Approaching the Last Minute

My day started with a run around town, belt-way style. I needed to accomplish three things, and each thing was in a different direction. The apple orchard has opened for business, and so I stopped off to get some apples. There was a new pair of walking shoes in the mix, and then I picked up some prescription sunglasses made from an old glasses frame I had on hand. When I got home, I unloaded 15 lbs. of apples from the car. Applesauce is on today's to-do list.

My post is a little late this morning. I had just a few stitches left on the first block for Domestic Affairs, and so I finished that up.

Now, I'm without any slow-stitching projects, but I have some ideas to get me through until we leave on our trip. For one thing, the next Posies block will be released tomorrow...September 1st. Can you believe we're into September already? So, anyway...that will give me something to do in the next week. 

But I've been thinking ahead to our trip. We're taking the truck camper this trip...six weeks...our longest trip ever in the truck camper. My friend Dorothy asked where we were going. This trip, we'll be traveling east through Oregon and Idaho and then south into Utah. We'll do a little sight-seeing there, and then east to Colorado (Ouray and Silverton this time). We'll be riding ATV's there. Then south into the northwest corner of New Mexico, where there's going to be quite a bit of sight-seeing. Then west into Arizona where we'll do more sight-seeing, and then we'll be riding ATV's with Oracle, Arizona, as our base. Then northwest again to do a little more sight-seeing in northern Arizona and southern Utah, and then home, via Nevada's Great Basin National Park. We're going to see so much stuff! It's my favorite kind of trip. I posted pictures of our route as mapped out on Google maps. If you're interested, you can see them right here.

Okay, and so space is limited in the truck camper. I won't be taking my sewing machine, and I was trying to figure how to take enough slow-stitching to keep me busy, while simultaneously taking up as little space as possible. Enter the Grandma's Thimbles quilt pattern I found just recently.

These are small blocks. The thimbles are only 5 inches tall, and the backgrounds are cut 6-1/2 x 8 inches. So I've cut all the backgrounds and also the stabilizers for each block. Then, I printed all of them off onto Sticky Fabri-Solvy. I could print three thimbles on each sheet, and now I have them cut apart and bagged up.

These should keep me busy the whole time we're gone, and I'm hoping I can get them mostly done before we return home.

So I spent a little time in the sewing room getting the first block made up. Sadie, my ever faithful sewing cat, was there helping me when Smitty showed up. This big boy is looking so much better today. He seems to have taken a turn for the better yesterday, and he's much more active than he has been. When he came down to the sewing room, he was thinking he might like to spend some time in the clubhouse.

Sadie has been missing her friend, and she ran to greet him.

So I opened up the clubhouse for them, and they were up and into it in a flash. And just, FYI, you can never have too many cats, unless you're trying to accomplish something in the sewing room. Then, even one cat can be too many cats, especially when its name is Sadie.

Okay, so back to my quilt blocks...no doubt I'll finish the newest Posies block very quickly, and then I really will be out of made-up slow-stitching projects. I figure it's not too soon to get a start on the first thimble. So, I prepared the first block. That black smudge you see across the top of the thimble is just some smudge from my laser printer. I think it needs its print heads cleaned. It won't affect the block at all.

Now it's hooped up and ready for stitching, whenever that might be.

The only downside of this idea is that I won't have easy access to a washing machine. I've found it more difficult than it needs to be to hand-wash the Sticky Fabri-Solvy out of the block when it's finished, and so I put the quilt blocks in a mesh bag and run them through my machine's rinse cycle. While we're traveling, I won't be able to do these as I finish each one. We will need to do some washing here and there, and so I'll probably just toss them in at the laundromat when I have a chance. Or maybe I'll just wait until we get home. We'll see how it goes. And that is the only project I'll be taking along. (Crosses one thing off packing list.)

Okay and so in the "ways with zucchini" category, I tried a new recipe from the NYTimes last night. These are Chicken-Zucchini Meatballs with Feta. 

It was very easy to make. I used my food processor to shred the zucchini and shallot, and the meatballs went together very nicely. I ended up with 14 meatballs...enough for two meals. The sliced zucchini on the side is roasted in a 425 degree oven along with the meatballs. While those are roasting, you make up a kind of "sauce" using shallot, olive oil, crushed red pepper, and feta cheese. We looked askance at the sauce since it seemed a little weird, but it actually added a nice flavor to the rest of the dish. One is supposed to drizzle it over, but we kept it on the side until we were sure.

Okay, so applesauce is in my future today. If I'm feeling very energetic, I might make a batch of tomato-jalapeno jam. Probably, that will have to wait until tomorrow, but that will bring an end to Canning Season 2021 for the time being. I still want to make some spicy plum barbecue sauce when we get back. While I'm hoping to have some time for sewing this week, there is a lot to do to get ready for our departure. I'll fit in sewing when I can.