Popping the Cork

There's plenty to celebrate here at the Three Cats Ranch. We're not quite to Mike's retirement date, but we're just ten days out now. This is when most normal people would start counting the days, but we've always been overachievers that way. Also, the Quiltmaker's Garden quilt top is finished!!!!! Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay! Let that play in your head for a minute and then feast your eyes.

I don't think I've ever been so happy to finish a quilt top. Of course, it still needs quilting and binding, but that should be easy compared with what I've done so far. This is my project for

so I'll be linking up at the end of the month.

The leaves were pretty quick to top-stitch. I had 14 of the 26 finished, and then took a break for a little while.

There was a break between rain showers, and so I got outside for a few minutes to straighten my back, rest my shoulders, and clear my head.

After a short break, I went back inside and finished the rest.

This would never have been accomplished without the help of my trusty cat.

When that was finished, it was time to start dinner. First, though, I mixed up some bread dough to make a Crusty Cranberry Walnut Bread. (That's a link to the recipe there if you're interested.) I've made this bread a couple of times before, and it's always a winner. The dough is easy to mix up, and then it sits overnight to be baked off in the morning. Annnnnnd...done!

Speaking of recipes, a few of you have written to me asking for the recipe for the sweet daikon radish pickles. It seems a good time to say that I'll always share links to recipes when I can find them online or if it's my own creation. Often enough, I'm using a recipe from a published cookbook. When that is the case, I'll do a search for it online, but if I don't find it there, then I won't share it publicly on this blog. There are too many horror stories circulating about copyright infringement, and I had one bad experience myself. Now, I'm pretty careful. That doesn't stop me from sharing it with you privately, however. If I write about something I've cooked and I don't link to the recipe, it's always perfectly okay to email me (my email address is in my right sidebar), and I can share it with you that way. And if you say you got the recipe from me, I'll deny it to my dying day.

Today is a run-around day. There are five stops on my list, which is stretching my patience a little. It means I'll have a day at home tomorrow, however, and so I'll suffer through. If there's still time to sew when I get home, I'll get to work sewing the jumbo rickrack onto the Mommy & Me baby quilt.

I'm still waiting for the elephant applique fabric, and I can't rule out a trip to the fabric store today to look for something else that might work better. If time allows, I just might do it. The baby isn't due until June, but I'd like to have the top finished before we take off for some traveling next month.