Busy Day

Good morning, my friends. There wasn't a minute to waste yesterday if I was to get everything done. After writing my post, I headed straight to my slow-stitching. (Priorities, people.) And then I went outside to check on things there. My first stop was the greenhouse. With so many seedlings in pots, I'm checking the water daily. There, I was happy to discover sprouts in two of the three zinnia pots.

Also, the poppies are large enough now that I think it's safe to plant them in their permanent barrel outside the greenhouse.

We're planning to do that today, but we'll also have to erect some sort of fencing to keep the squirrels from digging around in the soil.

Back inside, I took a walk on the treadmill and then did a little housework. It was after lunch time when I was able to get to my quilting. I had just an hour to spare before I needed to leave for PT, and I spent about 45 minutes quilting Block 3 for the Merry, Merry Snowmen.

There are just two blocks to go. I left it needle down in Block 2, and there should be plenty of time for that today.

When I arrived home from PT, I checked on the peonies again. It was a warm (not hot) day, and so the Joker peony was about half open. I expect we'll see this open all the way today.

Also, I marveled at the Lavender Whisper peony. 

It's flowers are monsters!

The bumblebees and other bugs are loving them.

Back inside, I found some cats enjoying the afternoon sunshine, double-decker style.

It was a dramatic sunrise this morning, and the start of another busy day.

As I've mentioned, Mike is scheduled for his first cataract surgery tomorrow. We don't yet have an arrival time for that, but we're expecting them to call today. His post-op visit will be Thursday. (The second eye won't be until mid-June.) And with those two appointments, it seemed like today was the best day to do our grocery shopping. We'll do that first, and then we'll work on the poppies. I expect to get back to my sewing sometime this afternoon.

So, if there's time in the morning tomorrow, I'll be back for our morning chat as usual. If we need to be there at the butt crack of dawn, then probably not until the afternoon, if at all. We're not expecting any surprises, but sometimes these things take longer than expected. All of that to say that blog-wise, I'll be playing it by ear tomorrow and Thursday. If you don't hear from me sooner, then for sure I'll be back on Friday. Until then...carry on, my friends.

A Little Finish

Good morning, my friends. I'm hoping y'all had a lovely Mother's Day yesterday. We had a good day at this end. Our bunch meet-up wasn't until 11:30 a.m., and so I had some time in the morning to do a few things. It started with a pretty sunrise.

The Stanbro Men enjoyed a morning relaxing on the front patio.

Mike has been gnashing his teeth trying to get our automatic sprinkler system to work. He set this all up several years ago in anticipation of our trip to Alaska. And don't go getting any ideas about this being anything in-ground or fancy. Our sprinkler "system" is hoses, rainbirds, and oscilating sprinklers all controlled by an electronic "hub" that plugs into the regular electrical socket inside. (I don't understand all of this, but I'm sticking with my usual explanation for all technological gadgets: Magic.) Mike can operate it from an app on his iPad, and so he was able to turn it on and off while we were traveling in Alaska.

Fast forward to today, and the "hub" was giving him trouble. He finally ended up replacing it, but it still wasn't working right. Finally, finally, finally he got it working yesterday, and so all's well.

While he and Smitty figured that out, I took some time to sew the binding onto the Vintage Valentine. I figured I could do the hand sewing in the afternoon. I used that same binding fabric in some of the quilt blocks.

 

Okay, and then it was time to go. Mae's mom selected the restaurant in Northwest Portland. We'd never been there before. There are at least two of these in the city of Portland. It's a pastry shop, but it's also a Japanese-American fusion menu. The chef is a woman of Japanese heritage.

Everything in the restaurant was pink...the walls, the lighting, the menus...and so you're going to see that all my pictures have a pink cast. And would a Mother's Day brunch be complete without Mimosas? I think not. We could flavor them with a hibiscus-strawberry juice, black cherry juice, or orange juice.

And look at these desserts...little works of art, all. You can probably zoom in to read the labels.

We started with our main courses. I had the French Toast, which was a little like having dessert for breakfast.

Mae and her mom shared a serving of the souffle pancakes. These took a full half hour to rise, and so they were ordered in advance.

Erik had some Bao Bao Buns. They were a little like a taco in a thick soft shell. Mike had the tempura shrimp. I didn't take pictures of theirs. 

For dessert, I chose the chocolate caramel cake. This was a small cake...about donut sized, and it had a mousse-like interior, rather than cake-like.

This is a chocolate pine cone with marionberry filling inside.

This was called Mango Tango. It was a mango mousse with banana and passionfruit filling. This seemed to be everyone's favorite. (Of course we tasted one another's.) Those colors are true. I have no idea how that's done.

Erik and Mike ordered the Oreo Lava Praline Cheesecake. This was really yummy.

And here we all are postprandial! That's Mae's mom on the right.

It was lovely, and I was happy Erik and Mae thought to put it all together. Thanks, you guys.

On our way home, we passed by this red clover field all in bloom. We're seeing these all over our rural area. The clover puts nitrogen back in the soil, and when it's bloomed out, the seeds are harvested and sold.

Back home, the kitties were champing at the bit to get outside.

I didn't even pause before walking down to check on the Lavender Whisper peony, and IT OPENED!!!!! It's more pink than lavender, but it's very fragrant.

There are several flowers on this one plant.

I'm hoping the Joker peony will mend it's teasing ways and open today, but I haven't checked on it yet.

Before we left in the morning, I'd taken some items out of the refrigerator in preparation for baking some cookies. There are three pint jars of homemade sweet cherry pie filling in our pantry that are getting old and need to be used. With more cherries coming, the time is now. The night before, I'd inquired of The Google what I could make with cherry pie filling that wasn't pie. The Google came back with (among other things) this recipe from America's Test Kitchens for Cherry Cheesecake Cookies. And I had a partial brick of cream cheese I wanted to use, so that seemed the obvious choice.

There were mixed up, and then refrigerated for half an hour to firm-up the dough. Then, I rolled them into balls and rolled them in graham cracker crumbs. Then, I used a tablespoon measuring spoon to create a little dent, and three cherries were added to each. When they came from the oven, they looked like this.

So those are tasty. They're a soft cookie. I baked them for the maximum time listed in the recipe, and they were browned around the edges. I have a feeling they might have benefitted from a little more time in the oven. I'll try them again sometime. I've linked to the recipe above the image, but you'll need a subscription to America's Test Kitchens to open it. If you can't open it, and you really want the recipe, email me and I'll be happy to send it to you. I scaled the recipe down to 1/3 the original. The original recipe calls for three(!) cans of cherry pie filling, and I only wanted to use one.

So, while I was waiting for those to chill and bake, I finished hand-sewing the binding for the Vintage Valentine. It ends up at 16-1/2 x 18-1/2 inches.

Here's how it looks from the back.

It was a good day...busy and tiring. Later in the day Sadie was channeling my energy level.

So, I didn't get any more quilting done, but I'm hoping to have plenty of time for that today. It's a PT day. I had to reschedule my usual Wednesday appointment to accommodate Mike's cataract surgery that day. I'm also hoping to get in a walk on the treadmill. There's some housekeeping to do, but my top sewing priority will be to get another quilt block finished. If there's still time in the day, I want to sew the Hawksbill Honu into a finished quilt top.

When I bought this kit, I also bought some fabric for finishing it off, and so it's just a matter of cutting and sewing it all together. 

So...that's a full day. Fortunately, we have leftovers for dinner again tonight. And with so much going on, it's time for me to be on my way. Enjoy your Monday, Everybody!

Big Quilt, Little Quilt

 It was a good quilting day yesterday. Of course, I didn't get to the quilting right away. First, I finished stitching the first Santa from the Santa Quartet. With him finished, I moved my hoop to the right.

When I finished with the stitching, I took a little walk around outside. The bird feeders needed filling, and I needed to check the watering. And wow...look at this lithodora. So pretty.

Here's our red azalea.

The fourth of five rhododendrons is starting to bloom. We have another dark purple one that is still in tight buds.

I noticed this blooming tree at the edge of our woods. My phone tells me it is a Hawthorne. This one is growing wild.

Here's a close-up of its flowers.

The rhodies at either end of the herb garden are nearly in full bloom. This pinky-peachy one is at one end of the herb garden.

This one is at the other end.

Not many chives came back this year. They change from year to year. I have enough chive blossom vinegar to get me through, and so it's okay if we don't get many this year. They're blooming just the same.

This is the Lavender Whisper peony. I'm so excited to see this one. It replaced a "failed clone" we planted when the rest of the peonies were planted. It would put out big buds that went straight to seed without ever producing a flower, and so this one took its place. This will be the first time I've actually seen it bloom, and it is sooooooo close.

This teaser is the "Joker" peony. It lives up to its name. It is covered in buds, and they are being impossibly slow to open.

I was excited to see plums on the plum tree. These won't be ready until near September, but I have a couple of desserts I love to make from them. I'm hoping we'll get a warm summer and they'll ripen before we take off on our fall trip. (And I'm hoping there's no gasoline shortage, or we might have to cancel our plans. That would be a shame because I'm looking forward to that trip. More about that later…and if we do it.)

These are some of the annuals I planted last month. They're doing pretty well. The squirrels want to dig around in the pots, but they've not done too much damage so far.

Back inside, I took a walk on the treadmill and then got to work on my quilting. This is the Block 9. 

When it was finished, I laid it out for a picture. These are the six of nine blocks that I've quilted. I'm pretty happy with how this is going.

Here's a little peek at the back. This is the left side, and the block I just quilted.

This is the right side.

Now, it's back on the machine. I've turned it upside down in order to keep the bulk of the quilt on the table, rather than in my lap. I like to work from left to right, and so I'll start with Block 3.

From there, I headed into the sewing room. Honestly, I wasn't sure I could force myself to sandwich another quilt...not even a small one. When I realized I could clamp it to my ironing board, I felt more motivated.

When it was ready for quilting, I set up the machine for free motion quilting and went to work. I ended up doing terry twists for the quilt blocks, and I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to quilt some hearts in the background areas.

It took less than an hour, and it was finished. Smitty helped me squre it up.

Here, you can see the terry twists. A few of them twisted in the wrong direction. I decided it didn't matter.

In the lower corners, I did a little stylized heart.

At the upper "V," I did another heart with streamers heading off in either direction.

It's hard to see anything here, but this is how it looks from the back.

It ends up at 16-1/2 by 18-1/2 inches. It was late in the day by then, and so I cut the binding strips and left it for today. I'm hoping I'll have time to finish it off this afternoon.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we're having brunch with Erik, Mae, and Mae's mother today. I'm looking forward to that. And to all of you who are mothers, have a mother, want to be a mother, are a mother-to-be, or if you're just missing your mother today (as I am), then Happy Mother's Day. It's shaping up to be a good day. I hope you have a good day too.