Spring Things

Good morning, my friends! Things are starting to look up weather-wise, here at the Three Cats Ranch. I was able to get out and pull some weeds yesterday. I'll probably reserve today for sewing, but the weeds are beginning to tremble when they see me. Their time is short, and they know it. My bucket and I will have our way with them.

Before I could think about pulling any weeds, I spent some time with my slow stitching. I've been slow-stitching twice per day on most days. It's a good way to stay occupied and calm while we're watching the evening news.

When I filled in my hoop, I moved it to the left and then donned my gardening apparel. It's the first time I've worn it this year. Friends accompanied me outside. Smitty was on a mission here: He came to tell me that Sadie was waiting at the glass door to be let out.

I'm very good at following orders, and so I opened the door and out flew the Queen.

Together, they patrolled the area for squirrels, gophers, mice, and other vermin.

Taking a little walk around, I noticed the new wisteria we planted last year is starting to bud out. It's a good sign.

Back in a corner, some catnip is beginning to grow. Catnip is really just a weed, but we let it grow where it will in certain places. As summer nears an end, we cut a big bunch of it and then dry it. The kitties prefer the home-made variety to what we can get in stores. 

I noticed our year-after-year blooming clematis is putting on leaves and buds. The new clematises we planted last summer have done nothing so far. I'm hoping we'll see some action from them as the weather warms.

But here's my favorite harbinger of spring. The flowering plum trees are blooming. They aren't quite in their full glory yet. They need a couple of warm days.

The dappled willow tree is putting on leaves too. I'm hoping we'll get a pretty bloom on this tree this year. Last year, it was pruned fairly severely to give it a little better shape beyond its usual Dr. Seuss tree appearance.

The star magnolia is getting ready to burst into bloom as well. This is the one I most look forward to. The flowers are so delicate and pretty. It's best if it blooms when there's no rain in the forecast. Raindrops bruise its delicate petals.

Also, I noticed new growth on the fifth of the five peonies. I'm hoping all five will bloom this year.

After that, I walked all the way around the house, inspecting all the flower beds, on the hunt for the most loathsome weed in all the land: the hairy bittercress, or cardamine hirsuta, if you want to know its snotty botanical name. Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

When the fruit is ripe the valves on the siliquae will coil tightly from the bottom to the top after being touched and burst explosively, sending the seeds flying far from the parent plant. This seed dispersal strategy is referred to as ballochory and is a type of rapid plant movement. (emphasis mine)

Its propensity to "burst explosively" is what makes this the most loathsome weed in all the land. For the last several years, I've declared war on it, and tried with all my might to pull it all up before it is finished blooming. I do seem to be making progress, since I believe we have a little less each spring. For yesterday's hunt, I managed to fill my 7-gallon bucket, and I think I got all of it. 

Die, foul knave!!!

Okay, and after such a good hunt, I needed to bake some cookies. I tried this new (to me) recipe for Jumbo Breakfast Cookies, and these did not disappoint.

I made just half the recipe for a yield of 12 cookies. Mine were made with extra-crunchy peanut butter, golden raisins, old-fashioned oatmeal, and multi-grain Cheerios. They have a really nice texture, and they taste good. I'm not a great fan of peanut butter cookies, ordinarily, but I like these. As for being a "breakfast" cookie, Mike and I agreed that one would need some kind of protein for these to tide one over for any length of time. One of these with a hard boiled egg would be a quick take-along breakfast. I can recommend them. You can change ingredients if you like...add nuts, use a different flavor of Cheerios, use a different dried fruit. They were quick to mix up and worth the effort.

Okay, and then there was nothing standing between me and my sewing. I added the first border.

and then the second border. 

and  then, I needed to decide whether to add a stabilizer alone or add the batting as well. So I made a practice piece, and then stitched back and forth over both to see if it mattered. From the back, it looked like this. 

Since I'll be stitching through applique, I appliqued a small piece to the top and stitched through that as well. I couldn't tell any difference whether with or without batting. 

I decided to stitch without batting, and just used an iron-on stablizer on the back. Then, I drew in lines where the petals would be on the smallest of the sunflowers.

And then, I went to work stitching it. I started with a 90/14 quilting needle, but I was having trouble with thread breakage. I used some Sewer's Aid on the spool of thread to lubricate it a little, and I switched to a 90/14 metallic thread needle. It has a little larger eye than a quilting needle. With those changes, the thread-breakage problem went away. I was stitching through the center piece...so, two layers of applique...and I started having trouble with my top thread not picking up the bobbin thread. Looking at the bobbin, I discovered it was actually empty. Duh. It worked a lot better with a freshly-wound bobbin. 

Also, I stitched in some details on the tower. Eventually, I'll stitch around all the mortar. 

That was as far as I got with it yesterday. When I spend so much time preparing a piece for quilting: adding borders, testing a practice piece, drawing lines, threading and rethreading, messing with the bobbin, etc., it tends to kill off my motivation for sewing. Today I'll be able to go straight to it, and I expect to get a lot done. Also, I decided I really need to add the batting to the back. The background will only be lightly quilted, and so adding the batting while I'm doing the top-stitching will hold it in place functionally, and it will add a little texture too.

So that was yesterday. The kids are coming for dinner this weekend, and so I'll be cooking for the next two days. It isn't that I'm creating a big feast, but I like to do things ahead, so I'm not missing out on the fun while I'm doing stuff in the kitchen. And all of that to say that today is probably my last day to sew until Sunday. There will be plenty to do getting ready for our dinner together. It'll be the first time we've seen the kids in person since we got back from our trip, and I've missed them terribly.

Okay, so it's time to get going. For breakfast, we'll have a fried egg, some Canadian bacon, and a breakfast cookie as a stand-in for toast. Sounds yummy to me right now.