It's a Start

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy day yesterday, with a trek into town for a haircut. Fortunately, the haircut was finished fairly soon...one of the benefits of short hair. I was home early enough in the afternoon to be able to fit in the day's sewing goals. There was some time in the morning, and so I was able to get my morning chores done too. As for sewing, I stitched up Tiny Treasure #71. This one has stem stitch, straight stitch, and fern stitch.

And if you’re keeping score, then you might know that the Tiny Treasure I’ll stitch today will be the last one. Yahoo! They’ve been fun to stitch, but I’m excited to sew them into a finished quilt top. I have some ideas about this, and I think it’s going to be cute.

Okay, and I’m visiting the garden every morning to check on the green beans. Today there were some new sunflowers. This first one is called “Ring of Fire.” 

It’s one of my favorites. The bees are loving these.

This is pale  yellow with a yellow center. Unless I’m mistaken, I think another one will bloom eventually with a black center.

This one is the Infrared Mix.

Okay…insert trip into town and a haircut here. Also, I made a stop off at one of our higher-end supermarkets. They have a shrimp roll that I like for lunch, and so I usually stop when I’m over that way. Today, I was also curious to see if they sold dill heads for pickling. I’m not ready for any pickling yet, but I’d like to know where I can find the dill heads. And, yes. They did. That was something of a load off my mind. 

When I got home, I had some lunch, and then I got busy with my quilting. I’m outlining the embroidered kittens, and then filling in the background with a hooking meander. There wasn’t a lot of room in the backgound of this one.

When my embroidery outline doesn’t have a heavy stem-stitched edge (note the left side of the one below), I did a sort of free-motion zigzagging line. 

And last for the day was this one.

That was pretty quick. Probably I could have done another row, but I’ll stick with my original commitment of three blocks per day. Now I’ve moved the quilt down to the bottom row, and I’ll start with the middle block there today.

Also, I wanted to trace out a pattern for the lemurs. As a reminder, this is the image I'm working from.

The traced pattern has a lot of detail. It’s always hard to know how much to include. As I was thinking about this later in the evening, I realized that some of the smaller details can be done by filling in with thread. As I work on these, I put an “x” in the pieces I’ve already done. For this, if a piece is very small, or if it can be easily done at the end with thread, I’ll mark that section with a yellow highlighter. That will make it easy to find when I start doing the thread work. These are collage (applique) quilts, but the thread work is every bit as important as the fabric.

It seemed as good a time as any to sort through my fabrics to see what I thought could be useful. Sadie gave them the snuggleability test. I told her that art quilts don’t have to pass the snuggleability test. My naivete and simplemindedness saddened her. What is the purrpose of such an item if it is not to be snuggled? The whole world could be a huge snugglefest if only the pawpulous would develop an appurropriately loving cattitude. Sheesh. How many times do we have to go over this?

As I organized my supplies, she considered taking a nap. Snuggleability nearly always purrcedes a nap, and so napping characteristics are also carefully considered.

So I think I’ve worked up the nerve to start working with fabrics today. For this, I’m going to institute the one-hour rule, meaning, I’ll work on it for a minimum of one hour. I can go longer if I want to, but I give myself permission to quit at that point and work on something else. It keeps me from going crazy. 

For dinner last night, I tried this recipe for Pineapple Chicken. It was tasty and simple. Mike grilled the chicken and the pineapple slices, but they could also be cooked on a grill pan. The chicken is marinated in a combination of seasonings, pineapple juice, and soy sauce. Prior to adding the chicken, ome of the marinade is set aside and then cornstarch added at the end to create a glaze. The glaze really makes the dish. We liked it. I served it with jasmine rice.

Our grocery store has been packaging different meats in $5 packages. It’s something different each time we go. This was one of those. For our $5, we were able to score four of these thin-cut chicken cutlets, and those worked well in this dish.

Smitty helped me write this post. I'd say he helped me with the editing, but you can see that he was asleep on the job. It happens when you're an old man cat. (Don't tell him I said he was an "old man.")

There are several things on the day's agenda. I’ll stitch up the last Tiny Treasure. My morning check-in with the green beans has been a pleasant way to start the day, and so I’ll do that too. There is a list of quick chores to do, but I think I’ll have plenty of time for sewing. I’m thinking I need to pick a day to get outside and pull some weeds. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but the movement would do me some good. (I swear I’m going to get back to my workouts…someday. Procrastination. Doncha love it?)

Okay, so I have a list of things to do…time to start checking them off.  Have a good day, Everybody!

Two Scary Starts

Good morning, my friends. Camping is fun. Getting back to normal is also fun. We had grocery shopping to do yesterday, but we were finished and home before noon. Earlier, I had time to stitch up Tiny Treasure #70. This one has stem stitch, stem fill, lazy daisy, and fishbone stitches.

The garden is looking good. The green beans are getting a once-over every morning as I train them to climb their poles. They’re getting the hang of it, and some are nearly to where the poles come together at the top. There are a few tendrils still too short to reach the pole, but everyone seems to have gotten the idea that they’re not supposed to wrap themselves around the protective fencing.

When I was able to get to my sewing, I did the top-stitching for the Blueberries block. 

Here are the 14 blocks I have for this quilt so far. There are two to go. When it gets my attention next time, I’ll finish the remaining blocks, and then ready it to be sewn into a finished quilt top.

Upstairs at the quilting machine, I turned my attention to setting up “Kittens” for quilting. Starting a new quilting project always makes me a little nervous. I have some ideas about quilting this. Probably I’ll outline the embroidery and then do some sort of simple filler in the background. In the borders and sashings, I have an idea for a specialty motif. So, there’s nothing fancy going on here, but I’m still apprehensive about getting started.

I’m going to continue with the same bobbin already in the machine from my last project.

It’s a 50-weight So Fine thread from Superior Threads. It behaved well on my last project, and so I’ll just keep it going.

For the embroidered blocks, I’ll ust a white thread. I don’t want to distract from the embroidery with another color or anything fancy. Keeping it simple. Plain vanilla.

It’s another 50-weight So Fine thread. 

For the borders and sashings, I wanted a variegated thread that would include the many colors seen in the fabric. The one pictured below did that better than anything else I had available.

It’s another 50-weight Valdani thread. The Valdani threads come in little spool-sized zip-lock bags. (As always, thank you, Ila.)

Okay, and then I threaded the machine, checked my tension, and left it needle-down at the first kitten. There are four rows of three embroidered blocks each. My goal will be to do three blocks each day before moving on to the borders and sashings. If I can stick with that goal, it should be ready for binding in about a week.

Okay, and that took me to the super scary part of my day. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m going to attempt to do an art quilt of some lemurs. This is a photo I took when we saw them at a Madagascar exhibit at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, Florida. And let me just say that the Florida Aquarium is well worth a visit if you ever find yourself near Tampa. It was the aquarium that hooked us on aquariums (aquaria?) in general. When we’re traveling, we’ll never miss a nearby aquarium, and we became scuba divers so that we could see the really big aquarium of our planet.

So I spent some time digging through my stash, looking for appropriate fabrics. While I was at it, I reminded myself that sometimes the wrong side of the fabric is the best choice. I’m not sure yet what to do about that bland background, but I pulled some fabrics I thought had potential. Now the photograph is taped to the table, and there is a piece of plastic sheeting taped over the top. The tape prevents anything from shifting. Today, I’m hoping to trace all the elements and details onto the plastic sheeting creating a pattern for myself. For this I’ll use a fine point Sharpie. It’s the only thing that will write on the plastic without smearing. And there, I gave myself a couple of attagirls for not letting my anxiety get in the way of getting started. 

Here’s the thing: If you’ve been reading for a while, then you know I’ve made several of these art quilts from photographs. For some of them, it took me years to work up the nerve just to get started. (Now that I think of it, this is one of the ones I’ve waited years to start.) And, knock on wood, so far I’ve not attempted any that made me decide to give up. The “Tin Cup” quilt was among the most challenging. When I was able to complete it successfully, it boosted my confidence. Still, each time I try one of these, it is with considerable angst that this could be the one to defeat me. And as I’m writing those words, I’m asking myself, so what? Yeah, really. It’s supposed to be fun. Okay…shaking it off. [Straightens posture.] Thanks, you guys. It always helps when we can have these little chats.

Okay, and so I promised you some kitty news. There was no kitty help in the sewing room, although some loud purring would have gone a long way to calm my nerves. You know how when you’re too warm under the covers, but it’s too cold not to have them, and so you stick one foot out to cool off? (Maybe I’m the only one who does that, but I’m betting you do it too.) So anyway, Sadie, being a black cat, is too hot in the sun. But it’s not warm enough to just choose a shady spot. She does the opposite. She keeps most of her body in the shade, and just puts her paws out to soak up the sun’s rays.

Smitty purrfers the full-face sunbath. 

Okay, so I’m getting a haircut today, which will cut into my afternoon. There might not be that much time for sewing today. If there is, I’ll start with the quilting. Getting my backlog of quilts finished up is my highest priority right now. If there’s time to work on the lemurs, I’ll do that too. It seems doubtful, but not impossible.

Have a good day, Everybody! Try to stay cool.

Homeward Bound

Good morning, my friends. We have one more day of time traveling to do, and then we'll be caught up. It seems a good way to start a Monday, doesn't it? So, let's start with what happened here at home yesterday, and then I'll tell you about the final day of our camping trip.

It was time to fill the birdfeeders, and it was time to water the flowers. Of course, my mornings lately have all start with me checking in on the green beans. They're doing a pretty good job of climbing their poles at this point, but there are still a few stragglers that need redirecting. Two plants have started flowering. Can eensy-weensy beans be far behind?

Also in that image above, you can see right below the flower where a critter took a bite out of the vine. This worried me significantly. There are several other areas in the garden that have been similarly gnawed upon. A few leaves were bitten on the zucchini, and one of the zucchini had a bite out of it. Also, a few leaves were bitten on the cucumbers. We believe raccoons are to blame for this, but they have not been back after the one night when this happened. Apparently, they were unhappy with the items on the menu.

Also, a few more sunflowers are opening. I forget the name of this one, but I have it marked, if I'm not too lazy to bend over and find it. Maybe when it opens all the way.

I believe this next one is called Ring of Fire. When it opens, it will have a dark red ring in the center. And if you're like me, just reading that name will give you an ear worm.

Gazing out across the bee garden, I'm pretty happy at all the new color I'm seeing. The bachelor buttons are blooming in profusion, and this red flower is a newbie. The bee garden is planted by broadcasting a wildflower mix over the prepared ground. Next year, I've decided to be more selective about what seeds I choose. I'd really love to get some California poppies growing here.

Before I came back inside, I harvested another zucchini and four more tomatoes, including the first yellow tomato.

On the sewing front, I stitched up Tiny Treasure #69. This one has stem stitch, stem fill, satin stitch, and straight stitch.

Also, I finished the binding on Shop Hop 3.0, and that makes a finished quilt. It ends up at 65 x 53 inches.

Here's a look at the back.

And this was my project for July's 

Also in yesterday's sewing, I was able to finish the top-stitching on the "Glacier" block for the Northern Wilderness project.

For this, I'm using a monofilament thread and a microtex 60/8 needle to stitch right along the edges of the applique.

Okay, so let's turn our attention to our drive home from our camping trip. We'd always planned to eat breakfast in Cathlamet, Washington, on our way out of town. We broke camp and headed back to the mainland. We parked at the City Dock, which was kind of fun. Everything in this little town is very old.

Okay, and you guys have been really good about staying out of trouble this trip, but I feel I must warn you about this. Here's how you could die today. Please stay out of the water.

From where we were standing, we could get a good look at the bridge out to Puget Island.

Turning in the other direction, I liked how this boat looked. But those of you with sharp eyes might be able to see the bird's nest just above and to the left of that letter "B" on the boat.

Zooming in, it turned out to be an osprey nest.

As we walked up the hill to the restaurant, this sign gave me a chuckle.

We had a very filling breakfast and then headed for home, paralleling the Cowlitz River most of the way.

Eventually we crossed back over the Interstate Bridge and into our home state. 

Traffic was heavy getting home, and it seemed as if it took forever. Actually, we were home around 1:00 p.m. Greeting us was this red-tailed hawk sitting far out in our field. I've seen this bird a few times. These must be its happy hunting grounds, and there are plenty of small furry mammals to choose from.

And that pretty much brings us up to date.

Today is a grocery shopping day, but that's the only thing on the day's agenda. My next quilting project is queued up. I'll be quilting the "Kittens" quilt next. This one should be pretty easy. I already have some ideas about how to quilt it, and I'm hoping to get started on that today.

When time ran out yesterday, I left the "Blueberries" block needle down, and I expect to finish this today, for sure.

When that's finished, I will reach the "Quilter's Choice" section of my white board. I've decided to make an art quilt this time. These are always approached with some trepidation, but I'm going to attempt to make a quilt from this image of some lemurs we saw when we visited the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, Florida some years back.

When we visited a quilt shop in Lawrence, Kansas, during our Eclipse Trip in 2024, I purchased this fabric in anticipation of making this quilt.

It seems the lemurs' time has come...ready or not. I'll build the lemurs on a teflon pressing sheet, and then I'm kind of at a loss what the background will be. I'll figure something out. For now, I'll just focus on the lemurs. It's best not to get too far ahead of myself on this kind of a project.

All right then. Grocery shopping is next. Our list isn't too long, and so I'm hopeful we can get in and out pretty quickly. I hope your week will get off to a better start than ours. I realize some of you are probably getting weird, nervous, and thirsty waiting for some news of the kitties. Everyone on the kitty front is just fine. Hopefully, I can get them to help me with my sewing today.