Slow Stitching on a Rainy Day

We're pretty tired of the rain here at the Three Cats Ranch. Even kitties have had enough. It gets in the way of their squirrel hunting adventures, don't you know. A rainy day is always a good day for sewing and cooking though, and that's how yesterday was spent.

The first order of business was to finish off the left side of the Appalachian Memories block.

Slow stitching is always done with the assistance of my little cat. She ensures that my lap stays warm and my heart stays full while I'm working on an embroidery project. Slow stitching is the best time of the day in Sadie's world.

Now I've moved my hoop to the bottom of the piece. There's still quite a bit to do on this one. Some of the barns are more densely stitched than others.

I did a little more stitching, but then got out between rain showers to have a look at the new clematis. Wasn't it thoughtful of this new addition to bloom so soon after being planted? It still isn't quite open all the way, but maybe this morning.

I had some cooking to do after lunch, and I'll tell you about that in a minute. But first, I want to say that I finished my challenge piece. I'm itching to show it to you, and I'm terrible at keeping secrets. But rules are rules, and we'll both have to wait for the reveal on August 1st. For now, I'll tell you that I needed to free motion quilt some words on mine, and I was puzzling over how to mark it to keep my writing straight and uniform in size as I went. I tried different markers, but didn't like them for one reason or another. Also, I tried creasing the fabric with a hera marker, but it was hard to see under the bright light of my sewing machine. Then...duh...I got the idea to use painter's tape, and that worked great.

Before the day was over, my piece was finished, including the binding.

So there you go...that's three small quilts finished during the month of June so far. (Polishes fingernails on shirt.)

Okay, so back in the kitchen, I made this Dilled Potato Salad with Pickled Cucumbers. This is a great salad, but it has to be started a day ahead. The day before, I started pickling the cucumbers and I boiled the potatoes, which made assembly pretty easy yesterday. 

This makes a ton of salad...great for a backyard get-together. The recipe is from Deb at Smitten Kitchen. She uses peeled Yukon Gold potatoes in her salad. I like to use red ones with the skins left on. The skins are the most nutritious part of a potato, which is a good enough excuse for skipping the peeling part. Also, I used a red onion because I had one already cut. I like the color, especially combined with the green of the cucumber and  fresh dill.

Also, I tried this recipe for French Onion Stuffed Peppers. I took a picture of my own, but the picture from the recipe is better.

Here's the thing: I like cooking. I like it almost as much as I like quilting. And so I'm not afraid to make a huge mess, nor to tackle something relatively complicated, if it results in a delicious dish. This dish  makes a five star mess. It took a long time to cook and assemble it. Also, I've done stuffed peppers in my slow cooker before, and so that's how I did this one. (The original recipe has you roasting it in the oven.) I assembled the peppers and then put them in the slow cooker with 2/3 cup of water for five hours, and that part worked great. For all that effort though, the flavor just wasn't there. If a dish makes a five star mess, it darn well better have five star flavor. We all agreed, this didn't rise above three stars...four stars if we're being super generous. So I'll stick with my usual slow cooker recipe for stuffed peppers, which goes together a whole lot easier. Also, it tastes better, in my humble opinion.

Okay, so that was my day yesterday. We're expecting more rain today, but possibly we'll see some sun breaks. I really want to get out and weed the vegetable garden before it becomes impassable. In this kind of weather, the weeds grow fast. As for sewing, y'all convinced me that Hearts A-Plenty should be a wall hanging, and so I'll add a hanging sleeve to it today. If I can get that finished, I'll make my way back to the top of my WIP's list with another row for Jenny's Flower Garden. When I worked on it last, I had it this far:

Also, I want to make up the next block for Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs.

The blocks are a combination of applique and embroidery. The applique needs to be finished first. With Appalachian Memories moving along, I'll be needing the next block ready to go soon.

Okay, so fingers crossed for some sunshine today. How's your weather this fine June day?