Loafing

There was plenty of time for sewing, but my sewing mojo seemed to leave the building yesterday. There was a little housekeeping to do, and then I needed to water the flowers and check on the harvest. The first thing I noticed is that more Black-eyed Susans have bloomed. I'm happy to see this. I'm hoping they'll fill in their whiskey barrel in a year or two.

On the other side of the house, the echinacea are blooming away. There are three colors. In this next image, you can see the Pow Wow Wild Berry and the Cheyenne Spirit.

These are the generic pink, which were planted several years before the others. The bees love all of them, and they don't care about color.

The melons are surprising and thrilling me right now, which is a nice change from the angst of a few weeks ago. I've been watching this first one closely because I thought it was the largest. It's developing ridges now and losing it's "fur."

But as I perused the rest of the plant, I discovered an even bigger one. This one is about the size of a tennis ball. 

And there are lots more coming. This one is about the size of an olive.

So...cool. I hope they ripen soon. We used to get cantaloupe from our CSA farmers, and they were the best cantaloupes I've ever eaten in my life. I'm hoping these will live up to the challenge.

Also, there's lots, and lots, and lots of corn. I intentionally chose a fast-ripening variety, and so I'm thinking these might be ready in a couple of weeks.

But the real object of my desire was the cucumbers and the zucchini. I found one zucchini to harvest and lots more cucumbers. I have enough now to make another batch of pickles, but I'll wait a day or two for that.

When I was finished with the gardening, I got a start on my next art quilt challenge. I first traced a pattern from a photograph. You only get a peek at this.

Smitty helped. He's always at the ready in the sewing room, especially when he's waiting for the door to the outside to open.

My quilt will be mostly applique, and I found the perfect fabric for the background in my stash. I'd show it to you, but I couldn't crop it well enough to maintain the surprise without giving the whole thing away. There was plenty of time...the whole afternoon, in fact...to work on it, but I started to gather supplies and then just didn't feel like it. My excuse is that any time I'm using a pencil or pen, it makes my broken thumb hurt. The idea of tracing applique templates and cutting them out sounded wholly unappealing, and so I stopped. 

My thumb is improving, but it seems to be fusing itself until it no longer bends at the first joint. You might recall this was the surgery that was offered to me, and I decided to wait a little longer before  going ahead. As it turns out, the thumb is doing all the work with no need for a scalpel. If it would just stop hurting, I could adapt to the new rigid joint, but we're not there yet.

So I did a little slow-stitching, and I took a nap. When Mike brought in the mail, the new Dream Big Leaf panel was among the envelopes. These come in all colors, and I chose the December color. It's more blue than I thought it would be, but I like it. It'll give me a chance to experiment with some of the metallic blue threads I have. It'll be some time before I get around to quilting this. In the meantime, I'll come up with some ideas to make a larger quilt from it.

For dinner last night, I made this Grape Tomato, Olive and Spinach Pasta recipe from our diet.

(Image credit: Credit: Jason Wallis; Styling: Cindy Barr)

My picture didn't turn out very well, and so I swiped this one off the internet. I love a recipe that is a meal in itself without the necessity of side dishes. I made this as written, except I added some zucchini. This may surprise you, but I have a lot of zucchini. Lately, I've been in search of recipes that use zucchini, and I've found ways to use them in most everything I make. They have a texture that makes them good substitutions for something else too. You might say I'm a zucchini zealot right now. I'm considering making some zucchini bread, but spreading the batter into three mini loaves for freezing, instead of one big loaf for eating. 

Recently, I was inspired by Ree Drummond the Pioneer Woman to get serious about our dieting. She wrote a really good post in which she tells how she's been successful at losing 43 pounds. I really loved her sensible approach. We've been eating foods from the diet which have been heavily supplemented with desserts. As I was telling my friend Wendy recently, I've lost the same five pounds about half a dozen times since we started our diets in earnest again this past spring. Okay, so baking and desserts are my downfall, and with so much zucchini on hand, making mini loaves seems a way to have my baking and desserts and eat them too without blowing the diet too badly. After all, even the Pioneer Woman admits to having a piece of cake every now and then. Also, I've shredded and frozen zucchini for when I'm in a baking mood in less lean times.

Okay, so today I'm getting my hair cut and permed. I really hate the perming process, as I've said many times. I've been with this stylist for about four years now, and she does a good job of making me as comfortable as possible. My previous stylist seemed to barge ahead full steam without a thought to my comfort level. For example, I'd sit the whole two hours with a wet towel around my neck. My new stylist is very in tune to that sort of thing and hands me a dry towel to mop up any drips, and she changes the towel around my neck several times during the process. And all of that to say that I still don't like the process, but at least I don't leave the salon in a crappy mood.

There should be some time for sewing this afternoon, but now, it's time to get in the shower and get going.