PT Graduate

Good morning, my friends. It gives me great pleasure to announce the end of my Wednesday treks to PT. It also gives me great pleasure to say that my shoulder is nearly pain free. And who among us doesn't have some ache or pain somewhere in their body? I'm hopeful that I can eventually put this annoyance behind me completely. For now, I'll just say it feels better on the days when I do my exercises. That alone will motivate me to keep doing them. Nevertheless, I'm happy not to be making that drive to the next town over each week.

My appointment made for a short day sewing-wise, but everyone is better off when I take some time for slow-stitching in the morning. Yesterday's session had me finishing off the third Santa in the Santa Quartet.

Now I've moved my hoop to the right, and you can see that I've encompassed most of what remains. I spent some time on this yesterday evening while we watched the news. Probably I still have several days before this is finished.

From there, I filled the bird feeders and checked on the seedlings. I noticed the purple rhodie is getting more flowers.

In other shades of purple, the lavender is beginning to bloom. This can only mean one thing: it's time for Bees Knees Cocktails. 

When I'd finished with my outdoor activities, I could spend some time on the quilting. For the sashings, I'm doing this "Paperclip" motif. This is one I saw on Lori Kennedy's website. I've used this motif on many quilts. I like how it looks, but mainly, I like it because it's easy to do.

Where the vertical and horizontal sashings intersect, I quilted a diagonal line. 

Now, I've finished the horizontal sashings. If there's time today, I'll start on the vertical sashings, and I'll do the "cross" of the crisscross there. I left it needle down right here. 

From there, I was ready to start sewing together the first block for the Stair Steps project. The first one has a pink diagonal running from corner to corner. When it was time for me to leave, I had it mostly sewn together.

When I returned home, Smitty joined me to help finish it off.

There it is...the first of five blocks. In this row, there will be one more pink.

There was time in the day to start on the second block. The second block has a yellow diagonal. I had the pieces laid out when I needed to stop. If I have time for sewing today, I'll start sewing this one together.

And I'm happy to announce that Mike's new 3D Printer has arrived. His first printer looked like this:

Think of this like a sewing machine. The print head at the top was adjustable, but stayed stationary while it printed. As it printed, all the movement was from the "plate" at the bottom. The new one looks like this:

Kind of looks like you could use it to cool some soft drinks, doesn't it? Now, I can't explain much about this, but I'm told by the Resident Retired Engineer that the print head moves on this one, and the plate stays stationary. This means that tall things can be printed without having the movement of the plate cause them to topple over. Also, it's an enclosed space, which means he can use heat for some of the filaments. If he wants to, he can print with filaments that produce noxious fumes. There is an attachment that allows the fumes to be vented out a window.

At the top...these spools of filaments. His are all neutral colors in this picture.

But he has some other colors in the stash beside his desk.

Already, he's happily printing away...for now, mainly stuff that is used with the printer. And if you know how it feels when your sewing machine is in the shop for a spa treatment, consider how Mike has been mooning around the house waiting for his new printer to arrive. Death was imminent. Phew. Close call.

Speaking of close calls...Smitty. He's sitting close by as I'm writing, enjoying a morning sunbath. It's his favorite time of the year when the sun shines through the windows in the morning.

Okay, so today is the day we've designated to plant our vegetable garden. We'll put up our little fence to mark the boundary between the "groomed" part of the garden and the rather chaotic "bee garden." This will be our first garden since 2023. (We were traveling in 2024 and 2025.) It's going to be much smaller than the one you see in the image below, but we'll use the same little fence you see at the far end.

The garden in the image above was rather disappointing. The critters killed the green beans. They ate all the carrots. They gnawed at the beets. Thus, we're not putting as much work into this year's garden. We'll plant a few rows of corn, and I'll try the green beans again. We have an idea how to plant them in such a way they'll be protected from critters. I'll show you when we have it set up. Also, zucchini. Is it possile to have a proper vegetable garden without zucchini? I think not. Also, there will be pickling cucumbers. And, of course, lots and lots and lots of sunflowers. This year I'll also plant some zinnias. I don't expect this planting effort to take all day, but it does have a way of taking all of one's energy. Whether there will be any time/energy leftover for sewing is anybody's guess.

Okay, and we're expecting a warm day today, so we're going to get out early. That means now. Hopefully, I'll have something to show you tomorrow. I'll have something...but it might not be sewing.