Going With the Grain

Good morning, my friends. It’s been a mildly hectic week, and so I’ve given myself permission to skip a day or two of blogging. It occurs to me that whether I blog or not has to do with whether I get to do any sewing. If I’m not sewing, the rest of the day is pretty ho-hum…a lot of busy work standing between me and my sewing. 

Yesterday’s busy work happened to include a pedicure. It was good to take a spa break, even if it was for just an hour. As I’ve mentioned before, this particular spa has the most beautiful gardens. Even if you’re not a guest at the hotel, it’s worth stopping by just to stroll the grounds. It’s going to be in beautiful fall colors soon. Yesterday I noticed this potted lantana. 

And these bright red begonias.

This is Crapemyrtle. It was growing all around the parking lot.

I had one other errand to run, but I was home around 1:00 p.m. My morning to-do’s were already to-done, and so I had some time to knock off one of the items from today’s to-do’s. The jumbo zip-lock bags I ordered came the day before, and so I tried my idea of stripping off the kernels inside a huge bag. And, hey…that was the ticket…some might say it was the shiznit. I was able to denude 11 ears of corn in less than 10 minutes. I got a stray kernel here and there, but mostly, it all went into the bag. This is a 3-1/2 gallon zip-lock bag, and those are the kernels of 11 ears of corn.

When I was finished, I scooped them out of the bag with my one-cup measuring cup into two-cup portions for freezing. 

Okay, and then I had time to sew. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to top-stitching the Amber Waves of Grain block from the day before.

Smitty helped me with that.

When it was finished, it looked like this. Those little hay bales were a little tedious.

Here are all the blocks I have for “Where the Cows Come Home.” There are five more blocks for this project.

Starting today, the rubber is really going to hit the road insofar as our trip preparations are concerned. I need to make some lists, do some cooking and baking, pack the food, pack my clothes, and all the rest between now and D-Day on Monday. I’m still hoping to get in some sewing time. Next up will be to make the fourth block for Across the Wide Missouri. This block is devoted to Dr. Bethenia Owens-Adair.

This one hits close to home because she lived much of her life in Oregon. This is the photograph of her from the pattern book. You can read more about her on her Oregon Encyclopedia page.

Here’s another photograph of her.

And what a remarkable woman. I encourage you to read her story. She was, essentially, a mail-order bride, in that her marriage was arranged when her parents answered an ad. The man she married turned out to be abusive, shiftless and lazy, and they were divorced after four years of marriage and the birth of one son.. 

She was an industrious woman at a time when there really wasn’t much help for women in her circumstances. She had the help of family and eventually was able to put herself through medical school. She became the first woman doctor in the state of Oregon. She held some controversial viewpoints. Like so many historical figures, she was a woman of her time, and time has a way of changing attitudes. When I read about women like this, it brings home to me that I’ve lived a fortunate life. Sometimes I wonder how I would have managed under similar circumstances.

Okay, and so all of that to say that I’d dearly love to get started on her block. These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Sewing time is going to be hard to come by, I’m afraid. I’ll blog if I have anything to tell you. If not, you can expect to hear from me again no later than Tuesday. By then, we’ll be in Olympia, Washington. Be ready, my friends. The bus leaves on Monday morning.

A Little Time for Sewing

Good morning, my friends. It's been a couple of days of this's and thats's. I've been keeping up with my slow-stitching each day. On Tuesday, I stitched far enough to decide to move my hoop up.

When I started stitching on Wednesday, I was at this section. I stitched the lower part of the hoop so that I could squeeze those little bits at the top inside the circle for stitching.

For Tuesday's trip into town everything took longer than I thought it would. Happily, I was there early for my haircut and color, and we got started right away. As for the rest of the day, I had a couple of errands to run, and the rest of the world seemed indifferent to my time pressures. What's up with that, anyway? 

When I got home, I did a few things in the kitchen, including blanching and freezing some green beans. I'd hoped our bean plants would produce enough green beans for pressure canning. We got enough for a couple of side dishes, but never enough to make it worthwhile hauling out all the canning equipment. I'll keep harvesting them until our departure date, and we'll enjoy some fresh green beans on the road. 

Late in the afternoon, I made my way into the sewing room to paw through my stash looking for fabrics appropriate to use in the next block for “Where the Cows Come Home.” The block I'm working on now is called "Amber Waves of Grain." I didn't end up using all these fabrics, but it gave me a place to start.

That was all I had time for on Tuesday. 

With Wednesday being a stay-at-home day, there was more to do. There was one housekeeping chore, and I made and froze a lasagna for our travels. There was some time spent in the garden harvesting more green beans, a couple of zucchini, a couple of cucumbers and more corn. The only thing I’ve done with the corn so far was to test out my new tool. Since I’d frozen what I cut off the ears, yesterday’s harvest was the first we’d actually eaten. We had it as a side to our Bulgogi Sloppy Joes with Scallion Salsa, and mmm, mmm, mmm. Sweet garden corn makes all the work worthwhile.

There was some time for sewing in the afternoon, and so I could get a start on my quilt block. This is the block I'm making as pictured in the book. The pattern is for wool applique. Mine is from cotton scraps.

The first step was to create a background.

I've appreciated the instructions in this book, telling me where to start, taking it step by step, and explaining how to do everything like I'm five years old. For one thing, the book suggests creating the barns on a pressing sheet, and then moving them to the background. That has been a big help. In this case, it suggested starting with the loft door, and told me how to place the pieces. The template was under my pressing sheet and I used it as a placement guide.

With that finished, I could create the rest of the barn.

Then, I peeled it up off the pressing sheet and fused it to the background.

The last step of the day was to add the bales of straw.

I love seeing fields that look like that in our travels. Here's one I took as we traveled near Vernal, Utah, a few years ago.

Sadie showed up about that time to let me know it was time for her dinner. That seemed like a good place to stop.

The applique still needs top-stitching, and I'm hoping to have time to do that today. Also today, I'm getting a pedicure. There's one other errand I want to run in town, and I have a few things I'd like to finish in preparation for our trip. If there's time, I'll get back to my sewing. If the day ends up being nothing but trip preparation, I'll take another day off from blogging tomorrow, but I should be back on Saturday to catch up. Until then, stay out of trouble, my friends.

A Good Day of Sewing

Good morning, my friends. It was a better day of weather yesterday. It clouded over for part of the day, but mostly, we saw sunshine and puffy white clouds. I've looked ahead to our first stop next week. If you can believe the forecast a week out, then we should have good weather for our first stop in Olympia next week. Fingers crossed.

There was just one chore on my list yesterday...mopping the floor. Mike helps me with that since there are some heavy things to move out of the way. He always does the sweeping too. With that out of the way, I could turn my attention to a day of nothing but sewing. My goal was to make another row of blocks for the Jawbreakers project. Sadie helped me cut the pieces.

Smitty stood by in case I needed a Mancat’s purrspective.

With their help, I cut all the pieces for the next row of blocks. This takes quite a while. Pawing through my scrap bins looking for pieces large enough takes at least as long as the cutting.

The next step was to sew those squares in the lower right into 20 half square triangles, and then trim them to size.

The next step is to sew together five 4-patches.

And then, I could lay them out with the rest of the pieces to be sewn into blocks.

When they were sewn together, they looked like this. I didn't mean to get all matchy-matchy with those half square triangle fabrics in the upper left corners of the blocks. It just worked out that way. If I'd tried to do that on purpose, I'm certain I would have sewn them together wrong.

Then, I could lay them all out with the first three rows. This is what I have so far.

My plan is to make two more rows of blocks. This is another one I can kit up to take along if we decide to go south this winter.

That seemed like a good place to stop for the day. Today I'm getting my hair cut and colored. Probably I won't get home until mid-afternoon. Next up on my list of WIPs is to make another block for "When the Cows Come Home." These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far:

They go together pretty fast, but I doubt I can finish it in a single day. Probably by tomorrow. And I'm thinking I'll have time to make one more block for "Across the Wide Missouri" before I need to devote all my time to getting organized for our trip. These are the blocks I have for that project so far.

The only other project on my list of WIPs is Northern Wilderness. Those blocks take some time, and so I won't attempt to work on those until we get back. And just FYI, knowing the coming week is going to be busy getting ready for our trip, I may skip some days of blogging. If you don't hear from me every day, know that I'll be back soon. With today being taken up with in-town things, I may not write tomorrow, but you can expect to hear from me again on Thursday for sure.

Until then, everybody stay out of trouble. It's not too soon to start your own preparations if you're coming with us to Washington. It's gonna be fun. Be sure to pack your rain gear though. It's the Pacific Northwest. It rains here.

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.