Back in Iowa for q while

When we got home, we had a fabulous Easter dinner with most of the kids and grandkids. This time we had butterflied leg of lamb, and it was lovely. Because Kevin cooked it in the sous vide, it left the oven free for roasted carrots. It takes a LOT of carrots for 13 people! We also had green beans with bacon and onions cooked in the Instant Pot. It took two Instant Pots to cook the four pounds of fresh beans, and it took Kevin and I both working about 45 minutes to snap them all. Memories of my grandmothers house came back when we would snap a lot of beans on a regular basis during summer. My grandmother did all kinds of canning out of her 1 acre garden. She basically provided vegetables for her, my grandfather, my mom, my sister and me all year.

As I noted last time, the cats were very busy exploring. I tried to put the first load in the dryer, and I was treated by this! Good thing she has bright eyes, because she was really hard to see until I called.

Luna is also a bother downstairs isn the sewing area. She only occasionally will sit with me upstairs, but as soon as I go downstairs she is fully involved! She sits on the quilt while I try to quilt, tries to climb on my lap while I am doing anything, and she is fascinating by seeing the thread  moving from the thread stand to the machine. As soon as I took this picture, I moved her away. Cats and thread are a dangerous combination!

We are also keeping the Amazon delivery drivers busy. Our English friends Tony and Anne showed us pictures from their game camera when we were in Quartzsite. I bought one myself, and set it up at night in the living room to make sure I had the settings right. I didn’t, but the picture below is pretty cute anyway. I have since set the camera for videos and corrected the AM/PM issue.

One of the things I am working on this year is a Block of the Month from Kona Fabrics. It includes a Zoom class with a quilt shop about 45 miles away. She includes all kinds of methods to do the class which is interesting. I pushed my technique in April, and I am not thrilled with the result. I didn’t dislike it enough to take it apart though!

The may version was much easier, and I only had one spot I should have re-done. You can see if you notice it. I am just not too picky anymore.

I finished the quilting for the partner of one of my son’s. She is a Broadway theater fan, and I was pleased to find the feature fabric.

I quilted it with golden yellow thread (hello Tony Awards!) in a random meander with loops and stars.

I used the same color in the binding. I really like doing machine binding this way. I serge the edges first for a nice firm edge, cut binding at 2.25”, sew on front, press well, turn over the edge holding the fold with clips, then sew the binding from the front with a decorative stitch. This time the stitch was a 3 step zigzag, but I have used a number of other stitches in the past.

Iowa had had a terribly dry winter, but we finally got a bunch of rain. The flowers are all considerably delayed, but they are finally coming out. My pink and white bleeding hearts are doing well. Ignore the massive infestation of weed! My local grandchildren are coming over tomorrow to week for me.

And in a statement of really good news, I got another radioablation on my back that has really helped in the almost two weeks since I got it. I am also keeping up my pain meds – gabapentin and cyclobenzaprine plus lidocaine patches occasionally. I still have problems with any walking over a block or so, but I have no real pain when I am not moving. This is a huge improvement over how I felt before the procedure.

I am now working on quilting some other tops that I have been ignoring for far too long. I am also taking a sampler class offered virtually and sponsored by the Arizona Quilt Guild. The guild is well worth the $15 a year in dues!