Picking Up Steam

Good morning, my friends. A lot was accomplished sewing wise yesterday. Possibly the Lemurs used up my supply of sewing mojo, and I needed a break from sewing for a day or two. Yesterday saw me picking up the pace again. First, I finished January's block for Pieces of the Heart.

Actually, I’m not certain what the name of this project should be. It occurs to me that “Pieces of the Heart” is the business name of the woman who designed it. Her name is Sandy Gervais. I’ve searched high and low for this pattern online, but I can’t find it. It has a copyright of 1998, so it’s been around a while. Whatever the case, I’ll stick with the name I’ve given it unless I decide on something else down the road.

Since I wasn’t expecting to finish it yesterday, that put me in something of a stitching emergency, doncha know. So I hurried and traced the ninth (and final) block for Le Jardin. I’ll start on that this morning.

While I was doing that I had three mini loaves of zucchini bread baking. They came out of the oven about the time I finished my tracing. These will be for Matthew to take home with him after our scheduled meet-up today.

That might not happen. He called yesterday to give me a heads-up that he wasn’t feeling well. If we don’t go, I’ll freeze these and give them to him when we’re able to reschedule.

Last time I checked in on the garden, there were several pickling cucumbers that were so, so close to being ready for harvest. So, I checked in with them around lunch time and found about half a dozen to add to the pile in the fridge. And HOORAY! I need four pounds for a batch of pickles, and so I have all I need now.

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Okay, so it was time to get after my quilting. I was quilting the bottom row/border of pieced blocks. Pretty much I stuck with the terry twist and looping themes. Starting with this yellow block in the middle of the row…

I kept moving to the left…

Until I reached the corner.

Then I returned to the middle and stitched the blocks to the right…

Until I reached the end there.

And then I did a line of loops in the adjacent blue border. 

Now, I’ve turned the corner, and I’ll work my way across the pieced blocks/border on the right side of the quilt.

From there, I headed into the sewing room. Finally, I got some help from Sadie. 

She helped me decide on some fabrics to finish off the Cozy Quilt stitchery. When I was ready to trim the block to size, she held the ruler for me. (It’s a good way to lose your whiskers.)

And forget that link I posted yesterday. I found exactly what I needed at Quilter's Cache. Despite looking in Quilter's Cache earlier, I somehow missed their block instructions. I looked at the block designated “Sawtooth Star,” but it looked different from this one. This one was labeled simply, “Sawtooth.” Pawing through my stash, I wanted something in the pink or red range to bring out the colors in the embroidery. I was looking for something floral, but most of the floral fabrics were of too large a scale. Then, I happened on this one with the circles. It’s been in my stash a long, long time. Finding a coordinating red, I sewed the flying geese.

And then I sewed the whole thing together.

I decided on the fabric below for a back. I’m realizing I should have put something there for scale. Just know that those solid black squares are about the size of a quarter. It’s a good scale for my little quilt, which will finish at 12 inches square.

There wasn’t enough red for the binding, and so I went in search of an aqua that matched the print. You can see it there on the left side of the image below. 

That brought me to the end of my sewing day. I’ll aim to finish this off today. Probably there won’t be a lot of time for sewing today. Either I’m going to walk with Matthew, or if he’s not feeling up to it, I’m going to make some pickles. Neither thing should take all day, but it will cut into my sewing time.

We had some excitement here Saturday evening. In the image below, you can see the gable of our pump house. We’re on a well where we live. With all the watering we do in summer, sometimes our accumulator tank runs dry, and we have no water pressure in the house. When it happened Saturday, Mike walked down to the pump house to be sure everything was working as it should be. (It was.) When he closed the door, it didn’t shut tight, and so he slammed it, sending an angry mob of hornets after him, chasing him back to the house. No stings, fortunately. Certainly, it could have ended in an ER visit. He didn’t see the nest until they came after him. It’s about the size of a volleyball.

He’ll take care of that one of these nights coming up. He’s had to dispose of big hornets’ nests before. He’ll go out after dark after the hornets have all returned to the nest. They’ll be sleeping. Then, he’ll spray some insecticide into the hole. He’ll wear protective clothing, of course. He was going to do it last night, but then realized he didn’t have enough insecticide. He’ll have to get some more. There’s no real hurry. We probably visit the pump house less than once per year. So there’s that. There’s always something, isn’t there? 

It makes me think of a time decades ago when I was taking a college level chemistry class and associated lab. There was a guy in my class…not too bright, but very funny. One day in lab, we all heard the umistakable sound of someone’s crucible breaking, and all the results of their experiment being lost in the process. From the back of the room, this guy I’m talking about said, “Better you than me, Man.” It struck me so funny at the time, and I’ve never forgotten it. So, all of that to say that when it comes to the hornets…better him than me.

Okay, my friends. On that happy note, I’m going to get on with my day and let you get on with yours. It’s Moanday. If you’re a working person, you have my sympathy…and better you than me.