A Little Finish

Good morning, my friends. It's another day of beautiful weather here at the Three Cats Ranch. We're expecting good weather through the weekend, and it has been whole-heartedly welcome by us rain-drenched Oregonians. When I finished my slow-stitching yesterday, I took a walk around the house to see what's new.

A squirrel was there to welcome me. S/he looks as if s/he's cold. 

Just behind him/her, I noticed the bleeding heart is blooming. It has lots more flowers coming.

Smitty accompanied me on my walk. He checked for any buds on the poppies. Nothing so far. We don't usually see these bloom before Memorial Day, and so I'm afraid we'll miss them this year.

The echinacea are showing signs of life. We let the fall leaves cover them during the winter. It gives them a little insulation from any snowfall.

I'm seeing lots of buds on the Edda clematis. We might see some flowers from this fairly soon.

The first color is appearing on the azaleas. This one, in particular, is so bright in color, I usually have to turn down the saturation on my camera.

We're seeing more flowers and red leaves from the Andromeda.

At the front of the house, we have some wild strawberries that serve as a ground cover. I was snapping a picture of one of the flowers when this mason bee photobombed me. The air is positively abuzz with these guys right now. With fruit trees in bloom, it's their time to shine. The wild strawberries produce a very small berry. They're not particularly good for eating, but the squirrels love them.

I noticed one of the rhododendrons showing the first bit of color. I expect we'll see some big flowers from these before the weekend is over.

Another of the new daffodils has bloomed. I'm afraid this picture doesn't do them justice because of the shadows. It's a smaller daffodil...a mini...and it has a white center. It's a "Yellow Pipet" daffodil.

It's hard to see in my photo, but here's one I found online.

In other yellow news, the tulips are blooming. The deer are missing out on eating them so far. The deer seem to prefer them when they're still in bud stage, so maybe these are safe.

This next one isn't a very good picture. I might have to break out my DSLR and macro lens to get a better shot. This is a Japanese maple tree. It produces these eensy-weensy itsty-bitsy flowers. They're no larger than the head of a glass pin. The bees absolutely love them. The tree is literally buzzing with activity. It's hard to think they can get much nectar from such a tiny flower, but possibly if one has the right equipment, one can manage it.

Back inside, Smitty was hoping we were going to trace something. 

But no. We were there to finish off the Blue Blazes mini quilt. I was engaging in a day of rest, and so I was keeping it pretty simple. Happily, I pulled out a perfectly sized scrap of batting first thing. 

Considering how to quilt it, I decided to keep it simple. And, in truth, I really like how a simple diagonal grid looks. If it's appropriate for any quilt, I'll usually default to this straight line look.

Here's how it looks from the back.

Sadie was happy about keeping it simple. It allowed her to focus on being adorable.

With the quilting finished, I squared it up and sewed on the binding.

And then I spent the next hour or so finishing the hand-sewing. And there it is...16 inches square.

Here's how it looks from the back. I might have held the camera straighter, but I was blinded by the bright sunlight. (It's as good an excuse as any.)

So, happily, I have another day of nothing but sewing, if I choose. There are no housekeeping chores on the calendar, and we have leftovers for dinner. I'll get back to my slow-stitching next. 

In the sewing room today, I'll endeavor to sew these "Kitchen Herbs" blocks into a finished quilt top.

You might recall I purchased these fabrics to finish it off.

The one on the left was for the Raggedy and Friends block backgrounds. The two pinks on the right are the ones I'll use for the Kitchen Herbs. If memory serves, I've also pulled a nice green to include along with the pink...a color combination I like.

With such pretty weather, it's very tempting to get out for a walk. I'll see how I feel when I finish my slow-stitching. It's going to be a good day, and the best time to start a good day is right now.