Quilting Continues

Good morning, my friends. It looks like our weather might decide to warm up again. We're expecting warmer temperatures day by day, and we have a plan to plant our vegetable garden later this week. It's going to be a small garden this year. I'm sprouting zucchini and pickling cucumbers in the greenhouse at the moment. We'll also plant corn and green beans. You might remember our last garden when the critters bit the green beans off at ground level, killing every single plant. We have an idea about how to thwart those little gnawing bastards for this garden. Also, I'll be planting lots of sunflowers and zinnias. I really love the sunflowers. I enjoy their flowers, and I like the fact that the birds can eat the seeds after they're bloomed out.

Okay, so let's just look at yesterday's sewing efforts, shall we? The day started with me quilting another row on the Homestead quilt. This first block is called Corn & Beans.

Here's how that looks from the back.

Next was a Friendship Star.

Here's how that looks from the back.

Finally, a pinwheel. 

I guess I neglected to take a picture of the back of the pinwheel. 

From there, I spent some more time on the quilt binding. Now I've turned three corners. I'm close enough to the fourth corner, there's a good chance I'll finish this today.

From there, I checked on the seedlings in the greenhouse. Everything is looking fine there. Taking a walk around, the Joker peony is still going strong. It came through the recent rains with flying colors.

My money's on this Coral Sunset peony to be the next to bloom. Maybe today...

My friend, Sue, has one of the Coral Sunset peonies. Hers bloomed weeks ago.

I noticed flowers are forming on the hydrangeas. We're down to just 2-1/2 hydrangeas from the five we had originally. The half hydrangea is so small, it may not survive. We'll have to enjoy the ones we have.

The plums are larger and more obvious now. We need a warm summer for these to ripen before we take off on our fall trip this year...assuming we take it. Gasoline will be the deciding factor. We're not so worried about the price as we are about availability.

The apple tree has apples now...a lot of apples. It's a small tree. It might need some support if all of these continue to grow and ripen.

Now, here's a surprise. We have a lilac that was planted by the original owner. It's in a shady spot, and it has never thrived. Some years, it's barely anything more than sticks and a few leaves. It has a pleasant shape, and so we just leave it to do what it will. This year, it has a flower.

Finally, I believe this is a burning bush...also planted by the original owner. It turns bright red in the fall. In the spring, it develops these tiny green flowers. The bees love it.

Today is going to go a little differently. There's a story to go with this. We've had a large telescope for many years. When we first got it, we took it with us when we traveled and used it in "dark sky parks." It was kind of a hassle...laptop computers involved, and such...and we lost interest in it. It hasn't been used in years. 

Recently, we decided to sell it, but discovered there isn't much market for something like that. In his wanderings, Mike discovered the Rose City Astronomy Club. (Portland is known as the "Rose City.") After communicating back and forth, Mike decided to join and attend their meeting tonight. I'm not interested in the meetings, but they have a place in Eastern Oregon where they hold "star parties." RVers are welcome. That sounds like great fun to me, and it'll give us a reason to use the telescope again.

Okay, so that means he'll be leaving before dinner, and so I won't be cooking tonight. While he's gone, I'm going to watch a documentary entitled, "Brats: Our Journey Home." 

It's a documentary featuring interviews with some 80 military brats, and narrated by Kris Kristofferson (himself a brat). It's something I'm intensely interested in, but Mike probably wouldn't be interested in at all. Wikipedia defines "military brats" as a US subculture saying: 

Although no exact figures are available, the U.S. Department of Defense estimates that approximately 15 million Americans are former or current military brats, including those who spent all or part of their childhood and/or adolescence in the lifestyle. This population includes an age range from less than 1 year old to over 90 years of age, since there have been military brats for generations. 

So, that'll be my entertainment this evening while he's gone, and I can get in a walk on the treadmill while I'm at it.

With all that going on, I'll have more time for sewing today. Probably I'll get started on the cutting for the Stair Steps project. Of course, I'll quilt another row of blocks for the Homestead quilt, and I'm hoping to finish off the quilt binding today. There are a couple of easy housekeeping chores on the calendar, but that won't take me very long. Sounds like a mostly sewing day to me. What could be better than that? Well...maybe winning the lottery, but I've heard you actually have to play to win. Darn. So many rules, so little time.

All righty then...off I go. You guys have a good day out there, ya hear?

Making Progress

Good morning, my friends. It was a good day yesterday. Everything on my list was completed. I was tired by the end of the day, and so I didn't get any time in the sewing room. Maybe today I'll be more motivated. After taking a walk on the treadmill yesterday, I took a little walk around outside. Each day I'm checking the water on the little seed pots. I'm happy to announce that there are sprouts in every pot except one.

So who's not doing their part? Well, it's the Sunrich Lemon sunflower...fourth vertical row from the right, second from the top. Curious, I dug around in the pot just a little, and I couldn't find any seeds. I have an idea, I missed that one. There are plenty of seeds left over, and so I gave it two more seeds. Hopefully, I'll see something from that soon.

The lettuce is doing well, although its stems are still a little spindly.

We're seeing plenty of flowers on the slicing tomatoes. Since these are grown in a greenhouse, I touch each flower with a soft make-up brush to help pollinate them.

Outside, I noticed the stargazer lily is developing buds. The slugs have been munching on this. A few days ago, I put out some slug "candy" for them. Hopefully, their slimy palates will prefer that to the flowers.

Oooh...and the blueberries! I'm so excited about these! My fingers are itching to get baking something blueberrily yummy.

The first flowers are opening on the dark purple rhododendron. It's always the last to bloom.

And the Edda clematis is starting to open. I'm excited to see this one too. It bloomed in profusion last year, but we were in Alaska and missed it. I'm expecting to see quite a show from it this year.

Okay, but there's serious quilting to do. Back inside, I went about selecting threads for my project. As always, my quilting fairy godmother, Ila, has given me the exact threads I need. Thank you, Ila. I'll use this King Tut cone on the top.

It's a 40-weight thread.

On the bottom, I'll use this YLI variegated blue. There was a bobbin about 3/4 full of this. The spool is running low, but I still think I'll have enough for this project. If not, it's close enough in color to the top thread, I doubt a change would be noticed.

It's also a 40-weight thread.

Checking the tension, it looks good on top.

The backside looks good too.

Okay, so starting with this churn dash, I did some straight lines and some "petals."

Here's how that looks from the back.

I kept this nine patch pretty simple, with just some terry twists.

Here's how that looks from the back.

Last, the eight-pointed star. Probably I did too much here. It seems a little busy to my eyes, but I'm going to leave it as it is. In my experience, it won't be obvious when viewing the quilt as a whole.

Here's how that looks from the back.

Okay, and so that completed the first row of blocks. I'll do another row today.

Downstairs, I did some more work on the quilt binding. Now I've turned the first two corners, and I'm bearing down on the third. I'm probably a little less than halfway around.

And I was getting tired of sewing by then, so I just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

For dinner, I tried this recipe for Chile Crisp Fettuccine Alfredo with Spinach. It was very tasty. I purchased a little jar of chile crisp recently (it was new to me). When the NYTimes posted several recipes that included it this past week, it gave me an opportunity to use some more of it.

It'll be easy enough to do in the RV, which is always appreciated. I've linked to the recipe. Just FYI, chile crisp is spicy, but I used the full amount suggested. The heat was mild, and I'd consider adding more in the future.

Okay, so today will look a lot like yesterday. I want to do my PT exercises, and I'll continue on with the quilting and the binding. I'm dragging my feet a little getting back to the Stair Steps project. Cutting all those little squares is daunting.

I keep remind myself there are just two rows to go. Maybe today I'll be ready to take it on.

So, with that, I'll be on my way. Slow-stitching is next. Mike is on the treadmill, and so I'll have to wait for him to finish before I can claim my time on the exercise equipment. It's a sunny day today, although still on the chilly side. I'm hoping to see more activity from the peonies today. What's blooming in your part of the world?

Slowing Down

Good morning, my friends. It was nice to have a day at home yesterday after such a busy week. It was on the cool side outdoors, and that made it a good day to stay inside and sew. 

My first priority was to get the binding sewn on the Merry, Merry Snowmen quilt. As you know, here at the Three Cats Ranch, a quilt cannot be considered complete until it has been fully inspected and appurroved by the Quilt Inspectorette-in-Chief. First, it must undergo the snuggleability test. Her expression had me a little worried, but she purrmitted me to continue with the next step in the purrocess.

You may purrceed. 

So, I squared it up and machine sewed the binding. This scared me a little. I came up about one binding strip short with my binding. Then, I went on the hunt for some matching fabric. I found only scraps of the fabric I'd used, but one piece was approximately fat quarter sized. It meant an extra seam or two, but I managed to stretch it all the way around.

After that, I spent the remainder of the afternoon clipping and sewing. Now I've turned the first corner.

And if you know how things worked here, then you know that means I'm barely started on it. It's draped over a chair downstairs and it awaits my return.

The only other quilting thing I did yesterday was to spend some time getting the next quilt ready to go under my needle. When I quilted the Amish Sampler recently, it had been on the bottom of the big pile of sandwiched quilts for so long that I decided to spread it out on my ironing board so that I could smooth and press the back. Using my iron to heat the fabric and batting, it was pliable and easy to adjust to get a nice, smooth, flat back. I've had problems quilting pleats into the backs, and so I was trying to avoid that. It worked like a charm on the Amish Sampler, and so I've decided to give all the quilts one last going over on the back before I start on the quilting.

So that was the first stop for the "Homestead" quilt yesterday. Homestead was my project for the 2023 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The blocks were selected from those seen at the Discovery Quilt Trail located at the Homestead National Historical Park in Beatrice, Nebraska. You can read my post about our visit right here. It's next up for quilting. Spending some time ironing and smoothing the back made a big difference. Now it's draped over the machine, and I'll probably get started on this today. 

As I've said, I'm serious about getting this big pile of quilts quilted and finished in 2026. My goal is to do a little quilting on any day I have time for sewing (most days). For this quilt, I'll aim for a row of blocks per day. These are all traditional blocks, and so I'll probably do some kind of dot-to-dot motif. The sashings and borders will wait for the end, and I'll do something else there.

It should be another easy-going day today. I want to get in a walk on the treadmill, and I have one housekeeping chore to do. Aside from that, it will be all sewing all the time...both fast and slow. It's going to be a good day. I don't know about you, but when I'm expecting a good day ahead, I want to get started on it as soon as possible. And with that...I'm on my way. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself too.

Ready for Binding

Good morning, my friends. It's a new day. We had a week of summer last week, and now we're back to a rainy spring. It's been cloudy and cool all week. The sun is shining this morning, but we're still expecting some rain later today. Next week is supposed to be better. We're setting our sites on the latter part of the week for planting the vegetable garden.

In case it wasn't obvious from yesterday's post, we were both exhausted after two days of medical appointments for Mike. As for Mike, he's thrilled with the results of his surgery so far. He's worn glasses since he was a young boy, and he's seeing better than he's ever seen. Now, he's anxious for the other eye to be completed. That will happen next month. After his appointment yesterday, we ate breakfast out, and then we both came home and took naps. I only slept for about an hour, but it was a deep restful sleep, and I felt refreshed when I woke up.

Newly energized, I went to work finishing off the quilting for the Merry, Merry Snowmen. Each of the border cornerstones was given a snowflake.

It's easier to see that from the back.

In the borders, I did an upsy-downsy snowflake motif (technical quilting terms). I tried to do something fancier here. It turned out to be beyond my skill level, and so I took it out and opted for something simpler.

When it was finished, I laid it out on the floor for the quilt inspector to have his way with it. Happily, it passed inspection with flying colors.

Here are a couple of peeks of the back.

No pleats, and that's always a good thing.

Here's a look at the whole thing. I'll be adding this pattern to my Quilt Pattern Yard Sale page.

Today's top priority will be getting it squared up and sewing the binding on. After that, I'll probably spend some time on the hand-sewing.

While I was working on that, I had another project going in the kitchen. In my quest to use up the remaining jars of homemade sweet cherry pie filling, I tried this recipe for Cherry Pie Bars with Cherry Pie Filling. They're very tasty. Mike declared them "sinful." They aren't hard to make, but they take some time. 

The crust ingredients are whisked together. Then, 3/4 cup of the crust mixture is set aside. Three tablespoons of sliced almonds are added to that for the topping. The pan was lined with parchment, and I left overhang on both sides to help me get them out of the pan. The remaining crust mixture is pressed into the bottom of the pan. The crust is baked, then cooled. The pie filling is thickened with some cornstarch, and some flavorings added. Then it is spread over the cooled crust and the topping is added. Then, it bakes for even longer. After that, it is allowed to cool completely. Then, it's frozen for 15 minutes before cutting it into bars and adding the glaze. For sure, I'll do this again sometime. We'll enjoy these with our afternoon cup of espresso.

Okay, so as I mentioned, I'll be working on that quilt binding today. There's one housekeeping chore on the list, and I simply must get back to my PT exercises. I have one more PT session next week, and then I believe I'll call it quits on my shoulder efforts. It isn't completely pain free, but I believe it will continue to improve. Certainly, I don't need a surgery, even if it doesn't get any better than it is right now. So, I'll probably cancel next week's return appointment with the doctor and move on from this annoyance.

Mike has his heart set on a new and improved 3-D printer. He started with a printer that was adequate and relatively inexpensive. Now, he's so completely engaged in his 3-D printing hobby that he wants to sell this one and purchase a fancier one. (Think of it as a sewing machine.) A guy is coming by today, and so it means I'll have to make myself presentable. Oh, the humanity! And with that, I'll leave you. Slow-stitching is next, and then I'll work on that "presentable" quest.