Bubble and Squeak

Perhaps my British readers will be familiar with the phrase "bubble and squeak". A while back, there was a tea house style restaurant on the Oregon coast where they served the most delightfully British breakfast that included "bubble and squeak". Their version consisted of eggs, sausage, and cabbage. The restaurant closed long ago, but I've always remembered the first time I read those items on the menu. The dish they served up looked something like this:

This morning I did a little research when I chose that title. Never let it be said that we tell you anything but the pure unadulterated facts when we write our blog posts here at Cat Patches, especially when the felines take over the blog. So you'll know we're not kidding when we tell you that, according to The Google, in the 18th century "bubble and squeak" was a dish of fried meat and cabbage. Nowadays it is more often fried potatoes and other vegetables, usually greens. Heck, I even found a recipe for making it.

So why am I telling you this? Well, because not a whole lot went on here yesterday beyond housework. But that never stopped me from prattling on, now did it? So in the tradition of "bubble and squeak", I'll say that today I have for you a delicious blog post of "babble and yak". Think of it as a nod to the British among you, and a thank you for your forbearance.

Moving on.

Not all of yesterday was boring housework. In the mail, I received this fabric from my friend Sher. She was the recipient of the Dream Machines quilt, and knowing I'm a sucker for sock monkeys, she sent me a yard of this Sock Monkeys in Space fabric. I believe the phrase "too cute" is especially apt.

Thank you, Sher.

Also, I'm well along stitching my Gazebo Square block for the Gingerbread Square quilt. 

The last of the design won't quite fit into the last hooping, but it's pretty darned close. 

There was a little more progress on the latest Wind in the Whiskers block. The block I'm working on now is called "Best of Show".

Yesterday, I put together the cat, which consisted of 21 pieces. Sometimes I grow frustrated with these because the fabrics included in the kit do not match very closely with the fabrics in the picture. My cat is sort of a Siamese, Persian, Heinz 57-variety mix.

If you don't think 21 pieces made this a fiddly puzzle to put together, just take a look at that pin I've added there for scale.

As I'm looking at this, I see there's a tiny hole on the left side too...just below the left side of the nose. I'll have to fix that before I move along to the next part. 

Mandatory tools for this job include a magnifying glass and tweezers. 

Fortunately, the weather has turned wet and cold, which means that Helper Cat has taken up residence on my sewing chair for the remainder of the winter.

He's there to remind me that in the sewing room, when the going gets tough, the tough take a nap.

Today I have some grocery shopping to do, and it is a CSA pick-up day. We're into Week 25 of our 28-week share. There should be some time in between those two tasks to do a little more on the Wind in the Whiskers block. Today, I'll be tackling the butterfly and the daisy flowers.