Happy National Quilting Day!

 Good morning, my friends, and Happy National Quilting Day to all who celebrate!

To celebrate, I finished the Painted Ladies yesterday. The quilt ends up at 60 x 72 inches. I started it on March 15, 2003, and so it was almost exactly three years in the making. Here's the quilt top:

Here's the quilt back. I pieced it using some fabrics gifted to me by a friend. They came from a quilter who had passed away. These aren't the sorts of fabrics I usually buy, and so it seemed like this quilt back was a good way to put them to use.

That was the only sewing I did yesterday. Most of my day was spent in the kitchen. I wanted to bake another loaf of Irish Brown Bread. We really like this toasted for breakfast in the morning, and so we wanted another loaf.

Also, I ended up with too many lemons, and so I made another round of Lemon Pudding Cakes for Two. 

When I made these last month, I unmolded the cakes onto a small plate, thus:

When I looked at the recipe yesterday, I realized they'd left them in the ramekins they were baked in, and so I did that this time too. So much easier. I'll do it that way from now on.

Also in yesterday's kitchen duties, some hard boiled eggs, and a Tangy and Creamy Macaroni Salad.

This is my contribution to tonight's dinner. Erik, the Grill King, is grilling up a brisket. We'll be making Reubens with homemade sauerkraut. As someone who loves most anything fermented, I'm looking forward to trying the homemade sauerkraut. Also, I'm exceedingly curious about how it was made.

So with all that going on in the kitchen, there wasn't a lot of time for sewing. The only other sewing I did was to make some more progress on the sixth block for Le Jardin.

There are probably a few days' work left on this one, but I decided to choose the next project from my embroidery dance card. I've reached the "short" project. Short projects are those that can be finished in one go-round. This time, Mr. Random chose the Cozy Quilt embroidery pattern. 

That looks like fun, and I feel fairly certain I have everything I need to get started when the time comes.

So I've planned another busy day today. We'll be heading over to Erik and Mae's house this afternoon for our dinner. As for the rest of the day, it'll be mostly boring houseworky type of things. I need to start some laundry, and I need to do some other cleaning. Knowing there won't be time for most anything blog-worthy, I'll take tomorrow off from blogging and meet you back here on Monday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my friends. And for National Quilting Day, be sure to celebrate with style!

So Much Sewing

Good morning, my friends. All of my to-do's were crossed off yesterday, including walking on the treadmill and the one housekeeping chore on my list. Yay me! 

Once the meat and potatoes part of my day was complete, I could move on to dessert. There was lots of time for sewing. Fortunately, my purrtector cat was on the job, keeping an eye out for any invading forces from the north.

It was unclear how much quilting there was left to do on the Fantastic Felines, and so I just sewed until I was tired of sewing, and then laid the quilt out on the floor to have a look-see. Smitty was Johnny-on- the-spot to give it his once over too. Also..."Fantastic Felines"? Pshaw! There's no more fantastic feline than Smitty, and this quilt did not convince him otherwise.

And I looked carefully at all the lines and discovered the quilting was FINISHED!!! Yahoo!!!!

Here's another peek at the back.

So I turned everything off, folded it up, and carried it downstairs. There, I went to work on the binding for the Painted Ladies, turning the fourth and final corner.

There's just this much left to do:

And so I should easily finish this today.

As I was preparing to go downstairs to my sewing room, I happened to look outside to see that our star magnolia is starting to bloom. I noticed it a few days ago, but this was one of the first flowers to open.

A bird was living in this tree last year (or maybe it was the year before). I looked down to see if the nest was still there. It is, which had me wondering if a bird will take up residence there. If so, it'll have to do some housekeeping since the nest has accumulated some leaves and twigs with the passage of time.

It was tempting to call it a day at that point, but there was still another hour left to kill. I headed down stairs and pretty quickly finished sewing the Gumballs quilt into a finished quilt top. Yay! It ends up at 60 x 72 inches.

This was so much fun to make that I'm planning to start another one soon. I'll do the next one in greens, blues, and aquas. 

Sewing the Gumballs quilt into a finished flimsy was my goal for March's

and so I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month. 

And that really was the end of my sewing day. Last night's dinner was a new recipe for this One-Pot Cheesy Orecchiette with Cabbage and Paprika. We liked this a lot. I liked it because it as so easy to make. The whole thing is cooked up in a single skillet, including boiling the pasta.

We had that with a side of Texas toast, and that was one tasty dinner with easy clean-up. I'll be marking this as suitable for RV cooking.

So there won't be as much time for sewing today. I'm going to do some cooking this morning. Erik, the Grill King, has invited us for dinner tomorrow. He has an enormous pastrami brisket to grill up, and he says they need "all hands on deck" to devour said brisket. They're going to be serving Reubens (practically my favorite sandwich) with homemade sauerkraut. My contribution will be a macaroni salad. Also, and just for fun on Friday, I'm going to make some more lemon pudding cakes. I made them while we were traveling, and Mike asked for another round. 

Also, we've really enjoyed the Irish Brown Bread I made for St. Patrick's Day. It was good with the Irish Beef Stew I made for dinner that night, but we've really enjoyed it toasted in the morning.

The first loaf is nearly gone, and so I'll bake another. It's mixed up in a single bowl, and so it's easy enough. As long as I'm going to be in the kitchen anyway, I might as well bake some more. Also in the I-might-as-well category, I'm going to hard boil some eggs. I like to have at least a few on hand at all times, and we're fresh out.

Okay, so it's a busy kitchen day ahead. Also, I'm going to try to continue my effort to get back into some movement by doing a Bow-Flex workout. And I really have no idea how well that will work. Certainly, I can't be doing any resistance work with my hurting left shoulder. I can still do leg work, but I'll have to try doing the arms without any resistance on the left side. Maybe it'll work out, and maybe it won't.  Finally, I'm committed to finishing up the Painted Ladies, and so that'll be at the top of my list.

We're still gray and gloomy here. I'm anxiously awaiting some warmer weather so that I can get out and do some yard work. Looks like it'll be Sunday at the earliest now, and the weather is looking dry, even if it is on the chilly side. Still...the hairy bittercress is calling in reinforcements every day. I really need to get out and start yanking it up.

What's on your agenda for the weekend? Something fun, I hope.

Out with the Old

Good morning, my friends. My yesterday started with a long list of to-do's. Unsurprisingly, I didn't get through all of it, but there was a good amount of progress. But first...out with the old, in with the new. St. Patrick's Day is history, and Easter is approaching. My first priority was to switch out my holiday decor. 

First, I hung the little Bunny Garden on the wall between the kitchen and dining room. If I'm remembering right, this was a free pattern from Lynette Anderson at one time. It's no longer free, but you can find the pattern right here.

This Bunny Go Round able topper is on our breakfast bar. This was a free pattern from Doghouse Designs.

On the dining room table, this Easter Egg table runner. This was a free pattern from We All Sew, but it seems no longer to be available.

Okay, and with St. Patrick's Day banished from the house, I could get on with my one housekeeping chore. With that done, I had to decide whether to walk on the treadmill or do more sewing. Which do you think I chose? If you picked sewing, then you'd be right. Ding, ding, ding! You win the prize! (Disclaimer: there is no prize.)

And with every day here at the Three Cats Ranch, no activity is complete until I've let the cats in and out half a dozen times. When I looked out yesterday, I saw Sadie with a bead on something.

To her left, Smitty was urging her on. These two have an arrangement. Sadie does the hunting, and she gives whatever she catches to Smitty for proper, um, "disposal."

And it's completely understandable because Smitty has grown to geriatric status. He'll celebrate his 14th birthday next month. (They grow up so fast.) A while back, we gave him a geriatric kitty pole. He can be on the top rung without having to jump so high. Also, he can use the window sill for a boost up.

So my next sewing task was to finish off September's block for A Year in the Garden.

Here are the nine blocks I have for this quilt so far.

That meant I needed to trace something new or suffer a stitching emergency. Happily, youthful, energetic Sadie was there to help.

Together, we traced out Block 6 for Le Jardin.

Setting that aside, I went back to my quilting. Probably I spent about 45 minutes on this before I decided to call it quits. With my shoulder still bothering me, it's a literal pain wrestling with this quilt as I make my way around it with a straight line grid. Here's how it looks so far. Probably, I'm a little more than halfway finished.

Here's a peek at the back.

Regarding my shoulder, I'm still waiting for a decision about whether an MRI will be authorized. Yesterday, tired of waiting, I called my insurance carrier. There's been no decision, and they told me it takes 14 business days. Counting out the days, that would mean I might need to wait as long as April 1st before anything more can happen. To say I'm irked by this would be an understatement, but it is what it is.

And from there, I settled into our recliner to make some more progress on the quilt binding. I've been stitching two lengths of thread at a time on this, and I've turned three corners.

It was getting close to the end of the day by then. While we watched the news, I took the first stitches on the newest block for Le Jardin. Mainly, I was just cleaning up the extra bits of floss from my floss bobbins.

This one has a new-to-me stitch called the Ribbed Spider Web stitch. Possibly, I've done this before, but I had to look it up anyway. I was using a lavender variegated floss for this.

You can watch Mary Corbet's tutorial on this stitch right here. And if you can't open the video, then click right here.

Okay, and that brought me to the end of my day.

Today will look much like yesterday except that I'm determined to get in a walk on the treadmill. No excuses. And if I'm going to fit everything in, I'd better get busy. We're approaching vernal equinox tomorrow. We can say good-bye to winter and Hellllllooooooo, Spring! I cannot wait!

A Kitchen Day

Good morning, my friends. As expected, I spent most of my day in the kitchen yesterday. It's kind of fun to create a meal to celebrate a holiday, and so I don't mind a kitchen day every now and then. 

My morning started with the baking of this Irish Brown Bread. It's made with whole-wheat flour, buttermilk, and two kinds of oatmeal. The only sweetener is 2 tablespoons of honey (or golden syrup), and so it's a good loaf for anyone watching their calories and fat. Straight from the oven, it looked like this:

Cutting into it, you can see the rolled oats and steel cut oats inside. We had some toasted this morning, and it's good that way too.

It was intended as a side for the Irish Beef Stew I made later in the day. By rights (and to make it Irish), this should have been made with a bottle of Guinness. I didn't have Guinness, and so I used one of our Oregon porter stouts in mine. So, it's really more of an Ore-Irish Beef Stew. Also, my picture didn't turn out, and so I swiped this one from the internet.

Then, for dessert we had these Bruleed Key Lime Tarts. The recipe makes four.

They have an Oreo cookie crust, and then there is a lime sauce to be ladled over the top before the whipped cream is added. I should have used my hand for scale in that image above. These tart pans are about four inches in diameter, so this is technically a mini tart. They were delicious. And there are two more for dessert tonight.

Okay, so with all that going on, there wasn't much time for sewing. While the stew simmered, I spent some time on the quilt binding. Smitty kept my lap warm.

With his help, I turned the second corner. I'm probably about 40% of the way around this now.

The bird feeders were empty, and so I took a break to get outside for a little while. More daffodils are blooming.

And I was happy to see shoots coming from the Bleeding Heart. We had to move this a few years ago when snow falling from the roof pretty well flattened the other one. This one is moved out of the way of the snow, and so I'm hoping it'll take off and grow larger this year.

There was also some progress on September's block for A Year in the Garden. I expect to finish it this morning.

And that means I'll need to trace out the next one or suffer the scourge of a stitching emergency. Next up will be the 6th block for Le Jardin. These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far:

Also, I'm hoping to get back to my treadmill walking today. It's the one part of day-to-day life that I haven't resumed since we returned home. I want to get back to it, and today seems like a good day. There's one housekeeping chore on today's agenda. After that, I'll get back to my quilt binding and my quilting. I'll pick it up where I left off on Monday.

And I haven't forgotten about the Gumballs quilt top. I'm hoping to get that finished today too.

So it's a long list of to-do's for today. Time to get going on it. I hope y'all had a nice St. Patrick's Day yesterday. We certainly did. There was a lot of cooking, but also a lot of relaxing and good food. What could be better than that? Maybe if it was payday too, but we'll take what we can get, right? Okay...off I go. Have a good day, Everybody!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Good morning, my friends. Hopefully, you're wearing your green this morning. I haven't decided on today's wardrobe, but it will definitely include my Irish socks from actual Ireland.

It's going to be a kitchen day here. I like to get my Irish up for St. Patrick's Day, and so I'm making an Irish themed dinner tonight. We'll have some Irish Brown Bread...a new recipe to me, so I hope it's good. That'll go with our Irish Beef Stew. For dessert we'll have these Bruleed Key Lime Tarts. I made these once before, but it's been 12 years since then. At the time, I wrote a blog post about the process. They aren't hard to make, but they do take some time, and so I'll get started on those right away this morning.

Baking up to yesterday, I had a doctor's appointment. That all went fine. I was meeting a new primary care doctor, and I liked her a lot. I hope she stays around because she's the fourth PCP I've had in five years. She stared me on the generic form of Fosamax for my brittle bones. Does anyone have any experience with Fosamax? It has some possibly troubling side effects, and so I'm hoping I'll be able to tolerate it. Time will tell.

After that, I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things on a limited-time buy one, get one free sale. And with all that going on, it was later in the day when I got home than I expected. It didn't leave much time for sewing. The easiest thing to do was to clip the binding on the Painted Ladies and get busy stitching. When I'd given it all the time I wanted to, I'd turned the first corner.

The kitties were ready and willing to help, but it took me so long to get all the way around with my clips that this happened:

You can hardly blame them. It was time for my nap too.

So after taking a short nap, I went to work getting the machine set up for quilting the Fantastic Felines. In the bobbin, I'm using a black 60 weight Bottom Line thread. 

On top, I'll use this 50 weight black Essential thread. 

Everything looked good tension-wise, and so I went to work, using my Line Tamer ruler to quilt a diagonal grid. I started in a corner and stitched to the opposite corner. From there, I caromed off in different directions as I reached the opposite edge of the quilt.

It was already late in the day by then. My goal for this is to spend an hour per day on it. A good amount of my time yesterday was taken up selecting threads, winding bobbins, and getting ready to quilt. By the time my hour was up, I'd stitched about six lines.

Knowing I needed to pick up some medicine, I suggested we go out for dinner last night. It was nice to do something fun for the day since it started out with a doctor's appointment and a trip to the grocery store. The sun was shining and it was relatively warm. Coming over the top of one of the hills, we had a beautiful view of Mt. Hood.

In the restaurant parking lot, the flowering cherry trees were in bloom.

And that was a nice way to end the day.

Okay, so I have a busy day ahead, and I'm going to get going on it. I'd planned to get back to the treadmill today, but I'll probably put that off until tomorrow. I'll be on my feet for a good part of the day, and that should count for something, right? So I hope y'all have a good day planned for yourselves. Don't drink too much green beer...and definitely don't eat any green snow.