Busy Kitchen Day

Good morning, my friends. We were both a little slow off the starting block yesterday morning. It was nearly lunch time before I managed to do anything productive. Usually, I’d be making pancakes on a Sunday morning, but Mike made waffles instead. We thought our weather would be better, but it rained a good part of the day. Smitty sat looking longingly outside, wishing he could find the door that leads to summer.

Part of my morning was spent on my slow-stitching. When I had it this far, it made sense to move my hoop to the left.

This is the left-most lower corner. With the cat stitched, the rest will be morning glories, leaves, and a little of the railing where the cat is sitting.

When I’d stitched all I could, I got busy in the kitchen. I was making Grown-up Mac and Cheese and these Zucchini Coffee Cake Muffins. They have a streusel topping and a liberal sprinkling of cinnamon. We’ve each had one for this morning’s breakfast, and they’re pretty darned tasty.

It’s been a while since I’ve made macaroni and cheese, and I’d forgotten what a production it is. It uses lots of pans and takes quite a while. You end up with a gooey mess to be ladled into 2-cup ramekins. We had two for dinner last night, and there are four more in the freezer. We’ll eat those while we’re traveling. And all of that to say it was late in the day before I could do anything in the sewing room. Also…I was tired. Cutting the pieces for the Jawbreakers blocks seemed like too much effort compared to tracing.

So there was no progress made on the Jawbreakers blocks, but I traced the largest block for “Home is Where My Flock Is.”

It’s the large center block. Here are the smaller perimeter blocks I have for this project so far.

And as long as I was tracing, I figured I’d get all my take-along projects ready to go. Next, I traced the 12th and final block for Snowmen & Reindeer.

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

That was probably enough, but I was on a tracing roll by then, and so I traced the second block for Pieces of the Heart.

So far, I’ve only done the first of 12 blocks for this project.

And that took me to the end of the day. 

Today will be less busy, and I should be able to get more done in the sewing room. We’re mopping the floor this morning, but that’s the only thing on the day’s agenda. And there are leftovers for dinner, thank goodness. That gives me most of the day to work in the sewing room. I’d like to check in on the garden as well. It’s been a couple of days since I’ve been out there. Surprisingly, things are still growing and ripening, even with the chilly and wet weather we’ve had. Our weather station tells us that, all told, we’ve gotten over an inch of rain from this wet period so far. It’s good news for the dry grass in the field.

All right then. The day awaits. It’s going to be a good day. I hope you have a good day ahead of you too.

WIPS Sewing and Paying it Forward

Good morning, my friends. Our weather is improving somewhat. We saw some blue sky and sunshine yesterday. If the forecast is to be believed, we should start seeing less rain over the coming week. We're still keeping our fingers crossed for good weather when we travel to Washington. We have lots of hiking planned, and it'll be nicer if we don't have to don our rain gear.

Before we get too far afield, I have a couple of patterns to give away. [Edited to say both patterns are spoken for. Sorry.] Usually when I'm finished with a pattern, I list it in my Yard Sale. But y'all are often so generous with me that I have a lot of patterns that were given as gifts. When I finish those, I pay it forward by offering them up to one of you for free. Today, I have two patterns. First, The Santa Quartet from Bird Brain Designs. Someone gave this to me many moons ago. I regret I can't remember who it was, but if it was you, then thank you. And if it wasn't you, and you want it...here it is. Whoever speaks up first can have it.

Same goes for this next one. You might know that I've only stitched the first of 12 blocks for this project. However, when I was searching through my patterns several days ago, I realized I had two sets of these. Clearly, you guys have an idea that I like cats. And I can't recall who gave me the first one, but this second one was given to me by Leeda Hauser. Thank you, Leeda. 

Be the first to speak up for it, and it's yours. Also, whenever you leave a comment, make sure I have a way to contact you. No way to contact you means you can't score either pattern.

Okay, let's talk about yesterday's sewing room time. My first task was to find a home for the Bunny Bait quilt. Smitty helped me with that.

My sewing room walls are filling up, but I found a place for the Bunny Bait. Of the quilts in this picture, I made all but the one in the upper right corner. That one was a quilt I received in a doll quilt swap. The one to its left is a hand-quilted whole cloth quilt I made for a class. The others were made for different reasons. Some were made for Project Quilting. Some were made for The Endevourers art quilt group. Some were small projects for traveling.

Okay, with that done, I went to work making the second row of blocks for the “Butterfly Garden” project. For the second row, I needed three of these…

And two of these.

When I laid the two rows out together, they looked like this. 

It seemed too late in the day to start on the Jawbreaker blocks.

So I just set out my blue, green, and aqua scrap bins. You can see why I want to use some of these scraps.

That’s where I’ll start today. Also, I’ve been thinking about what projects I want to take along when we travel in Washington. The Plaid Cat is going faster than expected. Probably it’ll be finished before we leave. And then I realized there’s a large center block for “Home is Where My Flock Is.” Here’s the picture from the pattern.

Up until now, I’ve been taking them in order. I have the first seven blocks stitched. There are five more in this size.

For our trip, I decided to skip ahead to the largest 13th block. It was printed on three sheets of paper. I’ve taped it all together now, and I’ll trace that today.  Probably I’ll trace a few more projects for insurance. I don’t want a stitching emergency on the road.

This was Sadie’s contribution to the day’s sewing effort.

All right then. Today I’ll be tracing some embroidery blocks, and I’ll get to work on the cutting for another row of five Jawbreaker blocks. I expect I can finish the cutting in a single day, but it’s doubtful I can have the blocks sewn together in a single day.

The next week is going to be busy. There’s making lists and checking them twice, packing clothes, cooking food, packing food, and a lot of other stuff around the house. There are at least two appointments in town, and so you can see that sewing time will be in short supply. For now, I’m just trying to take one day at a time. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when I look at everything all at once. 

So, I’ve given you my sewing goals for the day. Also, I’m going to make some Grown-up Mac and Cheese. It’ll be for tonight’s dinner, but it makes enough for two more meals. I put it in two-cup ramekins and freeze it. Since I didn’t make muffins yesterday, I’ll make some more today. And there are a couple of other easy housekeeping chores. Clearly, there’s plenty to keep me busy today.

Okay, so, off I go. Eyes forward. One thing at a time. One day at a time.

One for the Bunnies

Good morning, my friends. We had another day of rain yesterday. Not as much as on Thursday, but still…a good amount. We had grocery shopping to do, but I wasn’t going anywhere until I had my slow-stitching session. I stitched up what I could in my hoop…

And then moved it to stitch what remains of the cat. I’ll be able to start on the leaves and morning glories next.

So our grocery list was short. We ended up standing at the check-out stand for quite a while, though. The woman ahead of us asked for several hundred dollars cash back. (Who does that in a grocery store?) The cashier didn’t have enough cash in her till, and that threw a wrench into the works. It’s hard to know what was going on exactly, but it was frustrating. Our groceries were already loaded onto the conveyor belt, and so we had little choice but to wait. Finally, we were on our way home.

When the groceries were put away, I checked on the garden. Sadly, one of the giant sunflowers had fallen down in the rain. Another shorter one was leaning over too. The garden is looking a little bedraggled, but it’s still producing. I harvested another handful of green beans, some more cucumbers, and the first of the corn. Before walking away, I picked all the plums I could reach. They’re good eating right now.

Also, I happened to look out into the bee garden to see another newbie in the form of these black-eyed Susans.

Okay, so the corn: I husked it, and I was curious to see how my new tool worked.

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In the past, I’ve done this with a knife. The problem is that the knife blade comes down hard on whatever surface you’re using…a plate or a bowl. That dulls the blade. Also, it throws corn kernels everywhere. This tool made it a little easier. I could do an ear in less than a minute.

It still threw corn everywhere, though. Giving this some thought, I ordered some 3-1/2 gallon zip-lock bags from Amazon. I’m thinking I can do this with my hands inside the larger bag and avoid getting kernels everywhere. The larger bags will be here within a few days, and I’ll give it another try. I’m happy with the tool, but I think my technique needs more work and more practice.

Okay, and it was late in the day by then. It was a good time to get going on the Bunny Bait binding. Within about an hour, I had it finished.

Here’s how it looks from the back.

As I was packing things up, I looked out the window to see an evening visitor. Do you suppose she heard there were carrots inside?

Checking the calendar, it looks like I have a couple of easy housekeeping chores to do. There should be plenty of time for sewing. I want to make another row of blocks for the Butterfly Garden project. Those should go pretty fast. Already I’m looking ahead to our trip south for the winter, assuming we actually go this year. This would be a good take-along project. I could make up a kit with all the cutting for all the blocks and sew them together on the road. 

If there’s still time, I’ll make another row of blocks for the Jawbreakers quilt.

The cutting takes a long time for that project, and so a row of blocks will probably take a day or two.

Today or tomorrow, I’m going to bake some more muffins. We’ve been enjoying those for breakfast. The coming week is going to get busy as we prepre for our trip to Washington state. I’m going to need to do some cooking, and of course, there will be packing. Also, I’m getting my hair cut and colored on Tuesday and a pedicure on Thursday. I can’t go off without taking care of my grooming needs, can I? 

It’s still gray and gloomy outside. We’re expecting the rain to continue off and on over the coming week. Still keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll get better weather for our trip.

Two Small Quilts

Good morning, my friends. It was another rainy day yesterday. There was a meme on Facebook from a Portland weatherman that said, "Hello darkness my old friend." It made me laugh. Yep...that's the Pacific Northwest for you. We're told we have at least another ten days of gray skies and rain off and on. Hopefully, summer will return, and we'll have good weather for our trip, but we should all pack our rain gear just in case.

As for yesterday's sewing, Sadie was my sewing helper. Together, we got a lot done.

The first thing I did was to sew a border on the Santa Quartet.

And then I gave it its final border. It ends up at 16 x 28 inches.

I’ll use this fabric on the back. It’s been in my stash of Christmas fabrics for a long time.

And I’ll use that same green from the inner border for the binding. I’m going to put this aside for now, but I’ll endeavor to get it finished so that I can use it this Christmas.

Okay, and then I turned my attention to the “Bunny Bait.” This was a free pattern from the Sewing Loft. I needed to sandwich it.  

And then I did some straight line quilting in the stripes of the carrots.

Here’s how that looks from the back. It felt like a bold choice to use that green thread. Usually, I’m trying to hide my quilting.

I’d done a Google search for a “line drawing of a carrot.” I found one kind of like this, and so I quilted carrots in the border.

All the way around, alternating the connecting swirl with each one. It just needed some swirls in the green carrot tops, and it was finished.

Here’s how it looks from the back.

There was barely enough time to get the binding sewn on, but sew it on I did.

Today I’ll probably be able to finish the hand stitching. It ends up at 18-1/2 inches square.

So that brings me to my list of WIPs. It’s a grocery shopping day today (drat), but there should still be some time for sewing. First on the list is to make the second row for the Butterfly Garden quilt. This is my adaptation of the Arcade Pattern  from Fabric Cafe. I’m making it one row at a time, and so I’m curious to see how it will look when I add another row. 

If I have any more time for sewing, I want to make another row for the Jawbeakers quilt. These blocks are fun to make, but the cutting takes quite a while.

The last time I talked about this quilt, I confused some folks by calling it “Jawbreakers.” The pattern is Gumballs but since I already made a quilt I’m calling “Gumballs,” 

I gave the green one a different name. Get it? Jawbreakers? Gumballs? How’re you gonna know which is which until you attempt to chew it? 

Okay…so the dreaded grocery shopping trip. It’s a short list today. We’re eating a lot of stuff from the garden right now, and so we don’t need a lot. I need to get out and check the garden too, but it’s been so wet. I’m hoping to get out there today. Things are probably not growing much in this cold wet weather.

So, off I go. Another busy day ahead. What are you doing to keep busy today?

Rainy Day

Good morning, my friends. It rained most of the day yesterday. Watering the flowers is officially off my to-do list until next week sometime. We're expecting more rain today, and possibly tomorrow. It's fine by me. You might remember several years ago when we took a fall trip and ended up cutting our travels short to return home because of a wildfire threatening our neighborhood. Happily, things are getting a good wetting down as we anticipate this year's fall trip. This rain will go a long way toward greening up our field.

My day started with chopping, chopping, chopping and mixing, mixing, mixing until I had a pot full of apple-pear chutney fixings.

It took two hours to cook it down to chutney consistency, and then about another half hour to fill, lid, and process the jars. When it was finished, I had seven pints of Apple-pear chutney. You can find the recipe for this in yesterday's post.

As I've mentioned, this is good with pork...pork chops, ham, ham sandwich...but it's really good spread on a toasted slice of baguette with a sprinkle of blue cheese. I'm kind of mad at myself because the mixture included two cinnamon sticks that were to be removed before I ladled it into jars. After the jars had been lowered into the canner, I realized I'd forgotten to remove the cinnamon sticks. Doh! Oh well. It won't hurt anything. Someone will just find a surprise. Perhaps I should post some sort of reward for whoever finds the first one.

While that was cooking and processing, I went to work hand-sewing the binding for the Tulip Time quilt. This was originally a free pattern from Inspired by Fabric. I turned it into a little kit when we traveled south last winter. Now, it's a finished table topper, 26 x 28 inches.

Here's a peek at the back. This will make a nice little table topper for next spring.

It was getting late in the day by then. I wasn't really feeling like doing any more sewing, but I took the time to square up the Santa Quartet and decided on some fabrics to finish it off. I'll give it two borders, and I'll use that same green from the inner border for the binding. 

That shouldn't take long, and I expect to finish the top by day's end.

For my next quilting project, I'll quilt this little "Bunny Bait" quilt. It's another of the projects I kitted up to take south last winter. This was another free pattern from the Sewing Loft. It was intended to be part of a larger quilt, but I just made this one block. It shouldn't take long to quilt it. Already, I have some ideas about what to do with it.

Okay, so let's talk about this mystery trip I keep hinting about. We're still more than a week away from our departure date, but here's where we'll be going. As I believe I've mentioned before, we've lived in Oregon since 1978, but we haven't spent a lot of time sight-seeing in Washington. We’ve visited Washington’s national parks, and we spent a few days in Spokane. Usually when we're traveling in Washington, we're on our way to somewhere else. We decided to stay close to home this time and see more of the sights located within the boundaries of our neighbor to the north.

We're going to do quite a bit of hiking for this trip, and we’ll spend some more time exploring Olympic National Park. We'll also spend some time tide-pooling at one of the beaches on the Olympic peninsula. LaConner, Washington, is on the itinerary at the recommendation of a friend. There's a quilt shop and a quilt museum there. We'll visit some state parks we haven't seen before, and we'll see the Grand Coulee Dam. Mike has seen it before, but I have not. 

There are a couple of other sight-seeing spots on the map, but we'll talk more about those when we reach those destinations. This, of course, is all dependent on the availability of fuel. It seems no one is talking about shortages at the moment, but anything could happen. Also, we'll have to make adjustments for wildfires and poor air quality. The worst fires I've heard about in Washington are well east of where we'll be traveling...for now. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate. At this time of year, anything could happen.

All right. So, it's a new day. It'll be another rainy day, and that's just fine with me. It means any to-do's on my list will be confined to the indoors. Sewing will get a lot of my attention today.