A Finish!

Good morning, my friends. It's a sunny day. The promise of a warmer week seems to be coming to fruition. I was out early yesterday morning. The birds had emptied their feeders...again...and I needed to check on the seedlings in the greenhouse. (Both things are new additions to my morning routine.) While I was out, I checked on the flowers. (Checking on the flowers is also part of my morning routine.) I'd hoped the Coral Sunset peony would have bloomed, but it was still hiding itself. Nevertheless, the other peonies were putting on a show.

Also, this single flower on the Edda clematis is nearly open. Lots more flowers are coming. I figure they send out a scout flower to reconnoiter before they'll commit to blooming.

Back inside, my first priority in the sewing world was to finish the binding for the Merry, Merry Snowmen. And how could I not finish it when I had the help of my loyal stitching cat?

We spent about 45 minutes on the hand-stitching, and my quilt was finished. I started on the Merry, Merry Snowmen on July 29, 2024. Now, it is boxed up and ready to go to its forever home in southern California.

Here's a little peek at the back.

Quilting and binding the Merry, Merry Snowmen was my goal for May's

I'll link up there when the party starts next week.

With that finished, I was ready to quilt another row of blocks for the Homestead quilt. This is the "Schoolhouse" block. I wasn't really sure what to do here, and so I quilted it lightly. I might decide to do more on this.

Here's how it's looking from the back.

The next block is called "Lincoln's Platform."

Here's how that looks from the back. 

Finally, the "Nebraska Pinwheel." This block is also known as the "Dempster Windmill."

Here's how that's looking from the back.

It was afternoon by then. When the weather warms up and the sun shines, the peonies will show themselves. I decided to check on the Coral Sunset peony one more time. I found Sadie on her catio, scanning the landscape for any furry mammals.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear? There it is! About half opened.

Here's another one!

I expect these will open all the way today. Then, I can start obsessing over the two that have not bloomed yet. 

Today is a grocery shopping day. Other than that, there's nothing else on the to-do list. We have a relatively short list today, and then I can get back to my sewing. When I came upstairs just now, I found Smitty catching some rays on his kitty pole. It's his favorite time of the year when the morning sun shines in his window.

There was no progress made on the Stair Steps quilt. I swear I'm going to do something with that today. However, I've come to the conclusion that there's not enough time/energy in any given day to work on more than two projects. Now that the quilt binding is finished, I'll have the time/energy to devote to my list of WIPs. As things are going, I probably have at least three days before I'll finish the quilting for the Homestead quilt. When I start on that quilt binding, it'll be my second project in a day. 

Next up for quilting will be "The Story of My Day." Already I have some ideas about how to do this.

Okay, so Mike is ready to go, and I'm still sitting here in my pajamas. Probably, I should be on my way. Good chat this morning, my friends! Have a good day today!

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?