Lots of Sewing

As I've mentioned, my shoulder is healing as well as can be expected. Nevertheless, I have some pain days. Yesterday was one of them. It's probably from the weeding I did the day before, but sometimes there are pain days with no explanation. Either way, yesterday was one of those. Fortunately, I remembered some numbing patches (they're infused with lidocaine) from a surgery some years ago. I slapped one of those babies on, and within 20 minutes, it was feeling better. I should be able to take my rightful spot as Queen of the World by tomorrow. Or maybe not. These days, anything can happen. Or not.

All of that to say that housework fell by the wayside, and I spent most of the day sewing. First, I finished off the tenth block for Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs. (Just the name makes me smile.) This block is called "A Chat with a Cat."

Just two blocks to go on that one, and I'll be ready to start sewing them together.

So, I've gone through the whole list of projects on my embroidery dance card. When I finished up the final block for Appalachian Memories, a slot opened up for a new project. I have so many pretty fabrics to use for barn-style quilts, I pulled out another barn quilt from my pattern stash. This new project is called "Heartland Barns" designed by Erica Plank from Unseen Hands. If memory serves, she's my neighbor to the north in Washington. Here's the picture from the pattern cover.

I'll probably do something different rather than all those broken dishes blocks around the outer edge. I have lots of fabrics to figure out something less tedious, but I'll think about that down the road some. For now, I've traced out the first block in the upper left-hand corner, and I'll get started on it today.

With that finished, I went to work quilting my Color Theory challenge quilt. Here's your little peek:

After I'd quilted the entire background, I realized I'd forgotten to add in some little details that I meant to do before the quilting. Of course, I thought of that just as I was falling asleep last night, and so I ended up lying awake thinking how to fix it. I have some ideas of a way to hand stitch it and it should be just fine.

Smitty probably knew I'd forgotten this all along.

How many quilting errors could be circumvented if just once, someone would seek my wisdom and counsel?

Sadie stayed out of it. She decided to take refuge in her little efficiency compartment beside the fireplace. It's an "efficiency" compartment because only the smallest of cats can fit here.

When the pain in my shoulder got to be too much, it seemed like a perfect time to bake a Skillet Cherry Cobbler for Two. This is made from some cherries from our tree, canned last summer.

There have only been a few years our trees have produced enough cherries to make canning feasible. I've made all kinds of things with them...cherry chutney, cherry jam, cherry barbecue sauce, cherry pie filling. When I have enough of all of those, I've canned just plain cherries in simple syrup. The cherries in simple syrup are good just for eating, and they're good over vanilla ice cream. It was only recently I got the idea to use them in this cobbler. Now I'll have to make some every year just so I can make this cobbler. It's that good. Adapted from my mother's recipe, and you can find the recipe right here.

While that was baking, I tried a new recipe from Food and Wine magazine for this Creamy Shrimp, Corn, and Tomato Chowder. This turned out to be a winner. It's like most chowders and includes cream, whole milk, potatoes, corn, tomatoes and shrimp. 

It takes about an hour to make it, and it makes a lot. We had it for dinner last night, and I froze two more portions for future dinners. (I like to take those things along when we go RVing.) Add a loaf of crusty bread, and you have a satisfying meal for a rainy day...or even a sunny day.

So that was my day yesterday. Today we have to do some grocery shopping, and then I'll get back to my quilting. If I can stand it, I might try again on those housekeeping chores. Have you noticed how pain in my shoulder is too much for housekeeping, but almost never too much for sewing? Yeah. Priorities, people.