Things in Threes

Good morning, my friends. We're going to get three kinds of precipitation over the next day or two. It has already started. We're expecting snow, sleet, and freezing rain. And one might as well say "lions, and tigers, and bears!" Looking out my window as I'm writing, it has already started.

It doesn't look like much now, but it's going to get a lot worse. I'm hoping the freezing rain won't do too much damage. Ice is the worst and the hardest on our landscape. Also, Matthew has a vacation in Mexico planned. He's supposed to leave Portland on Saturday, and I'm afraid this weather is going to throw a monkey wrench into his plans. For his sake, I hope not.

My day was long yesterday. I had some time for slow-stitching in the morning. I took the first stitches on the second of three blocks to finish off The Story of My Day.

Thanks to my several friends who chimed in with an explanation for this "fish for tea" block. Anni Downs, who designed this quilt, is from Australia. There was one other block earlier that didn't make a lot of sense to me. This one:

As it turns out "soldiers" refers to the little strips of toast, so named because they are so stiff and straight. Most recently, I learned that some folks shoot off fireworks in November for Guy Fawkes night. I learned about that when I stitched the Phenology piece. See the fireworks there at November's wedge?

Obviously, quilting is very educational.

So, I had five stops to make along my way yesterday. I was a little early for my appointment, and so I stopped off at one of our specialty grocery stores to get some currant jelly for Mike. It's his favorite, and I can't find it anywhere unless I go to a specialty food store. I don't mind because I use it when I make this Rhubarb-Upside Down Cake. This is so yummy. And, hey...rhubarb season is just around the corner. It's best to be prepared in these situations, wouldn't you agree?

By the way, I've linked to the recipe back there, but you'll need a subscription to America's Test Kitchens to open it. If the link doesn't work, please feel free to email me, and I'll be happy to send it to you.

Okay and armed with my currant jelly, my next stop was for my haircut. I had some blond streaks put in it yesterday too, so it was kind of a long appointment.

When that was finished, I was just down the road from a Jo-Ann store. I'd already decided to stop for some more of the vinyl that I use to create patterns for my collage quilts. When I made the pattern for my next challenge quilt, "Circus," I didn't have a wide enough sheet of vinyl to cover the photograph I'm using. There was just the tiniest piece that was cut off on the right side, and so I stuck two pieces of scotch tape together and finished the design that way.

This would have been fine, but I'd also cut off the left side of the photo, and there were reasons this wasn't going to work as well as I'd like. So I stopped off at Jo-Ann, quickly found what I was looking for, and bought two more yards of vinyl. Probably there's enough vinyl here to last me the rest of my life.

Also, I was able to use a 40% off coupon, which almost never happens at Jo-Ann. It's one of the things that makes me avoid Jo-Ann unless I'm prepared to leave the store in a bad mood. Yesterday's visit was uneventful, and my mood was the same both coming and going. But did you hear that Jo-Ann is closing 500 stores nationwide? Several stores in my area will be closing, but not the one I visited yesterday. And I can't help but add that this doesn't surprise me at all. Jo-Ann needs to do some serious soul-searching about understaffing its stores, leading to poor customer service, and a lot of aggravation. And don't even get me started on their avoidance-of-honoring-coupon-methods.

Okay, and then I made a stop at the grocery store. We have food to get us through the weekend, and hopefully, through this bad weather. Just one more stop to pick up some medicine at the pharmacy, and then I could go home. Yeesh. That was too much time away from home for this old bird.

I took a nap when I got home. Mainly, I just wanted to get under the covers and get warm. When I woke up, I cut a larger piece of vinyl, and then retraced the pattern for my "Circus" piece.

But it hardly matters because last night I decided on a different photo. The subject of the quilt is the same, but I found a photo that I like better for several reasons, not the least of which is that it will be easier to do. That makes three tries getting a pattern created for this quilt. Here's the new photo I'll be working with. Any guesses?

There will be a lot of gray in this one. The background will have more color. I pulled all these grays from my stash. I won't use all of these, but some of them are going to work great for this project.

Also, I'll be pulling grays from this gray scrap bin. I did grab out those kitty paws. I might use them when I sew the "Kittens" quilt blocks together.

There was a little time left in the day, and so I quilted the last three blocks for the Vintage Linen quilt.

Now I'm ready to start on the sashings. There are four horizontal rows and four vertical rows. I'll aim to finish the horizontal rows today. I've figured out I can quilt a little flourish around the cornerstones so that I can stitch across the whole row without cutting thread. I left it needle down right here, and this is where I'll start today.

Okay, so there's much on today's agenda. I have one housekeeping chore. Already I'm marinating some steaks for tonight's dinner. My foot is feeling better, and so I want to get in a workout this morning...no excuses. When all of that is done, I can get back to my sewing. But first, slow-stitching. There must be slow-stitching. 

Sleet is still coming down. It's windy, cold, and miserable outside. It's a good day for staying inside and sewing. How are you spending your day?