How Do You Like Them Apples?

There was no time for the sewing room yesterday. I left home early to run some errands. First on my list was the post office, which was not crowded for a change. Then, I had my favorite breakfast of 

Egg McMuffin. It's a little treat I give myself for getting dressed before noon. Then it was a quick trip to the grocery store, and a mad dash home to put away the groceries before turning around and heading out again. I needed to drive into downtown Portland for an appointment with my dermatologist. I don't drive into downtown Portland often, but when I do, it gives me a bad case of road rage.

The best part of yesterday was stopping off at Oregon Heritage Farms where they grow lots of apples. I picked up nine pounds of Braeburns and Granny Smiths.

It seems I haven't had enough canning yet this year because I got a bee in my bonnet to make some apple pie filling after messaging with a friend about what she was doing. Her recipe uses butterscotch schnapps, and that sounded pretty good to me. I'll have to hold off on this until the weekend however because I have not been able to find a local source for Clear Gel, which seems to be the thickener of choice for pie fillings. I ordered some from Amazon, but it won't arrive until Friday.

In yesterday's mail was a package of thread and sewing machine needles I ordered last week. I'm gearing up to quilt the Cats of a Different Color.

While I'm not completely clear on what I'm going to do with all of the quilting yet, I have decided to try making some paw prints on the backgrounds of the cat blocks, and then microstipple around them to make them stand out. I've consulted the machine quilters on the Sit Down Free Motion Quilter's Facebook group and got some recommendations. I decided to order a small spool of this thread from Superior Threads.

These are the smallest needles I've been able to find for Eliza. It's the same size I use when I'm quilting on my domestic machine, so hopefully, they'll get the job done.

For the bobbin, I want to use a monofilament thread. The plan is to use clear, but I happen to have a smoky monofilament already wound on a bobbin, and that seemed good enough for practice.

My practice cat has arrived, and so let's give it a go.

The color choice is good, and so I guessed correctly on that. I pulled out a practice piece and tried microstippling around the stars. They seemed like good stand-ins for paw prints. Obviously, I need more practice, and I'd like to be able to make those little curves even smaller.

Things were going along pretty well. It's a little hard to tell on this fabric. Even though it has been washed, it still has a stiff feeling to it...almost like canvass.

The silk thread on top was breaking and so I tried rethreading the machine using only two holes of this insy-outsy thingamajig. (Technical sewing machine terms, so try to keep up.)

Then I tried flipping the excess fabric at the edge of the quilt over the batting and practicing there. I didn't give myself much room, but this is looking pretty good. Maybe just loosen that top thread tension a little.

I'm satisfied that this is going to be the right thread for the job, but I'm going to need a larger spool. I'm not ready to start quilting this yet, and so I'll order some more before I get started.

This is how Miss Sadie spends her mornings. The hummingbirds come to the feeder, and she watches them and chatters away. Sorry for that grainy iPad image. I knew if I moved, she'd jump down, and so I took it from across a dark room. You get the idea.

Today is Tuesday Archives over at Val's Quilting Studio.

Today's theme is "Free Choice and a Giveaway." Sharon V. had a good suggestion to post a quilt you might have made before you started blogging. I wanted to post my first quilt, a nine patch and rail,

and then realized it was pictured with this post about The Perfect Quilt. It's an excellent essay from Teri Christopherson, and a reminder to all of us not to take ourselves too seriously. When I took my very first quilting class at our local community college, the instructor read it aloud to us as we cut our first strips using our rotary cutters. It set me on a path to quilting with joyful abandon, and I will always be grateful to my instructor for sharing it. Check it out at that link I've given you.

Today I'm tackling Mt. Laundry, which has grown taller than Mt. Everest this week. That will leave me plenty of time for working on the farm some more. Also, it's a CSA pick-up day. It's always fun to see what the farmers have grown for us this week.

ICYMI: There's a giveaway going on, along with the launch of a stitch-along. Don't miss out. Giveaway ends on Friday. Click right here to enter.

Pie for Pi Day

Who was the genius who thought up Pi Day? Well, you know me: I had to Google that the instant I typed it. As it turns out it was William Jones way back in 1706. In other words, Bill Jones. That's obviously a pseudonym, don't you think? He was probably afraid of being stoned by the geometry haters among us. I've never forgiven my 10th grade geometry teacher, Mr. Murphy. Yes...curse you, Mr. Murphy! (I feel better now, don't you?)

So anyway...I doubt old Bill was thinking about pie at the time, but that's what I think about when Pi Day rolls around, and so I spent quite a bit of yesterday baking a lemon meringue pie. It's my favorite. I like it just for its luscious self, but somehow I developed a rep in my family for being a lemon meringue fan, and so my grandma and my aunt always made it when our family came for a visit. Thank you, Grandma and Aunt Joan! (Figured I'd balance things out after being so mean to Mr. Murphy.) Anyway...here's my second ever lemon meringue pie. Purty, huh?

The first time I tried baking a lemon meringue pie was last year when I made a lemon meringue pie for two. The one I made yesterday, however, was the full meal deal...none of this "for two" restraint. Just like last year, I wondered when we cut into it if the meringue would stick to the filling or whether it would just slide off and go its own way. And the verdict is....ta da!

Lovely. I'm using the recipe from Cook's Illustrated's Baking Illustrated cookbook. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see the link I've given you there since Cook's Illustrated is a membership website. Sometimes you can see the recipes without a membership; so, fingers crossed. Anyway...they suggest rolling the pie dough out in graham cracker crumbs to keep it crisp once the pie shell is filled. Last time I made it I wasn't successful in keeping the crust from getting soggy. This time, I made sure I gave it a good coating of graham cracker crumbs on both sides, and it was wonderful. Also, the dough was a dream to work with. Pie crusts are always kind of hit or miss with me, and this one was a big hit.

Hands on time for the pie wasn't a lot, but it still took many hours to make it. First I had to make the pie dough and then it had to chill. Then after I put it into the pie plate, it had to chill again. Then I had to bake it. Then it had to cool. Then I had to make the filling and the meringue. And then it had to bake again. It took most of the day, and it chopped my sewing time up into little portions. I decided it was a good day to do small projects, because I really hate being interrupted when I'm sewing.

So I finished patching the flannel utility quilt I was working on the other day. And then, I'm nearly finished with the Hocuspocusville block, and so I decided to make up my next embroidery block. This is one of the Live, Love, Teach blocks. Here's Connie's original submission:

 This one is all embroidery, and so I traced out the embroidery, and then used the triple stitch on my sewing machine to stitch around the circle. The rest will be done by hand.

And speaking of Hocuspocusville, this morning I took it very close to a finish before I had to stop.

Now the last bit of it is hooped up. It should be finished no later than tomorrow morning. I'm hoping I'll have some time to work on it this afternoon.

Today I'm heading off to our CSA farmer's farm to pick up some fresh eggs. Our CSA share probably won't start up until the end of April, but the Ladies of Chateau Poulet are laying again, and so egg shares have started up. Yay! I do love those farm fresh eggs. As long as I'm out, I'll make a quick trip to the grocery store. I think I have food to get us through the week, but there are always a few stragglers that I need to purchase. Also, for St. Patrick's Day, I'm planning a dinner of Mustard-Crusted Pork Loin with Apple-Cabbage Slaw. I haven't tried it yet, and so this doesn't count as an endorsement of the recipe, but the picture looks good.

(photo by Joanne Murphy)

It's kind of fun to go Irish on St. Paddy's Day. I found that recipe when I came across another recipe for Colcannon. It appears to simply be mashed potatoes with shredded savoy cabbage mixed in, but it looks pretty darned good in the picture. (Do you think it's that melting pat of butter on top?) Besides, I have some savoy cabbage left over from another dinner.

(image source)

So that's my day. But I can't go without sharing my submission for

Today's theme is cross-hatch quilting and I have the perfect quilt to show you just before St. Patrick's Day. It's a little doll quilt I made for my friend Lisa's granddaughter, whose name is Irish.

You can read the original post from when I finished the quilt right here.

Tuesday Archives: January/February Goals and Progress Report

Ordinarily, I'd be waiting until January 1st to post my monthly goals, but blame Val for forcing my hand. There's a party going on, and I just hate to be left out. Quite a few of you have posted your goals for 2016, and I can only post my goals a month at a time. There's only so much room in my brain for planning. As for 2016, like most of you I'm hopeful of clearing some very old projects off my to-do list this year. 

But let's not be jumping ahead of ourselves because it's time to check-in on the last list of 2015. How'd we do?

Quilting and Flimsies

1. I want to finish quilting and binding the Doors of Ireland, pictured above. Complete!

2. At least get a start sewing together the Quilting Snowladies. Complete!

WIP's

3. I want to complete four more blocks for the Live, Love, Teach quilt. These are the ones on tap for December. When these are complete, I will have finished 40 of the 56 blocks. Complete!

4. There are three more blocks to finish for the Cats of a Different Color quilt, and that will bring the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge to a close. Complete!

5. This month's block for the Block Lotto is a simple scrappy block, and so I'll make one for that challenge.

blocklotto.com
This month we're making the Wonky Strips block. Complete!

So those were the "meat and potatoes" projects for the month. After that, I decided to have some fun.

Just for Fun

6. First on the just-for-fun list is to make up the Scrappy Santa door hanger kit I ordered in November. Complete!

7. Also, I want to make the orange Four Fabric Forest I talked about some time ago. Complete! 

8. If I can get those finished, I'd like a winter table runner for my table. I've had Icy Blues on my list for quite some time, and I'll use this as my project for the Let's Book It challenge since I printed this pattern off eons ago. It's a free pattern from the All People Quilt website. Complete! At this writing, I'm ready to hand sew the binding, and this one will be history. And there's no Let's Book It in December, but Sharon told me I could use it in January. Fair enough...never let it be said that I passed up an offer like that.

Not bad, eh? So with everything complete, let's talk about

9. At least get started on the quilt I'd like to make from my autumn leaves photograph. No progress.

All right, so the contestant wishes to argue with the judges about her bonus points. Some people take quilting so seriously, you know what I mean? Let's listen in:

The contestant (whining): It's true that I didn't even start on the leaves, but I DID do a different project...and I didn't even think of it when I chose this for bonus points...I thought of it afterward. Can't I even substitute a fricking different project for bonus points, huh????!!?? This pageant is rigged, I tell you. Rigged!!!!!

The judges have their heads together in a huddle, discussing, whispering (cue that Final Jeopardy music while we await their decision). Oh WOW! She's lodged an effective protest, and the judges are in agreement with her. She CAN substitute her "Whose Woods Are These?" quilt for her bonus points project!

And with that in mind...

Phew! I thought there was going to be a rumble right here on the blog! (Takes a big swig of water...bonus point negotiation is thirsty work.)

Okay so here's the Tuesday Archives linky party part of my goals for the year. What's on tap for January?

Well...first I have to say that January and February are going to be a combined list of goals. We're taking off on a trip on January 23rd and won't be back until February 7th. I was kind of confused about how I was going to set up my goals, but then decided to combine the lists for both months and aim for finishing everything by February 29th. Yes, it's a leap year! Wahoo! (Yeah, I get excited about little things like that...and besides, it's just one more day of sewing.)

So okay, here goes:

Quilting and Flimsies

1. Quilt and bind the Quilting Snowladies (pictured above). They are so excited!!!

2. Make a flimsy from some bee blocks I almost forgot about from last year. I have some great fabrics to complete this top, and I'm going to call the quilt "Stars and Stripes". I thought I might have a picture of all 12 blocks, but I couldn't find it. These are the two I made for the bee during my month as hostess. There are 10 more made by the other quilters in the hive.

WIP's

3. Continue on with Blocks 41-44 for the Live, Love, Teach quilt. 

4. There are also two blocks that will need to be remade. Since we're traveling, I like to take hand work along, and these two blocks are all embroidery. It seems a good way to keep the project moving along at a brisk (cough) pace while also giving myself a little break. So...I also have a goal of redoing these two blocks:

5. Make the next section for A Quiltmaker's Garden.

6. Add another row of blocks to the Mulligan Stew quilt.

7. Make the next block for It's Raining Cats and Dogs:

8. Make the next section for the Mumm's the Word quilt:

9. Finish the remaining four blocks for the Yard Art quilt...and this one will be celebration worthy, so have that champagne chilling:

Monthly Challenges

10. I'd like to make both the January and February blocks for 

blocklotto.com

11. And I'll get a start on my next project for:

I have a fun project picked out for the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge...this "Happy Campers" quilt designed by Sew 4 Fun. (I looked for the original link to this project, and couldn't find it.)

12. Finally, I still want to participate in the new and fabulous

As mentioned, my January project is done, but we're doing two months of goals here, and so I need a project for February. My focus for the Let's Book It Challenge is going to continue to be small quilts and table runners. I'd like a table runner for my February breakfast bar. Sometimes I'm drawing projects from my bookshelf, and then there's this bookshelf in my closet with my big, big, big notebooks of quilt patterns I've printed off the internet. They're so big, they have a hard time standing up straight!

Anyway...I searched through my "lap and table" book yesterday and found this little cutie from Little Bits of This & That. Sherri was kind enough to post a free pattern for this Be Mine table runner, and so I'll shoot for that in February. I have the perfect fabrics already in my stash.

And that's a long list, but remember...it's two months worth of sewing. 

But you know my list is never complete without some projects for

There are still some quilts in my quilts to be quilted pile...there's all waiting their turn very impatiently. With that in mind, I'd sure like to get these three little quilts quilted.

And that, my friends, is a list long enough to hold any quilter for two months. Now head on over to the party at Val's Quilting Studio and see what your other blogging friends have planned for the new year.