heck? After lunch, I took a long nap. The stress of the past couple of weeks has left me exhausted, it seems, no matter how much rest I get. Hopefully, the relaxation of the camping trip will help reinvigorate me.

So, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my art quilt for The Endeavourers. As a reminder, the theme this time around is "Memories." My quilt top is finished and ready for sandwiching now. You only get a peek until the reveal on February 1st. 

Sadie was my color consultant. She assisted me in keeping the seams and colors straight.

When the top was finished, I laid out the backing fabric. Sadie is guarding this secret with her very life.

You cannot get past my claws of doom.

Next, I pieced together some scraps of batting. I like the double overlock stitch for this, which is stitch #10 on my Bernina 750QE.

It gives a nice flat and sturdy stitch.

When I left it yesterday, it was ready for quilting.

I knows the secret, but I is not telling.

Upstairs, Smitty was doing battle with the red dot.

For dinner, I tried a new recipe from the Cooking Light diet. This is Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Onions. I went back and forth over whether this required a vegetable. We had it without a separate vegetable, and it was very filling just as it was.

We've been able to score a couple of packages of thin-cut pork chops at the grocery store the past few weeks. Sometimes it's hard to find them sliced thin like that, and this was a super simple way to use them. It requires two skillets, and one goes into the oven. I sliced the apples into eight wedges each. They ended up taking 20 minutes in the oven, rather than the 10 minutes specified in the recipe. You could cut each wedge in half if you wanted to, but we liked them thicker. The only other thing I did differently was to use 1 teaspoon of dried thyme in place of the fresh. Delicious, and easy enough for RV cooking...always a plus for any new recipe.

The only other sewing I did yesterday was to get a good start on the final section for "I Believe in Snowmen." There is one more snowman like this one, and the rest is just straight line stitching of the snow bank they're sledding on.

 

This being Sunday, I'll be linking up to:

This one is going to stitch up pretty fast, and so I pulled out the next project I'll be working on. This is a new entry to my embroidery dance card. This pattern for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage has been in my pattern stash for years. As I've mentioned, I have many embroidery patterns, and I can't choose among them when I'm ready to start a new project. I've assigned a number to each, and I let Mr. Random do the choosing. This time, he chose this one:

In preparation, I've already purchased a mottled tan background fabric. Like so many patterns from Crabapple Hill Studios, this one suggests some coloring and tinting. I'm skipping that part this time around and letting the mottling of the fabric do the work. The other browns and tans will be from my stash of scraps.

Yesterday I took it out and started looking it over. It appears fairly complicated. I'm glad I didn't try starting it years ago when I had less experience with this sort of thing. If you look at the image above, you'll see that the embroidery motifs are large and single motifs extend through pieced blocks. The first section is the row of crows at the top of the quilt. For this first section, I'll only be stitching the legs down to just above the feet. Looking at the image below, the dotted line shows where the seam line will be.

So I'll probably have to do some of the piecing before I can trace the embroidery. I might actually have to read the instructions for this pattern before I get started. Oh, the humanity! 

Getting this first section pieced and traced out will be on today's agenda. Also, I'll finish quilting and binding my challenge piece. There won't be much else to do, which is a good thing. Just reading the instructions will probably mean a nap afterward. How are you spending your Sunday?