8/4/17

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

12 comments:

gpc said...

I love Penzeys! Disappointing about the rivets being discontinued but they continue to impress me with their customer service. Constance reminds me of my cousin Constance, who is also quite elegant. But I will not share that reflection with her. The bag lady connection might concern her a bit.

Quilting Babcia said...

I'd say Dritz is very responsive to customer input and that is good to know. Most quilters would gladly pay a couple extra dollars if they could count on the quality of the product, and so the companies need to demand that from their suppliers. Pretty sweet kitty collars, hope Sadie doesn't find a way to slip hers. They're pretty wily when it comes to escape routines as you well know!

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

I had a problem with a basting spray, that I've used for years. The 2 different cans (almost same lot #, purchased at the same time) kept clogging up. I contacted the website, and got a response in about an hour or less. They shipped me 2 new cans. Most companies still want to please the customer, if they can.

Gail in Vegas said...

When I first heard about using the kind of clips you are looking for, I didn't know that they were sold as quilting clips and I bought a bunch at Walmart in the hair accessories area. They do seem to have the type of rivet you are looking for. Amazon also has them: https://smile.amazon.com/100pcs-Barrettes-Toddlers-Accessories-Assorted/dp/B01N809NG3/ref=sr_1_40_s_it?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1501885633&sr=1-40&keywords=hair+clips+for+women
Good luck!
Gail

Brown Family said...

We never could judge how tight to make a collar on Wizard. I would tighten id to where I could put a finger between it and him, and he could still get it off with out popping the break-away clasp!

Dirtz seems to have great customer service. Hopefully you can give us a review ans photos of the larger clips compared to the original ones.

Kate said...

The gazpacho looks very yummy. I've had to give up shrimp, we think I've developed an allergy to it after I spent an evening in the emergency room after we'd had it for dinner.

Hope you got in your nothing but stitching day. What does Mike do when you have one of those days? If My Guy and I take the same day off and mine is intended for extensive sewing room time, it doesn't happen. My Guy wants to got out for lunch and then run errands, etc. I'm not sure how things are going to work once we retire, so I'm curious how you are managing that with Mike's retirement.

piecefulwendy said...

I think I'm the one who gave you the heads up on the Sandwich Sprinkle. I use it to make croutons and I love it! Where is Chef John from? We actually know a guy we refer to as Chef John, but I am assuming it's not the same guy, but you never know! Glad you heard back from Dritz, even though it wasn't to send you the clips you wanted.

Dana Gaffney said...

I'm so amazed at the Dritz customer service, they're a huge company and most of the things they sell are inexpensive so I find it amazing that they're following through on this.

Rebecca said...

Last fall and winter I was baking a lot of bread....1 loaf at a time and having funny ends and pieces left and started making croutons with the bits and pieces. Hubby loved them...ate them like chips!
No bread baking here (central Oregon) until the heat breaks

Janet said...

We're having our little heat wave here and it is very nice. Temperatures in the mid 20s (C) which is plenty warm for us. I'm not surprised about the clips. Hopefully the fact that the weld comes apart might make them reconsider. Such greed though - make it cheaper so we can make more money.

VickiT said...

That's too bad they've stopped making the clips you like with rivets. I remember when I first saw those clips being used for quilting, I wondered if the same company was making those as the one making identical looking clips for hair. I just searched to see if they still have the rivets and the pictures all show they do, but you may want to write the Goody company and ask. Here are those I used to buy all the time for my hair. They hold really well, and one person in the reviewers said she uses them for curtains.
http://www.goody.com/Products/Hair_Accessories/Goody_Classics_Snap_Clips?colId=b33a067e-4a1b-4caa-ab82-1d971e4dabf6&c_id=1a7ea079-c44c-481e-8d02-db7cd0b32277

I will say if you go to Amazon and enter the search terms "Goody Snap Clips" you will find them all listed there. I did see others that came in packages of 100 or more but they are an off brand it appears so who knows what they are like. I know Goody brand are good; the question remains, do they still use the rivets?

Good luck.

Oh the break away collar made me laugh out loud. Our Ragdoll when she was smaller was always (and still is) under our feet and would run to be in front of us to beat us into the room of the house she felt we were headed to. You have no idea how many times she almost knocked my husband or myself over. We've tripped and caught ourselves though. She was always getting into things she wasn't able to get out of so I bought a break away collar for her with a bell. The bell at least would warn us if she was headed toward our feet. lol She hates collars and has since we got her at 12 weeks of age. The break away was no exception. She flipped around like a crazed cat and then dove behind things under my sewing table. Then I heard the bell making noise and it stopped as I saw her jumped from behind the table without that collar. I have to say we have emptied my entire sewing room not that long ago for me to reorganize it all and never have I found that collar yet. LOL I've given up on collars for her since she doesn't go outside anyway.

quiltzyx said...

Nice collar! I used the break-aways for zzyzx, with the bell on as she & I sometimes had the same tripping problem as VickiT. HOWEVER, I once time saw her jump up onto the kitchen counter (when she didn't realize I was near) WITHOUT the bell ringing!! Stinker!

Kudos again to Dritz for good customer service!