Unplanned Excursion

Good morning, my friends. My day went off the rails yesterday. Things were going along as per the usual routine, and I was minding my own business when my doctor’s office called. And I’ll say right up front here that everything is fine with my nose. I’m about to lead you down a worrisome garden path, but I want you to know that everything is A-OK before I go any further.

They called the day before too (the day after my Moh’s). So, I was kind of surprised to hear from them on Day 2. The night before, though, I’d become a little concerned about how the wound was looking. It wasn’t bleeding, and it wasn’t hurting, but somehow it just didn’t look right. And so I told the office what I was thinking, and they asked me to send a photo, which I did. Ten minutes later, they were calling to ask me to come in. Oy.

And here I’d been talking myself off the ledge of this scenario. I’d already decided just to keep an eye on it and call if it looked any worse. But then…the best laid plans. Within a half hour, I was driving back down town. It’s an hour both directions, and I had to stop for gas. The appointment was quick, but it still took 2-1/2 hours out of my day. And my nose is just fine. He looked at it for about 30 seconds, and said there was nothing amiss. I’ll admit, it was reassuring. Mike wanted me to go in. I really didn’t want to, and so I was kind of on the fence about how concerned to be about the whole thing. Now it’s settled and I can stop thinking about it. That alone is probably worth the time it took.

Okay, and so I headed straight to my quilting when I got home. Since I hadn’t done much the previous two days, I was determined to get some sewing time. And I’m sticking with my dot-to-dot motifs. It’s so easy even I can do it. Also, I outlined the embroidery and the embroidered “Red Barn” banner in the sign.

There’s a lot to do in the “basket” blocks. I think there are four in the whole quilt. It seems like I’ve done more by now. Where the block has a large center, I’m doing little “S” curves in both directions, forward and backward. It ends up looking like a 4-petal flower.

With pinwheels, I always do the same rotating swirl. And these blocks are a pinwheel within a larger pinwheel. 

More dot to dot here, and I outlined the sign.

Here’s another “basket” block. I really hope that’s the last one.

Okay, and now I’ve rotated the quilt another 90 degrees, and I’ll finish the remaining blocks on the left side of the quilt. I’m hoping to get that finished today. There are still a couple of blue borders between the large embroidered panels. I haven’t decided about those yet.

There are still a few days of stitching left on the Le Jardin block I’m stitching, but I was kind of curious to see what project Mr. Random would choose to replace it. There are 23 projects on my list. So, I spun the wheel and came up with…

Okay, and that means…

Quilter’s Retweet…yes, I remember this one. I’ve had it for a long, long time. It’s five bird scenes. 

The designer, Erica Plank, used to have a presence on Facebook, but I haven’t seen anything from her in a long time. Maybe she retired…or something. It happens. The Unseen Hands website seems to be no longer available, but I found the pattern on Etsy right here. If you'd like to see close-ups of the stitcheries, you can see them there.

As long as I had the pattern out, I decided to see if I needed any supplies…Well. Doncha know Sadie never trusts me to make these kinds of decisions on my own. She’s given up even trying to teach me anything about sewing, choosing fabrics, choosing threads. It’s pawsitively purrthetic.

And, honestly, these “choosing” sessions are so tedious. What’s a girl to do but take a nap? Thank you. I knew you’d agree.

Okay, so the pattern wants me to use 1/2 yard of a cream color for the embroidery blackgrounds. I only have white. I might decide to pick up a half yard of off white. Or maybe more. It’s a good color to have on hand for embroidery projects. And I had about half the floss colors I needed. I could find the rest on Amazon. Yes, I know I should be mad at Amazon, but when you live as far from things as I do, having it come to me is a godsend. And all of that to say that it’ll probably be a day or two before I even trace this, but it’s good to know what’s ahead. Wouldn’t you agree? 

All right then. It’s a grocery shopping day, but fortunately, the list is *very* short. I’m hoping to make a plum dessert for tonight. I have two different desserts in mind, but it will depend on how many ripe plums I can find. So, we’ll all find out together, won’t we? And now…I must be off. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

Have a good day, Everybody!