More Slow Stitching

It was another relaxing day of slow stitching yesterday, although I did leave the house a couple of times. The first trip out was a quick trip to the grocery store. Looking in the refrigerator, I kept thinking, if I had just this one thing, I could make that dish. And if I had enough of those "just this one things," I was set for several days of menus. So I was very brave and went to the grocery store for several just this one things, and now I won't need to go back for a couple of days at least. Sometimes those quick trips are just right. Also, it was a CSA pick-up day, and so I did that too.

Between outings, I spent some time slow stitching. I finished up the shop names for the next row of the Shop Hop quilt.

Making the fourth row of blocks and sewing them together will be next up in the sewing room. With that one finished, however, I needed to trace out the 7th of 12 dresses for the Sundress quilt.

Now that one is hooped up and ready to go.

After that, I made a hanging sleeve for Working for Peanuts. It was only half as long as the one I made for the Quiltmaker's Garden, and so it seemed to stitch up quickly.

It's ready for hanging as soon as Mike cuts a dowel rod for it.

On the way home from the CSA pick-up, I checked the mail and found an order from Fabric.com. When I was quilting recently, I got a bug to check for some more colors of variegated threads. These two were on sale. I especially like that mint green one on the left.

And you know with Fabric.com, if you spend $50, you get free shipping, and so I indulged. I'm going to need to cut more black and white strips for the Rainbow Jubilee quilt, and I knew I was running low on black prints with white backgrounds. These were all on sale, and I bought a yard of each. That should hold me for the remainder of the quilt.

As I've mentioned before, we had to switch out one of the windows in the new fifth wheel to accommodate the catio. That happened yesterday. When Mike got home, he was excited to use this newfangled gadget he found on one of the RV sites. It's a little step stool that hooks over the rear tires of his truck. With that, he can step up to start the process of unhitching, rather than needing to climb into the bed of the truck.

The lighting was weird at this time of the day, and so I apologize for these pictures. Here's how the new window looks from the outside. The original window only tipped out a few inches at the bottom, and that wouldn't work for the catio. Now the lower portion of the window raises, giving the kitties plenty of room to pass in and out.

Here's how it looks from the inside.

It's good to have that done. Now we're ready for our next camping trip to the beach at the end of August.

The only other thing I did yesterday was to harvest a pound and a half of cherry tomatoes from our one plant. There were more cherry tomatoes in our CSA share.

I made good on my threat to make this Chicken with Herb-roasted Tomatoes and Pan Sauce. This is such a tasty dish and it's very easy to make. There's very little hands-on preparation, and it mostly roasts itself in the oven. I use chicken cutlets, rather than large chicken breasts. With that, I only need to brown the chicken before putting it into the oven to roast.

The corn wasn't CSA corn, and so it was nothing special. It's been hanging out in our refrigerator and so it seemed a good time to use it.

The kitties were lazy yesterday too. Sadie snuggled up on Mike's lap while I made dinner.

Smitty likes lying on the dining room chair in the afternoon sunshine. The curtains were pulled to keep the heat out, but he's always wishing and hoping for a good sunbath.

Then I told him a funny joke, and he perked up.

Today I need to get an early start. I'm going to race against the clock canning some pickled beets before I need to take off for my monthly pedicure. That said, it's time to get those beets boiling. They aren't going to pickle themselves.