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.

Eye and Needle

Good morning, my friends. It seems a lot of time has passed since my last post, but it was only yesterday morning. In that time, Mike had his left eye cataract surgery done. He's been amazed at how much more color he's seeing from that one eye. We were out and gone early this morning for his post-op appointment. It seems both he and the doctor are happy with the outcome of this first eye. According to the doctor, "It only gets better from here."

While they were gazing into his eye, I waited and stitched. I'm happy to have a good rechargeable portable lamp I can take with me for good light on such occasions. When we attended the Road to California quilt show a while back, the Daylight lamp vendor was selling lamps at one of the kiosks. We ended up purchasing this lamp to attach where my sewing machine is.

That was several years ago, and they had a screaming deal at the quilt show. Along with the lamp above, I was given the one below as a free gift. When I'm stitching at home on my couch, I use a headlamp, but when I'm out in public and trying to avoid having people pointing and laughing at me, I like this one:

The neck of it bends and can be positioned in nearly unlimited ways. I like both lamps, but I especially love the convenience of the portable one.

Okay, and so I stitched and stitched and stitched until I was tired of stitching. The second snowman was nearly finished. I finished the rest of it while we watched the news last night. Now, I've moved my hoop to the right, and I'll start on the Christmas tree next.

Before we needed to leave yesterday morning, I had time to quilt the final block of the Merry, Merry Snowmen.

Smitty helped me with that.

Now I've left it needle down in one of the border cornerstones. I'll stitch snowflakes in the corners, and I have another snowflake motif picked out for the rest of the border. Possibly I'll do something different there, but so far, it'll be snowflakes all around.

There are a few other things on today's agenda. With such and early start to the morning, it shouldn't feel as if I'm getting started late in the day. Nevertheless, I do feel as if I'm getting a late start, but it won't stop me from taking a nap downstairs before I do anything else. Since I was out of bed early, and since I haven't had my full ration of morning coffee, I'm feeling a little bleary-eyed.

When we got home just now, I filled all the bird feeders and checked on the flowers. There's really nothing new to report except that one of every sunflower has sprouted now. Also, all the cucumbers, all the zinnias, and one of the zucchini. So, the seeds are doing well. Also, I'm happy to report the flowers all survived Tuesday night's downpour. 

So, that's all I have for you today. I'm hoping to have the Merry, Merry Snowmen ready for binding by tomorrow. Today's energy level will have to improve before I'll be ready to do anything else. I'm heading for the couch. A nap and more slow-stitching. After that, it's anybody's guess.

Head Rest Headway

Good morning, my friends. The sky has turned a little gloomy both yesterday and today. It works for me because it's a grocery shopping day. We were just there last week, and so our list is relatively short. Also today, I need to feed our hungry birds. I know they're hungry because they can empty our feeders in two days. Also, it's that time of year when I need to remind myself to water the flower pots. I'll check on those while I'm out and water them as needed.

As for yesterday's comings and goings...there was no coming nor going. We stayed home all day. It was a good day for sewing. First, as expected, I finished off October's block for A Year in the Garden.

There are just two more blocks before I can add this to the list of large quilts to be sewn into flimsies. (That list happens to be empty just now.)

After that I did my PT exercises and a little bit of housework. After lunch, I was ready to move along with the head rests I'm making for the RV. When I arrived in the sewing room, Smitty was Johnny on the spot to help out.

With his help, I drew in all the lines as I wanted to stitch them. I'm making both head rests at the same time, and so I drew lines on both.

Sadie held the second one down while I stitched on the first.

I'll admit to approaching this with a bit of trepidation. Could I really draw all those lines and keep them straight and evenly spaced? And if I could draw the lines, could I really stitch those circles nicely rounded? And could I really stitch all those straight lines and keep them parallel? As it turns out...Yes! Yes, I could! Yay me! It's working!

Here's a little different angle to give you a better look.

And that took the whole of my sewing day. I haven't started on the second one yet. With the lines already drawn, it'll go faster. Probably, I spent at least an hour just drawing the lines yesterday. That'll be today's project, and then I can make the tabs I'll sew to the top where the velcro will be attached. It's confusing to try to describe in words, but I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'll show you the whole process as I go along.

It was nearing dinner time by then. I had in mind to try a new recipe for Chicken Piccata Pasta. This was pretty easy, and we liked it. (Mike likes anything with capers, and so I knew he'd like this.)

As a side, I served each of us a breadstick from Seattle Bakery. I'm really liking these. They're so easy. I spray a little olive oil spray over them, then sprinkle lightly with some garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Then, I can bake them in the toaster oven for four minutes, and voila! An easy and tasty side dish. These are available with the rest of the breads in our grocery store.

A couple of notes about the recipe: First, it calls for radiatori pasta. Our grocery store doesn't carry that shape. I used trottole, and that was a good choice. The recipe suggests fusilli, rotini, or rotelle as well. Second, it tells you to add a quarter cup of pasta water. I thought it thinned the sauce more than necessary, and so I'd hold off adding the pasta water in the future until I see how the rest of the ingredients go together. 

So that brings me to this morning. As I've mentioned, we have grocery shopping to do. Before we go, I'll take the first stitches on Block 7 for Le Jardin. 

Originally, I thought we'd set up the sawhorse and plywood tables in the garage today. With grocery shopping on the list, and PT tomorrow, we're going to wait until Thursday. The weather will be nice and warm that day, and we're expecting warm weather through the weekend at least. It'll be a good time to be out sandwiching quilts, and I'll be able to keep the garage door open. Probably, I'll get some kitty help. You can't beat that.

Okay...so off I go. Stitching awaits.

First Down

Good morning, my friends. This being Super Bowl Sunday, you might think that "first down" crack has something to do with football. Actually, it means I've finished the first block for the Snowmen & Reindeer project. Ta-Da!

Stitching this first block was my goal for February's

and so I'll link up to the finishing party at the end of the month. And this early in February, I'm well ahead of the game.

We spent most of yesterday running all around Henderson. We stopped at a hardware store for some "man stuff," and then we headed to the pharmacy for some medicine and personal care stuff, and then we headed to a Carl's, Jr., for some hamburgers and stuff, and then we headed to the grocery store for some stuff to stuff in our mouths. You can see it was a day for stuff, and not much else.

When we were back at the RV, I went straight to work tracing out a new stitchery. It's important to avoid a stitching emergency on the road, and so I was prepared. Thankfully, this one has some snowmen.

Now here, I want to warn you off of some pens I tried recently. I've always used the Pigma Micron pens (size 01) to trace my embroidery (the top pen in the image below). Occasionally, I use Sticky Fabri-Solvy, but there's always a special reason to do that over tracing with the Micron pen. My preferred method of transfer is tracing with the pens. So, the last time I went to purchase a supply of these pens, they were listed as "out of stock," or else "discontinued." I can't really remember now, but whatever it said led me to believe that the Micron pens were no longer available. There was a pen that looked almost identical (see the image below).

So I did some reading and looked at the reviews, and eventually concluded that the company had changed its name and that, in fact, the pens were identical. Actually...not. When I touch those lower pens to the fabric, they bleed and make a little spot, and that is completely unacceptable. Fortunately, I have some of the original Pigma Micron pens along with me, and I can use those. It caused me to look again on Amazon, though, and now, it seems the original is available again. I have no ideas about what's going on with these pens, but I'm offering this up as a warning. Do not settle for substitutes.

Okay, so my second block is traced and hooped.

And I spent some time yesterday afternoon taking the first stitches.

When I'd run out of time, I moved the hoop up, hoping to capture the rest of it. There's just smidge at the top that I probably can't reach, but that will be easy enough to manage when I get that far.

The only other picture I took yesterday is this shrub seen outside the Carl's, Jr. My phone tells me this is Silver Senna. These were bushes trimmed to a round shape. The flowers are small...about nickel sized...and they were fragrant.

We've already had our Sunday morning pancakes, and I've started a load of wash. I'm hoping to get a couple of loads done today. We're also going to drive south from Boulder City about 40 minutes to the Keyhole Canyon. I've been using this book to plan our hikes.

The book tells us this is a "Moderate" hike that could take as little as 15 minutes. The draw (according to the book) are petroglyphs and pictograms, some of which are as much as 1,000 years old. There's also a waterfall. No problem, right? But when I look at the same hike online, people are talking about "canyoneering," and "rappelling" and the like, and gosh darn it if we didn't leave our mountain climbing equipment behind. (That's a joke, in case you were wondering.) So...anyway...I'm trusting the book. Maybe there is an opportunity for more adventurous hikers, but not us. We'll enjoy the petroglyphs and call it good. And we'll see what we'll see, keeping both feet firmly on the ground.

All right. So that's all I have for you today. If you don't hear from me again, you'll know I fell to my death rappelling down a waterfall. Don't worry, though. I have every intention of living to see another day and I almost always get my way.

Oh yes, and GO SEAHAWKS!!

Fuzz and Stuff

Good morning, my friends. We're just getting started on a week of nasty weather. Matthew and I were hoping to get in another walk this Thursday, but I think we're going to opt for an indoor venue instead. We're expecting plenty of wind and rain through Thursday at least. Looks like our rainy season is here to stay for now. We'll get some sunshine here and there. Mainly, it'll be wet. The kitties are bummed.

So it was a good day for sewing. Sadie was my helper cat. If she can't go outside and kill something, she might as well keep me company.

With her help, I made the last two blocks for the second row of the Stair Steps quilt. I needed one more block with a row of pink.

And I needed one block without a common color.

Since there's a color pattern to these blocks, I decided to sew them together, rather than try to lay them out properly when there are 25 to work with. Now I can start to see the pattern of colors running diagonally from corner to corner. The blocks are time-consuming to make, and I'll need three more rows before I'm finished.

So I don't have a lot of sewing to show you today. Each one of those blocks takes about an hour to make, not including the time I spend cutting all those little squares. As I'm cutting, I'm creating extras, and trying not to duplicate any of the fabrics in a single block. I'll admit there are some cheaters in there. But as I'm making them, I'm accumulating more squares for the next block, and so the cutting gets less as I work my way across a row.

Since I don't have much to show on the sewing front, it seems like a good time to share this tip with you. Maybe I'm the last one to learn about this, but here goes anyway. Working with scraps always leaves a lot of lint in my sewing machine. It seemed a good time to take off the throat plate and clean it up. Ugh...look at all that fuzz.

It's been a long time since I visited Mes Amis quilt shop in New Orleans, Louisiana. I spent a good amount of money with the friendly women in the store. As a parting gift, they handed me a few of these little "lint swabs." They're made from one of those skinny straws you find in coffee shops and bars and a folded over piece of a pipe cleaner.

These have been very handy for cleaning the lint from my machine. You can see that my yellow one above has been well used and dirty. Also, the straw has split at the top and the pipe cleaner wants to fall out as I'm using it.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I wondered if I could just use a folded over pipe cleaner and dispense with the straw. So, for ease of holding and controlling it, I folded a pipe cleaner in half...

And then I used it just the same. (I actually ended up folding it in half again. Shorter is better.) I like this because the lint clings to the pipe cleaner and doesn't fall down into the machine as I'm swabbing it out.

It does a good job of cleaning under the feed dogs and in all the other little nooks and crannies. I have a basting brush I can use for this too, but it tends to just shove the lint down into the machine rather than sweeping it out. It's the clinging power that makes this method preferable. So you can file that under the for-what-it's-worth column. I like this method. I can recommend it if you have some pipe cleaners among your supplies. 

All right so we have a grocery shopping trip ahead of us. Our list is blissfully short this week. When we get home, I'll get to work making another row of blocks for the Gumballs quilt.

These are laid out in a pattern too, and so I'm thinking I might start sewing them together as I go. Also, I'm making a gift for a friend. Since I think she reads my blog, I'll have to keep that project under wraps for a bit. Of course, I'll give you little peeks as I go.

So that's all I have for you today. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Try to stay out of the rain if you can.