Outside Job

Good morning, my friends. It was a day to be tired yesterday. As I mentioned, I had at the top of my to-do list to pick a bucket of weeds. Happily, there weren't many, but it required just as much getting up and down as it would have had there been more. I made it all the way around the house and finished the job...for now. But man, I needed to take my cue from Smitty after that.

While I was out picking weeds, I had some Savory Zucchini Cheddar Quick Bread baking in the oven. When it was finished, it looked like this:

The recipe would have you make some buttermilk by adding one tablespoon of vinegar to one cup of milk. I always have buttermilk on hand, and so I used that. It was tasty. There's no sugar in the mix at all, and so no sweetness to the bread. We liked its cheesy flavor.

We had that alongside some Slow Cooker Honey-Chipotle Chicken Tacos. Here's the picture from the recipe. (Tacos are hard to photograph.)

(Image credit: Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne)

That recipe is from the NYTimes. You'll need a subscription to open it. If you can't open it, email me, and I'll be happy to send it to you. It as super easy. I like a slow cooker recipe where you just dump everything in. There's no pre-cooking of anything required.

So all of that had me feeling pretty lazy for the rest of the day. I still wanted to get some quilting done on the New Mexico Kitchen quilt. I limited myself to just one block, and I splinted my wrist to give it some support. Then, I remembered this product I purchased many years ago called "Batt Scooters." Here's what the packaging looks like.

Here's what the product looks like.

And here's more information from the packaging.

They work as an alternative to gloves, although I prefer gloves. When I have to use a splint, the gloves can become overly cumbersome, especially when I need to do something that requires some dexterity. Then I'm yanking them off and putting them back on again, and the splint is just a pain in the neck...or the wrist...or something. Here's the video that sold me on them whenever that was...a long time ago. If you can't see the video, then click right here.

So I found them buried in a drawer in my sewing room, and I decided to see if they would help when I need to use the splint. And I realized I was holding it wrong after rewatching the video. Nevertheless, it was helpful, and I could get a good grip on the quilt without using a glove. (I still used a glove on the other hand.) 

Unfortunately, it doesn't make a lot of sense that I've gone on about this for so long. After an exhaustive search on the internet, I cannot find a source for these. Any potential sources had them listed as "out of stock." I don't think they're being marketed any more. Still, if this idea appeals to you, I think any kind of foam packaging would work just the same. They don't need to be all cutesy and cut into bat shapes to get the same effect.

I quilted this one block before calling it quits. 

My wrist doesn't seem any worse for wear this morning, so I might try doing two blocks if I'm feeling  energetic. So far, I have six of twelve blocks completed.

Later in the afternoon, I went in search of fabrics to sew together the "It Takes a Village" quilt. These are all the "Tiny House" blocks for that quilt. They're all trimmed to 6-1/2 inches.

You can see my fabrics below. I want to sash them using the stripe and the black. And I love this fabric left over from when I made my first Shop Hop quilt. Probably I have enough for the back and an outer border.

For cornerstones, I'll use this multi-colored polka dot.

And I searched high and low for this fabric purchased somewhere in our travels. I was sure I remembered buying it as a possibility for this quilt, but I could not find it anywhere. When I gave up and opened the drawer where all the blocks were stored, I found it. Of course I did.

And then I decided to try out my idea for the sashings. I think this will do nicely.

So I'll keep going with this today, and see how far I get. As for the borders, I'll have to decide which one of those fabrics I want to use when I have it all sewn together.

The only other sewing I did yesterday was some slow-stitching on the Girls' Getaway block. There wasn't much to stitch in this section.

Now I've moved my hoop up and to the left. I see a finish on this piece, coming right up.

Today's agenda will be a little easier. Probably I've pulled my last weeds until next spring. I'll get in a walk on the treadmill, and I have one household chore to do. If memory serves, we have leftovers for dinner. And so except for those things I've listed, I can spend most of my day sewing. It's going to be a good day.

What's going on in your world today?