Making Progress

Good morning, my friends. The promised rain has finally arrived. With a few breaks, it's been raining fairly steadily for hours. It started while we were asleep, and now it's beginning to look like a typical Oregon winter. Of course, winter is not even close, but we're getting a glimpse into the future today. 

Thankfully, I was able to get out and do some weeding yesterday. I pulled up or "mussed up" some of the smaller weeds, and then whacked back my enormous sage plant to about one-third its size. I love the fresh sage, but the plant grows to enormous proportions. It's been known to inundate the chives. It was kind of a big job, but I kept looking at it and thinking, it isn't going to get any smaller. So, loppers in hand, I laid waste to it. 

While I was out, I checked on the dahlias and deadheaded the spent flowers. The Checkers dahlia is covered in flowers right now. This was the prettiest among them.

And lookie here! The Firefighter dahlia finally has a flower. It's the first bud this season. I gave it some fertilizer recently, and it seems to have helped.

Here's how it will look when it blooms. This picture was taken in October of last year, so maybe it's right on schedule.

Back inside, I went to work on my slow stitching, taking the first stitches on the third block for Le Jardin. Mainly, I was just cleaning up the little bits of floss left on my floss bobbins from the last round of this project.

It was after lunch by the time I was able to get into the sewing room. There I found Miss Sadie, ready to help.

Purrhaps I may be of service today?

While I was getting ready to sew, she struck her adorable pose.

And then she continued practicing her adorable when I gave her the job of holding my blocks down on the table. So helpful. Honestly, I don't know how people without any cats are able to accomplish anything at all.

It was time for a change of shift. Smitty was right on time to take over.

Enough of this adorable girly nonsense. Let a mancat take over.

With so much help, how could I not complete the final row in a single day?

Here are all the blocks I have for this quilt. It'll end up around 50 x 60 inches. I may decide to add a border when I sew it all together. (It would be a good way to use a few more greens and blues, wouldn't it?)

So I'll move this project to the "Quilt Tops to Finish" section of my white board. That leaves me with an opening on my WIPs dance card. 

Next on the list is the Gumballs project. I only just started on this, and so I have just one row of blocks.

That's what I'll be working on today. I'll make another row of five blocks. I'm using my red, pink, and purple scraps for this project. There's a lot of cutting involved, and so I probably won't finish it before tomorrow.

But I need to choose another project to fill in that opening. From this book...

I'll make this quilt called "Stair Steps." 

It'll be a good way to use many colors of scraps, and I'll also put my off-whites to work. My scrap bins are overflowing, and so the new projects I've started are selected for the amount of scraps they can tame.

Okay, so I have a housekeeping chore put off from yesterday on today's to-dos. Also, I'd like to fit in a Bowflex workout. There should be time for both. Right now, it's time for our Sunday morning blueberry oatmeal pancakes. After that, I'll get back to my slow-stitching and move on with the rest of my day.

Flossie

Good morning, my friends. It's another sunny day here at the Three Cats Ranch. We were supposed to get some rain over the past week. We might have gotten a few nighttime showers, but nothing to speak of. A little moisture would have been appreciated. I desperately need to get outside and weed the herb garden today. There are a few other little weedy spots, but nothing like we faced earlier. Also, I need to do a little grooming on the dahlias. Today will be a good day for all of that, but it would have been easier to pull the weeds if it had rained a little. One of these days I'll be able to control the weather, but so far...I got nothing.

As expected, there wasn't any time for sewing yesterday...no machine sewing, anyway. I spent a little extra time on my slow stitching, finishing up June's block for A Year in the Garden. 

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

I like the unconventional colors in these. I'm not using the exact colors Jenny of Elefantz used in hers. Probably I selected floss colors based on the name of the color.

And as long as we're talking about selecting colors, I took the finished June block downstairs to switch out my project boxes. While I was there, I decided to raid my floss stash and choose floss color for the "short" project I'll be doing eventually. I have one other stitchery ahead of this Autumn Harvest Pumpkin, but it shouldn't take long. When that's finished, I'll be on to this one. This is the picture from the pattern cover.

Crabapple Hill Stitcheries are almost all done in Cosmo floss. I'm mostly a DMC gal, if for no other reason than DMC is more widely available where I live. Since the floss colors on the pattern were given by number only, I spent some time looking up images of the color numbers on my iPad, and then choosing something similar from my stash. Some of the colors barely look any different, but I think these will work out. When I was finished, these were my selections.

So I'll set that aside for the time being. Next up, I'll be working on this third block for the Le Jardin project.

These are fun to stitch. When I've finished this, I'll add some piecing to the three blocks I have so far. They should have strips all around, log-cabin style. I'd rather do them as I go than wait until the end when there will be nine of them to finish.

If there's time for machine sewing today, I'll get started making another row of blocks for the Land and Sea quilt. This is what I have for this quilt so far.

When I started this quilt originally, I wanted to make six rows of blocks, and so the next row would be the last. I might decide to make it larger. I can always add more to the width and/or the length. When I have the next row of blocks laid out when the rest, I'll decide whether it's ready to be sewn together.

Okay, so I need to eat some breakfast, and then I'll get on with my day. There's stitching and weeding to do. Enjoy your Saturday, Everybody!

Block Party

Good morning, my friends. That most-hated task, grocery shopping, is finished for the week. We got off to a late start yesterday morning. It was after lunch time when we got home. We put everything away, had our lunch, and then we each took naps...pretty much required after a grocery shopping trip. Finally, I was able to get back to my sewing. 

It took a while, but I finished the hand-stitching on the ninth of nine blocks for the Merry, Merry Snowmen project.

Good grief. It was after 4:00 p.m. by the time I finished. Now all the blocks are complete, but they are not sewn together. Here's what I have for this project so far.

Pawing through my stash, I came out with these fabrics to finish it off. The tan on the left will be the quilt cornerstones. In the middle is the fabric for the inner border. The one on the right will be the outer border. 

I wondered if that was too patriotic, but then decided there are enough stars in the quilt blocks that it can work in a winter-themed quilt too. And I wouldn't say this is a Christmas quilt exactly, but there is enough Christmas symbolism to suggest that.

Okay, and the only other stitching I did was to make some more progress on "A Year in the Garden." I haven't taken any more pictures of my progress yet, but this is the one I'm stitching. I'm a lot farther along than shown here. It should be finished in the next day or two. There is just a little bit of the curtain at the top, and the flowers on the left side. Probably I won't finish it today, but tomorrow is a pretty good bet.

Knowing I'd need something new to stitch, I went ahead and traced the design for Le Jardin. This is the third block.

If you've been paying attention, then you know the first block I stitched wasn't quite right. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the drawing I used to trace the design onto fabric was cut off at the bottom, and so I simply turned it around and drew it like the top. As you can see, the one on the left had the lower two lines closer to the 15¢ price. The one on the right should have been done the same way. 

So while I had this project out of its box yesterday, I took a look at the rest of the blocks. As it turns out, I should have been piecing the finished designs log-cabin style. I'll endeavor to get those caught up when the third block is finished. But I figured out that the blocks are different, and so it won't matter that the first one was stitched wrong. Also, I went in search of pictures of the finished quilt. I found this one on Pinterest. Most everything I clicked on related to this quilt had been removed from the internet. This was the best photo I could find.

So no worries about the blocks I've already done, and I'll catch up on the piecing soon. 

It won't take long to stitch this third block, and so I looked ahead at my embroidery projects. The next one I'll do will be a "Short" project. Since I can never choose from my long list of projects, I let Mr. Random Number generator do the choosing. This time, he chose #21, which happens to be Autumn's Harvest Pumpkin from Crabapple Hill Studios. Sometimes Mr. Random chooses wrong, and I have to ask him to pick something else. This pick is perfectly timed.

Here's a closer look at the designs on the pumpkin.

That will be a fun project for fall. I'm pretty sure someone gave me this pattern, but I can't recall who. If it was you, then thank you. I'm going to have fun with this. And all of that to say that one of today's agenda items is to sort through my stash of embroidery floss and come out with some good colors. 

There was a new recipe on last night's menu. This is Grilled Halibut with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.

We're not big fish-eaters, but we like salmon and halibut. I'm trying to incorporate more Mediterranean Diet principles into our dinners, and so I'm working at adding more fish to our dinner menus. This was pretty easy...easy enough to do in the RV, which is always a bonus. The red pepper sauce is made in a blender or food processor, and then the fish marinates in it for 20 minutes. Some sauce was set aside for serving. I roasted the halibut in my toaster oven at 400°F for 20 minutes. 

The recipe suggested serving it with summer squash. It's Mike's favorite vegetable, so sure. I slice it, add plenty of garlic salt, and a couple of pats of butter. Then it's microwaved for about 8 minutes until it's softened and cooked through. So that was an easy and tasty dinner.

All right. Today I'm getting my monthly pedicure. The last one was back in May, and so you know I've got some gnarly looking toes right now. It'll be good to get some TLC for my feet. I have a couple of easy housekeeping chores on my list. I'm hoping I'll have some time for sewing, but maybe not. If I can avoid getting into rush hour traffic on my way home this afternoon, I'll be a happy camper, sewing or no sewing.

Please bear with me while I belabor this COVID vaccine issue for just one more post. Yesterday I received the regular newsletter from the Oregon Health Authority. Contained in the newsletter was this notification:

I'm still hopeful that our governor will sign an executive order so that everyone can get the vaccine without a prescription. Also, I feel fairly confident my doctor will provide one. Aaaaannnd...I'm hoping we'll get into the study I signed up for yesterday that will pay us to test the new protein-based vaccine side effects. If none of that works out, we can always drive north about an hour and cross the border into Washington. We can get the vaccine there without a prescription. So there. There's more than one way to skin a cat. But please...don't skin any cats. With winter coming, they're going to need their fur coats.

Snowmen in September

Good morning, my friends. I gave myself an easy day yesterday. There were a few small tasks to take care of, and I did a Bowflex workout. Also, I pureed the watermelon given to us by our CSA farmers. I'll make some watermelon sorbet from that later today. I've made sorbet from all kinds of fruit, but watermelon is my favorite.

Since I was taking a lazy day, I didn't make it into the sewing room until late in the day. Smitty was my helper cat.

As a reminder, my goal was to make this block...the 9th and final block for the Merry, Merry Snowmen project.

Before anything can happen on these, I must first make the background. This one involved some piecing. I needed to applique the peeking snowmen for two sections.

And then I also needed three square-in-a-square sections.

Since I'm working from my stash for this project, it can sometimes take a while to choose fabrics that look similar to those used in the pattern. A lot of the time spent on this project is simply selecting fabrics. When it was all pieced together, it looked like this:

Yeah...my picture is crooked. The block is straight.

It was close to dinner time by then, and so I stopped there. Today I should have plenty of time to finish fusing the applique. Top-stitching might take longer. 

Today I have one housekeeping chore on the list, and I'll get in a walk on the treadmill before I get back to my sewing. Oh yes, and I must churn the sorbet. I'm making good progress on June's block for A Year in the Garden, and so it's probably a good time to trace out the next one for Le Jardin. Here are the blocks I have for that project so far. These are fun to stitch.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I might have to redo the one on the right. The drawing I used to trace the design onto fabric was cut off at the bottom, and so I simply turned it around and drew it like the top. As you can see, the one on the left had the lower two lines closer to the 15¢ price. The one on the right should have been done the same way. They stitch up pretty quickly, and so I'll decide as I go along. 

The promised rain hasn't arrived yet, but it has been much cooler during the day. I'm not convinced we're finished with the hot weather yet. We'll enjoy the cooler temperatures while they last. 

Earlier this morning, I tried to schedule appointments for flu and COVID boosters. If you've been paying attention to the news then you probably know our whackadoodle Secretary of Health and Human Services is going to make America healthy again by denying vaccines to the populace. We've always gone to one of our local grocery stores for vaccines. When I tried to schedule at our usual place, the COVID vaccine was not one of the choices available. Instead, I went to a local pharmacy. There, I could schedule both vaccines, but I was informed we'd need prescriptions for the COVID vaccine. It's my understanding that anyone over 65 is eligible without a prescription, but I've also read that providers are being extra cautious in the administration of vaccines because of these changes. Now, I have a message pending with our doctor asking for prescriptions to get the vaccine. I'm hoping that will come through because neither of us has had COVID, and it's become our personal crusade to avoid it for the rest of our lives. It would be so helpful if our HHS secretary shared our quest to keep our immunizations up-to-date. 

When the orange turd won the election last year, my first thought and fear was the appointment of Idiot Man to be secretary of HHS. It has been every bit as frightful as expected. It's not surprising that his own throat is trying to keep him from speaking. I only bring this up if you, like me, would like to get vaccinated against this winter's viruses. Plan ahead, my friends. It's more difficult than it should be.

Yes, We Have No Tomatoes

Good morning, my friends. The great tomato extravacanza has come to an end. Since I did no canning last year, the empty jars have been stacking up to an alarming height. It was good to put some of them back to work. When all was finished, there were 10-1/2 quarts of tomato sauce and 7 pints of salsa. That should hold us for a while.

While I was waiting for those last jars to process, I was able to finish up the stitching on the Sashiko piece. Here's your peek. Any guesses?

Now I need to decide how to finish it off. I've trimmed it close to the stitching. Probably I'll use the solid gray below for a stop border. After that, I'm not exactly sure what to do next. I'll use one of the two blues on the left for an outer border. The gray batik on the right could be a back or a binding. 

I'm still mulling it over. 

Knowing I had nothing to stitch this morning, I traced June's block for A Year in the Garden.

These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far:

There was time to start on the stitching while we watched the news last night.

I'll pick it up there this morning. Also on today's agenda...plenty of R&R...but there are still some things I need to do. For one thing, I want to get back to my Bowflex workouts. I've returned once since we got back from our trip. Today I'll increase the resistance a little bit. My first attempt was ridiculously easy, but no achy joints afterward. I'll continue to increase the resistance conservatively. Also, there are a couple of easy housekeeping chores to finish today. 

Mainly, I want to get busy making the ninth block for the Merry, Merry Snowmen. 

It'll be good to move this project along to the "Quilt Tops to Finish" list. 

So that's a full day, but I'm going to take plenty of time to relax. Our weather has cooled off significantly, and we're expecting quite a bit of rain this week. I want to weed the herb garden again, but I'll probably hold off for that soft, wet soil next week. Fall weather is approaching, my friends. I'm looking forward to it. 

Halfway

Good morning, my friends. There's not much to tell you today. I spent a good part of the day in tomato purgatory. By the time I was finished, I had five quarts of pasta sauce and 3 pints of salsa. There are also partial jars of each stashed in the refrigerator. I'll fill those today.

My friend, Karen, asked what I put in my pasta sauce "for taste." It's a recipe I've been using for as long as I've been making pasta sauce. The recipe I've been using is for Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce, from this  book:

I always double the recipe. And after many years of making this sauce, I started roasting the tomatoes before turning them into sauce. It's much faster than the usual method of scoring, blanching, and skinning. You can see how that works at this post right here.

As for the salsa, I'm using this recipe from this book:

It was mid-afternoon when I finished for the day. There was time for sewing, but I really just wanted to sit down and put my feet up. I was already tired anticipating today's efforts. Knowing I'll be finished by the end of today gives me a little infusion of energy, but I'm not ready to start on that yet.

Dinner was easy last night. Mike grilled a chicken breast, and we had a chicken Caesar salad. Sadie kept an eye on us from her geriatric kitty pole. (She's not the geriatric. Smitty is. She wanted you to know that.)

Smitty was enjoying the evening from the comfort of his catio.

Even though I didn't make it to the sewing room, I spent some extra time on the Sashiko piece. It's very nearly finished. As I've been working on it, I've realized I want to add a little something at the bottom. When I finish today's stitching, I'll trace a few more lines as a guide for the remainder. Here's your peek.

Okay, so today will look a lot like yesterday. I'll get back to work making more sauce and salsa, and I'll use up the last of the tomatoes. Possibly I'll be more energetic today when I've finished them off. For now, it's time for some breakfast and slow-stitching. And then, my friends, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.