A Small Finish

When I went downstairs after writing my blog post yesterday, I found Sadie stressed to the max.

Wait...did I say "stressed"? I meant "stretched," although cats without tails are still short even when extended to their maximum length.

While she slept, I sewed the binding on the Beach Hut, and now it is finished.

Here's how it looks from the back.

That backing fabric was one of the regional prints, purchased at a Sew Many Threads quilt shop near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Smitty doesn't appear to care for this piece. He's wondering why a house marked for use by three cats would be so small.

With that finished, I could get back to slow-stitching on my mystery project. Sadie was more energetic for this part of the morning.

There were some housekeeping chores to do, and so I forced myself to do that stuff first. When everything was said and done, I had 2-1/2 hours free to work on the zebra.

Even though this is a paper-piecing project, it's going along pretty well. Part of the reason I dislike paper-piecing is that I'm always trying to use pieces that are a tad too small. For this project, I decided to go for broke and use pieces plenty large enough. Still, I find I've skimped just a little too much and that I'm shorting myself within the seam allowance. I had to redo at least one piece when I'd shorted myself just a little too much. You can see what I'm talking about in the image below. These little bits will be captured when I sew the sections together.

Also, this section contained the eye. When you look at the picture on the cover of the pattern, you can see the eye was done in black...and to me, that just looks like a gaping eye socket.

And, you know, this is a doll quilt for a little girl four years old. I don't want to scare her to death, and so I gave mine a proper eye. When I sewed it to the nose section finished the day before, it looked like this:

The next section was pretty quick.

I wasn't sure about the eye, but when I sewed this section to the other side, I decided it was fine. I like it better than the gaping eye socket.

The next section was a little trickier with such long and thin pieces. Also, it contains the first of the background pieces.

When I sewed it to the rest, the eye was complete.

The little girl who will receive this quilt likes red, and so I'm doing the whole background in red. I'm going to try not to repeat any fabrics, but I'm not sure I'll have enough. For now, this is what I have.

When I had it that far, it was time to pick up our CSA share, and that was the end of my sewing day. Below, you can see how much is left to do.

So, I'll get back to that this afternoon. I'm getting my monthly pedicure this morning, and I have one housekeeping chore to do when I get home. The rest of the day will be devoted to the zebra.

When Mike got home, we walked down to the camper and hung the little Beach Hut in its intended spot. It's a perfect fit. I feel so much better about this now that this little space at the end of the cabinet is covered in quilt, don't you?

For dinner last night, I tried something new in these Bulgogi Sloppy Joes with Scallion Salsa

Wow...these were so good. It makes a ton, and so half the recipe would have been plenty for our family of two. The flank steak is sliced thin and marinated. The marinade is interesting. In addition to the usual flavors, it includes a pureed Asian pear and some apple juice. It also calls for sake, but I substituted dry sherry. I kind of did my own thing where the instructions are concerned. I strained the meat from the marinade since the marinade is discarded when you're finished. Mike and I agreed that hamburger buns were the wrong choice for this. I'm going to make it again, but I'd use regular sandwich rolls for this. They will hold more meat and scallions, and I think it will be easier to eat that way.

For this recipe, I went in search of the Korean red pepper flakes. Since I wasn't sure I could find it at my local grocery store, I found them on Amazon. They're also used in the cucumber kimchi suggested as an accompaniment to this dish.

When I link to a recipe in the New York Times, I'm never sure you'll be able to open it without a subscription to the paper. If you have trouble, email me, and I'll send it to you.

I'll get back to slow-stitching my mystery project now. I think I'm about a day away from having the stitchery finished. I'll add a border and then send it on to its intended recipient. It's turning out so cute, I can't wait to show it to you.