Getting Back to Normal

Good morning, my friends. We have a pretty view of Mt. St. Helens this morning. We've been having some very nice weather, and we're expecting it to continue into next week. After last week's deluge, it's nice to see some blue sky and sunshine. And with what's happening in California right now, I'm not complaining about the rain...just acknowledging it. There are worse things than rainy days.

Sadie knows one thing that's worse than a rainy day...being unceremoniously captured, crated, and hauled off to the vet, where they do unspeakable things. Sadie is fine. She got a clean bill of health at her annual physical, and she is up-to-date on her vaccines now. We will have to provide proof of rabies vaccines for both kitties when we cross international borders this spring. Think of it as a kitty passport. Now they're both ready to go. 

When we were back home again, I went to work on my slow-stitching. The bicycles have been neglected for a few days while I worked on the Bigfoot piece. I was able to finish off the "Rosy Pink" bicycle yesterday...

And I took the first stitches on the aqua bicycle. It's the last one for this piece. There's still quite a bit to do, and so I don't expect to have it finished before next week sometime.

You might remember when I quilted this Dream Big Leaf panel. It was just for free-motion quilting practice and for fun. If you look closely at that picture below, you can see how it was rippled around the edges. It was quilted so densely that it wouldn't lay flat.

When it was finished, I hung it on my quilt rack with all the other quilts. When I put out my winter quilts after this past Christmas, I'd hoped to use it as a table topper on the dining room table. With so much rippling, though, it looked just terrible, and so I put it away with sadness. Then, I realized I just needed to block it, and I might be able to salvage it for use as a table topper or a wall-hanging. And so the urge struck me yesterday. I got out my cardboard cutting board (a gift from my mother when I was a teenager), and stretched and pinned the quilt to it.

It couldn't accommodate the entire width, but I pinned it where I could, and then gave it a good wetting down.

And then I went back to my quilting. When I arrived in the quilting room, I was happy to see that Smitty was already on the job, guarding against invaders.

I had three rows of blocks and a border to finish. I left the narrow pink border unquilted, and used a ribbon motif in the wider outer border.

When it was finished, I took it off the machine to have a look. 

Here's a little closer look at the quilting. All the blocks are quilted in the same way.

I wish the quilting on the back showed up better in the image below. I messed with the contrast and lighting, but it's still hard to see. Too bad because it's really pretty on the back.

And then I took it downstairs to square it up for binding. Smitty, with his eagle eyes, takes his duties as chief quilt inspector very seriously.

He used his tail to keep those unsewn binding strips under control. Strippers. What're you gonna do?

And that was the end of my quilting day. Today I'll sew that binding on, and then I'll probably spend most of the day finishing off the hand sewing.

When I went downstairs, and many hours later, the quilt was dry, and so I unpinned it and laid it out on the table. It still has a few little ripples, but it is vastly improved. I may decide to give it another try, but for now, I'll give it time and see if it flattens out even more on its own. Even if this is the best I can do, it's fine to use as a table topper now, and that makes me happy.

So it seems the day will be mostly hand-stitching today. I'll get back to the last bicycle and then I'll work on the quilt binding. On a quilt this size, 39 x 45 inches, I've been known to stitch the whole binding in a single day.

Also on today's agenda, I'll be baking some Carrot-Apple Muffins with Orange Glaze. Since the first of the year, I've been dieting, and so there's been no more baking. Mike and I started a serious diet back in 2017, and we both lost a good amount of weight. As anyone who's ever tried to lose weight knows, there are always the inevitable plateaus of weight loss where nothing seems to budge the number on the scale a single ounce. And when that happens, I get discouraged and lose my motivation to continue.

Since that initial weight loss, I've focused on trying to maintain my weight, and I've tried again twice (I think). Now I'm down to the final ten pounds to reach my goal. In the first week, I've lost two pounds. I'm hopeful I can get to the goal without hitting another stubborn plateau. And all of that to say these muffins are a relatively low-fat and low-calorie option. Mike has been whining about the dearth of any muffins, or tea breads, or biscotti to go with his morning coffee. Frankly, I miss that little morning snack too. So I'll make accommodations to my calorie count elsewhere, but I'm baking muffins today. Besides...I love baking, and I must bake something...sometime...somewhere. 

And that seems like a good place to stop. To my Southern California friends...oh my. I hope none of you are affected by the fires. I'm worrying about you guys. Please stay safe.