Orange Crush Again...

... or maybe I should say still. Lately I have managed to get a few more border blocks finished in between blocks for other projects, and today I finished the rest of them and started sewing the blocks into rows. When I mentioned in my last post about how I wish quilters would share more about the ways in which they work on a quilt, Lori took me at my word and posted about how both she and her friend Henrietta approach the making of a quilt. I enjoyed reading every word about the nuts and bolts of their process. Lori likes to cut all her pieces right away, which is something I rarely do. It blew my mind to think about cutting 1,469 pieces for her quilt all at once, but I think it's a good idea to reevaluate the way I do things once in a while, and maybe this method has some advantages. Sometimes mindless piecing is really what I want to do! I thought the ziploc baggies were a great idea. See, that's just what I'm talking about!

Today was a Special Day, and I spent the entire day engaged in my two favorite activities, sewing and eating. I puttered around this morning finishing up the border blocks, one by one. I was focused, but some of these split half 4 patches, or whatever they were called, didn't come out to exactly the right size, so I was working with a paper foundation putting them together so they'd turn out the right size. Who would do it that way? Probably only me. It was a one by one kind of activity, and I poked along, thought about lots of other things, and just enjoyed myself.

Long about 2:00, I decided to make a blueberry pie with some fresh Maine blueberries I'd gotten at the grocery store the other day. The crust of my pie is a mixture of ground up oatmeal, ground up pecans, brown sugar, and butter, and it's delicious. The recipe calls for a cream topping, but I love the pie so much that I never made the topping before. Today I thought was a good time to try it. The topping is made with melted marshmallows mixed with half and half , whipped cream, and vanilla. Never did get around to finishing the topping. I melted the marshmallows and mixed in the half and half, stuck it in the frig, and there it sits.

Because it was a Special Day, my husband and I went to dinner at The Sedgley Place in Greene, and what a wonderful dinner it was. Like so many businesses in Maine, the building looks like it might once have been a private home in a quiet rural setting. The interior is decorated in such a way that you feel like you're eating in someone's home--wallpaper, lace curtains, fireplace, just a lovely quiet setting. No kids either. No menus. No annoying background music. No crowds. Just fine dining.

We had a 5-course meal with reasonable portions at reasonable prices--another thing that sets the restaurant apart. And absolutely everything was made from scratch in their kitchen, right down to the blue cheese dressing on my salad. For dinner I had creamy vegetable soup and mushroom caps stuffed with scallops for the appetizer; fresh homemade bread; all organic Maine grown vegetables in the salad and the meal; a 7-oz filet mignon grilled to perfection and Bearnaise sauce; and peach melba for dessert. Sound good? You bet! Surely this must be one of Central Maine's best kept secrets.

And now, I'm back in the sewing room!