Containment Contentment

Good morning, my friends. How is everyone doing? I'll admit I'm worried about you folks up there in Northwestern Washington. We passed through some of the areas I'm reading about both going to and coming from Alaska, and so it feels just a little personal.  If you're among the folks evacuated, then I hope this ends well for you. Having faced an evacuation order a few years back, I'm sympathetic to how nerve wracking it is. Please stay safe. 

The rain has stopped in our area...temporarily, at least. We can see patches of blue. I'll grab the opportunity to get outside for a while today. The bird feeders are empty, and I can imagine there are birds out there tapping their little birdie feet and complaining about the service at this cheap motel. Probably I'll do a little packing while I'm at it, but it's a little early to get too carried away.

Since we chatted on Wednesday, I've had two days of stitching on the latest block for the Le Jardin project. These are fun to stitch.

Probably I'll finish this one today or tomorrow, and that means I'm needing to get ready with my next stitching project. By rights, I should be stitching a "short" project. I have one packed in my take-along kits, and so I'll hold off with that until we get on our way.

Instead, I want to trace the next grouping of 12 for the Tiny Treasures project. There are 16 days left until we leave. If I stitch one per day, I'll easily finish this before we go. Here are the tiny treasures I have for this project so far.

Sadie has been my faithful helper cat for the past couple of days. She was so helpful, I encouraged her to find a different job, napping in the little bed provided. 

I've spent the past two days cutting all the pieces I'll need to finish the last two rows of blocks for the Gumballs project. The pieces are all cut and labeled now.

I must be making some progress on my scraps because I had to break into my fat quarter bins for some of these. There are sections cut to 4-7/8 inches square, and some that are 4-1/2 x 6-1/2, and some more that are 3-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches. My scrappy scraps were lacking pieces large enough to cut to those dimensions. Breaking into my fat quarter box, I was able to get the job done.

Now each row of five blocks is contained in its own zip-lock bag.

And the whole shebang is contained in a larger bag along with the pattern and a spool of thread.

Now all the take-along projects are ready to be packed away. This has been a tedious process, and I'm glad to have it done. I'll be even more glad when I'm able to pick up a project and sew with ease while we're traveling. Here are all my different project packages.

It all fits in the two bins you see below. The top shoebox bin is to contain whatever embroidery project I happen to be working on. Probably, I'll end up starting something before we leave home, and it'll get packed into that box. I have a dedicated cabinet in the RV for my sewing projects. I can fit more than you see here, but I'll probably just stick with what I have. There's more than enough here to keep me busy.

And if all this cutting and kitting has made for some dull blog posts, imagine how it was doing all the cutting and packing. 

So once I get the next Tiny Treasures traced for stitching, I can get back to the Northern Wilderness project. I should have plenty of time to finish the next two blocks. Also today, I'm doing a little more Christmas baking. On today's list will be these Cranberry Ecstasy Bars. Here's an image from some I've made in the past.

It's a copycat recipe for the Cranberry Bliss Bars served at Starbucks. I rarely visit Starbucks any more, but when I was a regular in the past, this was always my choice at Christmas. Yummy. I'm happy to be able to make them at home. For the two of us, I'll make just half the recipe. 

Aside from what I've mentioned, there isn't much more on today's agenda. I'll be happy to get back to some real sewing. And with that...I'll leave you to your day. Make it a good one, okay?