Loony

Good morning, my friends. It's another gray day here at the Three Cats Ranch. We're expecting better weather tomorrow and Friday. It would be nice to have good weather on Friday. Matthew and I are planning a walk down by the Willamette River. If the weather is uncooperative, we have an alternative plan, but the walk would be nice. Fingers crossed.

It was a busy day yesterday. Honestly, I didn't think I could get it all done, but I did. There was laundry to do, treadmills to walk, housekeeping to do, bread to bake, and the list goes on. Regardless, I always make time for my morning slow-stitching. Yesterday, I finished off the ninth block for the Snowmen & Reindeer project. (I might have said it was the tenth block in yesterday's post. Actually, it was page 10 of the pattern.)

These are the nine blocks I have for this quilt so far.

When I was finally able to make my way to the sewing room, I found my helper cat waiting. When he heard I was going to make a bird, he was all about it.

I like purrds!

The background was ready to go. And after all that discussion of this "Return of the Swallows" block...

I realized I'd turned it 90° from how it's pictured in the book. Doh!

Oh well. I'm not changing it. There's a similar error in at least one other block for this quilt. Don't tell anyone, okay?

So, I was ready to start tracing and fusing the applique. Smitty held the template sheet steady for me.

The first one was the water. Probably, I should have chosen a lighter color here, but I liked this fabric for the water.

Looking at the placement diagram, I realized the loon was a bit complicated placement-wise. There were a lot of small and overlapping pieces. I decided to use a teflon pressing sheet to build the applique, and then fuse it to the background.

So, I started with the second part of the water, and then created the loon and her loonlets.

We didn't actually see any loons in Alaska, but we did see one as we drove through Canada. It's not a great picture. I was standing far away and zoomed in to capture it.

Okay, and when I had the loon and the loonlets created, I moved them to the water...

And then I could move the whole thing to the block background.

All that was left then was to add the rocks and grass, and the applique was finished. This took the whole of my sewing day.

I'm not sure if there will be time for sewing today. If there is, I'll get started on the top-stitching for these two blocks. I don't expect to finish them today, but maybe by tomorrow.

For dinner last night, I tried another new recipe. This is Spicy Peanut Noodles with Shrimp and Snow Peas. You'll need a subscription to America's Test Kitchens to open that link. If you can't open it, and you really want the recipe, please don't hesitate to email me, and I'll be happy to send it to you. I made the recipe mostly as written, except that I made just half. I needed 8 oz. of shrimp, but I could only find a 12 oz. bag. I used all of it. Also, the recipe suggests spaghetti for the noodles. I had some udon noodles, and so I used those. It was very tasty. We liked it. For sure, I'll be making it again.

So, it's a physical therapy day. (Boo! Hiss!)  Actually, my therapist seems like a very nice man. He's a Nigerian man with a pleasant accent. I'd really just rather stay home and sew. And with that on the agenda, I'm making our dinner of Cottage Pies this morning. I'll just need to put them in the oven when I get home, and that will make an easy dinner after PT. Whenever I make mashed potatoes, I always make extra so that I can make Cottage Pies from them. It's one of Mike's favorite meals. I like it because there are leftovers for another night, or I can freeze them for future RV travel.

Also, I have a trip to a fabric store planned for today. Happily, my PT is just down the street from one of my favorite quilt shops, and so it'll ease the sting of the forced PT appointment. (Please be sure to note how down-trodden I am from all this PT business. Honestly, I'm surprised I can stay upright under the weight of so much oppression.) I'll be looking for a backing for the Land & Sea quilt.

This particular quilt shop, Boersma's, has a great collection of sale fabrics in their basement, and I always look there for anything else I might like. So, it's a busy day, but the quilt shop will make it all worthwhile.

Before I do any of that, though, I'll get started on October's block for A Year in the Garden.

Okay, then. Off I go. Time's a wastin'. Have a good day, Everybody. Be sure and bow your heads during the 3:00 p.m. hour. (That's Pacific Daylight Time.) That's when I'll be at the chamber of horrors. I'll need your positive vibes.

Making Progress

Good morning, my friends. There was a lot on yesterday's agenda. Not as much was accomplished in the sewing room as I'd hoped, but there was some progress. Probably I'll end the day with some top-stitching. But first, I'm going to finish off the last of the snowman and the reindeer.

When I finished with yesterday's slow-stitching, I happened to look outside to see Smitty sitting in his favorite spot. He can keep watch on his entire terrortory from this spot, and the sunshine isn't too intense. They were smart to enjoy the sunshine yesterday because we're back to rain today and tomorrow, at least.

Toward the end of the day, I found Sadie stretched out in the afternoon sunshine.

In the sewing room, I finished off the applique for the Outhouse.

I'm making this quilt two blocks per go-round. The next one I'll make is the Loon. Here's the picture from the book.

First, I created the quilt block. 

Some time ago, I mistook the block above for a "Dutchman's Puzzle." Maybe you would too. My friend, Sharon of Vrooman's Quilts, set me straight that time. A Dutchman's Puzzle has the flying geese oriented to form a pinwheel in the center like the one below. (Think of it as a windmill.) 

And the block I made for the Loon background does not. Somehow my brain grabbed hold of this riddle: What is its name if it's not a Dutchman's Puzzle? I asked in a group on Facebook and the answers I got were of two varieties: It's a Dutchman's Puzzle (no, it isn't), or it's pieced wrong (no, again). So I went perusing my bookshelf and started paging through this book.

It has a good index. It took me a bit of flipping back and forth, but I finally found it. When the flying geese are oriented as my block is, it's called "Return of the Swallows." (Polishes fingernails on shirt.) When I first learned to quilt, realizing that all the blocks had names was, for me, part of quilting's charm.

Okay, but I wasn't finished yet. I still needed to add the surrounding pieces to create the background.

Somehow I wasn't in the right head space to start on the applique. I might have packed everything up at that point, but then remembered I needed to trace out my next embroidery project. Next up will be October's block for A Year in the Garden. Probably I won't start on this until tomorrow.

There was still time in the day. The pile of leaders and enders was growing scarily large, and so I decided it was a good time to trim and sort them. Now I'm back to zero with these.

Okay, and then it really was time to stop. I tried this new recipe for dinner last night. This is Butter-Soy Chicken and Asparagus Stir Fry. With asparagus in season, how could I resist?

It's easy to make, but a little unusual. The chicken is marinated for anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours in what amounts to a coating made from a lot of dry ingredients, a little oil, some soy sauce, and a portion of egg white. Then, the chicken is first boiled for 90 seconds before adding it to the rest of the dish. Meanwhile, the vegetables were stir-fried before adding the chicken. After that...some butter and soy sauce is added to the pan making another coating for the veggies and chicken. I'd say it was a "sauce" except that it was too skimpy to qualify. It was easy enough, and it was good. It's not going to win any cooking contests, but I'd make it again. Also, the recipe specifies to serve it with rice. It really could be served with anything, including noodles.

That brought me to the end of my day. Today is still busy. I want to get in a walk on the treadmill, and I have one housekeeping chore on the calendar. Also, it seems like a good day to get the laundry taken care of. There should still be plenty of time to finish the applique on the Loon. If I feel up to it (and there's still time), I'll get started on the top-stitching. It's doubtful that I can finish it all today, but I'll give it a valiant effort.

Slow Start

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy morning yesterday. There were several items on my to-do list, and so it was late in the day before I was able to get any sewing done. Today will be much the same, but I think I can swing an earlier start.

Yesterday's sewing goal was to at least get a start on the first of two blocks for the Northern Wilderness project. I'm making blocks 9 and 10. These are the blocks I've made so far:

Next, I'll be making this block, called "The Outhouse." With as much as there is to see in Alaska, this one seems a little silly. I don't make the rules. I just make the blocks. This is the picture from the pattern book.

The first step is to make the background. For that, I needed four shades of blue.

It's a log cabin block, and these are the pieces I needed.

Smitty was kind enough to help with that.

When the block was finished, it looked like this. It ended up at 8-1/2 inches (unfinished).

From there, I added the rest of the background pieces. The background pieces are slightly different in each block, but all the blocks are trimmed to 13 x 17-1/2 inches.

From there, I could start adding the applique. Cutting all those little nooks and crannies on the trees took quite some time. When I needed to stop for the day, I had it this far:

There should be plenty of time to finish this off today, and then I'll get started on Block 10. I'll want to have both blocks finished before I start on the top-stitching. 

Also on today's agenda, I'll be doing my PT exercises...grudgingly...always grudgingly. After having done them three times, I've noticed no change whatsoever, but I'm trying to keep an open mind. Four full months of unremitting shoulder pain makes it had to be optimistic, and so I whine as often as possible. There's one housekeeping chore on the day's list of to-do's as well.

For now, I'll get back to my slow-stitching, and then get started on my day. I'd like to get the two blocks ready for top-stitching, but that might be overly optimistic.

Gardening and Sewing

Good morning, my friends. It was such a pretty day yesterday, and unexpectedly warm. My usual morning routine was still intact, though. I took the first stitches on the ninth block for the Snowmen and Reindeer. I stitched their faces first so that we could chat while I stitched the rest of their bodies. (Doesn’t everyone do that?)

When I finished with my stitching, I could see Mike outside doing something in the greenhouse. I’d asked him to help me fill these large pots with dirt so that I could repot the tomatoes. When I saw him there, I decided it was going to be a gardening day. Now, the tomatoes are happily ensconsed in their largest pots of the season. Make lots of tomatoes, you guys.

Also, I planted two kinds of lettuce in these window box planters. 

And I can’t remember if I blogged about this when it happened.

The pot you see above used to have poppies. It was a happy place for them, and they bloomed huge flowers as big as my hand.

Toward the end of last summer, I noticed the pot was filled with water and the poppies were dead. Drowned. It broke my heart. Yesterday, he dumped the dirt out of the pot, and we found the drainage holes at the bottom were plugged with mud. Apparently it sank into a wet impression and the drainage was clogged. So, he drilled more holes on the sides toward the bottom of the pot. We put a few inches of rock in the bottom of the pot and added rock to the impression below the pot, and then filled it with soil. So, it’s ready to receive poppies again.

Since I never have any luck sowing seeds directly into the ground, I’m starting some new ones in these little pots. (I have a feeling the birds eat seeds sown directly into the ground.) When they’ve sprouted and grown a little, I’ll move them to the larger pot outside, and all will be well with the poppies. They’re biannual, and so I won’t see any flowers from these until next year.

There are still more seeds to plant, but I’m going to wait just a bit longer to start them. It’s generally not safe to plant vegetables until closer to Memorial Day where we are, and so I’ll wait until May 1st to start any seeds for the garden.

From there, I filled the bird feeders. The Bleeding Heart is the star of the garden right now. I expect the azaleas to pick up the slack soon.

For now, I was excited to see buds on another one of the peonies. This one is called Fairy Princess.

We missed it’s flowers last year while we were in Alaska, but our neighbor sent us this picture:

Also, there is more color showing on this peony. (I think this is the one called “Joker.”)

Okay, and so I have to show you Mike’s newest 3-D printer creation. He’s been making a lot of tools and organizers and little gadgets he can use. Recently, he told me he asked himself, “What can I make now?” Apparently 3-D printing is a lot like quilting. Once you start, it becomes a habit. So, he saw this little whirlygig, and he decided he needed it.

We used to have a sort of sunflower-like spinner in this area, but it rusted and fell apart. This one, made of plastic, won’t do that. It tells us which way the wind is blowing, and it gave Mike something to do. As if.

Okay, and so gardening done, there was still time in the day to sew. These are the Land & Sea blocks. With no sashings and no borders, these went together fast. I sewed together the top three rows.

And then, the bottom three rows.

And then I sewed the bottom and the top together, and my quilt was finished. It ends up at 50 x 61 inches.

I’d pulled some fabrics for the back, but I was kind of “meh” about them. Also, I didn’t have enough of any of them. So, I’ll reward this week’s PT session with a trip to the nearby Boersma’s quilt shop to find something I like better.

It’s cloudy and cooler today. There are a few things on today’s agenda. I want to get in a walk on the treadmill, and I have a housekeeping chore to do. Also, I’ll need to make our dinner of crab cakes and cucumber salad early in the day since the crab cakes work best if they’re made ahead and given time to chill. (Don’t we all do better when we have time to chill?) 

When I can make my way into the sewing room, I’ll get started making two more blocks for the Northern Wilderness project. It’s been quite some time since I worked on this. These are the blocks I have so far:

These generally take a few days to make, and so that will keep me busy for the next couple of days.

Right now…it’s time for our Sunday morning pancakes, and then I’ll get back to my slow-stitching.