Early Start

Good morning, my friends. Mike and I are early risers, generally. After all, we have furry alarm clocks who want to make sure we’re awake to see the sun rise in the morning. Yesterday was no different, and I was ready to make our usual Sunday morning pancakes around 8:00 a.m. Knowing I was going to be making a breakfast item with those egg whites I’ve been hoarding, I asked Mike if he’d be up for a change. Indeed, he was. And so for breakfast I made these Freezer-friendly Egg White Muffins. Here’s how they looked when they came from the oven.

When I went looking for this recipe, I was looking for something specifically using egg whites. Honestly, you could do this with whole eggs too. I needed 2-1/2 cups of egg whites. (Yikes. That seemed like a lot.) As it turns out 20 egg whites equaled 2-1/2 cups. I was happy to be using so many of them in just this one dish. So, it was easy. I added chopped spinach, cherry tomatoes, grated cheddar, and green onion to the muffin cups, and then ladled the egg whites over. Then, it needed 25 minutes in the oven, and voila! Breakfast is served. We waited five minutes for them to cool, and then added a dollop of guacamole. I added some tomato jam to mine, pictured below. We each ate one, but two would make a more filling meal.

The rest were loaded into zip-lock bags, and frozen. This morning, we’ll give them 45 seconds in the microwave, and that will be our breakfast. Mike has already done his. He gave it 45 seconds, but then gave it an additional 15 seconds. He doesn’t recommend a full minute from the get-go.

As long as I had the oven warmed up, I mixed up and baked some more Irish Brown Bread. It’ll be a good accompaniment to the eggs. It allowed me to use some buttermilk I needed to finish off.

So, I still wanted to make some watermelon sorbet, but my baking goals were complete. Time for some slow stitching. I took the first stitches on the Love Sampler.

And then I ventured outside briefly to pick some more lettuce from the greenhouse. I noticed the Stargazer Lily has put out more flowers. We don’t always get to see this, and so it’s a treat when it flowers so prolifically.

While I was out, I heard a rustling in one of the cherry trees. I thought it might be Sadie, and so I stopped to watch. As I did, I saw a crow fly from the top of the tree with a cherry in its beak. (Shakes fist skyward.)

I had one housekeeping chore standing between me and my sewing. It seemed a good time to get the watermelon sorbet churning. When I was finished with my housekeeping, the sorbet was finished too.

Okay…sewing…finally. It’s time to continue on with my quilt-all-the-quilts-or-die-trying quest. Next under my quilting needle is “Ruth’s Legacy.” The original name of this quilt was “When Quilter’s Gather,” done in the style of Ruth McDowell. When Ruth passed away last year (or maybe the year before), I decided to name the quilt for her. As a reminder, this is what it looks like. The block designs are Ruth’s. The block setting is mine.

My goal for yesterday was simply to get the machine set up for quilting. I’ll start the quilting today. In the bobbin, I’ll use an off-white Bottomline thread. It’s a 60-weight thread, and I still have a little left on a bobbin from a previous project. For the quilt blocks, I’ll use another off-white YLI thread on top. It’s a 40-weight thread. Already I’ve adjusted my tension, and these two will play well together. By the way, don’t you love that backing fabric? One of you put me onto that fabric when I finished the quilt top. I’m afraid I can’t remember who it was, but if it was you, then thank you.

In the borders/sashings, I’ll use this pretty variegated King Tut thread. I wanted something colorful, but not too bright.

It’s a 40-weight thread like the YLI thread I’ll be using on top. I’m constantly checking my tension these days, but I shouldn’t notice much when I change out the threads.

Spreading that out on the fabric, it looks good to me. It has the same colors, but it isn’t too obvious. (Thank you, Ila.)

Okay, so there are nine blocks in this quilt. I’ll endeavor to quilt three per day before I move to the sashings/borders. I figure it should be ready for binding within a week or so. For now, I left it needle-down at the middle block, and I’ll start there today.

I have in mind to do one of the two designs you see below in the pieced blocks. It’ll be an all-over design. I’m leaning toward the top one of the two choices. It’ll be easiest for me.

I’ll admit I really like the one below too. Maybe…maybe…maybe I’ll be very brave and give it a go. I’ll practice first and see if I can pull it off.

Okay, so that’s where I’ll start my sewing day today.

Backing up to yesterday again, I was able to sew the borders on Block 8 for “Le Jardin.”

There’s just one block left before I can sew this into a finished quilt top. Here are the eight blocks I have so far.

And, finally, July’s aqua block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Here are the seven “Inverted Star” blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Okay, so I’ll get started with my quilting, and then I’ll be ready to start with my list of WIP’s. I’m ready to make the final row of blocks for the Stair Steps project. I like this quilt, but all that cutting has been a pain. I’ll be glad to have all the blocks finished.

It usually takes me several days to finish a row of blocks for that quilt. When I’m finished, I’ll be ready to make another row of blocks for this quilt I’m calling “Jawbreakers.”

Today will look a little like yesterday. I have some more ingredients I want to use up, and so I’m going to bake some cookies for two. It’s been raining off and on for the past several days. I want to check the vegetable garden. It’s probably time to hoe again, but if the ground is too wet, I’ll give it another day or two to dry out some. We’re expecting drier weather as the week wears on.

All right, my friends. Enjoy your Monday. Off I go.