Approaching Normal

It's been a busy couple of days since we arrived home. Since I last wrote, I've washed 12 loads of laundry, transformed 20 lbs. of apples into applesauce and apple pie filling, and finished the last blocks for the Stitchin' Wisdom quilt. Of course, I couldn't have done any of this without the hard work of my feline friends. We're all exhausted. Smitty is happy to be back to napping in his kitty tree next to the living room window.

Sadie prefers the  privacy of her little house on the catio.

Until the catio door opens, and then she's shot from guns. There's hunting to do.

But first...kisses.

There were two more small blocks to finish for the Stitchin' Wisdom quilt. This one:

And this one. Both needed their Sticky Fabri-Solvy rinsed out.

When they were rinsed and pressed, I put all four of the small blocks together.

And that's a wrap. Now all the blocks are ready to be sewn into a quilt top. Here they are all together. 

Sorry about the wrinkles. I don't have my ironing board or iron...only the travel version, and they need more heating oomph than that.

And, as you might guess, that generated a stitching emergency. While I was processing apples, I spent some time tracing out February's block for the Joyful Journey quilt.

It's a little hard to see in the image above, and so I'm showing you the pattern cover.

As we approached home on our final trek, we drove by Oregon Heritage Farms orchard. I was happy to see they were still open. Their farm store opens toward the end of August (after we left), and it closes for the season toward the end of October. Lucky me...they're still open at least through this weekend. I hurried on down on Wednesday and bought 20 pounds of Braeburns. They've now been transformed into 14 pints of applesauce. (We were down to our last jar, and so I did this just in a nick of time.)

And that seemed like enough applesauce to last us through the year. I turned the remaining 6 lbs. into apple pie filling...9 pints. I'd used my last jar, and so I'm happy to restock the pantry. One pint is perfect to make a Dutch Apple Pie for Two.

So...surprise, surprise! It's raining in Oregon! We've had some nice weather up until yesterday afternoon. It was good that the rain held off until all the unpacking was finished. Mike has been working hard getting the yard back in shape. It was beyond astonishing how the weeds took over in such a short period of time. The only weeding left to do now is the culinary herb garden. Also, I need to cut back the peonies. That will all have to wait until another rain break. Today, I'm setting up a temporary sewing room on our dining room table, and I am going to sew!!!! Hooray!!!! 

The time is running out to finish my latest challenge piece, Boustrophedon. The reveal is November 1st. Here's the previous peek I gave you. What could it be?

Shortly after we arrived home, I went rifling through my sewing supplies...all housed in the garage right now...and picked out these fabrics to finish it off. I have another one too, but it's not included here. I don't know if all of these will be used. Before starting, I'll audition some of them and then figure out the final layout.

As for my other sewing, I'm woefully behind on my RSC blocks and on the Books and Roses blocks. There's no rush, but I hate being so far behind. I'm afraid there'll be no catching up until the basement is finished the things are put back in order. For now, I have plenty of quilts sandwiched for quilting, and so I'll focus on them. When the challenge piece is finished, I'll get to work on I Believe in Snowmen. It's been lounging on Eliza's table all the time we've been gone.

The kitties will be sad since they've been using it as a fort for the past couple of days.

Regarding the basement, we contacted the construction company a full week before we arrived home to give them fair warning we expected the work to continue upon our arrival. He...Brendon, who seems to be in charge...told us he'd call us on Wednesday (we arrived on Tuesday). Of course, he didn't call, and so Mike called him and left a voicemail message. They later called to say the painters would be here on Friday (yesterday). So by 11:00 a.m. the painters hadn't shown up. Mike called again, and they assured us the painters would be there "after lunch." They showed up at 2:45 p.m. Did they paint anything? Of course not. They'll be back on Monday. (Sigh.) 

Frustration aside, I do have faith the project is winding down. Assuming they follow through and paint on Monday, they'll need to move the furniture back out again, and then the carpet is scheduled to be laid on October 31st. After that, it'll be a matter of replacing the doors and baseboards and then moving the furniture back inside. I'm hopeful it will be finished before Thanksgiving, and as I write those words, it won't surprise me at all if we're still dealing with this in December. We're keeping our fingers crossed. 

Despite the rain and basement woes, it's going to be a good day. I'm looking forward to getting back to my sewing. Fortunately, I keep a sewing box packed with everything I need. Think of it as my sewing "go bag." I won't have to go picking through things in the garage in order to be up and running. I'll miss my iron and ironing board, but I have my travel iron to pick up the slack. Right now, I'm going to head for my slow-stitching and take the first stitches on the newest block. What's on your agenda for today?