Busy Days Ahead

Good morning, my friends. We're expecting a drenching downpour today. The forecast is for three inches of rain over the next 12 hours. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, a big wind blew through the night before. With so much rain ahead of a big wind, it meant a lot of downed trees in our area...none where we live, fortunately, but we've had our share in previous storms. I believe the wind has died down now. Our forecast shows rain every day for the next week. I'd say it's time to get outta Dodge, and we will...in just about ten days. Between now and then, there's a lot to do...planning, cooking, and packing. I'll admit it's weighing on me, but it's too soon to start any of that just yet.

So let's not jump out there ahead of ourselves, okay? For now, we'll just relax with our slow-stitching. Yesterday started with the stitching of Tiny Treasure #29.

That was easy enough. I spent quite a bit of time yesterday on this next project. It's one more I'm adding to my take-along bins. One of my Facebook friends has a small collection of nativity scenes. She'd posted some pictures online, and we chatted back and forth a bit about her love of nativity scenes. (I've always loved them too.) The next time a Pinterest email landed in my inbox, this scene was included. 

Now here's the thing: I simply must sew. And if I kept everything I made, I'd have to add another room to our house in which to store all of it. So, when I see something I consider a perfect project to make for someone else, the devious part of my brain pipes up: "Ooooh....you could make this for fill-in-the-blank!" And when I saw this, I thought of my friend and said, "Ah ha! I believe I've identified my next victim!"

So, I visited the site where it originated. It was designed for machine embroidery, but I wanted to do it by hand. Did they have a hand-embroidery option? No. Of course not. Silly me. So I went searching for other possibilities, but I didn't find anything I liked better than the original. Then, I had an idea: I purchased the machine embroidery design, but then enlarged the picture that came with it for hand embroidery. I printed it on a sheet of Sticky Fabri-Solvy, and voila! A good machine embroidery design goes to the dark hand-stitching side. 

And then I went searching through my stash for some fabrics I could use to make a little quilt from it. Also, I had some blue embroidery floss left over from another project. Probably there's not enough here, but I can get more if I need to. 

As for the fabrics on the left, I'll make a narrow inner border from the lower one. That will also make a good binding. Then I'll use the dark blue in the middle for an outer border, and I'll use the star fabric at the top on the back. Now I'm excited to get started on it. Probably I'll start on this when I finish the Tiny Treasures.

And, of course, it needed its own project bag. Digging through my bag of bags, I came out with this one that was a gift on the day I visited Rosie's Calico Cupboard in San Diego, California. That was a good day. I met up with my blogging friend, Darlene. I was freshly burdened with a broken shoulder and a broken thumb at the time. Darlene helped me haul my purchases around. (Thanks, Darlene.) Anyway...this bag sparked a good memory.

Sadie found all this prepping and bagging terribly boring. She was there to help, but she finally gave up and decided to take a nap.

She told me I'd procrastinated long enough. I needed to sew the Shop Hop 4.0 blocks together. Done.

And then I had to decide how to finish it off. I'd already pulled the fabric you see on the left below. It's the cut off ends from another finished quilt, and I have a good amount for the outer border. It sort of makes sense with the barns, silos, and quilt shops pictured, since those are also things I photograph in our travels. For the inner border, I was torn between the two fabrics you see there.

After mulling it over a bit, I decided on the red one. I thought it would zazz up the quilt a little, and it will also make a good binding. Before I finished for the day, I had the two side borders done.

The top and bottom borders are ready to be sewn on now, and that's where I'll start when I make my way to the sewing room tomorrow.

Okay, so I started this post whining about the things I need to do to get ready for our trip. And when I'm thinking about that kind of stuff, it makes me terribly lazy...or maybe I'm just pre-tired. Anyway, I didn't get in my Bowflex workout yesterday, but I will today. No excuses. Also, I need to make up a shopping list. We'll do our grocery shopping tomorrow. If I play my cards right (read that: make a good shopping list), we can avoid going again until we're down in Southern California. I'll have some cooking to do ahead of time, but our first week of travel will mostly consist of eating leftovers I'll bring from the freezer. 

And consider this my reminder to myself that I cannot cross the state line with citrus fruits. I hate to think how many times I've forgotten that until we're already packed and ready to go. Our neighbors have benefitted from my poor planning several times, as I've tried unloading bags of oranges, lemons, and limes just before taking off. And all of that to say that I'll be planning our menu and making a grocery list today. Grocery shopping will happen tomorrow. All you need to know is that tomorrow's post will probably appear later in the day.

With that, I'm off to enjoy our rain-drenched Thursday. When we chat tomorrow, I'm hoping I can show you a finished quilt top.

A Kitchen Day

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy day yesterday. I left early for my pedicure, and so I was home before noon. I had plenty of time to do the cooking/baking I wanted to do. It took me nearly to the end of the day. After spending most of the day on my feet, I was tired by the time I was finished. 

So let's take a look, shall we? When I arrived home from my outing, I went straight to work making some peanut brittle. I'm using Mike's Mom's recipe, although I decided to add some vanilla to it. So, here we go. Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble:

It's cooked to a blistering 310°F before adding two teaspoons of baking soda. But, beware if you want to try this. When you add the baking soda, it expands and threatens to boil over the top of the pan. Mine had just barely topped the lip of the pan, and I had to carry this *very* hot bubbling brew about five feet to the prepared baking sheets. Quietly repeating, “sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t” to myself, I managed to get it to the pans without spilling any or burning myself. Pouring it into the prepared baking sheets, it looked like this:

It kinda looks like somebody already ate it, doesn't it? It's tempting to spread it out here, but the recipe says not to in bold letters, so I just left it. It spreads and flattens as it cools. Mike was already eating it before I had a chance to break it into pieces. When it was finished, it looked like this:

But I wasn't finished yet. I wanted to try this new recipe for Cranberry Orange Muffins. When I finished making our cranberries for Thanksgiving, I'd only used half the bag of fresh cranberries. So I packaged it up in a zip-lock bag and then took it to the freezer. When I opened the freezer, I discovered a half bag of frozen cranberries from the year before. Well. That required something, and so these muffins were just what I needed to use up the rest of the bag. 

They were easy to make. The ingredients are all whisked together in a single bowl. No mixer required. When they came from the oven, they looked like this. The recipe notes that if you're using frozen berries, you might need to bake it longer. Indeed, I left mine for an additional five minutes or so.

When they were cool, I added the glaze. And I'd say here that my glazing technique is no better than my drizzling technique.

But then I noticed the picture from the recipe in the NYTimes. Theirs don't really look any better than mine.

Okay, and I was ready to sit down then. I hadn't finished my slow-stitching from the morning, which was a perfect reason to put my feet up and relax. And this is the only sewing I did yesterday. This is Tiny Treasure #28. It has stem fill, basketweave stitch, French knots and stem stitch.

When I had that finished, I tipped back and took a nap. It was a good day, but also tiring. 

Today will go a little easier. I want to get in a Bowflex workout, and I have one quick housekeeping chore. Aside from that, I can spend the day sewing. For sure, I'm going to get busy sewing together the Shop Hop 4.0 blocks. Here they are all together.

There's no sashing between the blocks. The pattern shows it with just two borders. I'm not sure yet how I want to finish it off, but the fabrics will tell me what to do.

A big wind blew through here last night. We took a momentary power hit. I only know because I heard my printer cycle through, as it does, when the power returned. We've been lucky so far. We've taken a few power hits over the past several days, but none lasting for more than a few moments. Fingers crossed it stays that way. So with that, I'll leave you to your day. 

Winding Down

Good morning, my friends. I'm writing fast this morning. I'm heading out for my final monthly pedicure of 2025. Seems like there ought to be some kind of revelry associated with this, but I'm not aware of any associated parties. This pedicure will have to last me until March. When I'm going a long time between pedicures, I choose a light color of polish. It doesn't show as badly as it chips off. What's that you say? I could use polish remover? Oh...but that would mean I would have to lean over and touch my toes. Can you still do that? Certainly I wouldn't want to injure myself while I'm traveling. No, I think the light color of polish is the way to go. Don't try to change my mind. (For someone who's writing fast, I'm spending an awful lot of words on this polish color issue.)

There wasn't a lot of sewing yesterday. I stitched Tiny Treasure #27. This one has French knots, stem fill, and feather stitch.

With that finished, Smitty headed into the sewing room with me. He was my sewing cat yesterday.

The final step for the Northern Wilderness blocks was to top stitch along the edges of the applique. With so many nooks and crannies, this was slow going.

I started with the moose...

and finished with the Raven.

And then I lined up all the blocks for a group shot. Eight down now, and eight to go.

And that was some tedious sewing, let me tell you. When I finished both blocks, I was pretty well tired of sewing. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting and reading. Sometimes it's good to take an afternoon off from the usual stuff.

I believe there will be time for this morning's Tiny Treasure before I need to get ready to leave. Looking ahead at the calendar, there's one more trip to the grocery store, and a trip to Erik and Mae's house for Christmas dinner with the family. Except for that, I can't think of anything else that will pry me away from the comforts of home until we're ready to head south. 

On today's agenda, I'm going to make some peanut brittle. I've only made it a few times. I'm using Mike's mother's recipe. If there's time, I'm going to bake some cranberry and orange muffins. I've been pacing myself with the Christmas baking so that we only have one candy and one baked good available for eating at a time. The baked goods are tasty with our morning coffee. The candy is tasty with our afternoon cup of espresso. Really...it's just an excuse to load up on sugar and caffeine. If there's time after all that, I'll get busy sewing together the blocks for the Shop Hop 4.0 project.

Okay, so I need to get on my way. Stitching awaits. Have a good day everybody. 

Nevermore

Good morning, my friends. We're back to our dark skies and drenching rains today. I'm worrying about you folks up in Washington. We have a trip planned in your area for next fall. I'm hopeful we won't have to change our plans after all the flooding y'all have experienced. That's a long time from now. Hopefully, it can all be set right between now and then. And if you're one of the folks whose home I saw with water up to the eaves...well, you have my sympathy. Having to change our plans is a miniscule inconvenience when compared to what you're having to deal with.

My yesterday started with me stitching Tiny Treasure #26. This one stitched up pretty quickly. I could have done another one, but I didn't. This one has back stitch, stem stitch, straight stitch, and French knots.

We had a floor to mop, and I went for a walk on the treadmill. After that, I was free to sew. I made the quilt block for the 8th of the Northern Wilderness blocks. 

And then I sewed the remaining background pieces around it.

And then I added the applique raven.

Now I've added some iron-on stabilizer to the backs of each. Ordinarily I don't use stabilizer when I'm doing fusible applique, but the first block wanted to pucker up some with the top-stitching, and so I'm backing all the blocks this time around.

It was late in the day by that time, and it seemed too late to get started on the top-stitching. The machine is threaded with monofilament now, and I've switched out the needle for a 60/8 microtex needle. I'll get busy with the top-stitching today. Despite all those nooks and crannies, I should have plenty of time to finish these off.

When I wrote yesterday's post, I'd intended to include a picture of the moose we saw in Alaska. These have been fun to make as I remember things we saw on our trip.

Some other blocks with scenes from our trip are the Eagle.

We saw these guys in Homer:

Also...the fireweed.

When we arrived in Alaska in June, the fireweed had not yet started to bloom. Eventually, we started seeing it everywhere, lining the roads as we drove along.

It's been fun revisiting those memories as I make the blocks for this quilt. 

Okay, so finishing the applique was the end of my sewing day. I had a new recipe to try in the form of this Turkey Tetrazzini. This was just one way to use up some leftover turkey. I made just half the recipe and baked it in an 8 x 8 baking dish. When it came from the oven, it looked like this. The topping was made from panko, parmesan cheese, and a little olive oil. It was good.

That was supposed to sit for ten minutes before we tried to eat it. I used that time to toast some garlic bread. That turned out to be a tasty way to use some turkey leftovers. With the peas and mushrooms in there, I figure this for a one-dish meal, but the garlic toast was a nice accompaniment.

The one thing I'd say about this recipe is that in Step 4 it has you add butter to the pot of mushrooms you've just cooked down, and then whisk in flour and cook, whisking frequently. Then, you are to slowly add broth and cream and whisk until no lumps remain. And that seemed kind of dumb to me. How can you whisk something when you've got a pot of sliced mushrooms to deal with? I just added the flour to the broth and whisked it in, then added it to the pot. That worked out fine, and it was a lot less awkward.

Okay, so today I'll get busy with the top-stitching on the Northern Wilderness blocks. When those are finished, I'll be to the quilting section of my white board. But since Eliza hasn't come back from her vacay yet, there will be no quilting for me. Instead, I'll move to sewing together the quilt blocks from the Shop Hop 4.0 project. These are the blocks:

They'll be sewn together as you see them here, and then I'll add a border or two to the outside. I took a peek inside its box yesterday and noticed I'd pulled some fabric from my stash. I suppose I intended to make a border from that, but I'll have to be certain I have enough.

There are a few other things on today's to-do's, but that's a good place to start. Next up, I'll stitch another Tiny Treasure. We're looking at another day of rain and more rain. It's good sewing weather.

Of Moose and Men

Good morning, my friends. We had a relatively nice day of weather yesterday. Mike took the opportunity to check the suspension on the fifth wheel. The last time we used the fifth wheel was for our eclipse trip in the spring of 2024. On that trip, two leaf springs on the fifth wheel had to be replaced on the road. It's good that he checked it and found everything in order. 

He brought the fifth wheel up from its usual space a couple of weeks ago, and he's been working away on it ever since. He's cleaned up all the mouse droppings. We haven't used the fifth wheel in over a year, and so the mice had set up housekeeping in pretty much every drawer, cabinet, and closet. I appreciate that retired engineer Mike is somewhat OCD about this kind of stuff. (I'm pretty sure being OCD goes hand-in-hand with engineering.) He does a much better job of cleaning up than I would. He's made a few repairs of things that gave up the ghost while it's been sitting. For example, there's a lamp that lights the stairs at the entry at night. The mice (or squirrels) had chewed through the wiring there. That's all fixed now. And so, all of that to say the fifth wheel is pretty much ready to go at this point. We just need to pack our food and clothes ("just" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there), and we can be on our way.

With the rain stopped temporarily, Smitty took his favorite seat on the deck outside. From this location, he can see pretty much everything in his domain.

But it was cold on his butt, and so he came inside and decided to keep watch from the warmth of his window perch.

Knowing my guard cat was on duty, I could sit comfortably and stitch Tiny Treasure #25. This one has satin stitch, back stitch, straight stitch, feather stitch, and basketweave stitch.

From there I did a workout on the Bowflex, and there were a couple of housekeeping chores to take care of. It took me longer than expected, and so it was late in the day before I could do any sewing. 

My first task was to make the quilt block for the Moose background. I wish I knew the names of the blocks used in this project. That went together pretty easily. The flying geese portions were made differently than I usually do it, and so I completed one and checked its dimensions before completing the rest.

With that finished, I added some white all around for the applique.

The applique was pretty quick for this moose...just five pieces. The cutting took a while with all those little nooks and crannies.

It still needs top-stitching, but I'll make the Ravin block next and top-stitch both at the same time.

I took a look at this one yesterday. There are only four applique pieces, and so this one should go together pretty quickly too. The pattern has me making all the flying geese and half square triangles by cutting each piece individually. I'm going to study this one a little more closely and make those half square triangles two at a time. I expect I'll have both blocks finished by the end of the day.

Okay, so we've already had our Sunday morning pancakes today. My next stop will be to sit and stitch Tiny Treasure #26. My mid-arm machine isn't back from its spa treatment yet, and so I won't be able to do any large quilt quilting until it returns. As I sit here, I'm not sure what will be next in line after the Northern Wilderness blocks are finished. I guess we'll all find out together.

Rain has returned for the next several days, although it isn't the drenching downpour from last week. I'm hopeful you folks in Northwest Washington will be spared more flooding. Stay warm, safe, and dry, my friends, no matter where you happen to be.

Machine Sewing

Good morning, my friends. Well, I can't lie...it was good to sit down at the machine yesterday and do some real sewing. I had a lot going on yesterday, and so I didn't have much time in the sewing room. Still, it was good to be doing something that required a needle and thread rather than a ruler and a rotary cutter.

When I finished yesterday's post, I happened to glance out the window to see the raindrops on the tree outside sparkling like diamonds in the sunshine. Just seeing the sunshine was a huge mood-booster after so many days of darkness and drenching rain. This picture doesn't really do justice to the scene. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking I'll use a starburst filter on my DSLR if I get another chance at this.

My first stop was to sit and stitch. Smitty held me down until I finished Block 5 for Le Jardin.

This block is called "Beehive." It still needed borders.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had a baking project on my agenda for the day. These are Cranberry Ecstasy Bars. It's still whole as you see it here, but I cut it into 16 little bars. This is one of my favorite Christmas baking projects. The original recipe is baked in a 9 x 13 baking dish. I'm making just half and baking it in an 8 x 8 baking dish.

They aren't hard to make, but they take a little time since they're assembled in three stages, including spending an hour in the fridge after they're frosted.

While I waited for that to come out of the oven, I headed outside to fill the birdfeeders. Along the way, I noticed our heather is beginning to bloom. We planted this to give us a little color in the winter. Within a few days, this will be a solid patch of lavender flowers.

When I was finally able to make my way to the sewing room, I added borders to the Beehive block.

That's Block 5 of 9 for this project. Here are all the blocks I have so far.

As I packed it back into its box, I said good-bye, and see you next spring. It's the last time I'll work on this until next March.

But now I had nothing left to stitch, and so I traced the next 12 Tiny Treasures. I'm working with long scrappy strips of that background fabric, and so I've been drawing a grid of 2-1/2 inch squares and then centering the designs within.

And it's pretty hard to see anything in the image above, and so I'm showing you the pictures from the book. These are the 12 I'll be stitching next.

There are a few housekeeping chores on today's agenda. If I'm feeling really energetic, I might get in a Bowflex workout. When I'm able to get into the sewing room today, I'll get started making two more blocks for the Northern Wilderness project. This time around, I'll be making the Moose block...

and the Raven block.

The pattern book gives me the cutting instructions for the background blocks, but no real instruction on how to sew them together. These two look pretty straightforward. It usually takes me a couple of days to finish these, and so I'm probably set until about mid-week. After that, I'll be back to wanting to quilt something. The Painted Ladies are up next. Sadly, I've had no word on my mid-arm machine. I'm hoping to have it back this week or next. If not...then I won't see it again until March. Fingers crossed.

Okay, so it's time to get on with my day. It looks like we'll have a single nice day of weather before we get another atmospheric river dumping more rain on us. I'm reading that floodwaters are beginning to recede for our friends and neighbors to the north. I hope y'all are doing okay. Stay safe, okay?