Spooky Sewing

Good morning, my friends, and welcome to November! Sheesh. Can you believe we're into the "holiday season" already? And it’s my favorite time change of the year. For the past week, I’ve been making a list of all the things I’m going to do with my extra hour of time. 

Truthfully, time seems to fly by any more. I feel as if we just got home from last winter’s trip south. It makes me think of a conversation I had with one of my graduate school professors. Her name was Maria, and her social work career was spent working with the “frail elderly.” I recall her saying once that she asked her clients, does time just seem to go faster and faster as you grow older and older? Yes, was the answer. I believe it. 

We won't be heading south this year, and so we'll get to experience the crappy winter weather here in the Pacific Northwest first hand this year. It's okay by me. I'm just as happy to stay home, but I will miss seeing our SoCal friends. Today is going to be relatively nice. We’re going to get outside and do a little yard work. Gazing out the window at the moment, it’s still foggy, but we’re confident it will burn off.

But let's just back up for a minute and talk about yesterday's sewing, shall we? The first stitches were taken on the Snow Day project.

And this being the first of the month, it's time to set a goal for November's

My goal for November will be to complete the embroidery for the Snow Day piece.

As I was packing things up to move on with the rest of my day, I glanced out the window to notice the color on one of our showier trees. No color editing on this...it really is that red.

Okay, and I had a couple of easy housekeeping chores to do, but then I went to work finishing up November's gold star. I needed to make and trim 24 HST's.

And then, I could sew it all together.

And, yes. I'm feeling pret-ty smug about having November's star done already. Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Since there won't be a new color in December, I'm already thinking December's star will be pulled from my "multi-colored" bin with a focus on fabrics with a black background. 

From there, I was ready to get busy quilting the Cats in Pajamas. My goal was to quilt the eight "spacers." Each was done with this same upsy-downsy heart motif.

When they were all finished, I laid it out for a picture. In this image you can see all the different motifs I've used on this quilt so far.

Here's a peek at the back.

Just the border remains for quilting, and I'll make that my first priority for today's sewing. Probably I'll do the same "half-hearted" motif I used in the vertical sashings, but I want to spend some time on Pinterest looking at other heart-related motifs I might use in the border. With any luck, this will be ready for binding by day's end. 

If I can get the border finished, I'll move directly to squaring it up and machine sewing the binding. The binding is from that same background fabric pictured above. 

My next project is on hold just now. I'm awaiting the fabric I ordered before I can get started on Matthew's zebra quilt. My tracking number promises it will arrive today. I'm hopeful. 

Also, I'm hopeful y'all survived this year's Halloween visitors. Sadie went dressed as a black cat.

Every year...same costume. You'd think she'd outgrow it, but she is a small kitty.

Today will probably be our best day of weather for the week, and so I'm going to cut back the still-blooming dahlias. It's time to be moving them into the garage for the winter. Mike will load them into the tractor bucket for that since the individual pots are pretty heavy. 

Also, we’re going to try to transplant the poppy into a new planter. We started with five whiskey barrels shortly after we moved into our home in 2002. Over time, they’ve rotted and fallen apart. So far, we’ve replaced two of them. The poppy needs to be done now so that it can grow again in the spring. (I might end up having to reseed it.) That will probably wrap up my year of gardening until next spring. 

Next spring, we’ll endeavor to replace the other two whiskey barrels. One has our cherry tomato growing in it, so that will be easy enough. The other has mint growing in it. We could probably just fill the new barrel with soil, and then set it beside the current rotting mint barrel. It would probably start growing there all on its own. If you’ve ever grown mint, then you know I’m not kidding.

So for today I'll focus on getting the Cats in Pajamas to binding stage. Also, I have a couple of easy housekeeping chores. Mike has requested biscotti, and so I’ll probably do that too.

Happy November, Everybody. And if you haven't voted already, please do. Our democracy is counting on you.

Oh Deer

 Good morning, my friends. Things are pretty much back to what passes for normal around here. Our weather hasn’t been as bad as anticipated. We get a little rain each day, but then we can also get blue sky and puffy white clouds. It’s cooler than earlier in the month, and it seems some kind of coat or sweater is a good idea when we’re out and about. 

So I got my pedicure and had some lunch when I got home yesterday. Then I went to work quilting the vertical sashings on the Cats in Pajamas.

Today I’ll aim to get the eight horizontal spacers quilted. I’d call them “sashings” except they don’t extend all the way across. With the blocks offset as they are, they’re really just spacers. In any case, I started my upsy-downsy heart motif in the first one, and then left it needle down for today’s quilty pleasure.

From there, I headed to the downstairs sewing room. As I glanced out the window, I saw three deer! Happily, I already had my camera in my hand. Here’s the doe and her fawn.

And there’s John. You might have heard of him…John Deer? That must be the rest of his family. These are Columbian black-tailed deer.

Okay, well, I’m only sharing two pictures, but I probaby took about 100 of them. 

So, it was a little later than I’d hoped getting October’s star sewn together. It still needed a border.

And that’s done. I’d hoped to get the gold one started today, but I ran out of time. I spent a little time picking through that bin, and I think I have enough gold scraps to pull it off.

Okay so today is going to be kind of a kitchen day. I’m going to start some chili in the slow cooker, and I’ll make some skillet corn bread to go along with that. Then, I had in mind to try a new recipe for Cast Iron Hot Fudge Pudding Cake. The recipe makes a big 10-inch skillet, but I’m going to scale it down to make it a dessert for 2. Of course, I’ll share the link if it’s any good. And since I’m already using my small skillet for corn bread, I’m going to have to rob the skillet from the camper. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

So…plenty on the day’s agenda. Time to get to it. Have a good Friday, Everybody!

On the Mend

Good morning, my friends. Well, I'm back after my "pilot episode" of this year's flu. Interestingly (to me, at least), I looked back at several years of posts to see how I'd reacted to these vaccines in the past. In 2025, we got both flu and COVID on the same day…no reaction…not even a sore arm. Then, I looked up my post about our vaccines from 2024, and I had a similar reaction to this year’s vaccine...fever, chills, and feeling generally ill. In 2023, just general malaise. I know the vaccines are reformulated year to year, but I’m surprised at how differently my body reacts to the changes.

Some folks have suggested getting the vaccines on different days. The problem I have with that is that I don't know which vaccine makes me sick...it could be both. If I get them on separate days, will I just get two days of sickness instead of the usual one day? Whatever...this year's bout is over, and I'm glad of it.

So, I wasn't 100% for the day, but I still managed to get everything done that I wanted to. I spent a little extra time on my slow-stitching in the morning.

Now I’ve moved my hoop to encompass the last of it. It’ll probably still be at least a couple of days, but these stitch up pretty fast.

There was one housekeeping chore to do. I worked it into my quilting schedule. There were four of these “spacers” to quilt. So I did two of them, and then a little housework, and then two more, and then a little more housework. This is my trick to convince myself that I’m really actually having fun while I’m cleaning. This is a little meander with a loop and a heart-shaped leaf. Pretty simple.

Next (maybe today), I’ll quilt the three vertical sashings. For this, I’m going to do what I call a “half-hearted” motif. It’s really just kind of a widely spaced feather. Here, I started with the left side of the heart, then moving up, the right side, and then back to the left. It’s pretty simple. I just got it started, and then left it needle down at that point. 

This is all the help I got from kitties today.

In fairness, they were ‘zhausted from their duty as medicinal cats the day before. And does anyone think I’d be feeling better today without their dedicated care?

Well, Sadie felt guilty enough that she joined me in the sewing room while I worked on October’s Inverted Star.

She helped me cut and sew the pieces I’d need for this Brown Star. When October’s color was announced, it was nothing more descriptive than “neutrals in dark or light.” Brown was my choice on the spur of the moment yesterday afternoon. Just now as I’ve been writing, I remembered the special significance of the Brown Star. You can read its significance at this very old blog post.

It still needs to be sewn together, and then I’ll make another one for November. There won’t be a new color for November, and so I’m thinking I’ll do mine in dark yellow/gold. I’ve already done a yellow star, but I think I can pull enough goldish-colored scraps to contrast with the original brighter yellow. 

Also on today’s agenda, I’m getting my monthly pedicure, which actually is about three weeks late at this point. My toes will thank me. As much as I like my pedicures, it’s still an interruption to my day, and it means driving somewhere. Not far, fortunately, but any time I have to drive farther than the end of my driveway, I feel terribly put-upon and inconvenienced. And all of that whining to say that I still think I’ll have plenty of time for sewing today. 

All right then. Onward. Watch out for spooks. The time grows nigh. But I can't end this post without wishing you a very happy National Cat Day.

Smitty's Bad Day

Good morning, my friends. I'll just start right out by saying there's nothing to worry about with Smitty. I'll say more about that in a minute. With a vet visit in our immediate future, it seemed appropriate that I took the first stitches on the Pieces of the Heart stitchery yesterday morning. I’m just getting started on the body of the cat.

When I’d used up all my stitching time, we crated up the cat and headed to the vet. He was not happy about that at all.

Our vet has expanded into the building adjacent to theirs. Now there is a special cat area, which Smitty thought was well deserved.

No woofies. Thank you. 

We're still awaiting the lab results of his stool sample to see if he has parasites, but his blood work was all normal. We're told he has a slight decrease in kidney function, but that it's common in a cat his age. Depending on the results of the remaining lab work, the worst that will happen is that we'll start him on a diet lower in protein so that his kidneys won't have to work as hard. Sadie is considered a geriatric cat as well, although she's a few years younger than Smitty. The change in diet will probably be good for her too.

Okay, so that eased our minds, and it looks like we'll have our Smitty for a while. Back home, I had some cooking to do. We’re celebrating Erik’s October 9th birthday tonight. When we’re celebrating somebody’s birthday, I let them choose the dessert. Erik chose creme brulee, and so I did those first. It’s a scary process, but we got ‘er done. I’m starting to think the opportunity to light a blow torch and brulee them is part of the draw when you have three adult men in the house.

We’re keeping it simple. Mike is grilling some steaks. I’ll make some cottage fried potatoes. Yesterday, I made a 7-Layer Salad. It’s one of Erik’s favorites.

Okay, and that was the end of the day’s to-do’s. It was nearly 2:00 by then. Since I haven’t worked on the  Northern Wilderness blocks for a few days, I decided to head to the downstairs sewing room. 

My iron gave up the ghost recently. It was a Black & Decker iron, made from white plastic. It was a wedding gift when we married 51+ years ago. It gave its all in the service of ironing over the years. I had Mike take a look at it, although I didn’t expect he could fix it. It wouldn’t stay on for more than a few seconds. Also, it was making a sort of buzzing sound. That was all Mike needed to hear: Trash.

All right then. I went online and looked for another Black & Decker iron. If the previous one lasted more than 51 years, I figure the next one will outlive me. The only full-sized irons I could find on Amazon were of the metal variety. It’s a little heavier than my old iron, but it works well, and it’ll be fine. Spiffy, huh? So shiny!

It was surprising how inexpensive a new iron was. That got me wondering…unless you use it for sewing, do people actually iron any more? Except for sewing, I probably haven’t ironed any of my clothing in decades. The last time I remember ironing an article of clothing was the shirt for the tuxedo Matthew wore to his senior prom in 2002. So…maybe the low demand for irons has kept the price down. Something to ponder…or not. Probably I already have enough pondering irons in the fire. (Ha! Did you see what I did there?)

Okay well Sadie was tired of all this iron nonsense.

Purrhaps we could get on with the sewing, if you don’t mind. Wait, what? Are you doing papurr-piecing today?

Well, she hates paper-piecing as much as I do, and so she suddenly remembered a photoshoot with Purrboy magazine that was scheduled in just a few minutes. She was shooting her centerfold shot. She asked for my opinion of her purrsitioning just before leaving. Not bad…a little more streeeeeetch, maybe.

So then I went along my not-so-merry way with the paper-piecing. This is for the Orca block on the Northern Wilderness project. The quilt block for this one is “Storm at Sea.” I’ve never actually made this block before. I made the center.

And then the sides.

And then I just needed to add the corners and sew it together. Ta-da!

It was a slow process and that took the whole of my sewing day. Probably today I’ll have time to sew the rest of the background pieces and add the applique. There are only about six applique pieces.

So this morning I’m making a marinade for our steaks. Later this afternoon I’ll chop up the potatoes. Aside from that there’s a little tidying up to be done. Hopefully, there will be some time for sewing this afternoon. I’ve yet to make October’s block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. It makes sense to make a block for both October and November at the same time. (There won’t be a new color in November.) There’s been no more progress on the quilting for Cats in Pajamas. It’s such a large quilt, working on it tires me out. Next week should be less busy. I’m looking forward to having some good uninterrupted sewing time.

All right then. Dinner preparations await. It’s going to be a good weekend. I hope y’all have a good weekend ahead of you too.

Lots of Sewing

Good morning, my friends. The camper is unpacked. The bedding, towels, rugs, and quilts are washed. The birds have been fed, and what else is there? Oh yes...I needed to find room for five more refrigerator magnets. Standing in front of the refrigerator is discouraged at this point. Hard hats are required.

Matthew suggested we might need a new refrigerator if we are to do more traveling. 

Probably I've forgotten something I still need to do, but I spent a good part of the day sewing yesterday. My first task was to reorganize and figure out where I left off. But first, slow-stitching. I've stitched enough on this section of the flock, 

That I decided to move my hoop up and to the left. This is where I'll start this morning.

Okay, and then I headed into the sewing room. This next task was to press the final block for the Snowmen & Reindeer project. It was started and finished on the road.

Sadie helped me trim it to size.

And then I could lay it out with the rest of the blocks. This project will be moving to the "quilt tops to finish" section of my white board. It's third in line to be finished.

Since that was the last block for that project, it was time to choose another. Mr. Random chose project #2 on my list.

Which happens to be another Crabapple Hill project: Over the River and Through the Woods.

It’s almost as if this was foretold while we were traveling. It occurred to me that I didn't have any quilts to celebrate Thanksgiving, and this one came to mind. It's been in my pattern stash for a very long time. Now, I'm kind of excited to get started on it. 

Okay, and the only other thing I needed to do to get back on track was to iron the Plaid Cat stitchery. This was another I finished while we were traveling. 

It's been added to the "small quilt tops to finish" section of my white board, and it too is third on the list to be finished.

All right...so that brought me to where I left off when we started our trip. I'd been working on the fourth block for "Across the Wide Missouri." The applique was finished, but details needed to be stitched in. Here's where I left it.

Most of my sewing time yesterday was taken up stitching in the details on the yarrow and the bee skep.

And that completed the fourth block for this project.

That seemed like a good place to stop for the day.

Today I still have a few things to do in the camper...mainly, putting back all the stuff that was washed yesterday. When I've crossed off all my to-do's, I'll start on my next quilting project. I'm still working at getting my quilts-to-be-quilted pile down to a dull roar. Next up is the Cats in Pajamas project. I spent some time yesterday smoothing and ironing the back, and I'll start quilting it today. For this project, I'll do one row of cats per day. If I can stitck with that schedule, I should have it to binding stage in about a week.

Next up on my list of WIP's are two more blocks for the Northern Wilderness project. I'll be working on the final two blocks for this project. These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

And that'll keep me busy in the sewing room for several days.

Oh yes, and as I've been writing, I remember I need to make October's block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. October's color is “neutrals in dark or light.” I'll need to give that some thought….a dark grey maybe. Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Okay, so off I go. We got a little rain yesterday. I need to pull some weeds from my weedy herb garden. The rain will have softened the ground making that easier. The whole day yesterday was spent laundering everything from the camper. Today, I'll work on washing the clothes. The coming week is going to get a little busy. It'll be good to get in some sewing today.