These Took Forever Quilt Blocks

Good morning, my friends. It's a lovely October day here in the Pacific Northwest. I told Mike yesterday I think this is the best time of the year here. On the other hand, I say that about all the seasons, with the possible exception of winter. On the other, other hand, I'm actually happy with the winter rain and snow. It's good sewing weather. The darkness is my only beef with winter weather. 

The dahlias are making the most of their final days. As I've mentioned, the Firefighter dahlia is the most watched thing in the garden right now. When I checked in on it yesterday afternoon, it looked like this:

This morning, it looks like this...open, but I think it will get larger than this as its center petals unfurl.

We're still waiting on this Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia. Time is running short, my friends. Bloom, baby, bloom!

We put the dahlias out kind of late this year. Ours are planted in pots that are moved into the garage during the winter. We should have put them out at the beginning of May, but we were traveling then. Ours didn't get put out until the beginning of June, and I think that accounts for their slow bloom.

The newest raindrops were glittering like diamonds on the poppy plants. I can't really capture the sparkle with my camera, but it was pretty.

All of our deciduous trees are changing color, but this Japanese maple on the back side of the house is putting on the best show right now. It will turn a dark red before it's finished.

Back inside, I wanted to bake some muffins for our morning snack. These are Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins. It was a Cooking Light recipe before the magazine ceased publication, but I'm only just now getting around to trying it. They're made with all-purpose and whole wheat flour along with some creamy peanut butter. The muffin cups were filled about halfway, and then I dropped a teaspoon of seedless strawberry jam before filling them the rest of the way. When they came from the oven, they looked like this:

Inside, they look like this:

And they're yummy! I like peanut butter, but I'm not fond of peanut butter flavored things. These have just a hint of the peanut flavor.

I'd been in the kitchen most of the morning by then. I'd started last night's dinner in my Dutch oven. When the muffins were finished, I could take my game into the sewing room. There, I found Sadie, and she was none too happy about being asked to help with the Scrappy Plus blocks for a second day.

I helped with this yesterday! Smitty needs to do his purrt. Do I have to submit to this furrustration two days in a row?

Wait a minute. You're expecting me to know what to do here? This purroject is utterly purrplexing.

I can see that part of your purroblem is how you've arranged things. Here, let me help with that.

Okay, and somehow we managed to get all four blocks finished yesterday. The first two went together easily. The third (yesterday's first) gave me so much trouble, I nearly walked away to sew another day. But I kept on with it. I really wanted to get these finished. Finally, after a couple of hours, I had my four-block assignment finished.

Here are the 12 blocks I have for this quilt so far. There will be 20 blocks when it's finished.

Making four blocks for the Scrappy Plus quilt was my goal for October's

so I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month.

It seemed too late in the day to start anything new. Heading back upstairs, I found Smitty 'zhausted after his afternoon of helping. I felt the same way after wrestling with those blocks for two days straight.

It seemed like a good time to devote a little more time to the Phenology piece. I finished up April, May, and the Spring tree.

Now, I've moved my hoop clockwise for the last time. Probably, this won't be finished today or even tomorrow. But I'm thinking I'll have it done by the middle of next week. Frankly, I'm ready to work on something else for a while.

And this being Sunday, I'll link up to

Last night's dinner was Old-Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings. It was a good way to end the day. The recipe makes enough for at least two nights, but I only make the dumplings for the day we eat it. The leftovers are refrigerated, and I'll add more dumplings when we have it again.

Okay, so it's a new day. I want to get in a walk on the treadmill. I was doing pretty well before we left on our trip, but now I'm needing to find a way to work it back into my morning routine. With winter coming, there won't be much opportunity for physical activity outside. There is one housekeeping chore on today's agenda, but otherwise, I can spend my day in the sewing room. 

Next up on my list of WIP's is to make a third row for the Lightframe quilt. Here are the two rows I have for this quilt so far. When I sewed them together last time, I could see the pattern just beginning to emerge.

Adding another row should bring it out even more. This is the Summer Camp pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Mike made waffles for breakfast this morning, and so the only thing left for me to do is to get busy with my slow-stitching. I'm looking forward to an easy-going day. What are you up to?