Four Projects

Good morning, my friends. It was a very busy morning yesterday. Since I hadn’t checked the garden the day before, I really needed to do that. One of the zucchinis had gotten away from me. It wasn’t a true giant yet, but another day going undiscovered and it might have been truly humongous. There were two or three more normal sized ones that I added to the pile already in the fridge. Also, I found another half dozen pickling cucumbers. I’m still a pound short of the four pounds I need for a batch of pickles. 

The bird feeders were empty, and so I filled those. Then, I went to work getting some chili started in our slow cooker and baking some cornbread to go with it. It meant an easy dinner last night. By the time I had everything done, it was lunch time.

Not to worry, though. There’s no getting me off the couch in the morning until I’ve done my slow-stitching. This piece will be finished today. There are just a few more flower petals to stitch, and that will be the twelfth of 12 blocks.

Okay, and so I needed to decide what project would replace it. There are 24 projects on my list of long-term embroidery patterns. As usual, I asked Mr. Random to help me choose what I’d stitch next.

Mr. Random selected #20, which happens to be…

And I couldn’t remember that project, so I went looking for it. One of you gifted me with this project. I’m sorry I can’t remember who it was, but if it was you, then thank you. There are 12 blocks for this project…one for each month of the year. January’s block will be first. Makes sense, right?

Okay, but I needed to do some other things before I could get too involved with that. There was quilting to be done. Girls’ Getaway will be next under my needle. I’ll use white thread throughout, both top and bottom. I’ve had good luck with these So Fine threads, but my spool of white is nearly used up.

Thinking ahead, I purchased another cone.

As a reminder, this is what the whole quilt looks like. I’ll be starting with the embroidered blocks in the middle.

The bicycle block is closest to the middle, and so I started there. It has a pretty embroidered border at the top, and so I started with a looping design that crossed into the sashing.

That was pretty easy. Here’s a peek at the back.

For the rest of the block, I outlined the embroidered bicycles, and I extended the road they were riding to reach the full width of the block.

It still needed more quilting, and so I decided to do a feather winding in and out of the open areas. When I was halfway across, I ran out of bobbin thread. (I was starting with just a partially wound bobbin.)

So I wound a new bobbin, and then left it needle down at that spot. It seemed like a good place to stop for the day.

The new embroidery project had me curious. Sadie came to see what I was up to. She thinks this cat is purrposterous. 

Smitty was similarly unimpurressed.

There was just enough of this off-white in my stash to cut the backgrounds for all 12 blocks. And then I traced January’s block. Probably, I’ll start on this tomorrow…or maybe today if I don’t use all my stitching time on my current project.

I spent some time studying the pattern and choosing floss colors. I didn’t have all the DMC colors listed in the pattern, but I had enough that were close, so I can use my floss stash for this. (I might have to buy something down the road.) The colors shown below are for January’s block. I don’t know yet if there will be other colors in the blocks to come. We’ll all find out together.

There was no more time to spend on that if I wanted to make any progress on the Lemurs. I had about an hour to work on it. Most of the medium gray sections are stitched now, although there are still a few left. You can see some of the stitching on the back of the head of the right-most lemur. I’m hoping to get on to the lightest of the grays today.

Today should be less hectic than yesterday. I’ll check the garden again, and then I’ll need to water the flowers. There’s nothing else on my list of to-do’s, and so it’s going to be a mostly sewing day. I’m hoping to finish up the bicycle block, and then I’ll move down to the tent block below and to the left. Also, I want to get more done on the Lemurs. There’s still quite a bit to do with the thread work, so I don’t expect to finish it today. Tomorrow wouldn’t be out of the question, but it will still need quilting and binding.

So, I’m ready for a more relaxed day today. How about you? How are you spending your hump day?

Kitchen and Stitchin'

Good morning, my friends. No more progress was made on the lemurs yesterday. I spent most of the day on my kitchen projects. By the time I could get to my sewing, I just wanted to sit and stitch on the quilt binding until it was finished. It took of most of the remainder of the afternoon, but eventually, I'd turned all four corners.

And...ta-da! The Kittens are finished. Mae has claimed this one.

Earlier in the day, I canned five pints of zucchini relish. There's still one jar left from a previous relish canning adventure, and so this should hold us for a while.

But I wasn't finished with the zucchini. Also, I baked this Blueberry Zucchini Cake with Lemon Buttercream. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm just baking half the recipe, and I'm using an 8 x 8-inch baking dish. I took a picture of it before it was frosted...

Because there isn't a lot to see once the frosting is on. The frosting is delicious, and so simple to make.

The only other thing I did yesterday was to bake some more Granola Cups for our breakfast. Now that I've started baking them in ramekins, it makes eight servings...enough for four mornings for the two of us.

So that was a busy day. By day's end, Smitty was channeling my energy level.

I did nothing outside, and so I'll have to get out today and try to be more productive. The bird feeders need filling, and I'll need to check the garden for any more marauding zucchini. I'm hoping I'll find more pickling cucumbers too. Happily, the garden has been producing in dribs and drabs so far, and so I've been able to keep up with it. That will probably change when the green beans start producing. 

With the Kittens quilt finished, I'm ready to start quilting the next quilt on the pile. Next up will be the Girls' Getaway quilt. It's draped over Eliza ready for its turn under my needle. I'll be using all white thread for this.

As usual, quilting will be my first priority, and then I'll get back to the Lemurs. 

I expect to spend at least another two days on the thread painting. From there, I'll add the back and do some quilting in the background. Already I know what to do for the quilting, which is half the battle. Then, it will just need binding, and the Lemurs will be finished.

There’s a pretty day on the horizon. After those smoky days last week, clear skies and mountain views are a welcome sight. That’s it from me today. Have a good day, Everyone!

Lots of Sewing

Good morning, my friends. There was plenty of time for sewing yesterday. We mopped the floor in the morning, and I checked in on the garden. While there, I harvested two more zucchini and three more pickling cucumbers. The cucumbers need to pick up the pace a little. I only have about half what I need for a batch of pickles. As for the zucchini...I will do battle with them today.

With the morning stuff done, I could get busy with the quilt binding. I've turned two corners on the Kittens quilt, and I'm very close to the third corner.

There was time for lunch and a nap after that. Also, I got a head start on dinner by making some Asian coleslaw. Banh Mi was on last night's menu, and the Asian coleslaw was a good side for that. I've linked to the recipe there. I make the dressing from the recipe, but I use bagged coleslaw mix for the rest.

By early afternoon, I was ready to start on thread painting the lemurs. I started with the black thread. Pretty quickly, I decided to switch to a smoky monofilament in the bobbin. The clear monofilament was leaving little sparkles wherever I changed directions. A little dot of black Sharpie ink took care of that.

Also, the eye pieces were small, and they were coming loose as I maneuvered the quilt around. So I rethreaded the machine with gold thread and stitched all the eyes first. After that, I could return to the black thread.

When all the black was done, I switched to the darkest of the three gray threads and stitched the darkest of the grays. In a few places I wanted a darker gray than the fabric I'd used, and so I stitched in those spots too, darkening the color just a bit. 

After spending two hours on this, I'd had enough. When I stopped for the day, I had the machine threaded with the medium gray thread, and I'll start on the medium grays today. Here's where I left it yesterday. It doesn't look so different from when I showed it to you in yesterday's post. The thread work is mainly for texture, and a few of the details.

So, today is going to be a busy kitchen day. My morning will be spent in the kitchen. I'm making some Zucchini Garden Pepper Relish. It will lay waste to a lot of the zucchini, but there is still plenty more to deal with. Once the veggies are chopped up for that, they are salted and left to drain for a full hour. 

During that waiting time, I’m going to use at least one more zucchini to make a Blueberry Zucchini Cake with Lemon Buttercream. The lemon buttercream frosting is to die for in this recipe. I’ve given you the link. Just know that I only make half the recipe, and I bake it in an 8 x 8 baking dish. Also, we’ve eaten the last of our current batch of Granola Cups, and so I’ll bake some more of those. As long as we keep eating them, I’ll keep baking them. 

Despite my busy kitchen day, I should still have some time for sewing. I'll continue on with both projects today. I'm hoping to finish the lemur grays and maybe get a start on the tans. Probably I'll stitch the white parts last. Also, I'll continue on with my quilt binding. For sure I'll turn the third corner today. If I'm feeling really energetic, I might get it all finished.

Okay, then. Lots of kitchen tasks ahead. Time to get moving.

Tall and Taller

Good morning, my friends. It was another hot day yesterday. Happily, our air quality has improved significantly. We were rated at "Unheathy" just a few days ago. Now, we're rated as "Very Good." And that's the way we like it. 

Since I had no excuse for not hoeing the garden, that was my first stop after slow-stitching in the morning. Getting outside, the first thing I noticed was how the morning sunshine was making our maple tree glow.

We're not sure why the leaves have turned that color so early in summer. It has looked like that for several weeks. We've also seen similar trees around town looking just the same. It gets plenty of water, and so I guess it's just getting a jumpstart on fall...before summer even started.

There were two new sunflowers. The one in the image below has more spiky petals than the others that have bloomed. Also, you can see how tall those giants are. They’re at least a foot above the fence line.

Hee’s another new one. It seems to have a lot of petals. 

It’s taller than its neighbors, but not as tall as the ones by the fence.

Also, I was happy to see some California poppies blooming in the bee garden. Just a few days ago, I was saying I was hoping to get some of these going. And there they are!

I was able to harvest another dozen (or so) pickling cucumbers and another four tomatoes. I need to weigh the cucumbers because I think I’m close to having enough for pickles. For now, I’m focusing on the zucchini relish I’ll be making tomorrow. 

As I was filling the hummingbird feeder, I noticed the Red Cardinal clematis is blooming for the second time.

Back inside, I went to work on the Kittens quilt binding. I’ve turned the first corner, and I’m inches from turning the second corner. It’s not a large quilt…63 x 53 inches…and so I don’t expect it will take more than a couple of days to finish it off.

From there, I headed into the sewing room to sew together August’s yellow Inverted Star.

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

With that finished, I could turn my attention back to the Lemurs. Sadie was holding them down. They were pretty excited to see me. We’ve been spending so much time together, and then I abandoned them. Sadie has things well in hand, er, paw.

Okay, so I had to decide how large to make this. It ended up at 17 x 23 inches.

With input from the Retired Resident Engineer, I gulped hard and fused it to the background.

Then, I found a scrap of batting large enough and spray basted it to the batting.

The next step was to track down the threads I’ll want to use. I was a little light on grays, but I managed to find the three shades I’ll need. There are two colors of a light tan, a gold for the eyes, and, of course, black and white.

Next, I set up the machine for thread painting. For an applique piece like this, I like to use a microtex sharp needle so that it won’t poke large holes in the applique. This one is an 80/12 size. It has to be large enough to accommodate the threads I’m using, ranging in the 40-50 weight range. I’ll be using a clear monofilament in the bobbin. My machine has a stitch regulator, and I like it for this kind of thread work.

Also, I have the original image pinned up beside me for reference. It’s set up and ready to go. 

The only other thing I did was to make a little swatch for testing my tension. For this, I used the same batting, the same background fabric, and a little bit of applique. Using the same layers gives me an accurate test. And where should I start? I decided to start with the black thread. Tension looks good on the top. It looks good on the bottom too, but I won’t add the quilt back until the thread work is finished.

From there, I needed to sleep on it. Overnight, I’ve worked up my courage, and I’ll be ready to get started on this today. Probably I’ll need both emotional support cats. They’ll decide together whether to work in tandem or whether this can be shift work. Of course, there’s embroidery every morning, but I’ll also be spending some more time on the quilt binding today. There’s plenty of sewing on the day’s agenda.

Before I can get started on all of that, though, we’re going to mop the floor. It might be the only thing I hate worse than grocery shopping. I’ll mop myself out the door, and then go check on the garden. It’s time to water the flowers too. But first…we must fortify ourselves with Sunday morning pancakes. We’ll need our strength if we’re to succeed on our mopping mission. Cover us…we’re going in.

Back to Basics

Good morning, my friends. Yesterday ended up being a less hectic day than expected. We left for the grocery store a little later than I’d hoped. Originally, I’d planned to start some chili and bake some cornbread when we got home. But then, we decided while doing our shopping we’d just get a pizza from Papa Murphy’s on the way home. Pizza. It saves lives.

Before we left, I had time to take the first stitches on December’s block for A Year in the Garden. Mainly, I was just using the leftover bits from the last time I worked on it.

Mike had gone back to bed, and so I spent some time in the garden. There, I harvested four more zucchini. Zucchini relish has been added to next week’s agenda. The zucchini are starting to pile up.

I’m loving the color the zinnias are adding. 

There are about a dozen different varieties of sunflowers this year, and two of them are giants. These have grown above our 8-foot fence now. I keep hoping they’ll bloom soon.

So, we did our grocery shopping, and it was well into the noon hour before we got home. We had lunch, and then I took some time to square up the Kittens quilt for binding.

I was happy to find a good brown in my stash for the binding. It’s sewn on, and I can start the hand-stitching today.

There was still time left in the day, and so I did all the cutting for August’s yellow Inverted Star block.

Smitty helped me sort through my yellows, and then he helped me square up the resulting half square triangles.

There was just enough time left in the day to lay out the pieces. This is where I’ll start today. These need to be sewn together, and then I’ll give it a solid yellow border.

With those things caught up, I can return to the lemurs. 

I’ll need to make their background. When they are fused to their background, I’ll add some batting and do the thread work through the top layer and the batting only. I won’t add the back until the thread work is finished. When the back is added, I’ll quilt it lightly and it will be ready for binding. 

Also on today’s agenda, I want to hoe the garden. It’s gone a few days longer than I’d hoped, but it actually doesn’t look too bad. Either way, I enjoy being out there a few times a week, and there is always something new to surprise me.

So, off I go. There’s much to do, and I’m ready to get to it. In closing, Smitty and Sadie would like to wish you a