More Raggedy Blocks

Good morning, my friends. Our grocery shopping is done for the week. I'm happy to report we found everything we were looking for. It was a pleasure (if grocery shopping can be pleasurable) to be back in our "regular" store. We also picked up some bird seed to feed the hungry birds. So everyone is well stocked with food now...even the kitties.

Back home, I went back to work on the four Raggedy & Friends blocks I'm making. Sadie came ready to work. She and Smitty have negotiated some kind of shift assignment, and she was on duty again yesterday for the third day in a row. You'll never find a better sewing helper.

She helped me with my cutting accuracy.

And with her help, I cut all the pieces for the second block...

And then I sewed it together.

Here are the two blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Sadie held down the finished blocks while I went to work on the third one.

The embroidered sections were trimmed to size.

When I told Sadie we still needed to do more cutting, she fell over in a dead heap.

That was okay. I cut the pieces for the third block without her help.

And then I sewed it together.

And that makes up the top row of blocks. I won't sew these together until they're all finished.

It was getting late in the day by then, but I decided to trim the embroidered sections for the fourth block. The larger of the two worked out fine. 

This one was supposed to be 4-1/2 inches x 8-1/2 inches. It didn't have enough background fabric to trim it to the proper size. I had enough height, but not enough width. So...what to do? What to do?

Well, this section will end up at the outer edge of the block. With the way this is pieced, I decided to add a mercy strip of color to the left edge. That should work out fine, and no one will be the wiser.

Except for you guys, of course. Shhhhh....Don't tell anybody, okay? 

So all that cutting and trimming has activated the tendonitis I sometimes get in my wrist. It feels better this morning than it did when I went to bed last night. Nevertheless, I may take a day off from sewing today. There's plenty of other stuff to keep me busy. I'd like to get back to the weeding, since I didn't do any yesterday. It rained last night, and we're expecting more showers today. Still, I think I can walk around and pull a bucket of tall weeds...the ones that won't require me sitting on the wet ground.

Also, I want to bake some muffins. As I've mentioned, Mike and I have taken to eating a snack before breakfast. Problem is, we also started the Mediterranean Diet this week. You might recall a few years ago we had some success following the Cooking Light Diet. I was sad when the magazine ceased publication and discontinued its diet app/website. We didn't gain a lot of weight on our trip, but I knew we'd gain some. So before we even left for Alaska, I was already plotting our new weight-loss/maintenance strategy. When we returned home, I purchased this book:

I've been doing some reading, both in the book and online. You're probably already familiar with the Mediterranean Diet. It's been around and recommended for years. I'm only just now learning more about it. In a nutshell it's a dietary pattern based on the traditional foods consumed in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It emphasizes fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. It encourages the use of healthy fats, such as olive oil, fish, and avocado. It suggests limiting the intake of animal products and encourages moderate consumption of lean meats, poultry, eggs, and dairy. It's recommended by doctors for its health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. 

What I like about it is that no foods are off-limits, and it encourages healthy eating rather than deprivation. Calorie-counting is not emphasized. Nevertheless, for weight loss, we're counting calories, and following the guidelines for keeping our foods low in fat and low in calories. With that in mind, I'm looking at some of the recipes I've used for morning snacks in the past and thought about how to reduce fat and calories in those. 

So, all of that to say that I want to bake some muffins today. I'm going to modify a recipe I've tried in the past for Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins. You can find the original recipe right here. As written, it has just 130 calories per muffin. I can make it more Mediterranean friendly by substituting olive oil as the fat. (I'm told I should use 3/4 the amount.) Also, I'll use honey to sweeten them since the use of granulated sugar is discouraged. 

Also today, I want to make some Tomato Jalapeno Jam. It's one of my favorite condiments for adding to eggs, and I've made it many times. I've tried three different kinds of tomato jam, but I've settled on this one as my favorite. Don't let the jalapenos scare you off. I remove the seeds and ribs, and so there's no heat...just a nice tang from the jalapenos. It takes just two pounds of tomatoes to make a batch (about three half-pint jars), and it isn't terribly time-consuming. It's cooked in a skillet and that reduces the time it takes to boil it down to the right consistency. Since I'm completely out of tomato jam at the moment, it seems like a good time to break out some of the canning equipment and get to work.

If I can get all of that done, I'll get back to my sewing. For now...slow-stitching is next. The day awaits.