Tripp's Baby Quilt

I had pulled out several quilt pictures when looking for a submission for the Blogger's Quilt Festival last month.  It was tough to pick one!  I ended up submitting Summer Day, even though Pinwheels had been my initial choice.  I figure since I had already written the post, I might as well publish it!  So here it is:

Ambling Along

We are on a fairly regular routine.  Bertie gets Baytril twice a day, in hopes that her failure to gain weight is some well entrenched bug.  She had gained some weight the last time she was on the stuff, but it doesn't seem to be having any effect this time around.  I need to call the vet with a progress report soon.  She won't be happy with my results.  There has been no improvement, and I suspect I've seen a hint of labored breathing.  I've been waiting for this, since Bertie's lungs have not looked good on several x-rays.

Bertie still hovers at about 740g.  She gets critical care once or twice a day (which is a fight), and still is getting jabbed every other day with 30cc of lactated ringers.  The subcues have become a permanent two-man job.  She at least doesn't cry all the time, but she is one pissed off rodent.  Bertie can't stand to be restrained, but she won't sit still, either.  So one person immobilizes her, and the other injects and tries distracting her with treats.

Stitching Strips

Finished rows

The iron is my friend.  I have been coaxing my uneven blocks to match up with the surrounding blocks.  Kind of frustrating, since I focused on sewing accurate 1/4" seams.  Oh, well.  I have about ten rows strung together and three rows all attached.  It's exciting to see it come together.

The pinning and stitching is time consuming.  Every row I work on requires ripping out one or two seams, in an attempt to get everything lined up.  I guess my seam ripper is my other friend.  It can be discouraging seeing all the points that don't match.  I have ripped out some seams, to pin and sew again, only to end up with the exact same problem that I was trying to fix!  If I can't fix a seam after two attempts, I figure it's meant to be as is.

Acorn Squash with Orzo

I got tons of winter squash from the CSA this year.  It's a lot of squash for one person to cook, mash and eat.  So I decided to be a little creative and try some new recipes.  I've been considering some pasta recipes;  a friend of mine just made a delicious butternut squash lasagna.  Then I came across a recipe in this month's Yoga Journal for orzo-stuffed squash.  It looked tasty and I had most of the ingredients on hand.

Do I ever follow directions?  My mother was over last weekend, and we joked about how I learned that from her.  I had two huge acorn squashes, so I used them instead of delicata.  I skipped the pomegranate seeds and forgot the parsley.  I also shredded the sage leaves small and didn't strain them out of the butter.  They smelled so wonderful, it seemed a shame to toss them.

Teach N Treat - Level 2

It was the fifth or sixth time trying the Teach 'N Treat on Level 1 that I saw Pinniped systematically moving the disk and checking the reservoirs for bits of tomato.  Finally - a recognition of cause and effect.  I moved the disk over a few of the pieces she uncovered, and she purposely shoved the disk far over to one corner, and started to check for uncovered tomatoes.  I did not see Bertie do the same, but if Pinni has figured it out, Bertie can't be far behind.

I figured it was time to try Level 2.  This level has four plugs that cover any four holes.  They need to picked up out or knocked over to get to the treat underneath.

Halloween Candy Corn Bark

What was I thinking?

The food blogs I follow have recently posted Candy Corn Pretzel Bark and Candy Corn Cookie Bark.  Talk about sugar overload.  Have you looked at those links?  Doesn't it look tempting?  I kept telling myself not to do it.  But we went to the grocery store on Saturday.  I was just going to get candy corn, but then I thought:  I have some white chocolate at home; all I need is a few pretzels....

Thankfully, I only had 4 ounces of white chocolate in the house.  And I flat out refused to buy Halloween Oreos.  So I scaled back the first recipe and ran with that.  First mistake?  Following directions in trying to melt the white chocolate in the microwave.  That never works for me.  I pretty much seized it.  And I was a little generous with the candy corn and pretzels.  So my end result wasn't nearly as pretty as what their photos looked like.  But oh, yeah, it was yummy.  A total sugar rush.  I'm so glad that I buy candy corn only once a year.  One could die of an overdose with this stuff.

Apple Streamers

Whenever I make apple pie or something that involves peeling apples, I give the peels to the girls.  I try to make a game of it.  Since the peelings are long and thin, I can easily wrap them through the grids on the third level.  They dangle like streamers.  It's pretty funny watching the pigs trying to catch the ends to pull them down.  When they get too short to reach, sometimes they're smart enough to head upstairs and grab what's left. 

Bertie and Pinni managed to pull these apple peelings down pretty easily.  Normally they have to work at it for a while.  It can be like watching a kid bob for apples or try to hit a piñata.  It's good to make those pigs work for their treats!

Building Blocks

I find myself spending more time pinning and ironing than sewing short seams like I had been over the summer.  I'm hoping to wrap up the last bits of individual blocks this weekend.  I've started to lay out the overall quilt.  Huzzah!

Next comes assembling the top of the quilt.  There were days this summer that I thought this day would never arrive.  The quilt languished most of September and October; it's a wonderful feeling to be making some noticeable progress.  I am curious what problems I'll run into as I start stringing all of these blocks together, but I'm excited to start, regardless.  It is great to see the quilt taking shape after being focused solely on the blocks for so long.