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.

Eye and Needle

Good morning, my friends. It seems a lot of time has passed since my last post, but it was only yesterday morning. In that time, Mike had his left eye cataract surgery done. He's been amazed at how much more color he's seeing from that one eye. We were out and gone early this morning for his post-op appointment. It seems both he and the doctor are happy with the outcome of this first eye. According to the doctor, "It only gets better from here."

While they were gazing into his eye, I waited and stitched. I'm happy to have a good rechargeable portable lamp I can take with me for good light on such occasions. When we attended the Road to California quilt show a while back, the Daylight lamp vendor was selling lamps at one of the kiosks. We ended up purchasing this lamp to attach where my sewing machine is.

That was several years ago, and they had a screaming deal at the quilt show. Along with the lamp above, I was given the one below as a free gift. When I'm stitching at home on my couch, I use a headlamp, but when I'm out in public and trying to avoid having people pointing and laughing at me, I like this one:

The neck of it bends and can be positioned in nearly unlimited ways. I like both lamps, but I especially love the convenience of the portable one.

Okay, and so I stitched and stitched and stitched until I was tired of stitching. The second snowman was nearly finished. I finished the rest of it while we watched the news last night. Now, I've moved my hoop to the right, and I'll start on the Christmas tree next.

Before we needed to leave yesterday morning, I had time to quilt the final block of the Merry, Merry Snowmen.

Smitty helped me with that.

Now I've left it needle down in one of the border cornerstones. I'll stitch snowflakes in the corners, and I have another snowflake motif picked out for the rest of the border. Possibly I'll do something different there, but so far, it'll be snowflakes all around.

There are a few other things on today's agenda. With such and early start to the morning, it shouldn't feel as if I'm getting started late in the day. Nevertheless, I do feel as if I'm getting a late start, but it won't stop me from taking a nap downstairs before I do anything else. Since I was out of bed early, and since I haven't had my full ration of morning coffee, I'm feeling a little bleary-eyed.

When we got home just now, I filled all the bird feeders and checked on the flowers. There's really nothing new to report except that one of every sunflower has sprouted now. Also, all the cucumbers, all the zinnias, and one of the zucchini. So, the seeds are doing well. Also, I'm happy to report the flowers all survived Tuesday night's downpour. 

So, that's all I have for you today. I'm hoping to have the Merry, Merry Snowmen ready for binding by tomorrow. Today's energy level will have to improve before I'll be ready to do anything else. I'm heading for the couch. A nap and more slow-stitching. After that, it's anybody's guess.

First is Last

Good morning, my friends. We had four stops to make yesterday, but we were still home before lunch time. It left plenty of time in the day to finish off the other things I was hoping to do. Of course, I had to do my slow-stitching before anything else could happen. I’m working on the 2nd Santa now. I stitched his boots first, and now I’ve moved my hoop to encompass the rest of him.

Our first stop was to pick up some medicine at the pharmacy. After that, we went to the feed store to get more birdseed and some slug bait. (We refer to slug bait as slug "candy" around here.) While there, I got a chuckle out of this display.

After that, we dropped off our ballots at the ballot box. We're vote by mail in Oregon, and we love it. Finally, we could get busy purchasing groceries to get us through the week.

We had lunch and naps, and then we got busy outside. We wanted to get my little poppy starts into their forever barrel home.

The squirrels like to dig around in my pots, and so we erected a fence to keep them out at least until the poppies are large enough to fend for themselves.

And…wouldn’t you know it? It rained hard all night long. I haven’t been outside to survey the damage yet, but I’m worried about these little guys.

After that, I took a little walk around. I am beyond excited about the blueberries. We are going to have a bumper crop. I’m already plotting what I’ll be able to do with them.

The Joker peony has fully opened now.

There are lots more flowers coming. There are lots of flowers coming on all five peonies. If they all bloom together, it’s going to be gorgeous. And, after so much rain last night, I’m worried about how these did. I’ll get out early this morning and see if I can help them by emptying any water out of the flowers. If not…well…here are still lots of buds.

There is still one lush poppy barrel on our patio. I’ve been sad not to find any buds on it…until today. Even after inspecting it, I missed this big bud off to my right side. When I watered the other annuals, I noticed it. Yay!

Just below it, there’s another bud. I’m hoping we’ll see more, but two is better than none.

The dark purple rhododendron is starting to open.

It’s neighbor across the sidewalk is in full bloom now.

While I was inspecting the rhodies, I noticed Smitty stalking one of the oscillating sprinklers. You have to watch those things every second of every day.

Back in the greenhouse, I watered the seedlings. I was excited to see sprouts in 11 of the sunflower pots. They’re hard to see in the image below, so I’ve circled the ones I can find.

Also, two of three pickling cucumbers.

We spent some time sitting on our garden bench and drinking our Mike’s lemonades. We reward ourselves with Mike’s lemonade when we’ve worked out in the yard. 

It was late in the day by the time I was able to do any more quilting. This is Block 2 of the nine in the quilt.

There is just one block left, and then the borders. I left it needle down in Block 1. The borders will be for another day.

There was still time in the day, and so I trimmed the Hawksbill Honu piece to a manageable size.

When I purchased the Sashiko kit, I bought this fabric to finish it off at the same time.

I wanted to give it a stop border, and so I settled on this mottled purple from my stash.

When the two borders were added, it looked like this. It ends up at 21 x 24 inches.

I’ll use that same turtle fabric for the back, and I cut binding strips from the mottled purple.

Now that will move to the “Small Quilts to be Quilted” portion of my white board. It won’t have to wait long because it’s the only thing listed in that section. From here, I’ll start working on my list of WIPs again, starting with the Stair Steps project. These are the blocks I have for that project so far.

I’m making this quilt one row at a time. I’ll be working on the fifth of six rows this time around.

Okay, so Mike is having his first cataract surgery today. They’ve scheduled it at a civilized 12:40 p.m. You can be thinking about him at that time if you’re of a mind. We’re expecting to be at the doctor’s office for about two hours, and hopefully everything will go smoothly. We’ve heard from many, many, many people that they’re happy with the results of their own cataract surgery, and we’re confident Mike will be equally happy with his. We’ll have to return for a post-op appointment early tomorrow morning, and so it’s unlikely that I’ll blog tomorrow. If I can accomplish anything today, then I’ll be back tomorrow. If not, you can expect to hear from me again on Friday morning.

And with that, I’m off. But then, you probably already knew that. Have a good day, Everybody.

Busy Day

Good morning, my friends. There wasn't a minute to waste yesterday if I was to get everything done. After writing my post, I headed straight to my slow-stitching. (Priorities, people.) And then I went outside to check on things there. My first stop was the greenhouse. With so many seedlings in pots, I'm checking the water daily. There, I was happy to discover sprouts in two of the three zinnia pots.

Also, the poppies are large enough now that I think it's safe to plant them in their permanent barrel outside the greenhouse.

We're planning to do that today, but we'll also have to erect some sort of fencing to keep the squirrels from digging around in the soil.

Back inside, I took a walk on the treadmill and then did a little housework. It was after lunch time when I was able to get to my quilting. I had just an hour to spare before I needed to leave for PT, and I spent about 45 minutes quilting Block 3 for the Merry, Merry Snowmen.

There are just two blocks to go. I left it needle down in Block 2, and there should be plenty of time for that today.

When I arrived home from PT, I checked on the peonies again. It was a warm (not hot) day, and so the Joker peony was about half open. I expect we'll see this open all the way today.

Also, I marveled at the Lavender Whisper peony. 

It's flowers are monsters!

The bumblebees and other bugs are loving them.

Back inside, I found some cats enjoying the afternoon sunshine, double-decker style.

It was a dramatic sunrise this morning, and the start of another busy day.

As I've mentioned, Mike is scheduled for his first cataract surgery tomorrow. We don't yet have an arrival time for that, but we're expecting them to call today. His post-op visit will be Thursday. (The second eye won't be until mid-June.) And with those two appointments, it seemed like today was the best day to do our grocery shopping. We'll do that first, and then we'll work on the poppies. I expect to get back to my sewing sometime this afternoon.

So, if there's time in the morning tomorrow, I'll be back for our morning chat as usual. If we need to be there at the butt crack of dawn, then probably not until the afternoon, if at all. We're not expecting any surprises, but sometimes these things take longer than expected. All of that to say that blog-wise, I'll be playing it by ear tomorrow and Thursday. If you don't hear from me sooner, then for sure I'll be back on Friday. Until then...carry on, my friends.