When Life Doesn't Give you Enough Lemons

Good morning, my friends. It's been quite a morning so far. I was here to chat with y'all at least a couple of hours ago. But then my new version of Photoshop Elements messed up in a way that isn't worth going into. In short, my computer doesn't have enough power to run the new version, and we don't want to spend the cubic dollars to bring it up to speed. And that's fine because Engineer Mike figured out how to use a different version that's posted online and allows users with older computers like mine to use the new version by deleting certain unnecessary functions. Yeah...it's all very confusing, and so don't ask me to explain it any more than that. So...long story (not to mention the time involved) we got it up and working again, and now here I am. Sorry for the interruption, although I think I was the only one inconvenienced. Except for Mike. He did all the work.

While he was setting things right, I used the time to roast some eggplant for tonight's Roasted Eggplant and Pickled Beet Sandwiches. I learned to love roasted eggplant while traveling in Italy nearly 20 years ago. We're still not major eggplant fans but it's pretty good when its roasted.

And despite eggplant's lukewarm reception here, these sandwiches are worth a second look. I've made them a few times. It gives me a way to use the pickled beets I canned last summer. It's an interesting combination of flavors, and it all makes a tasty sandwich. Here's the recipe photo:

While I was waiting for the eggplant, I went to work juicing lemons for some homemade lemonade. As I've mentioned, we're having a friend up on Thursday who has a Fourth of July birthday. I wanted some lemonade for that, and we also like it with a shot of bourbon for some Kentucky Lemonades. And that was all fine and dandy except that I realized I'd used all the lemons, and now didn't have enough to make a Lemon Meringue Pie for Thursday. Just yesterday, I sent Mike into town for more eggs when I realized I didn't have enough eggs for the pie. He was sweet enough to pick up eggs and flowers while he was there. Pretty, huh?

So now I'm going to have to drive into town for more lemons. I'm telling you that Lemon Meringue Pie is starting to sound like pie in the sky. Oh well. Worse things could certainly happen. So far, nobody has died, although all bets are off once I get to the grocery store.

So let's talk about something less aggravating. Despite my best efforts to sabotage myself, I managed to sew together four blocks for the new Scrappy Plus quilt. Smitty could scarcely believe it when I told him we were going to have to do a little more cutting.

He helped me select this light blue and light green to replace my original selections.

I needed 20 pieces of each. When I substituted them for my original fabrics, I liked it better.

And so I set to work making the first of four blocks. They're a little like making a 16-inch mini quilt each time. They aren't difficult, but laying them out and sewing them together took about 45 minutes each.

By the end of the day, I had all four done. Phew! And that's enough for one row.

When I came upstairs this morning, I left both kitties soaking up the morning rays. Sadie was on the lowest rung of their kitty tree.

Smitty had the seat under the table.

I haven't had time to do my slow-stitching yet this morning, but I finished off this section yesterday morning.

Now I've moved my hoop up to finish the top part of the piece.

There isn't much escaping my hoop on the left, and so when this section is finished, it'll be mostly done.

Today's plan is to make two more blocks for the Shop Hop 3.0 quilt. These are the blocks I have for that quilt so far.

The embroidered book "title" is already finished for the next several blocks, but I'll have to do some more before I can finish all 20 blocks. (Already I have about half a dozen fabrics accumulated for the Shop Hop 4.0 project.) I doubt it will take all day to finish two blocks. If I finish that, I'll get to work on the second scrappy project on my WIPs list, the quilt I'm calling Light Frame.

There will be more cutting for this, but only for the half square triangle portions. The rest will be pulled from my scraps as I sew the blocks together. I'm planning to make this quilt one row at a time.

So that's a lot in a single day. I won't get to all of it, but it gives me a path to follow. We have warm weather in our forecast, including a very hot day for the Fourth of July. That lemonade is going to taste pretty good on a hot day.