Building a Cat in Just One Day

We had a nice brunch with Erik and Mae yesterday. Pretty much everything that could go wrong in the cooking went wrong...the eggs stuck to the pan, and the Hollandaise broke. I make Hollandaise at least three times per year, and it's the first time it's ever broken. Oh well. Everything still tasted good, and the food was only window dressing. It's always good to see the kids. It was over much too soon, and they were on their way home again.

From there I got to work on another "monthly." It was time to do the October Tuxedo's Tales block. First...the fusing:

When that was finished, I drew in stitching lines, sorted through the button kit, and laid the buttons out in their places.

Then it was time to do the top-stitching.

Finally, I sewed on the buttons, and it was finished.

It's cute, but not as cute as this cat:

That's Erik at about age 5. He'll be 39 tomorrow. Where did the years go? And, yes, I did make that costume. It was my first and last time working with fake fur. I'm a quick study.

The only monthly left for October is to make another row for the Shop Hop quilt, but I haven't done the embroidery yet. That means, I'll pick from my UFO list. Today I'll be working on my oldest UFO, the Mulligan Stew quilt. I'm embarrassed to say I started it in April of 2013. The last time I worked on it was September 2, 2017...just before we left on our trip. So, I have a good excuse for not working on it for a long time...we drove around the perimeter of the country in the interim. But that doesn't explain the other 5-1/2 years since I started it.

Today I'll get a start on making five more blocks, which will bring my tally to 45 blocks out of 60. This is the most up-to-date picture I have of all the blocks together, and even it is woefully out of date.

There are only 30 blocks in this image, and I've made 10 more since then. I'll get a more up-to-date picture of it when I finish the next grouping. Some day it will be finished, but I don't know when. It kind of begs for big-stitch hand-quilting, and so I hope I live long enough to finish it someday. Possibly I could go for a world record in the Guinness book for the longest quilt-in-progress. What do you think?

We're told they'll be paving our road today, at long last. We received word that our road would be paved last spring while we were still traveling. All summer long we and our neighbors have waited with bated breath for the paving to start. All summer long, the county crew would come up and work, work, work like crazy, and we'd think paving was imminent. Then...nothing. Weeks would go by and nothing. Then, they'd come up and work, work, work like crazy again. Then...nothing. Then a sign went up at the beginning of September that said, "Paving End of September." Well, that sounded very promising. Then "end of September" came and went, and we were into October. One of our neighbors put up a sign below the sign that said, "2019?"

Mike was out yesterday and told me the paving machine is parked near the road now, and we're told the paving project will start today. It's supposed to be a 2-day job. I hope they work faster on the road than I've worked on the Mulligan Stew quilt. Otherwise, it could be another muddy winter here at the Three Cats Ranch. Fingers crossed. What else can you do?