Quilting the Wrong Holiday

It isn't lost on me that I'm working on my scary Halloween quilting for Valentine's Day. It's poor planning on my part. But, hey, take a look at this range of pink thread that came in yesterday's mail, and see if that makes you feel any better.

Or how about these pink and red variegated threads?

Or this green...like the green leaves on the two dozen roses you'll get from your sweety. (Yeah, right.)

Actually, I only wanted this one color of thread, which I'm calling Smitty gray. But when I went to the Connecting Threads website, they offered me these cute little embroidery scissors for FREE, FREE, FREE if I would only spend $30 on their site.

They're cute, huh? Let's just ignore that I would have spent less if I'd just paid for the scissors without buying all that thread. As it is, I have the thread AND the scissors, and who among us can pass up a freebie? Am I right about that? Show of hands, please.

Smitty and I quilted the day away. What would I do without his helpful suggestions? Also, he helps me to slow down as I'm stitching.

Except for the setting triangles, the center panel is finished now.

Here's a closer view of it.

The fabric on the back is busy enough that you can't see much there. That's just fine with me.

For today's effort, I have some ideas about the setting triangles if I can pull it off. I'll tell you about that in my next post. It'll be easier to show than it is to explain.

On the slow-stitching front, I stitched the newest inchy...with ears.

And I filled the hoop on Friendship's Garden. This is the most densely stitched part of the block.

Now I've moved my hoop to the right, and I'll start there tomorrow. The rest should stitch up pretty fast.

In addition to quilting, I'm doing some cooking today. Mike and I had a fancy dinner out just about 10 days ago, and we're going to another fancy dinner weekend after next. With that in mind, we're staying in this Valentine's Day, and I'm making us a fancy dinner at home. It's something I've made before...a Sea Scallop Risotto. The scallops are seared and served over some risotto with a Newburg sauce and some steamed vegetables. Also, I'm trying a new recipe for dessert, Warm Carrot Cakes with Cream Cheese Sauce for Two. Hopefully, it will all turn out. Of course, I will report back tomorrow.

So I hope you have a happy day, however you plan to spend it. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.