Getting Started

Good morning, my friends! It's been hot here for the past couple of days. We're expecting the weather to begin to cool off some today. I'm hoping the warmer weather will mean ripe cherries and early ripening plums. There was almost nothing on yesterday's list of to-do's, and so I gave myself some extra slow-stitching time to make up for a missed day on Tuesday. When I had it this far, I decided to move my hoop to the right to encompass the remaining green leaves.

The leaves are done in a fishbone stitch, which is slow-going and tedious. I like to finish those up first. It makes the rest of the piece seem like a breeze.

When I was finished slow-stitching, I switched out my Fourth of July quilting decor for some summer pieces. On the breakfast bar, I put out this small runner. It was a design from Patrick Lose.

On the table is the Sunflower mosaic. This was a pattern from Jane Kakaley. I modified it slightly to make it a little smaller.

Finally, this little wall hanging from Lynette Anderson. If I'm remembering right, the stitchery pattern was free, but I had to buy the wooden buttons. Just now I looked for the pattern, and it is no longer listed in her shop. 

With that finished, I took a walk around the garden. Finally, the blueberries are ripening. I'm afraid I won't get enough ripe ones all at the same time to do anything other than eat them straight from the bush.

A second flower is opening on the Edda clematis. It was just starting to open when I saw it yesterday morning.

It's smaller than the first flower, but maybe it will have caught up when I check this morning.

In the greenhouse, some of the sauce tomatoes are nearing their full size. I'm hoping we'll start to see them turning red soon. I have plans for these. That powdery residue you see on the plants is sulfur dust to deal with spider mites.

Remember the slicing tomato we moved outside? It finally produced its first tomato. I'm hoping there will be more soon.

And check out this lettuce race. The larger one was from the original set of seeds. The one on the right is working hard to catch up. A little competition never hurt anyone.

Okay, so it's a little hard to tell what's going on in this next picture. Allow me to explain. The yellow line on the right side of the hose is intended to show four gopher mounds...or maybe they're moles...it doesn't matter. Either way, they are unwelcome guests in the garden. They've been known to pull the plants down underground without ever popping their heads above the surface. In this year's garden, we put gopher stakes that emit a sound and a little vibration. One of them is circled in the upper left. They are solar powered and waterproof.

The plum tree is just outside the fence to the right, and I saw plenty of mounds there too. So, whatever critter is doing this stayed right along the fence line, but didn't penetrate any further into the garden. I think the stakes are working. When you're standing in the garden, they "beep" at different times and different pitches. It's a little like standing and listening to a crowd of tooting kazoos.

In the bee garden, I noticed a new flower. This one might be the one known as "Tidy Tips," although it's hard to tell looking at the American Wildflowers website.

At the front of the house, I notice the hens and chickens are blooming. This is a succulent. When we first moved into our house, a friend brought a gift of these from her own garden. She passed away last month from a brutal cancer, and so I'm happy we have this little flower bed as a memorial to her. They're like Dr. Seuss flowers and they are befitting my friend's personality.

In the front door flower pot, I'm seeing lots of poppies coming up. I hope they'll bloom before we leave on our fall trip.

Okay, so let's get sewing. Sadie was there to help, but then she saw we were still making Tiny Houses.

She was thoroughly disgusted at the thought of it, and spent the rest of her sewing day curled up next to the unlit fireplace.

I had to finish Tiny House #25 by myself.

Here are the 25 Tiny Houses I have so far.

I was dragging my feet a little getting started on the quilting. This is always my way when I'm starting to quilt a large quilt. I fooled myself into thinking it would be a short day by telling myself I'd just get the machine set up and tension adjusted. After that, I only had to actually sew if I wanted to.

So I'm using a new-to-me thread from the "So Fine!" line of Superior Threads. This spool was a gift from my quilting fairy godmother, Ila. Thank you, Ila. It's a white 50 weight thread.

In the bobbin, I'm using a 60 weight Bottom Line thread. I have mixed results with Bottom Line, but such a light weight thread needs to be used with a light weight top thread.

Smitty helped me get the tension adjusted properly.

I flipped the excess quilt back over the excess batting to check my tension. On top it looks pretty good.

The bottom looked good too.

We had to negotiate just how much of the cat body could be on the quilt and still allow for "free motion" of my quilting.

We agreed on front paws only.

I had in mind to start by outlining the embroidery. The lightweight So Fine! thread is doing great for this because I can cross over the embroidery floss, and it is practically invisible. So I started needle down at what seemed a good spot...

and then I stitched around the whole embroidery exterior. Eventually, I crossed into some of the interior areas. I gave the flowers a little wavy line where the petals are. I like the texture that gave.

I did some straight lines in the vase and then filled in the background. I can't say I'm thrilled with this background, but it is what it is. 

Here's how it looks from the back. It's pretty hard to see anything there, but you can see where the vase is at the bottom.

When that was finished, I just barely started on the first sashing. I'll do a repeating upsy-downsy heart motif there, but I quit for the day when I had it this far.

Last night's dinner was a new recipe for Summer Corn Tortilla Soup. It required chopping lots of fresh vegetables, but was easy to make otherwise. The recipe tells you how to use corn tortillas to make some crispy tortilla strips. I just crunched up some tortilla chips over the top and added chunks of avocado. It was tasty. And soup on such a hot day seemed like the wrong choice, but it does have the word "summer" right in the name. I rest my case.

So that brought me to the end of the day. Today will be another day of hoeing weeds in the vegetable garden. Now that I'm started on the quilting, it will move along, and I'll be at a finish soon enough. As I mentioned yesterday, I want to get it to hand-stitching the binding so I can take it along on our next camping trip. There's enough time left, and I believe I can get 'er done.

A little housekeeping before I go...my friend Helen asked what pattern I was using for the Homestead quilt mentioned in yesterday's post. Helen, you are no-reply, and so I can't reply to you directly. I'm hoping you'll see my answer here. I'm not using a pattern, but I am using the blocks listed in a pamphlet I picked up when I visited Homestead National Historical Park near Beatrice, Nebraska, last fall. I'm choosing quilt blocks listed in the pamphlet, and eventually, I'll figure out how to set them in a large quilt.

So with that, it's time for breakfast. Have a good day today!