Scary Cutting and Prepping

Good morning, my friends. One might read the title for this post and think it's some sort of political statement. Rest assured, my friends, it is not. It is, instead, a sewing post. Sewing is the only thing keeping me sane for the time being. Anyone else feel that way?

Having finished up the two rows of "lace" for the Girls Getaway quilt,

it was time to gulp hard and cut them to the proper size. Meg Hawkey often has us cutting a freezer paper template to trim large panels to the proper size. Here are the instructions. 

Well, Smitty could hardly watch. He thought this might end in cat-tastrophe.

Okay, so this is a good method. One must first properly cut and mark the template. From there, it is ironed to the embroidery piece, 

When it was all said and done, it seemed right, and I could heave a sign of relief.

And that page of instructions shown above had instructions for cutting all the large embroidery panels to the proper size. I'd done none of them. Sadie helped me round up my rulers for some more scary cutting.

It was good doing them all at once since the longest panels were all the same length. It meant I could use the same sheet of freezer paper, simply cutting it to the proper vertical measurement. When it was all finished, I use the pattern cover to help me arrange the finished pieces. The embroidery is finished, but there are still a few pieced blocks missing.

Okay, well, I'll get to those pieced blocks eventually. For now, I packed it all away and moved on to the next project. I mentioned in an earlier post that I'll be doing these "Kitchen Herbs" blocks. I had a small background piece left over from the Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage quilt, and I used that for the embroidery backgrounds. These are small pieces. Chives.

Rosemary.

Oregano.

And Basil.

The pattern listed a brand of embroidery floss I've never heard of. I used the color names to choose leftover floss from my own stash. These are the colors I'll be using.

So, I won't start on that until tomorrow at the earliest. In the meantime, I've taken the first stitches for March's block for The Sewing Room.

Probably I'll finish this up today, and then I can get started on the new "short" piece. If there's time for more sewing today, I'll make the pieced blocks for The Sewing Room, and then I'll be ready to add another row to the Land & Sea quilt.

Also today, I'll be doing some baking. We've eaten all our biscotti from the last round, and so I'm going to bake some Flaxseed Raisin Muffins. They're made with ground flaxseed, whole-wheat flour, and all-purpose flour. Also, banana, raisins, pecans, and applesauce. Sounds like a good pre-breakfast snack, no? 

There's a long list of to-do's for me today. In addition to baking, I want to get in a Bowflex workout and I have one housekeeping task to do. My friend, Karen, asked what I mean when I use the word "chore" or "task." You can think of it as one job...mopping the floor, or cleaning one of the bathrooms, or vacuuming one of the rooms. Many years ago, I felt overwhelmed with the housework, mainly because I felt as if I needed to do everything all at once in a single day. Someone who read my blog at the time gave me a new way to think about it by breaking the "chores" into smaller pieces and listing them on the calendar at regular repeating intervals. Honestly, it revolutionized the way I do my housework. 

With just the two of us here, the house never gets very dirty. I broke the tasks up into rooms in the house and jobs that needed doing in each room. Some chores need doing more often...think the rooms we use the most...while some only need doing occasionally. Each person would need to figure out a schedule that works best for them. So, I hope that makes sense. And if whoever gave me that idea about using the calendar to schedule tasks is still reading, then thank you. 

Okay, so there's plenty to keep me busy today. Breakfast is next, and then I'll get on with my day.