I Got Nothing

It was a dismal day of no sewing yesterday. All my "regular" activities kept me busy all day. I'd say they were my "normal" activities, but you'd know I was lying. Nothing around here is ever "normal." I started with a pedicure, and that was nice enough. Then I found some collars for the kitties at Nature's Pet. The kitties requested cloth rather than what-passes-for-leather, and so I got them these Soy collars. Smitty's is the "indigo" one you see here. Sadie's is tan.

They have bells that we'll be removing. Those will just keep us awake at night. I like these collars because the "fastener" is break-away. I can recall the old flea collars that had elastic that allowed them to stretch in case a cat got hung up in a tree. With these, we can tighten the collars down so they'll be less likely to slip off, and the cat will still be able to shed the collar if necessary. So, that was exciting. Not.

After that I went to the grocery store. With it being such a hot day, I decided I'd switch around this week's menu and make gazpacho last night. It was so tasty, and made almost completely from items out of the this week's CSA share.

So tasty. I added some cooked shrimp to ours for the protein. This is my adaptation of a recipe from "Chef John." We had gazpacho at a restaurant last year that was the best we'd ever eaten. Right away, I went looking for a copycat recipe. The recipe from Chef John was pretty close, but I made a few changes to it. You can find my version right here.

The croutons were made homemade. I forget who told me about Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkle for making croutons, but thank you. They are so much better than my former store-bought ones. They're super simple. I've taken to cutting up the heels of bread and stashing them in the freezer. Then, when I want croutons, I just take the frozen bread cubes from the freezer, drizzle them with olive oil, sprinkle them with Sandwich Sprinkle, and bake them in the toaster oven for a few minutes. Voila! Dee-licious croutons. They tell you how to make them right on the Penzey's website, but I've made the process simpler by not even bothering to measure stuff. Just drizzle, sprinkle, and bake. That's all there is to it.

The only other thing I did yesterday was to get a good start on Constance.

I'm hoping to get the rest of her coat stitched today, and then I'll be moving my hoop south. That's next on the list. If you're stitching along with the bag ladies, be sure to link up to July's linky party. Today is the last day.

Being so busy yesterday means that today will be NBS...nothing but sewing in the cool basement. The weather is expected to cool off some today, but we'll still be in the high 90's. The basement is where it's at, for sure. Today's first priority is to get the hanging sleeves made and pinned to my quilts for the Oregon State Fair. Also, I'd like to finish off the last two 36-patch blocks. I think there will be time for both. Hand-stitching the hanging sleeves shouldn't take too long either. They need to be delivered one week from today, so it's kind of a must-do item at this point.

Edited to add this update from Dritz about the binding clips:

Hi Barbara,

I wanted to update you on the binding clips. According to our product management team, the clips with the rivets were discontinued a few years ago so we have no stock on that specific design. I am very sorry. I did pass your comments along for everyone’s review and our quality office is looking into the problems that you experienced.

We do still have the rivets in the larger size of clip. We have sent a few samples to you so you should receive those in a few days. I also submitted a refund request for you so you should also receive that check in about a week.

We sincerely appreciate your comments, Barbara. Please never hesitate to contact us if you ever have any questions or concerns. I am sorry we don’t have exactly what you wanted but I hope you can use the larger sized clips for some of your projects.

Have a great weekend and thanks again for emailing us.

Amy