Apples of my Eyes

Good morning, my friends! My condolences to those of you who have to return to work today. Really, I'm sorry. We're just hanging out here in our eternally infernally snowy landscape. When I came up from my time in the Chamber of Horrors yesterday, I was able to catch this Downy Woodpecker at our suet feeder. We have Downies year-round, but we're seeing more than usual right now. They are tiny little birds...no bigger than a closed fist. This photo was taken from at least fifty yards away, and through a window. It's not too bad, considering the conditions.

Before submitting to my time on The Rack, I did some slow-stitching to calm my nerves. I finished up the bunny and one of the little birds.

Then, I moved my hoop to the next position. There will be a little pieced quilt in the open section at the center.

I'm going to say I'm about 2/3 finished with this. I'll need to make up another stitchery for our camping trip next week because I know I won't have enough hand-stitching to keep myself busy...especially if it rains.

After my workout, I went straight to work on the Pistachio-Cranberry Biscotti, a special request from the man of the house. We like biscotti with our afternoon cup of espresso. Ordinarily, I'd make this at Christmas time, but I guess it's okay to eat cranberries any time of the year. 

Biscotti is surprisingly easy to make. It has multiple baking "layers" though, and so it takes some time.

When I was showered and dressed and ready to face my quilting day, I decided to quilt the Road Apples first. For this, I followed a couple of the motifs I found from Lori Kennedy. I used red thread on the apples, and then switched to a white thread for the outer edge.

I used red thread throughout on the back.

It's a little hard to see the quilting on the whole apple. In this next image, I've tried bringing it out with adjustments to brightness and contrast. It's a heart-shaped motif.

And then I squared it up for binding. It ends up at 11 x 14 inches...a small wall-hanging...or a mug rug...or a snack mat. Orrrrr...you could suspend it over someone's head and use it for arrow target practice. (Believe it or not, we actually had a couple of teenage boys come into the Emergency Department where I was employed as a social worker. One of them had shot another with an arrow attempting this old William Tell trick. Yes, it was an interesting job. Never a dull moment.)

There was a leftover strip of binding in my scrap bindings that was precisely the length I needed. I love it when that happens.

Now it's ready for hand-sewing. I'm planning to take this along on our camping trip...unless I get antsy to finish it, and then, all bets are off.

The Road Apples were quilted on my domestic machine. From there I headed upstairs where Eliza lives to quilt some more leaves. For the first one, I filled in with swirls.

The rest were all done with echoing lines in one or another shape. With that skinny leaf sticking up in the lower right corner, it was hard to fill in that little spot on the right side. On this one, I echoed the outer edge of the leaf.

Here, I did the same thing, except that the lines are continuous from the bottom to the top of the leaf.

And finally, this upsy-downsy motif.

It was late in the day by then. This is how Smitty spent his afternoon. That white landscape is so bright in his eyes.

Today will be pretty much an NBS day (Nothing But Sewing). I'll do four more leaves, and then I'll spend most of the day working on the newest tiny house. But first, slow-stitching. Every day must begin with slow-stitching. We've had our breakfast already this morning, and so that's where I'll head next.