The Last Minute

It's been a busy couple of days, and today will be no different. Today I'll be cooking some food to take along on our camping trip, and I'll be packing food into the camper. Clothing will wait until tomorrow. Our camping spot at Mayfield Lake in Washington is only a couple of hours away, and so we won't need to fly out the door too early tomorrow. It just means I've been able to put off more things until the last minute. And I'm afraid the last minute has arrived.

But let's back up to yesterday, shall we? Our day started with a lot of complaining from the back seat of our truck as we packed Smitty and Sadie in for a visit to the vet. They were not happy at all about this, and they let us know it. Sadie sat behind Mike's seat.

Smitty was behind me. Both were offended at this encroachment on their civil liberties. The yowled all the way to the vet: What about our furreedoms? This is clearly a violation of our rights to furreedom and libpurrty under The Catstitution! 

Sadie was just there for immunizations. Smitty's day was worse. He had to submit to the indignities of a physical exam. Oh, the humanity! I can kind of see the wheels turning in his head. I have an idea he's saying, "I will keel you!"

When we got home, he sought refuge in his favorite off-limits comfort zone.

They got a clean bill of health, but I'm afraid with three vaccines and worming medicines to boot, they were both a little off their games yesterday. Smitty spent most of the day sleeping on the dining room chair.

Sadie likes this spot in the bright sunshine next to the sliding glass door. Besides...that little sliver of light could come to life as a lightsaber if necessary. 

I finished up the center panel for the short embroidery project I was working on. After our visit to the vet and the incessant squalling from the back seat, I'm having second thoughts about this verse:

Of course, it still needs a quilt built around it, but that will have to wait for later.

With the morning's trip into town finished, I went to work on the next batch of cherries. Yesterday, I put up four pints of Cherries in Syrup. This is pretty easy. With the two jars I have left from last year, that gives me half a dozen pint jars, which should see us through until next year's cherry crop.

When I made these the first time, I was just trying to figure out ways to use all the cherries from our trees. Then, I realized these were perfect for my Skillet Cherry Cobbler for Two. 

Now, they are a mainstay on our pantry shelf. Also, they're good over vanilla ice cream. And, if you're feeling really indulgent, get this: Cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream with more cherries on top. Food of the gods, for sure.

While those were processing, I finished pitting the remaining cherries and bagged them up for freezing. I'll use these to make Sweet Cherry BBQ Sauce when we get home.

Okay, so I still had watering to do. When I finished that, I made my way to the sewing room and added the final three columns to the Sonora Desert piece. I'm calling this a "background" now because I have lots of ideas about how I'm going to add some elements to it and, hopefully, bring it to life. 

I wanted to show you how I dealt with some of the smallest pieces of the quilt, and this is another technique I learned in Ann Shaw's class. The cross-hatching on my ironing board cover is one-inch squares to give you some idea what I'm talking about when I say this is for the "smallest pieces."

This section on the pattern looks like this:

So I sewed together a swatch of the two colors I needed.

And then, I cut the pattern templates as a whole. From the wrong side of the fabric (it's like applique), I placed the drawn seam line directly over the line of stitching, and then pressed the freezer paper to the fabric.

Then, I trim all around it, leaving a quarter-inch seam allowance...

Turning it over, voila! There's my piece ready to be sewn into the whole.

And you can see where it goes there on the right side of the finished quilt.

I'd been thinking about how to finish this off, and I have lots of ideas. First, I selected a fabric from my stash that I thought would make a nice border and backing. I believe I picked this up on our last winter trip.

I'll use a narrow stop border between the two, but I haven't decided on a color yet. I want to add either a full-circle sun or a sun rising over the mountain tops. I have some gold fairy frost fabric for that. Also, I'll add some machine stitched parallel lines across the piece as machine quilting, and I'll hand quilt some rays from the sun using metallic gold floss. In the wanderings of my imagination yesterday, I remembered these Shiva Paintstiks. I have two sets, but I these "irridescent" colors are the ones I'm thinking about. I'll use those to add in more color to the landscape. There is color detail in the photo that I wasn't able to capture in the fabric. This is all going to require a bit of experimentation, but that will have to wait until we get back.

For now, I have the piece pinned to the poster board and propped up where I can see it in the sewing room. I'll circle it for a bit before adding the finishing touches.

Now here's something fun. While we were sitting at the vet yesterday, our neighbor texted me these two images of two barred owls sitting on our gate. What fun! You might recall when I posted about their night calling. Click here for the audio recording. We hear the birds every night, and their call is surprisingly LOUD! So, it was great fun seeing them in these images. 

Okay, so I used my slow-stitching time this morning to make up the next block for the Posies quilt. I'll take this along for stitching while we're gone.

There's lots to do today. I need to hoe the garden one last time. Fortunately, the weeds are getting fewer and fewer as I hoe them off at ground level. I'll be making several dishes ahead, which just makes the camping trip more enjoyable. Also, I have a pedicure appointment. I absolutely don't have time for the pedicure today, but my nail tech rescheduled on me, and so I'm making it work.

I'll be signing off while we're gone. We've been camping at this same spot nearly every summer since Erik was a baby. You can read about last summer's trip right here and the summer before that right here. And really, this trip is just for fun and relaxation, so there won't be much happening that's different from every other year. But here's something: My 11th blogiversary is coming up on July 13th. Yeah. For 11 years, I've prattled on day after day, month after month, year after year. I'm surprised you're all still here listening to me babble on. So as a reward for your hard work and friendship, I'll be giving away this 10 fat quarter bundle of fabrics:

You don't need to do anything now. I'll tell you how to enter when I return. Until now...stay safe and stay cool. 

Oh yes, and Happy Fourth of July to my American friends! 

If y'all could not burn down half the country with your patriotism, that would be great. Signing off from the Three Cats Ranch.