Catching Up

There was a flurry of activity yesterday morning. I had some housekeeping chores I needed to do before I could start on my sewing. With so much disorder in the house for these many months, it's been hard to give the place a proper cleaning. Yesterday, I started catching up on that. There's no rush, but one has to start somewhere. It was around noon before I was able to get at my quilting. 

Smitty was on the job again as my purrtective sentry, keeping the stairs clear of intruders.

When I sat down to quilt, I surprised myself by adding more quilting to the pieced snowflake blocks. I'm happy with the quilting I've done so far, but I've had that niggling thought that more quilting was needed. So, I did some dot-to-dot quilting around the outer edges of these blocks.

I like the way it looks on the back, and so I continued on filling in the blocks I'd already quilted.

I'd already decided I wanted to try choosing a spot in the middle of each snowflake where I could add some quilting without detracting from the embroidery and beading. This was my first try. I decided to stitch right next to the solid light blue line near the center. When it was finished, I thought the quilting actually enhanced the look of the snowflake, giving it a little more texture.

Here's how that looks from the back. I like the look, and it's better from a functional standpoint.

The next one was a little harder to decide on, and I ended up stitching from point to bead around the middle. The needle came perilously close to the beads, but with care and a nice slow speed, I was able to get it done.

Here's how that looks from the back.

And then, I just continued on my merry way. I stitched just inside the outer dark blue line for this one.

This one didn't really have a good place for stitching, and so I picked a place where I could stitch without running over any embroidery. 

I neglected to take a picture of the back, and moved on to the next one. This one was a little more complicated. I ended up stitching around the shapes, right next to the embroidered lines.

When I looked at the back, the shape surprised me, but I like it.

This one was probably the hardest to decide what to do. It ends up looking like an asterisk, but I still like it.

I actually ended up stitching one more block than I'd planned. It was hard to decide on this one too. I ended up stitching with the aqua line near the center.

It's smaller than the rest. I might decide to add something more here, but probably not. When I see the whole thing finished, I'll decide.

So I made good progress on my quilting yesterday. There is still one more pieced block, and then four more snowflakes to quilt today. I'll wait until tomorrow to get started on the setting triangles. 

By then, my sentry cat was ready for a break, and he'd moved to the chair beside my sewing machine. From there, he fulfilled is role as companion cat.

Down in the sewing room, Sadie was vocally requesting an opportunity to help me finish organizing. Sadie has very strong opinions about things.

She really liked this lighthouse fabric.

I first needed to identify and mark all the regional prints I picked up along the way.

I'm actually collecting prints for the third of my "Shop Hop" quilts now. The next one will be made in "book" blocks. I found this "Book Nerd" pattern online. It's a paper-pieced pattern. I'll have to make the blocks before I can add the embroidered name and place of each quilt shop. Not a problem, but it took some thinking how I could make this work for my quilt.

As you might know, I'm using a polaroid camera picture block for my current project. When I last worked on it, it looked like this:

I still need 13 blocks more for this quilt, but I've already collected so many more for the next quilt that I need to move this one along. My usual way is to make one block at a time, but I might step that up to three blocks at a time, just to get it moving. If I don't hurry up, I'll be collecting fabrics for the fourth quilt before I've even started on the third. 

There was a little bit of yardage to fold and put away as well, but I kept most pieces large since I don't have a clear idea how much I'll need for those paper-pieced book blocks.

From there I was ready to start catching up on my RSC blocks. August's block was first, and it will be done in oranges. My helper cat was at the ready.

With encouragement, she found her way back to her little kitty bed and took a well-deserved nap.

With so many pieces in these blocks, her help was not desirable.

They're laid out now for sewing. It was late in the day, and so I decided to call it quits. I left all of it covered with rulers to make it clear that I was not interested in alternative arrangements.

So I tried a new recipe last night. This was on the menu because I'd had to purchase a too-large bag of tortellini when we were traveling, and I still had a half bag hanging out in my freezer. So, I went in search of ways to use it and came up with this Creamy Tortellini French Onion Soup. This can be done either on the stove top or else in a slow cooker. For both methods, the onions are first caramelized on the stove top. It was very tasty.

French Onion Soup is traditionally served with a cheesy crouton on the top. The recipe would have you ladle the soup into bowls, add the bread and grated cheese, and then set it under a broiler to melt the cheese and toast the bread. My way is easier. I put the bread slices on a baking sheet, added the cheese and (in this case) chopped fresh rosemary. Then I just toasted it and add it to the soup after it was toasted. Way easier and less scary.

I can highly recommend this. We thought it was delicious. I'd like to try doing it in the slow cooker next time. 

So today is going to be NBS. I'm so ready to have a good sewing day. We're in about Day 4 of the atmospheric river outside, and it is raining hard. I love a good rainy NBS day. How better to sew without even a twinge of guilt. I'll finish up quilting the five quilt blocks that remain, and then I'm hoping to get caught up on the many months of RSC I've missed. If I can get all that finished. I'm going to start sewing together the Heartland Barns quilt top. The embroidered blocks are finished. I just need to decide how to set them.

I have some ideas about this, but it will take some thinking and figuring. Nothing can happen until I have the blocks sewn together, and I can measure it's width and height. If I get that far today, it will have been a very good sewing day. 

Okay, quilters...start your sewing machines. On your marks, get set, SEW!!