Last Day of Spring

Summer starts tomorrow. We, here in Oregon, can only hope it's going to replace this terribly wet spring we've had. We're expecting temperatures into the low 90's for next weekend. I sure hope so. When Mike and I looked at the forecast last night, we both said in unison, "We might have to water!" As if that would be so unusual. It would be. 

The kitties started their day yesterday with a four ear salute to all the cat dads for Father's Day.

While they napped, I filled in the first hoop on Calendula Patterdrip's broom. Yeesh. This is going to take a long time. There's only one way through it...stitch, and stitch, and stitch. Eventually, I'll make my way to the top of the broomstick.

After that, I took a walk outside to check on the peonies. This next image shows the spent flowers on the blueberry plants. I haven't grown blueberries before, and so I'm watching these to see what they'll do. I expect berries will be forming soon...if they got pollinated, that is. With so much rain, we haven't seen many flying bugs or bees.

The mint is coming up lush and green. This gets used a lot in summer cooking, and I'm happy to have it, even if it does regularly plot to take over the world.

Flowers are forming on the sage plant. I might make some sage blossom vinegar again this year. It's a pretty good stand-in when I don't get enough chive blossoms.

And behold! The third peony has opened. This one is called "Fairy Princess."

While I was out, Smitty passed by me. He was a cat on a mission.

A few days ago, he was teaching Sadie the finer points of weed sniffing. Yesterday's mission was to teach Sadie his best sneak-em-up moves. 

Sadie, you're doing it all wrong. You can't take those sideways steps.

You must face the fearsome gopher head-on, like this. Be sure to keep your ears and tail down.

Like this, Smitty? Am I doing it right?

That was better, Sadie, but to be honest, I'm just not seeing anything. Are you?

No, but watch out, Smitty. The pawpawrazzi is just over there.

Okay, that was all that was going on outside. Back inside, it was time to get started sewing the French Roses quilt top together. When I had the first two rows sewn together, it looked like this:

Then, I just kept adding rows...

one after another...

Until all 25 blocks were sewn together. I love all that color!

Next up, I'll be making a scrappy pieced border. I went back and forth about this, thinking I might instead make a border from the backing fabric. But then, practicality spoke up and reminded me that I was trying to use my flannel scraps. So, instead, I spent the rest of my sewing day cutting 52 scrappy 4 x 4-inch patches. I'll start sewing them together today.

 

It's a little confusing because I'm following along with the pattern, but since I'm using flannel, I'm making everything one-half inch larger so that I can use a half-inch seam allowance. Flannel quilts I've made in the past have frayed apart at the seam lines, and so I'm giving some extra room in the seam this time around. And, with that said, I had to figure out mathematically how many of these I would need. As I've said many times, I'm much too old for math, and so I'll have to wing it when I make the four sides to the border and make adjustments as necessary.

So our father's day plans were scrapped yesterday when the kids got sick with COVID. I ended up catering to the old man's palate. He had Eggs Benedict for breakfast. (I had it too...we both like it.) Then, I made him a dish I've made once before for dinner. This is Skillet Coq au Vin for Two. It's a tasty and easy way to put together a fairly complicated dish. It makes the most delicious sauce, and so I like to serve it over mashed potatoes.

And then I made a Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie for Two. We had that for dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with the last of a small jar of salted caramel sauce. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

It was a nice way to finish off the day.

Today, I'll continue sewing together the French Roses quilt top. I don't know if I can finish it, but there's a good chance. It just needs its scrappy border, and then there's another border made from the background fabric. If I can get both borders sewn on, I'll have a finished quilt top.

There's not much else on the agenda for the day, but the to-do's on my list have a way of revealing themselves as the hours go by.