Finding Joy

Good morning, my friends. I'm a little late posting this morning. I took time to finish off the fifth Domestic Affairs block before writing.

Here are the five blocks I have for this quilt so far. I love how feminine and dainty these blocks are.

This morning brought another pink sunrise.

While we ate our breakfast, it cast a pink hue over Mt. St. Helens.

Backing up to yesterday, I had a busy day in store for myself. It was my day to work out on the Bowflex. It's a good workout. With just a ten-minute warm-up on the treadmill, it still gets our heart rates up and causes us to work up a sweat. Of course...ladies do not sweat, but I'm not claiming to be a lady.

Afterward, I checked my email and discovered that our dinner guests expected this evening were canceling. It seems they were both sick with RSV. Sigh. Fortunately, I hadn't yet done any cooking for this event, although I had done the grocery shopping and housework. Oh well. It's two less things I need to think about today and next week. 

The only sewing I did yesterday was my one-hour commitment to thread-painting the challenge piece. I started my journey with this YLI 40-weight variegated tan. I'd hoped for something lighter in weight, but this was my best color choice for the skin tones. I went ahead with it. I used other colors yesterday, but I was so consumed with the task, I neglected to take pictures of any of them.

For this, I attached my Bernina Stitch Regulator. 

Usually I use an open-toed foot for this. Some of the pieces on my challenge quilt are so tiny, I feared the needle going up and down would lift them from the quilt's surface. For this project, I decided to switch to the round disc foot. (Disk?) Okay, I wasn't sure which "disc/disk" to use here, and so I inquired of The Google to help me out. This is what I learned:

Although disc and disk are listed as variants for something round and flat in shape, each one seems to have a preferred usage. Disc is seen more often in the music industry and throwable objects such as Frisbees, whereas disk is the preferred spelling in computer-related lingo such as floppy disk. (From Merriam Webster)

Okay, well that was no help at all since my disc/disk has nothing to do with either. I'm going with "disc." Feel free to chime in with your own ideas about this. And speaking of chiming in...CarolE, you are set at no-reply. I'm hoping you'll read this and email me the conventional way since I have no way to respond to your inquiry about the Heartland Barns pattern.

As I was getting started with my sewing, Smitty came to inquire if he could be of assistance. I told him he could best encourage me by acting as my kitty cheerleader.

And then I went to work. It's more than halfway finished. It's going pretty well. There are a couple of places where I wish I could have done better. It's the best I could do, however, and by my standards, the best I can do is good enough. Here's your peek:

Purrobably I owe any success on this to my excellent cheerleading cat. 

For sure, I'll be able to finish up the thread-painting today. The thread-painting is done through the quilt top and batting. I'll add the backing when that is finished, and then do a little bit of quilting. If I'm really speedy, I might get a binding sewn on today. I'll be glad to have this finished. I enjoy the challenge pieces, but I wish I could show them as I go along.

For dinner I whipped up the promised Chanterelle Mushroom Risotto. It's our once-per-year splurge on some very expensive and difficult-to-find chanterelle mushrooms. Always a treat.

With our dinner plans for tonight canceled, we'll have the leftovers for dinner tonight. And that leaves me with an NBS day. It's very cold outside today...freezing and windy. Staying inside and sewing sounds like the best possible way to spend the day.