An Apple Today

My tail was dragging yesterday, even though I was able to get in an hour-long nap. Somehow getting up at 3:00 a.m. just isn't conducive to a productive day. And then, last night, I was awake at 2:30 a.m. After lying awake for an hour, I got up and finished stitching what was left of Block 13 for the Bee-utiful Quilt-A-Long. This one is "Bee Romantic". 

The bicycle in the original stitchery was black, but I made my blue in honor of my very first bicycle received on my fifth birthday. It was a Murray. I couldn't ride it, and training wheels weren't an option in my Marine Corps green family. Sink or swim, that's how we rolled. Fortunately, my big brother Richard took me for a ride on it. He was always my hero. Sadly, he passed away in 2003. I still miss him.

Block 14, "Bee Good" has been released now, and I'll get that one traced out today. Gotta have something to stitch if I find myself burning the early morning oil again tonight.

Erik and I had breakfast together yesterday morning. I handed off various canned goods to him, and in exchange, I got two grocery sacks full of apples. Yay!

Aren't they beautiful? I'm going to make my first try at canning some applesauce, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. The recipe I'm using has me cook the apples with their skins on. Then I run them through a food mill to both puree them and to separate them from their skins. I'm not exactly sure how that works since I've never owned a food mill. Until now, it hasn't seemed as if I needed one when I already have a food processor and a good-quality blender. (I mention the "good-quality" of my blender because I've had plenty of bad ones that do nothing other than spin the food around in the bottom of the pitcher.) So, I ordered a food mill from my good friends at Amazon (I just know we're good friends because I order from them all the time...pretty much every day...and they deliver FAST!), and I'm expecting that to arrive this afternoon.

For today's happy apple capers, I'm making a Red Hot Cinnamon Apple Cake for two. I tried this once before, and it was delicious. 

For the past couple of weeks I've been wanting to make another...pretty much since I saw Erik's tree loaded with apples. Also, I'm going to make some apple-pear chutney. We're fresh out, and it's so good spread on a slice of toasted baguette with some blue cheese.

So after I woke up from my nap yesterday, I had about an hour to kill before picking up our CSA share. I traced out the colors for Sadie's pawtrait. I'm working with this photograph:

I used Photoshop Elements 8 to edit the photo with posterized edges to try to make her colors a little easier to see. This one is going to be challenging. I tried messing with the "posterization" some, and this was the best I could do. Her colors are not very well defined at all.

And this is the tracing I came up with. I can see I need to finish up the lower right-hand corner there. The colors need to have a complete border, and this is what I use to trace the applique. By referring to the original unedited photograph, I can make my fabric choices.

I'm hoping to get a start on this today, and I always start with the eyes. The eyes are the most important part, and they are, fortunately, the easiest to do.

On Monday, I received my swap quilt from my swap partner (also named Barbara) in the UK. Isn't this adorable? It's perfect for our wet climate, which is similar to Barbara's in the UK. It's about 14 inches square and so colorful and pretty. It's hard to see in this image, but there is a hot fix crystal at each of the ends of the umbrella ribs. If you're reading, Barbara, thank you again.

It was a fun package to open. Barbara included a little pamphlet about her home town.

Also this little "coaster" which was her attempt at a wonky star.

In the mail on the same day, I received my latest Mass Drop shipment of these ten spools of Isacord thread. If you haven't heard of Mass Drop, then click right here. It's basically a way to join in with a group of people (unknown to you) to make purchases at bargain prices. 

If you've been reading for a while, then you know that I love thread as much as I love fabric, and I was seriously in need of more thread. You can see in this picture that there are a few empty pegs at the top there. Never get between a quilter and her thread...just saying. (I can't remember when I took this picture, but it's been a while. And the sewing room is so neat! It doesn't look like that now.)

So that's all I have to yammer on about today. Fortunately I was able to go back to bed and catch a couple more hours of sleep. One more cup of coffee and I should be ready to roll.

May Goals and Progress Report

April ended up being far sunnier and warmer than western Oregon has any right to expect. It felt like summer, even though we're barely into spring. It meant getting out for lots of walks and doing lots of gardening, and so it's a good thing I kept April's list relatively short. Let's see how I did.

1. Quilt and Bind the Sweet Tweet table runner, that was March's Let's Book It project. Complete!

2. Make a flimsy from the blocks for Cats of a Different Color. Complete!

WIP's

3. Finish up four more blocks for the Live, Love, Teach quilt. Complete!

4. Complete Block 3 of 12 blocks for the Chicken Buffet quilt. Complete!

These are the blocks I have so far.

My friend Sharon tells me I can keep using this as my Let's Book It project as well.

5. Complete the next section for the Wind in the Whiskers quilt. The next one I'll do is called Kitten Kaboodle. Complete!

Monthly Challenges

6. Complete the fourth block for the Wheel Estate quilt. Complete! This is my project for

7. Begin the challenge quilt for my guild.

Okay, well I had to petition the Monthly Goals Committee for an exception to this project. It's a large and very serious committee because these monthly goals are very serious business. You can see the Committee in session in the image below.

And let me just tell you that these folks say the Pledge of Allegiance and everything, so you know it's super official. Since I've decided not to return to my guild, I petitioned the Committee and requested a substitution of my quilt for Another Little Quilt Swap 10 for the guild challenge. 

Thank goodness, after hours of testimony, the committee approved my petition. I think they were impressed by my flow chart. And who wouldn't be?

My swap quilt is made from the scraps left from Cats of a Different Color. I called this little mini "Endless Pawsibilities," and it is Complete! 

If I can finish all of that, I'll start piecing together the blocks for the Mumm's the Word quilt. Since my goal was to "start", that makes this goal Complete!

With great thanks to the generosity and understanding of the Monthly Goals Committee I can say ...

That brings me to the merry, merry month of May. 

May is a busy month in our family. Mike, Mae, and I all have birthdays, and Mike and I will celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary. That calls for plenty of party planning. Nevertheless, I'm thinking I'll be able to get some sewing done even with the many wild celebrations we have planned. So here goes with my goals for the month:

Quilting and Flimsies

1. Finish making a flimsy from Mumm's the Word (pictured above).

2. Quilt the Yard Art quilt.

WIP's

3. Finish the final four blocks for the Live, Love, Teach quilt. The final four will be pretty easy. Two are t-shirts, and one will be a block of an appropriate printed fabric. The last block is a surprise! More on that later.

4. Complete another five blocks for the "Hobo Quilt". 

5. Complete the next block for "It's Raining Cats and Dogs". I believe I'll be doing the block in the middle on the left side.

6. Complete the next section for "A Quiltmaker's Garden," which is a project I love to hate. It's going to be a great quilt, but it sure has been a pain in the neck to work on it. Prepare yourself for commensurate whining

Monthly Challenges

7. Make the next colored block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

These are the blocks I have for the "Wheel Estate" quilt so far:

8. For my Let's Book It project, 

I'll be working on the quilt I start while at my "Designs from Nature" class that started last week. Since I've had Ruth McDowell's books in my library for years, it's a good choice for Let's Book It. Here's the quilt I started in class, and I'll continue on with this and start sewing it together.

9. Depending on the selected block, I have a plan to make a block for

blocklotto.com

I say "depending on the selected block" because I don't know what block will be on the agenda for May. Sometimes I opt out, which is always allowed in the Block Lotto.

And that's probably enough on my plate for the month of May. If I can finish all that, however, I have a project chosen for

If all goes well, I'll get a start on another "pet pawtrait". This time I'll be making a pawtrait of my friend Marei's dog, Scooter. Here's a picture Marei posted on Facebook, and I think it's detailed enough for my purposes.

Isn't she a pretty girl? I want to have it finished for when we visit Marei and her hubby Bill in September.

So that's my list. What goals do you have for the merry month of May?

Free Day Friday

It's a free day here today, so I'm going to get after the next block on the Wind in this Whiskers quilt. This will be the sixth of seven blocks on this quilt, and I'm getting antsy to get it finished. The blocks are so detailed and tedious. On the other hand, they are completely engrossing, and so the time flies by while I work on them. The next one I'll be working on is the Kitten Kaboodle.

Whining will commence in three, two, one...

By the way, I saw an announcement from McKenna Ryan on her Facebook page that she's going to stop publishing her applique templates on both sides of the sheet, which, as you know, frosted my nostrils pretty badly. Unfortunately, I still have a whole new quilt to make when this one is done still printed in the old way...not to mention a few little ones I purchased while at her showroom in downtown Portland. I might forgive her...grudgingly.

Yesterday, I was pretty anxious to finish up the little "Endless Pawsibilities" quilt for Another Little Quilt Swap. So, first thing before showering or even brushing my teeth (TMI?), I sandwiched, quilted, and bound it. Who says I can't delay gratification? So here's the front:

I just used a straight line grid. Here's how it looks on the back.

That wasn't on my to-do list for April, but I'm glad to have it finished, just the same. I might include it on my May list so I can cross it off right away. Would I do that? Yes, yes, I would.

As for my regular to-do's for April, I wanted to make the next block for the Chicken Buffet quilt. The next one is the "Fried Chicken". Honestly, these blocks are so much fun.

So, first I fused all the appliques.

Then I did the top-stitching.

My friend Sharon says I can keep using these blocks for my Let's Book It project, and so...

Let's Book It is ready for April's linky party.

That's the third of 12 blocks. These are the ones I have so far.

Next time I work on this, I'll be doing Chicken Caesar. Aren't these a hoot?

It rained all day yesterday with the exception of a couple of hours in the afternoon. The forecast is for some nicer weather today, although still a little chilly. The weekend is forecast to be mah-velous. I think I'll stick with sewing for today, and get out for a couple of walks this weekend.

What're you up to today?