Big Quilt, Little Quilt

 It was a good quilting day yesterday. Of course, I didn't get to the quilting right away. First, I finished stitching the first Santa from the Santa Quartet. With him finished, I moved my hoop to the right.

When I finished with the stitching, I took a little walk around outside. The bird feeders needed filling, and I needed to check the watering. And wow...look at this lithodora. So pretty.

Here's our red azalea.

The fourth of five rhododendrons is starting to bloom. We have another dark purple one that is still in tight buds.

I noticed this blooming tree at the edge of our woods. My phone tells me it is a Hawthorne. This one is growing wild.

Here's a close-up of its flowers.

The rhodies at either end of the herb garden are nearly in full bloom. This pinky-peachy one is at one end of the herb garden.

This one is at the other end.

Not many chives came back this year. They change from year to year. I have enough chive blossom vinegar to get me through, and so it's okay if we don't get many this year. They're blooming just the same.

This is the Lavender Whisper peony. I'm so excited to see this one. It replaced a "failed clone" we planted when the rest of the peonies were planted. It would put out big buds that went straight to seed without ever producing a flower, and so this one took its place. This will be the first time I've actually seen it bloom, and it is sooooooo close.

This teaser is the "Joker" peony. It lives up to its name. It is covered in buds, and they are being impossibly slow to open.

I was excited to see plums on the plum tree. These won't be ready until near September, but I have a couple of desserts I love to make from them. I'm hoping we'll get a warm summer and they'll ripen before we take off on our fall trip. (And I'm hoping there's no gasoline shortage, or we might have to cancel our plans. That would be a shame because I'm looking forward to that trip. More about that later…and if we do it.)

These are some of the annuals I planted last month. They're doing pretty well. The squirrels want to dig around in the pots, but they've not done too much damage so far.

Back inside, I took a walk on the treadmill and then got to work on my quilting. This is the Block 9. 

When it was finished, I laid it out for a picture. These are the six of nine blocks that I've quilted. I'm pretty happy with how this is going.

Here's a little peek at the back. This is the left side, and the block I just quilted.

This is the right side.

Now, it's back on the machine. I've turned it upside down in order to keep the bulk of the quilt on the table, rather than in my lap. I like to work from left to right, and so I'll start with Block 3.

From there, I headed into the sewing room. Honestly, I wasn't sure I could force myself to sandwich another quilt...not even a small one. When I realized I could clamp it to my ironing board, I felt more motivated.

When it was ready for quilting, I set up the machine for free motion quilting and went to work. I ended up doing terry twists for the quilt blocks, and I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to quilt some hearts in the background areas.

It took less than an hour, and it was finished. Smitty helped me squre it up.

Here, you can see the terry twists. A few of them twisted in the wrong direction. I decided it didn't matter.

In the lower corners, I did a little stylized heart.

At the upper "V," I did another heart with streamers heading off in either direction.

It's hard to see anything here, but this is how it looks from the back.

It ends up at 16-1/2 by 18-1/2 inches. It was late in the day by then, and so I cut the binding strips and left it for today. I'm hoping I'll have time to finish it off this afternoon.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we're having brunch with Erik, Mae, and Mae's mother today. I'm looking forward to that. And to all of you who are mothers, have a mother, want to be a mother, are a mother-to-be, or if you're just missing your mother today (as I am), then Happy Mother's Day. It's shaping up to be a good day. I hope you have a good day too.

A Good Day

Good morning, my friends. It was good to have a relatively "normal" day here yesterday. There was no going anywhere. We had leftovers for dinner, so there was mostly no cooking. Of course, I checked in on the seedlings in the greenhouse, but the day was mostly reserved for sewing. I'll have to get a little busier today. The bird feeders are all empty. I'll have to check in on the seedlings every day now. Oh...and the peonies are just about to burst open. I've noticed color on the Lavender Whisper peony...it's the one I haven't yet seen. Maybe this morning will be the day. 

Checking in on yesterday's sewing, I quilted Block 8 of the Merry, Merry Snowmen. This one went pretty fast.

I've left it needle down at Block 9. This is a fairly large block, and so it will take a little longer. When it's finished, I'll have the blocks two-thirds done.

From there, I headed into the sewing room. It was the first sewing I've done in a while where it made sense to do the leaders and enders. Just looking at that box, it was full to the brim when I started sewing them together. Now, it's about an inch down from the top. So, I'm making progress, even though it doesn't look like it.

The cutting for May's inverted star was already done.

The first step was to make 24 HST's and trim them.

It's a bit of a puzzle making sure I have all the pieces pointing in the right direction, but I got 'er done.

This is my project for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Today's sewing will be all quilting, all the time. When I finish with Block 9 for the Merry, Merry Snowmen, I want to sandwich and quilt the Vintage Valentine on my domestic machine. You might remember this was one of the projects I worked on when we were down south for the winter. It's a small quilt, and so it should be quick and easy. I'm thinking of using a variegated pink thread for the heart, and then a white thread for the background. I'm thinking I'll probably put my heart-shaped cookie cutter to work at some point.

This is the fabric I'll be using for the back, and I'll probably stick with a white thread in the bobbin.

That pretty well brought me to the end of my time, but I finished trimming and sorting the day's leaders and enders.

Before heading upstairs, I found my patriotic table runners. I was tired of looking at the ones I put out for spring. It's close enough to Memorial Day that I can put out this grouping. This one is on the dining room table.

This one is on our breakfast bar.

And this little wall hanging is on the short wall between the kitchen and dining room.

In addition to quilting today, I want to take a walk on the treadmill. (I was good and did my PT exercises yesterday.) When I'm finished with that, I have one housekeeping chore to do. Just now, I'm going to do some more work on my slow-stitching, and then I'll take a little walk around the garden to see what's new. The birds will appreciate it if I fill their feeders while I'm out, and so I'll do that too. 

Next week is going to be busy with Mike's cataract surgery scheduled for Wednesday, and so I'm enjoying this easy-going weekend. Tomorrow, we've been invited to a Mother's Day brunch with Erik, Mae, and Mae's mother, and so I'm looking forward to that. There should still be plenty of time for blogging in the morning, and so I'll check in before we go.

Have a good day, Everyone. I'm looking forward to having a good day at this end.

Seeking a Rut

Good morning, my friends. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. We have three birthdays in a single week, followed by Mother's Day. With PT in the mix, it has me feeling as if I've been on the run. (No wonder I got a speeding ticket.) Mainly, I'm just doing things not a part of my usual routine. Next week, Mike will have a cataract surgery on Wednesday, and so I have just a few days to enjoy a relatively normal schedule.

It was a good day to spend some time in the greenhouse yesterday. The sun was shining, but there was a cool-ish wind blowing. It was warm inside the greenhouse without being too hot. I spent about an hour getting more seeds started. The two trays on the left are sunflowers and zinnias. There are two little pots of each variety with two seeds in each pot. 

When they've sprouted, I'll give them some time to compete with one another and then pull up the weakest among them. The tray on the right has three pots each of pickling cucumbers and zucchini. Same rules apply there. Now I'll be checking the seeds compulsively checking for sprouts. Checking compulsively also means they get wetted down regularly.

Back inside, I quilted another block for the Merry, Merry Snowmen. I did this one about half like the one in the pattern photo, but then changed it up some in a couple of places.

Now I've left it needle down in Block 8. This block is a little smaller than the others, but I expect I'll still do just the one block. I'm not in any hurry with this, and one block seems like a good amount for a single day. When I've finished Blocks 8 and 9, I'll still have to go back to the top of the quilt and finish off Blocks 1, 2, and 3. The border will be last.

There was time in the day to cut the pieces for May's orange inverted star block. The cutting takes quite some time for this, and so it feels as if the job is about half done already. Probably I'll have time to sew this together today.

Here are the blocks I have for this project so far.

As you know, it was Mike's birthday yesterday. I'm starting to think the guys are requesting creme brulee just so they can operative the little blow torch. Mike burned the desserts last night. And, let's face it. When you're this old, you need a flame-thrower to light your birthday candles.

Today will be a mostly sewing day. I want to do my PT exercises. As the pain in my shoulder has decreased, I've been less motivated to do them. Still, my appointment was rescheduled from Wednesday to Monday next week in order to accommodate Mike's cataract surgery, and so I want to get in a couple of days of PT exercises before I return. (I completely bagged them last week. I figured sandwiching 17 quilts was enough of a workout for my shoulder.) Also, there's one housekeeping chore on the day's agenda. With leftovers for dinner, it can be a mostly sewing day. I'm looking forward to it.

And with that, I'll be on my way. Slow-stitching is next. I believe I'll finish off the first Santa this morning.

Another Birthday

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy day yesterday. I managed to get everything done that I wanted to before I needed to leave for physical therapy. I left around 2:00 p.m. for the 35 minute drive west, and I had plenty of time to make my 2:40 p.m. appointment. Still, I'm kind of a speed demon when I get behind the wheel. I'm not driving fast intentionally, but I rarely know what the speed limit is. I'm just driving at what seems like a reasonable speed. Apparently the county sheriff disagreed with me yesterday because I got pulled over and received a speeding ticket that I most assuredly deserved. Oops. It was a pleasant enough exchange, and I thanked him as he handed me the citation. Oy. Certainly I didn't need that, even if I earned it fair and square. Oh well. That'll teach me. Not.

In better news, I managed once again to make Creme Brulee for Two for dessert tonight. When I make this "for two" version, I can do it in my toaster oven, and the whole getting it in and out of the oven without getting water into the custard is easier. They needed a little extra time in the toaster oven, but they turned out beautifully.

After that, I made a meatloaf for dinner and then there was time to get back to my quilting. For Block 6, I pretty much followed what they did on the pattern picture. I quilted looping vertical lines up and down all the way across and some drifting snow at the bottom. I used a sort of "braid" motif in the right rectangle, and I outlined all the applique.

It might be a little easier to see on the back. Maybe.

As long as I was looking at the back, I took a picture of Block 5...

And Block 4.

And then I left it needle down in Block 7. That's where I'll start today.

I've adjusted my goal for this project. The blocks are large, and one block takes quite a while to quilt. So my goal now is to quilt one per day. If there's time, I might attempt two. In no case, can I quilt for more than an hour. I've learned to protect my wrists and shoulders by limiting my time. (Too bad that doesn't work for speed limits.)

When I was home from PT, I spent some time on my slow stitching. The first Santa is nearly stitched. I'll probably finish this section today, but I'll also need to move my hoop down to get his boots.

Already this morning, we've had our Eggs Benedict. It's traditional for Mike's birthday. 

Today's activities will be a little more routine despite his birthday. I'm making him his favorite Enchiladas Suizas for dinner, but there's nothing special required for that. As for the rest of the day, I'll do some quilting and some slow-stitching. I'm hoping to get time in the sewing room to make May's orange inverted star for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Also, I'll probably spend some time in the greenhouse today. I want to start my sunflower seeds. Probably I'll also start the pickling cucumbers and the zucchini. We're planting a smaller garden this year. The rest of the seeds will get planted later...probably during the last week of May.

So that's it from me. Regarding the speeding ticket, my court date happens to fall on a day when Mike has a second cataract surgery scheduled. (The first is next week.) I called the court yesterday to request a different court date. (If I go to court, rather than mailing it in, I can get a reduced fine.) The woman I spoke with was very helpful. She told me they only hold court once per month...small rural town...and so it'll probably get pushed out to July at this point. Okay by me. It'll give me time to think about what I've done. 

And talking about all this court business has me longing to get to my slow-stitching. It's always a good distraction. I hope y'all have a good day planned for yourselves. If you're out in traffic, keep an eye in that rearview mirror. If you see flashing lights, pull over.