Swirls and Curls

Good morning, my friends. Sheesh...what an exhausting day we had yesterday. We had a lot of errands to run in the morning in addition to doing our grocery shopping. We got our beloved Egg McMuffins first...mainly to take the sting out of the whole morning's mission. From there, we headed to the recycling depot, then the pharmacy, then the feed store, then the grocery store, then the gas station, then another grocery store (because, weirdly, our regular store doesn't sell canned crab), and finally...the liquor store. I swear the liquor store was always a part of the plan. 

Before we left, I had time to stitch up Tiny Treasure #52. This one has stem stitch, straight stitch, and French knots.

And then I went to work churning the strawberry ice cream. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Maybe I’ve mentioned this before, but I love my Cuisinart ice cream maker. The one pictured below is a newer model from mine. There’s no ice or salt involved. The tub has some kind of “coolant” inside. I keep mine stored in the freezer all the time when I’m not using it, so it’s always ready to go. I would never have the motivation to make ice cream the old-fashioned way. With this machine, its easy.

We enjoyed that for dessert last night. So, so creamy, and the bits of frozen strawberry give it the nicest little crunchy texture. You can find the recipe right here. 

Okay, so we ran our errands, and we were home just about lunch time. We put the groceries away, had some lunch, and then took naps. And then we both just chilled the rest of the afternoon. 

Late in the day, I decided I wanted to at least get the machine set up for quilting “The Story of My Day.” As a reminder, this is what the whole quilt looks like. I love those little pops of color.

My first task was to decide on a thread for the top. I already had a design in mind. Digging through my box of variegated threads, I came up with these three:

I really loved the one on the top left, but I worried it was too dark. The quilting might have been too forward, distracting from the embroidery and the “story” told by the quilt. So, I settled on the one at the bottom. It’s light in color, and the hues are right for the colors in the quilt. It’s a Valdani 50-weight thread. And look at that: “Made in Romania.” Who knew? These threads are kind of interesting. They come packaged in a little spool-sized zip-lock bag.

For the bobbin, I chose this neutral.

It’s a So Fine thread from Superior Threads. Also a 50-weight thread. I find I have fewer tension problems if I use the same weight top and bottom.

As always, my Quilting Fairy Godmother, Ila, has generously provided me with exactly what I need for this quilt. Thank you, Ila.

Having selected my threads, I used this orphan block to do a little practice of the design in my head. It looked simple enough, but sometimes these designs end up harder than they look. Right away, I felt pretty comfortable with this one. 

So, I committed myself to the actual quilt and went to work. I probably covered about 10% of the quilt in about 40 minutes. When I paused at one point, I decided I’d had enough. The motion in this design is actually a little tiring for my arms and shoulders.

I first saw this design on Pinterest. I’m sorry I don’t have any information about its origin. It was just a picture with no other information. In any case, I liked the looks of this, and seeing it immediately had me thinking of using it for this quilt. I’m trying to stay in the off-white background, and swirling around the colored and embroidered sections. In at least one spot, I cut a corner a little bit, but I’m going to leave it. 

Sometimes I’ll print the design and then hang it in my view to remind me what it looks like.

After I’d gone some distance on the quilt, I glanced up to see how closely I was following it. I noticed one little design element I was missing, and started adding it in here and there. You can see it bracketed in green below.

Later, I noticed this little “curl” I could add inside some of those loops. When I sit down to work on it today, I’ll find a way to add those in too.

So, with my quilting paused, I could not think of a good reason to do another thing the whole live-long day. Smitty was channeling the energy in the household.

That picture makes him look like a tub of lard, but he’s actually a pretty good weight for himself. He’s a big boy. 

So, having given myself some time to chill yesterday, I feel re-energized for today. It’s one of those days when I’ll make dinner in the morning. We’re going to have a seafood pasta salad for dinner, and it’s good paired up with a fruit salad. I’ll say more in tomorrow’s post. I want to get back to my quilting. I’m thinking I’ll commit to 30 minutes, and then decide whether to stop or continue. And I really want to get a start on the quilt block for “Across the Wide Missouri” today. Hoping I’ll have time for all of that.

Our weather was rainy yesterday, and it’s still a little chilly today. We’re expecting much warmer weather in the coming week. I’m hoping it will get things going in the garden. Hoeing is expected to commence soon.

A Little of Everything

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy day yesterday. Today will be busy too. We're getting in our grocery shopping for the week, and we have some other errands to run as well. We have seven stops to make…eight, if you count filling our gas tank. Oy. I’m tired just thinking about it. So let's just get right to it, shall we?

First...I'm happy to announce a finish! The Homestead quilt is finished. I had to enlist my quilt holder-upper to get a picture of it. It finishes at 63 x 80 inches, so a fairly large quilt. This was my project for the 2023 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The blocks were some we saw on the "Quilt Discovery Trail" at the Homestead National Historical Park in Beatrice, Nebraska.

So finishing the quilt binding was my last gasp of the day. Before I left home yesterday morning, I was able to stitch Tiny Treasure #51. This one has stem stitch, straight stitch, satin stitch, backstitch, and French knots. I like these little birds. There are several birds among the other Tiny Treasures.

From there, I left to get my hair cut. I was home around lunch time. I needed to fill the bird feeders, and then I took a walk around. The sage is blooming. I don’t use the sage blossoms for anything, but I did use them to make some sage blossom vinegar one year. It isn’t as good as the chive blossom vinegar, but it filled in a year when the chives didn’t come back in great numbers.

This Fairy Princess is putting out more flowers. I hoping it will be mostly in bloom by this afternoon. It’s the most watched thing in the garden right now.

Also highly watched…the Edda clematis. This is so pretty, and it has more flowers coming. You’re only seeing one side of it in this picture. There are even more flowers on the other side.

I checked inside the greenhouse and discovered two tomatoes! Yay! Lookie there!

Here’s another one over here.

And the lettuce is looking more like lettuce instead of spindly little stems with leaves. This is the “Red Sails” variety.

Okay, and I was dragging my feet getting to the strawberry ice cream, but I wanted to get it done. So, I look for these large strawberries. Mike can’t eat strawberry seeds, and so I cut the seedy sides off of them. If I’m to have anything left of the strawberry when the sides are removed (and if I am to maintain my sanity), then I need the biggest strawberries I can find. Sometimes I can’t find the big ones at all, and so I didn’t pass by this opportunity.

So, I slice off the stem end, and the tip, and then I just kind of shave the sides off.

I’ll use the innards in the ice cream. Sometimes I’ll use the sides to make strawberry-infused vodka, but I’m not doing that this time around. The components of the ice cream have been chilling overnight. When I finish here, I’ll get out the ice cream churn and finish it off. We’ll have that for tonight’s dessert. It’s so, so good. Definitely worth the hassle.

Okay, so I’m hoping I have some energy left when we get home today. If so, I’ll start on the quilting for “The Story of My Day.” I have some ideas about how I want to quilt this. I probably should practice what I have in mind first. It’ll be an all-over design. I was going to choose a neutral color of thread, but I’m tempted to use a pastel variegated thread if I have one. I’ll have to go digging through my thread stash to see what I can come up with. 

And if there’s still energy left after that, I’ll get to work on this block for “Across the Wide Missouri.”

I ran out of time to work on it yesterday. I’m afraid it might have to wait another day for its turn. When I work on a quilt project, it takes on a personality and a life of its own. Sometimes I worry they’ll get their feelings hurt and end up in therapy down the road or something. 

Okay, so that’s all I have for you today. Y’all rest up today, okay? I’ll do the running around for all of us.

A Day Off

Good morning, my friends. It was good to take a day off yesterday. We hung out at the RV all day. Our friends and our sightseeing excursions have kept us busy while we've been in Escondido. It's all been a lot of fun, and the weather has been lovely. Nevertheless, a stay-at-home day was a nice little break. 

The kitties were all about it. They know just what to do on a day off:

I had a yen for a dessert yesterday, and so I baked this cherry pie for two. The cherry pie filling was homemade with cherries from our neighbor's tree. They have tart cherries. Our two trees are both sweet cherries. I've made filling from both. This one happens to be made with tart cherries.

When we're traveling, I always use the refrigerated Pillsbury pie crusts. They're easy and convenient, but they don't always look terrifically appetizing after they're baked. I tried brushing this one with a little milk before baking it, and it browned the best of any I've done. So, for now, I guess milk is the secret.

While that was baking, I got busy setting up my sewing machine and other supplies for a day of sewing. Smitty kept watch for invading forces.

And then, I proceeded to sew together Block 9 of the Raggedy & Friends project. That was pretty quick.

Then, I sewed Block 10 together:

When I laid out Block 10, I realized I was missing the aqua piece at the bottom. When I did the cutting for these kits, I checked and double-checked and triple-checked everything I did, and so I was surprised to have a piece missing. Then, I checked the pattern and found yet another mistake. This was a free pattern, and so I shouldn't whine about it. On the other hand, I like to whine about stuff like this, and so I'll whine anyway. There has been a mistake in almost every block. It's annoying. And, yes, it's a free pattern, but my fabric and my time isn't free. Happily, I have along a full yard of some fabric for another project, and I used this turtle fabric to fill in the missing spot.

Mostly I've used solids in this project, but there are a few prints here and there, so this will be fine.

When I was finished harrumphing, I sewed together Block 11:

And that was enough sewing for a single day. Here are the other blocks I have for this quilt:

There's just one to go, but I need to finish the last embroidered section before I can sew it together. When that's finished, I'll return to the Gumballs project.

There will probably be more time for sewing over the next week, and so it'll be good to make some progress on these projects I brought from home.

Smitty has been caressing me with his tail as I've been writing. Smitty is an excellent blogging and sewing assistant. Everyone should be so lucky to have such a multi-talented cat.

We don't have any plans for the day...yet. We've talked about heading out for more avocados, but nothing is set in stone yet. For now, I'm going to eat some breakfast and continue on with the final embroidered section for the Raggedy project. The sky is cloudy, and I don't know if there's rain in the forecast. If it stays dry, I'll probably get out for another walk today.

I'm reading about the cold weather gripping much of the country. If you're in the cold parts, please stay warm, safe, and dry today.

Merry Christmas!

Good morning, my friends. I hope you're ready for Christmas, because time's up! I still have one more baking project to do this morning, but that will be the end of my baking extravaganza for the year. The only other thing I need to make between now and the time we leave is some egg salad for sandwiches. I'll hold off on that for another day or two.

With a big windstorm headed our way, I went straight to work on my baking yesterday. I wanted to make sure it was all done in case we lost power. So I got busy baking some cookies. These are Chocolate-Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries. At the link I've given you, I used dried cranberries for the holiday season. You can also substitute white chocolate for the bittersweet.

These will be for snacking on our drive. I've been able to scale this recipe down to make it a cookies for two recipe. So, I made cookies for two to last us four days.

While those were baking, I went to work trying this new recipe for a no-bake Cranberry-Cookie Butter Cheesecake. Mine was scaled down by half to make it a cheesecake for two (or six). It wasn't hard to make, but it took a while to work through the steps. 

A crust is made from the ground up cookies, some melted butter, and some other seasonings. When the crust is formed into the pan, it goes into the freezer for at least an hour. Then the filling is made by first creating a sort of cranberry jelly. Some whipping cream was whipped into stiff peaks. Then, I made the cream cheese filling by mixing the cream cheese with some sugar and orange zest. The cream cheese mixture is divided in half. Half is mixed with the cookie paste, and half is mixed with the cranberry jelly. Then, the whipped cream is divided in half and added to the two cream cheese mixtures. Then, it's spooned into the frozen crust in two layers with the cranberry layer on top. Then...back into the refrigerator for a minimum of four hours. 

It looks pretty, and everything behaved as expected. I ended up with only half as much of the cranberry jelly that the recipe suggested, but I doubt it makes any difference. We won't eat this until New Year's Day. I'll freeze it between now and then. Of course, I'll report back and let you know how we liked it.

And then, after all that, I sat down to look at email and found this headline from our local newspaper.

So, the big scary windstorm we were promised never materialized. It was supposed to move through coming from the south to the north. I read a little later that high wind advisories had been canceled in Washington too. So...the storm that wasn't. I want my money back.

Okay, so I hadn't done any slow stitching yet, and it was lunch time. Smitty helped me finish off the last Tiny Treasure for this go-round.

I'm not exactly sure what this one is supposed to be. I'm going with Frankenfruit. This is Tiny Treasure #36. It has stem fill, satin stitch, and lazy daisy stitches.

These are the 12 just completed. I'm halfway through the group. 

Here are all the Tiny Treasures I have so far. (The one in the upper right is turned 90 degrees.)

The bird feeders were empty, and there was a break in the rain. I headed out to fill the bird feeders and found these daffodils popping up along the way. There was another grouping a little farther on.

It's always such a hopeful sign when the daffodils reappear. I have some new ones to enjoy this spring. Hopefully, they'll hold off blooming until we're home.

So, okay! Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

We'll be heading off to Erik and Mae's this afternoon for our annual family feast. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody. The next two days will be the final push to get out the door and on our way south. I'll be back tomorrow with my "Best of 2025" post. Until then, have a wonderful day. I hope Santa is good to you this year.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Good morning, my friends. We're expecting high winds today. The weatherman is predicting downed trees and power outages. All is calm right now, but we're bracing. I have some baking to do, and so I need the power to stay on. Erik called yesterday with concerns about the weather. After talking it over, we agreed to stay on the side of safety and postponed our family dinner until tomorrow, on Christmas Day. 

Yesterday started with the usual slow stitching. This is Tiny Treasure #35. It has a chain fill, a stem fill, stem stitch, and fly stitch.

There's just one more of these to stitch this morning. I've already decided to start on the nativity stitchery next.

From there, I got busy with my baking. Starting with two loaves of this Cranberry-Orange Bread with Grand Marnier Glaze. (Don't tell anyone, but I substitute triple sec for the Grand Marnier.)

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've been making this for more decades than I care to think about. It's a family favorite. It can also be made using dried cherries in place of the dried cranberries. In that case, amaretto is substituted for the Grand Marnier. 

While that baked, I went to work making the gods' own Christmas candy, Divinity. My mother made divinity, and I have loved it my entire life. I wish I had her recipe, but I found one online that I like. This is Mrs. Floyd's Divinity. I have no idea who Mrs. Floyd is, but I'm sure I would like her if we met.

Oh, and did I say I didn't know who Mrs. Floyd is? Well...The Google to the rescue. According to AI, Mrs. Floyd is a quintessential Southern grandma figure, not a specific famous person, whose simple, perfect recipe for fluffy, pecan-filled divinity candy became a staple in Southern kitchens and magazines. So there you go.

Okay, and I thought I might bake some cookies, but I'd already dirtied every bowl and measuring device in the kitchen by then, and so I called it a baking day. Instead, I decided to pack up my sewing supplies. Smitty helped me as I sorted through things.

And that's one packing category checked off the list. There's no food to eat, and there are no clothes to wear yet, but by gum and by golly, the sewing supplies are on board. We have our purriorities.

With our schedule changed, I've rearranged my to-do's a little bit. Today I'll bake some cookies, and I'm trying out a new cheesecake recipe. We have a small ham to take along with us and enjoy on New Year's Day. I'll make some baked beans in the slow cooker, and we'll bake up some Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Hot Honey Browned Butter. I've scaled the cheesecake recipe to make it a cheesecake for two (or probably more like six). It's a no-bake cheesecake, but I'll still make it in a 4-inch springform pan. I've read that cheesecake freezes beautifully, and I happen to know that even the Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes are "deeply chilled" on their journey to your plate. I figure this will work out fine. 

It's made with a couple of new-to-me ingredients. First, these Lotus Biscoff cookies. I'd never heard of these before, and I despaired about finding them in the grocery store. They were plainly visible in the bakery section of our store. These will be used to make the crust.

The cheesecake filling uses this related product. It too was plainly visible right next to the cookies. There's also a "crunchy" version, but "creamy" seemed right for a cheesecake.

I'll use the whole of the cookie package (mine is the smaller 4.4 oz. size), but I'll only use about half of the cookie butter. Apparently it's also good as a spread or a dip. I can imagine it might be good spread on slices of apple...like peanut butter, only not.

Also, I'm doing laundry today, and I'll probably start the odious job of cleaning out the refrigerator. I need to sort through what we'll take along and what we'll discard. If I'm feeling really energetic, I might actually clean the refrigerator while I'm at it.

So that's a full day right there. Time to get moving. Stay safe and warm my friends. There's stormy weather in our future. I'm wishing you a day of less-threatening weather.