Still Quilting

The last few rounds of quilting have been doing the boring cable around the last two sides of my DJ border. I've done 3 rounds, and the fourth on one side. I am going to do the fifth cable line on the third side so I can do some free motion for a while. This is just too boring.
On the non-boring front, I went to see Wicked Tuesday night. I loved it :) But it was a very late night, and I was very tired the next day. Very little quilting got done last night. Tomorrow should be better, it is Friday and a short day at work. Saturday is Stitches West, well it started today, but I am going Saturday. Since I am just a beginning knitter, this is rather intimidating, rather overwhelming actually. I have been plodding away at a little washcloth the last couple of days, getting my stockinette stitching better. Cotton is very unforgiving. I need to get a winder, and maybe a swift. We'll see. I can wait on the swift.

Finally Quilting

I've had the border to my Dear Jane quilt marked for a while. I finally got around to starting to quilt it this weekend. All of the plain triangles are now not so plain, they have a feathered triangle quilted in each one of them, 56 all told. When I was quilting the feathers I, every now and then, quilted a pieced triangle as well, so some of them are now quilted too. Then I started on the outer border. I added a border to the quilt so it will be big enough for my queen size bed, and marked a feathered cable on it. One corner might get remarked, but meanwhile, I am quilting what I like. One side is pretty much done (except that funky corner), and I am working my way around the next side, so at least one corner is done! I am using my walking foot to stitch the five rows of cable, boring, but essential. Then I do the other half of the cable with my BSR stitching a feather pattern. The second side is getting its feather treatment. If I can get them all done today, I will be happy, and the quilt border will be halfway done. More or less, I still need to add the background stippling after I do an echo quilting all the way around. But still, making progress.

Friday I finally got the backing pieced for my niece's quilt, and gave that to my sister to quilt. She came down to go to the Pajaro Valley Quilt guild's quilt show with me on Saturday, which was lovely. I saw lots of lovely quilts, and some lovely fabric. Michael Miller has some new Flower Fairy fabric, and I got some of the Periwinkle line. If you go to their website, they have several quick quilts, and I will probably end up doing one of them.

Then Tracey Brookshier had a booth. Love her BB bag, which I plan on making soon! But yesterday I got her Crane Moon pattern. You can see it at http://www.quilterswarehouse.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=BSD07736

I also got the center panel from her, and several coordinating fabrics. I just don't have that many purples! Or didn't, now I do.

I also got some applique thread that comes on bobbins. Such a great idea from Superior Threads. I got a set that comes on a bobbin holder. And a tip, store it upside down so it doesn't get dusty. I generally wind a thread color that I am using on a bobbin anyway, so this saves that step.

I made the fatal error of stepping into Pincushion Boutique's booth, and came out several Sweet Treats later, some to be used in the BB bag mentioned above . Others to be used with the Crane Moon quilt.

All in all, a very quilty weekend

What I've been doing

It has been a while since I have blogged, so to catch up with what I have been doing:

Knitting – I made a wool scarf using a Paton’s light and medium tan (two strands twisted together) and sent it to my son. Then I started trying to knit some socks. Trying is the operative word here, I knit three swatches trying to find the right needle size, well twice was the same needle, just a skinnier swatch, I cast on way to many the first time, still not happy and need to get skinnier needles. So that got set aside for a bit. Then I started a shawl for me, using a variegated black Lion Brand Homespun. So far I have one skein (of four) knit up, and I am getting bored with it. But committed to finishing it too. I have looked for a different pattern to use for the next one, one that will teach me something. So far, this one has taught me how to purl faster. That is a good thing too. The current one is stockinette with a garter stitch border, boring, but it will be useful when done. Since the other patterns also use US size 13 needles, need to finish this one or get more needles to start a new one. And I want to bring this one on the cruise, so want to get it done. So there you go.

Sewing – been making more SBS blocks, have four done this month, although one of them needs to be unstitched a bit, and then redone so I am happy with it. I got 11 or 12 done in January, so have 85 or 86 done right now. Getting there.

Dear Jane has been marked. Still not totally happy with that last corner, but it will do for now while I stitch the triangles.

Cooking – I have a ton (OK, not a ton, but a lot!) of apples from the farm share which I need to process.
I have not been cooking as much as I should, but did last night, and actually cooked Kale where I liked it. Mostly I boiled it for a long time (between 10 and 20 minutes), let the water come to a boil then added the leaves without the stems to the water and let it cook while I prepared the meat. Pan fried pork tenderloin cut 3/8” thick and sprinkled with lemon seasoning in olive oil, removed to a pan, added more oil and a bit of butter to sauté a few sliced mushrooms, then added 1 T water, 1 T Worcestershire sauce, 2 T Jack Daniel’s Old #7 mustard, and the juice of one lemon, let it reduce a bit, added the cooked Kale and the browned pork slices, let everything get warmed back up and serve. I served it with brown rice.