Keeping busy!

It took Debra and I two days but the center medallion is prepped and ready to take away with us to the retreat.  Two weeks Wednesday night is the start to what promises to be a fun three days of sewing, eating, laughing and relaxing with four good friends at a nearby cottage.

The photo does not show the true colors, especially of the background fabric which is a rich, chocolate brown.  Don't you just love the folk-arty look of this design? I'll probably bring something else to work on as well because I doubt that it'll take more than a day of sewing to complete the machine applique.

While on the subject, I prepped both our projects using the new Steam-A-Seam 2 that I spoke about in my last post.  

It is very different and a definite improvement over the "old" Steam-A-Seam.  
I found that the adhesive is a lot stronger and appears to work better as well.

  
My only concern...if you can call it that...is the top layer of paper, the one that is used to trace on.  It's shiny, comparable to the shiny side of freezer paper.  I used a graphite pencil to transfer the design elements which after ironing, became much lighter which in the grand scheme of things really isn't a big deal.  
So it's a thumb's up for me!

  
Remember the basket full of fat quarters that the members of my guild gifted to me while I was in the hospital?

Here they are, ironed, neatly folded and looking pretty in my sewing room, waiting patiently to be used in an upcoming project.

Because this was a crummy summer for me on the health front, I didn't plant our tomatoes until the first of July which is way too late for our Canadian growing season.  Although we did harvest about twenty ripe ones, just yesterday Mr. Painted Quilt picked the remaining decent-sized green ones which I plan on freezing to use at a later date to make green tomato salsa once I'm more mobile and confident on my feet.

Our friend Cliff who is one of the vendors at our local Farmers' Market gifted us with some gorgeous tomatoes and green peppers yesterday.  I think that stuffed green peppers will be on the menu for tonight's dinner.

On the health front, I'm still hobbling around with my walker and cane.  I start more physio at the rehab center at our local hospital on Thursday.  I'm looking forward to it...anything that will help to make me strong and comfortably mobile again.

Frankie and Ollie are enjoying the cooler weather.  

They're never too far apart.

Happy stitching!