Super Regular Sewing

You might wonder what makes sewing "super regular." Well, obviously, it's like regular regular sewing, only with super sewing, one is wearing a cape. 🤣 Okay, no...that's not true. It's like regular sewing, but after one resumes housework after many weeks on the road. That was me yesterday...doing my requisite houseworky things before allowing myself to sit down at the sewing machine. It's the ultimate in adulting.

I started my sewing day by trimming the "name plate" for the newest Shop Hop block. The embroidery was finished, and it just needed to be cut to size to fit in my quilt block.

Smitty was my sewing cat yesterday. 

The kitties have been more than interested in spending time in their clubhouse since we arrived at home. As I mentioned in an earlier post, they caught one mouse right away upon our return. While the cat's away, you know. Well, the mice apparently had quite a party and set up housekeeping while we were gone because just this morning, Smitty nabbed a third mouse. I keep hoping that will be the last of them, and they'll be under control until we travel again. In the meantime, the kitties are hot on their trails...and on their tails, if you want to know the truth.

But getting back to the quilt block, I cut the fabric to the size I needed. I wanted to capture the palm trees for Palm Desert, but I really liked the combination of colors the flamingos added too.

Possibly, every seam I sewed on this block was taken out and resewn at least once. I won't go into all the ways I messed up on this, but it's finished now. I really like this quilt block for the "memory" purpose of this quilt. I'm following this tutorial from Crafty Staci.

When this is all finished, I expect to make 25 blocks in all, with the camera block in the center position. Here are all the blocks I have so far. I might have to start making them two at a time if I want to finish it while I'm still alive.

I took a little break there. It was an unexpected sunny day yesterday, and I needed to fill the bird feeders. While I was out, I noticed a tulip was blooming. Ordinarily, the deer would have eaten it while it was still in bud form, but this one is protected by a cage.

When I returned to the sewing room, I started making Block 9 for the New Mexico Kitchen quilt. This time around, I'll be making the "Burritos" block. Here's the picture from the pattern cover. Sorry for the blur, but it's also blurred on the pattern cover.

These quilt blocks all come with recipes for the represented food. Here is the burritos recipe.

It was getting late in the day by then, and so I only got as far as making the background. This will be one of the fringe-at-the-bottom PITA blocks. There will only be one more with fringe after this, fortunately.

It was getting close to dinner time, and I had a new recipe on my agenda. I was making Sesame-Glazed Meatballs and Broccoli from Cook's Country. I've linked to the recipe there, but you probably need a subscription to Cook's Country to see it. If you can't see it, and you want the recipe, email me, and I will send it to you.

Okay, so here's what it looked like when I served it up. I first saw this when a Facebook member of the America's Test Kitchens group posted it. And you might notice right away that it has sesame seeds...a big no-no on Mike's diet. And so I asked the Facebook member if it would be good without the sesame seeds. He felt it was safe to leave them out, and so I sprinkled a few on mine, but left them off of Mike's. 

It was also supposed to have some green onion sprinkled over it, but I always forget that part, even when I've already prepared the green onions (or whatever) for sprinkling. Generally, we'll have finished our meals when Mike looks at my cutting board and says something like, "Was that supposed to be sprinkled over this?" Duh. Fortunately, those things are generally good in scrambled eggs the next morning. 

Getting back to this recipe, it was tasty, and I liked that it was all prepared on one sheet pan in the oven. I used to shy away from meatball recipes, thinking it was too much effort to make meatballs. These are about 2-inch meatballs, and they're pretty quick and easy to make. An ice cream scoop can help, but I just used my hands for these. For sure I'll make this again with this change: at the end, you are to brush the meatballs with hoisin sauce, then put them under the broiler for a few minutes. I worried the broiler step was going to burn up the broccoli, and indeed, it did blacken it in spots. In the future, I would cover the broccoli half of the pan with some foil to keep it from burning up.

Okay, so today, I have another housekeeping chore, and then I'll get back to working on the New Mexico Kitchen quilt block. I expect to fuse all the applique today, and then if there's time left, I'll get on with the top-stitching. Sadly, my camera stopped working yesterday. It was working for one picture...the one of the block background...and then it wasn't. It's a point and shoot Nikon, and the lens will not open. I'm going to try taking it in for repairs, and I'm hoping it can be fixed for less money than the price of a new camera. In the meantime, I have a spare, so no worries at your end. Things will go on just the same. I only mention this because I'm going to have to take it in for service at some point in time, but probably not today.