Cooking and Sewing

Good morning, my friends. It's another beautiful day today. I was able to get out early yesterday for some pictures.

The cherry trees are in full bloom right now, although the Bing (on the right) has a little catching up to do. The Black Tartarian (on the left) is beautiful right now.

The mason bees are hard at work. We don't see a lot of honeybees, but the mason bees are plentiful.

The blueberries are sprouting some flower buds. We planted these several years back. We still don't get enough blueberries to do much with them beyond using them as a garnish. Also, the deer eat more than their fair share.

There is a purple halo around the edges of the lilac as the flowers come on. I'm looking forward to these. They are so fragrant when they bloom.

The peonies are looking great. I counted 11 flower buds on just this one. Another one of the five plants also has some flower buds.

As I walked back to the house, I noticed Sadie was spending the morning in her studio apartment. This is her exclusive domain since she's the only one small enough to fit inside.

Back inside, I took the first stitches on Le Jardin. When I wrote yesterday, I was considering doing these blocks two at a time. This one is going to take a reasonable length of time to finish, and so I'll probably stick with my usual one block per go-round.

When it's finished, I'll want a "short" project next. Mr. Random has already selected this "Spring Flowers" pattern. This was a free pattern from Wandering Threads Embroidery. (There are some cute things on that website. I got drawn in there...sorry for the distraction.)

It looks as if it would take no time at all, but she's done some fancy things with the stitches.

I spent most of the morning making the Turkey and Artichoke Stuffed Shells with Arrabiatta Sauce for tonight's dinner. When that was finished, I was able to get some time in the sewing room. First, I made the three pieced blocks for The Sewing Room. I'm choosing scraps at random and sewing them randomly in whatever direction they end up.

Here are the four months of blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Next up, it was time to make April's red block for the Kittens in Cups quilt. I'm going to endeavor to make this one look like Smitty. He helped me choose the propurr gray for his spotted furs.

I didn't have a really good one, and I'd used up the best gray when I made his block for the Cats in Pajamas quilt. I'll give this Smitty in a cup a striped tail too.

The rest of my afternoon was spent cutting all the pieces I'd need. 

After doing all of that, I decided to wait until today to get started on the sewing. Could be there won't be any time today, but this project will be at the top of my list when I return to the sewing room.

Okay, so I think I can squeeze in some slow-stitching time before I need to get busy baking the Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake for tonight's dinner. (I've given you the link, but you'll need a subscription to America's Test Kitchens to open it. If you want the recipe, you can email me, and I'll be happy to send it along.) I'll also be making a salad, and I'll be baking some Sandwich Sprinkle Croutons for that. I have some par-baked garlic bread that just needs to go into the oven with the stuffed shells...easy enough. The only other thing I'll need to do is to set a table for six. It's going to be a busy day. And with that, I'll get to it.