Bag Ladies are In the Bag

The bag ladies are not intoxicated...just to be clear. But they are finished. I had the most faithful assistants working with me to bring this to a close.

Sadie...I need you! I've been working on this quilt binding for hours, and I need some relief.

Okay, Smitty. Just let me know when you want me to take over. I'll be right here.

We're almost finished, Sadie. I'll just rest my nose right here. Pawssibly, I can hold on to the end.

When I'd turned the last corner and finished it off, I laid it down for it's "four corners" picture...um...excuse me...would you mine just...

Okay, there we go. Did I mention Smitty helped finish this off?

And there we go. A happy and colorful quilt.

As mentioned previously, I've been rehoming some of my quilts and lightening my load. While I was stitching around the binding, I was considering what to do with this one. It's going to go to a friend who was diagnosed with a rather aggressive cancer earlier this year. (Yeah...2020 has been a major bummer of a year.) She's been undergoing treatment, and it looks like she's going to be okay. Nevertheless, she's had trouble regulating her body temperature, and so I decided to pass along this quilt to her. It'll be a great snuggle quilt for someone trying to keep warm.

Moving on, I was in a mood to switch out my fall runners, toppers, and wall-hanging for the more Octobery stuff. This little table topper is called Pumpkin Patch. The pattern was from the September, 2016, issue of Quilter's World.

This next little wall-hanging was the result of an all-day class I took with Meg Hawkey of Crabapple Hill Studios when she visited a local quilt shop. The embroidered pumpkin pie design was hers, and then I borrowed two more pumpkins from the table topper above to make this little quilt. I really like this little space on the wall between my kitchen and dining room. Originally, I didn't set out to have it be a quilt-swapping area, but it has worked out that way.

And, check out those bullion stitches. Those were my first successful ones. Meg sat by my side and taught me how to make them. The trick is not wrapping the floss around the needle too tightly.

And, finally, this little runner on our breakfast bar. This little quilt is called "Cornflowers," and the pattern was one I picked up from a "clearance" box at a San Diego quilt shop. It was from Sticks and Broomstraws. The flowers and the prairie point borders are made to look like candy corn. Rarely do I make the same quilt twice, but I think this would be cute done in spring colors with flowers made in different colors. Maybe some day I'll do it, but it was a pain top-stitching around all those petals and leaves, so maybe not. 

Okay, so then I went back to my slow-stitching. I filled in as much as I could on the latest plate for Pieces of the Past.

Today I'll start on this next section. I couldn't quite fit the whole thing in the hoop, which activates my OCD something awful.

While I was working on that, Mike brought in the mail. Lo and behold, there was a mug rug from my "ghost" partner in the Teal Mini Swap. Sheesh. Now who woulda' thought? So, thank you, partner. I take back all the bad thoughts I had about you. Why didn't you respond to my many messages??? Whatever. I love all the colors in this.

When describing my likes and dislikes for the swap, I always just say I'm a born cat lover. She included a fat quarter of this cute fabric. Are these cats wearing pajamas, or are they children wearing cat pajamas? I'm kind of going with the cats wearing pajamas because of the whiskers. Very cute.

Also in the mail was a bag of 50 tongue depressors I ordered. I saw this on Pinterest...or somewhere...I can't remember. It's ribbon wrapped around tongue depressors. I thought this would be a good idea for left over quilt binding.

So, I had quite a bit of leftover quilt binding, and I spent some time wrapping all of it around the tongue depressors. I used bent pins and old sewing machine needles from my "sharps" container to fasten the ends. I had in mind to use a large jar like the one above, but I had so many they were packed in too tightly, and I couldn't really see them. Instead, I used one of those plastic bags I save from sheet sets. And there they are...all tidy now.

I spent so much time on that, I barely had any time left to work on the New Mexico Kitchen block. I only had time to add the bowl of batter there on the right.

I'll have more time to work on it today, and I really do expect to get all of the fusing finished. If I'm really speedy, I should be able to get a start on the top-stitching.

So that was kind of a full day. I even squeezed in some housekeeping. Today there's nothing on the calendar. It's going to be an NBS day (Nothing But Sewing). I love Saturday, don't you?

Lots of Sewing

With rain falling for most of the day, it was very nearly sewing all day long. I was brave and did a little housework too. It allowed me to sew without guilt. The morning's slow stitching had me getting a start on the next plate for Pieces of the Past. 

It's a small piece, and so I expect it won't take long to finish it. When I was ready, I did my housekeeping chore, and then rewarded myself with some slow stitching around the binding for the Bag Ladies. I've turned the second corner now.

And time flies, doesn't it, because it was time to collect the mail then. I found my Teal Mini Swap mug rug there along with several fat quarters and fat eighths of fabric. My swap partner completely ghosted me this year. I tried half a dozen times in different ways to contact her. Then, disgusted, I went ahead and made her mug rug and mailed it off. I mention my disgust because I didn't even bother to take a picture of the mug rug I made. It was a mug rug with teal "plus" blocks on a blue crab fabric background. (She lives in North Carolina, and I made use of the blue crab fabric I bought while we were traveling there.)

So, I mailed that off about a month ago, and never heard word one from her. It was kind of a disappointing swap experience. The thing is...in a swap, it's the relationship that comes from it that makes it fun for me. The swap is only secondary. So...anyway...(picks self up, dusts self off), Beth, who organizes this whole thing, also sets up an army of "angels" for just this sort of occurrence. My angel, Nancy, sent me all this cool stuff, and that's my mug rug there at the bottom. The teal spoon was the fabric used in this year's swap. Thank you, Nancy. It was a very fun package to open, and it went a long way toward salving my wounds of disappointment.

Also, I received a fabulous package from Nanette, who decided to unload a bunch of Cynthia England patterns and a Cynthia England book. Someone told Nanette I might be interested in this stuff, and whoa! I forget who told her, but thank you. And thank you, Nanette. If you're unfamiliar with Cynthia England's work, I highly recommend doing a Google search for her name. You can find her gallery right here. If you do a YouTube search, you'll find some video tutorials about her technique. I was lucky enough to see this fabulous quilt when I attended the Northwest Quilting Expo in 2018.

As for yesterday's mail, what a treasure trove this was!

Also included was this pattern and the fabric kit to go along with it.

Well...I'm going to have fun with all of that. Those will make great take-along projects when we head south this winter.

So back in the sewing room, I finished up the three "blanks" for Jenny's Flower Garden. I ended up with a lot of oranges and dark purples for these blocks. Oh well...they'll be spaced randomly throughout the quilt, and so it probably doesn't matter there wasn't more variation.

With those done, I had another row complete. I've laid all the blocks out to show the design of this triple Irish chain. When all the rows are complete, it will be set 7 blocks by 7 blocks.

And with that finished, I was also able to get on with the next block for the Shop Hop 2.0 quilt. This time, I'm using a fabric I picked up at It's Sew Moab from our last trip to Moab, Utah. Mike and I love Moab, and we've visited many times. Our last trip was to ride ATV's. I couldn't find a fabric specific to ATV's, but this Jeep fabric seemed like a good choice. I drive a Jeep, after all.

But on a visit in 2006, Mike and I rented a Jeep and drove Schaffer Canyon Road in nearby Canyonlands National Park. It was great fun. Here, Mike was surveying the view.

Along the way, we passed this immense natural bridge. It was about 5 feet wide and many hundreds of feet above the canyon floor. It was possible to walk across. Ordinarily, this sort of thing would be too scary for me. The width of the bridge was enough that I felt safe venturing out and boldly lying down for this next shot. At least lying down, I wasn't afraid of falling.

Okay, so enough reminiscing...let's get on with this block. A few of you have asked how I do the lettering, and so I'm just about to tell you. I first print it out on a regular sheet of paper. In this case, I'm using a 22 point font called "Banschrift SemiBold." It's a good idea to write down where this file is stored on your computer so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel with every block. I just reopen the old file and put in a new name each time. The font stays consistent.

Then, it's traced out on a large piece of fabric a little wider than what I'll need for the finished block. Also, you need to leave enough room for your embroidery hoop...unless you're one of those hoopless people. Definitely, I am not among you. This one was short, and so it stitched up pretty quick. I'm just using two strands of black floss and a simple backstitch.

Another way to avoid reinventing the wheel with each block is to take a photo of the first one indicating how to trim. In this case, I've lined up the 1-1/2 inch line on my ruler with the bottom of the lettering. 

Trim the top there, and then measure for the bottom and sides, and you have your block's "name plate."

The strips were mostly all cut from the last block I made, and so this one went together pretty quickly.

These are the four blocks I have for this quilt so far.

You can find the tutorial for the photo quilt block right here. The camera quilt block tutorial can be found right here. I like how this is turning out. The photo quilt blocks are especially cute for this quilt. I'm not sure yet how many blocks I'll make before I'm ready to sew it into a flimsy, but the camera block will be right in the middle.

Okay, so for today's sewing, I'll get started on the next block for New Mexico Kitchen. I'll be making the Blue Corn Bread block. Here's the picture from the pattern cover.

These take a while to make, and so I don't expect to finish it today, but I'll get a good start on it.

So there was lots of sewing yesterday, and not a cat in sight. It's hard to get good help these days.

Hot Harvest

We had very warm weather yesterday. Toward the end of the afternoon, the temperature outside was 98°F., which is very hot for our hill. I can only imagine how people in the valley were suffering. We're expecting more hot weather today, but this morning's sunrise was beautiful. I can't recall seeing raking light from the clouds like this before.

While I was out, I walked all the way around the house, passing by Smitty along the way. He loves the warm weather and spends most of his time out on the catio.

Also, I passed by one of the few sunflowers not eaten by squirrels. It has a lean to it, and its stem was chewed at some point. I didn't think it would survive, but it has. Now it's beginning to open, and there are several flowers on it.

My first work of the day was to get out, hoe the garden, harvest some beets, and then water the flower pots. I've been keeping an eye on the beans, although it's been several days since I've checked. Some of the first ones to appear are ready for harvest now. That will be my first act this morning. If they're left too long on the vine, they can get tough and stringy, and so I want to start paying better attention from here on. There are lots and lots of tiny ones, but I expect another week or so will have them ready for harvest.

The corn tassels are appearing in greater numbers now. I love looking out across a cornfield filled with tasseled tops.

It's been so long since we've grown corn, I've forgotten what to expect from them. Unless I'm wrong about this, I believe I'm seeing the first ears appearing.

This is the time of year when I start getting nervous about the harvest. We have plans for a two-week (or so) trip right after Labor Day. Now I worry the corn will be ready for harvest while we're gone, which would be a shame. I'll pay attention. We may ask one of the kids to come up and harvest it if it happens while we're away. And, of course, the annual plum worries have begun. Last year, the plums ripened just as we were heading out the door for our trip to Colorado (which seems more like ten years ago). I ended up harvesting enough for barbecue sauce, pitting, and freezing them to be canned when we got back. As for the corn, I just want it straight from the plant, and so I'm really hoping it will ripen before we go or after we get back.

Checking on the sunflowers, I didn't see anything new, but I did notice this new wildflower in the "bee garden."

Here's my beet harvest. Most of these will go for pickled beets, but I have a recipe on next week's menu for some Roasted Beet Soup with Creme Fraiche. I made it a while back, and it was good. I'll serve it with some crusty bread and beet green pesto. I'll say more about it when I actually make it. For now, pickling is on the agenda for Monday.

Checking the greenhouse, I harvested the first two tomatoes. The rest are still green, so these are early.

Sadly, they have blossom-end rot. 

Not to worry. I did some reading about this. It can happen because of a calcium deficiency in the plant, but it's more complicated than that. You can read about it right here. I'm not too concerned because as the article notes, "[t]his can happen especially on the first tomatoes of the season." While I was in the greenhouse, I noticed one green one had fallen on the ground, and it too had the rot. Looking at the others, they all look fine, and so I'm kind of chalking this up to the "first tomatoes" problem. Hopefully, it won't develop on the rest. Mike checked the watering schedule and the moisture in the soil yesterday. We'll keep a close eye on them, just in case this turns out to be a watering problem. Oh yes, and that timing-of-the-harvest problem mentioned earlier? Well, I'm worried about it with these too.

I was reminded that yesterday was National Lemon Meringue Pie Day, which sounded something like a mandate to me. Instead of pie though, I made this Lemon Meringue Tart for Two. 

I made this once before while we were traveling. When we're in the RV, I use Pillsbury pie crusts. At home, I decided to try their from-scratch recipe. The recipe called for an even split between all-purpose flour and whole-wheat pastry flour. Since I had a whole bag of whole-wheat pastry flour, I used that, but this could just as easily be done using only all-purpose flour.

Finally, I made my way into the sewing room around 2:00 p.m. My first stop was to make a mug rug for my partner in the Teal Mini Swap. I can't show this yet, although I'm fairly certain my partner doesn't read my blog. It's disappointing that I haven't been able to connect with my partner, despite numerous tries. It's not as much fun when there's no contact.

My next job was to add a hanging sleeve to Tuxedo Tales. Smitty has concerns about this quilt.

This notion of cats wearing tuxedos is troubling to me. I hope you're not expecting us to put on formal attire.

No way, Smitty. There's just no way I'm going to put on a formal in this hot weather. And don't even bother asking me to the prom. Even if I wanted to go, I'd save myself for the quarterback on the football team.

So I had some cut-off fabric from the edge of the quilt, and I made a sleeve from that.

This quilt is going to hang on the second floor of the Mewseum. There is only one other cat quilt hanging on the second floor, this one:

There is still a little room on the first floor for smaller quilts, but this one is too large. You can tour the Mewseum beginning at this post. More recent additions can be seen here, here, and here.

Smitty helped me sew on the sleeve for the tuxedos, and I think he's taking a shine to this quilt. It has excellent napping features.

Also, in the hot weather, it seemed like a good time to put out the Outback Sunrise table runner. Cats on the table is usually outlawed, but Smitty tests all the table runners when they're switched out. It doesn't make a lot of sense to him to put out a quilt and not expect a cat to lie on it.

So that brings me to the end of my day yesterday. I'm going to get out early and harvest my green beans. I don't think there are many ready yet, but sometimes I'm surprised. After that, I think it will be a mostly sewing day. Mike and I have considered driving into town for a short outing, but in this hot weather, staying inside also sounds like a good idea.