Seeing Stars

Good morning, my friends. We had a little let-up from the rain yesterday. By afternoon, the sun was shining and we had a blue sky...a welcome sight. We were out in our hot tub last night, and we could see stars for the first time in many nights. This morning, the sun is shining, and there isn't a cloud in the sky. For sure, I'm going to get outside and cut back that last dahlia today. I might have done it yesterday while I was out filling the bird feeders. But there was a drizzle falling, and that was enough to discourage me from anything more than feeding our hungry birds.

Interestingly, I found a forest of fungus in my wanderings. This one was the size of a salad plate with an indentation that pooled water...a nice little birdbath for very small birds.

These look like the little soda straws that come with a cocktail. They're about an inch tall.

The largest of these next ones are about the size of a dime.

And then there are these. They aren't as cute as some of the others.

Under one tree was a veritable army of these little guys. The largest are about the size of a quarter.

They look like little parasols.

Back inside, I took the first stitches on the Raggedy & Friends piece. 

I expect to finish it this morning, and then I can get started on my "short" piece, My Embroidered Garden.

My next stop was to bake this Pumpkin Skillet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting For Two. The original recipe for this cake appears right here. Mine was a cake for two, and baked in an 8-inch cast iron skillet. For my version, I scaled the recipe to one-third of the original. Here's how it looked when I took it out of the oven.

After it cooled, I frosted it with the cream cheese frosting and sprinkled some candied walnuts over the top. I happened to have some candied walnuts on hand. The recipe lists them as "optional," and you could also use regular toasted walnuts or pecans. We thought the candied version added a sweet little crunch. I'd do that again.

My only complaint about this is it didn't rise much. You can see in the image below, it's only about an inch high. And if you think about it, it fits the definition of a pancake in every way. It was delicious, however. We liked it a lot. The cake is nicely moist...like pumpkin pie in cake form. 

I'm suspicious about the rise. Cutting the recipe to one-third meant there wasn't much batter, and so I mixed it up with a whisk. I'm thinking if I'd used an electric hand mixer, it might have whipped more air into the batter and given a higher rise. I'll make this again at some point, and I'll try that to see if it makes a difference.

There's about 2/3 of a can of pumpkin left. Now I'm trying to decide whether to make some Brown Butter Pumpkin Cookies or, in the alternative, some Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies. As I'm writing this, I'm kind of leaning toward the latter. I mean...oatmeal. They're practically health food, right? What's your pleasure?

Okay, so finally, finally, finally, I could get some work done in the sewing room. Sadie read yesterday's blog post, and she was excited knowing we were going to make another block for the Kittens in Cups. It's her current favorite project.

But first, I procrastinated by choosing fabrics for my newest art quilt piece. Prompt this time is "movement." I know what I'm going to do. These are the fabrics I'll be using:

Any guesses?

Okay, and then Sadie was ecstatic when we finally started cutting pieces for the Kittens in Cups block.

This is my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. All the colors have been chosen for the year through October. For November's and December's blocks, I'll be picking from my "multi-color" bin of fabrics that don't easily fit into any color category. These are the pieces I'll need to complete this block. 

The background pieces are in the upper right of that image above. Those were all cut back in January when I made the first block. They're labeled and pinned together. It was gratifying to be using up the last of them as I sewed this together.

Here's my finished block for November. It's the first time I've been able to make this block with no mistakes and no swearing.

Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far. Eleven down, and one to go.

Okay, so I have my usual list of agenda items today. There's one housekeeping chore. I didn't do any sort of workout yesterday, and so I'll be visiting the Bowflex today. When I'm ready to head into the sewing room, I'll be making two more blocks for the Northern Wilderness quilt. These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Today, I'll start with this Eagle block:

When that one is finished, I'll make the bear block.

I don't expect to finish either one of these today, but sometimes I surprise myself. Just piecing the background block together can be complicated, however, and so I'll consider it a win if I can get to the applique portion.

It's good to see some dry weather. For sure, I'll get outside for a bit today. What's going on in your neck of the woods?