Back to Square One

My title would indicate something bad happened yesterday, and I'm starting over. What it really means is that I'm back to the top of my white board sewing work flow list. I had a good day sewing yesterday, and I quit early. My next project will be to start quilting Ella's Flower Garden...a large quilt...and I wasn't quite ready to commit to that.

The first order of the day is always to spend a little time with my slow-stitching. Yesterday's goal was to fill in the spider hooping.

Now I've moved my hoop northwesterly, and I'll get back to stitching more of the broom straws. They're almost finished though...so close! I'll be happy to stitch something new after weeks of broom straws.

Time passed between that picture and the next. I started dinner in the slow cooker and gave the kitchen a good cleaning. I was really champing at the bit to embellish my friends' hair. I tried different combinations of the items I was working with, and finally settled on this:

I selected the little worry doll because he seemed the easiest to sew on. For the braid, I was able to bend the "eyelets" on the bracelet pieces to form a pretty good barrette. Here's how the piece looks without borders.

As I was hand sewing the embellishments, I looked across the room and saw Sadie peeking around the corner.

You're not sewing any more of those flat cats, are you?

Upstairs I had a sweet cherry pie for two baking in the toaster oven. When I took it out, it looked like this:

The pie filling is some that was homemade last summer with cherries from our own trees. Usually, I'm scrounging the countryside looking for tart cherries since that's what I've always used. Last year, I decided to try it with sweet cherries. I had a yen for a pie yesterday, and realized I'd made and canned the sweet cherry pie filling, but we'd never tasted it! Well. That certainly required the baking of an emergency pie for tasting. We had it with ice cream last night, and it was so, so good. I was surprised. I liked that the sweet cherries held their shape better than tart cherries, and so they were delightfully "meaty" in the pie. I think my days of hunting for tart cherries are over. Unless some tart pie cherries fall into my lap (unlikely), I'll stick with the easier-to-come-by sweet cherries in the future.

It seemed like a good time to take a walk outside. I found Smitty camped out under his favorite umbrella tree. 

We had to replace this tree a few years back after a limb from another big tree fell on it and crushed it. It has taken this one a few years to gain enough height to function as a proper umbrella tree, but the kitties are enjoying it to the max this summer.

Walking around, I noticed one of the hydrangeas is nearing full bloom. This one has the most delicate blue and lavender blossoms.

To its right, the peonies are putting out their last gasp flowers. They've mostly been deadheaded now, but there are a few flowers left on this slow poke.

In our breezeway, I noticed some volunteer catnip coming up where a pipe from the laundry room runs through the concrete. There's an opening there, filled with gravel. This will be the second year catnip has decided to grow here. It seems there are happier places to grow, but whatever works. We harvested a huge bush from here last year, dried it, and we've been serving it to the kitties this year. Even dried, they love the fresh stuff so much more than the dried version I buy at the grocery store.

 

The Red Cardinal Clematis has put out a fourth flower. You can see it down low.

To its right, I noticed the purple hydrangea is beginning to open. This is a happy plant...huge, and covered in flower buds. It was a gift from Mae one Mother's Day some years back.

Around front, I noticed one of the flowers on the hens and chicks has opened. They are so funny.

Mike was hard at work squirrel-proofing the greenhouse. I took pictures of his progress throughout the day. In this next image, he's filled in the trenches he dug with gravel, and he's buried fencing snug against the walls of the greenhouse and a foot deep.

Then, he filled in more gravel over the top.

Then, he folded the fencing down over the gravel. The fencing is made of metal, but it's coated in plastic to keep it from rusting. The squirrels won't be able to chew through the metal fencing.

Now, he'll cover it over with river rock. I'm planning to set several terra cotta pots there where I can plant some dahlia bulbs. I dearly love dahlias, but haven't had any success growing them. When the bulbs are planted in the ground, tunneling critters see them as a delicious menu item. Also, I don't want to have to dig them up every winter. So, I'm planning to put 3-4 pots here. In winter, we can simply move the pots to the garage. (Thinking. The woman is always thinking.)

Okay, but back inside, there was more sewing to do. I added borders to the Best Friends, and my quilt top was finished. I'll use that same turquoise for the binding.

I chose this fabric for the quilt back. I bought this at a quilt shop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Originally, I asked for a yard, but as she unrolled the bolt, so many pretty colors revealed themselves that I asked her to cut three yards. I still love the fabric, but I've found it difficult to use in any of my quilts. I'm happy it will find a home on this quilt, and there's still lots left.

Toward the end of the day, the sky lit up red. I noticed another Instagram friend was hiking on Mt. Hood last night. She posted pictures looking at red sky in all four directions. Here's how it looked from our house.

Mike had a yen for a fire outside last night. We purchased this little portable campfire "ring" on a trip once. It's intended to be used for boondocking (some people call it "dispersed" camping). We rarely boondock, and so it doesn't get a lot of use. We'll enjoy it more as a patio fire pit. It flared up pretty big when he lit it, but then died down quickly.

Which brings me to this morning and a new day. Today I'll get started quilting Ella's Flower Garden. It's been lounging on my mid-arm machine and chair, relaxing its wrinkles out. If only people could iron out their own wrinkles with simple relaxation. Sigh.

So I'm pretty sure I know how I'm going to quilt this. I'll quilt a flower motif in the open white sections. Originally, I had in mind to do a diagonal grid for the "checkerboard" sections, but I've kind of decided to go with Terry Twists instead. They'll look like flowers on the quilt back. My only question now is what color of thread to use. Originally, I thought all white. With the Terry Twists, I might prefer a different color. I'm still mulling it over. I might decide to switch to a variegated thread there with lots of color. I'll lay them out on the quilt before I start and see which looks best.

But now, it's time for breakfast. Sunday morning blueberry oatmeal pancakes...coming right up.