A Little More Progress

Good morning, my friends. Probably I jinxed the weather yesterday when I told you the sky was getting brighter, and sunshine was in our future. Boy, was I wrong. It rained off and on most of the day. Looking ahead at the forecast, we're really not expecting any sunshine until early next week. After that...more rain. I'll need to be sure to get out and cut back the peonies when I have a chance. As for yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot on the agenda. Still, I managed to fill my time with some baking.

Another row is quilted on the Shop Hop quilt. These are a little tedious with so much measuring and marking, and so I had as my goal to stitch them one at a time, doing something else in between. With that goal, I managed to get another five done. I'd left my needle down on this block.

Later, I came back to do this one. Looks like I got photobombed by my camera strap.

And since my gardening was thwarted by rain, what else could I do but try this recipe for Apple-Spice Muffins with Oat Streusel. This was an easy and tasty recipe from Southern Living.

The recipe calls for either pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice to go into the muffin and the streusel. I used pumpkin pie spice. And if you don't have either, it's easy enough to make your own. There are plenty of recipes online for both. I was curious about this. As it turns out pumpkin pie spice is a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Apple pie spice is a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. So the pumpkin pie spice has more spices in it. One would assume it also has a "spicier" flavor. We liked it made with pumpkin pie spice. The glaze is made from confectioner's sugar and apple cider, although I used apple juice. They're a nice little snack before breakfast with our morning coffee.

While those were baking, I quilted another block.

Little by little, I got them all done.

Originally, when I bought this fabric from It's Sew Moab (permanently closed now 😥), we hadn't actually driven our Jeep in Moab. We'd only ridden our ATV's, and this fabric was as close as I could come. Now, it's officially Jeeping territory after our trip back in September.

It's a little hard to see how the quilting looks from the back. I've bumped up the contrast in this next image, and I'm hoping you can see it.

And five blocks completed the second row. Now I've left it needle down and marked for commencement of quilting today. I'll start right here.

Earlier in the day, I'd stitched quite a bit on this block for Grandpa's Bridges.

It was enough to make me want to move my hoop lower, and here's where I'll pick it up today.

There's still a lot of stitching to do on this one. I'll probably still make up the next to blocks for The Story of My Day. It'll be a good way to fill time on my quilting breaks. These are the blocks I have for that quilt so far.

Also on today's agenda is one easy housekeeping chore, and I need to do some laundry. With the quilting I'm doing, I'm starting to think about ways to fill my time between blocks. It makes for a fairly regimented day, but a lot gets done.

So with that, I'll get back to it. We received notification that our vote-by-mail ballots are on their way. They seem late this year, and we, along with our neighbors, were starting to feel a little nervous about it. It's reassuring to know they'll arrive soon so we can vote. Time's a wastin.