A Dozen Chickens

 Yesterday's grocery shopping trip was quick. Our list was short, and we were home by around 10:15 a.m., which left me lots of time to finish up my quilting for the day. I even did some housework. (Polishes fingernails on shirt.) Time was short because Mike and I still needed to drive into downtown Portland. 

So, I finished up the last of the chicken blocks. Yesterday's addition to the buffet:

Fried Chicken. This one took forever. I was about one-quarter of the way through it when I realized the quilt corner was folded under, and I was quilting it to the back. Yikes. And I told myself I wouldn't do that. 

Chicken Divan. This one will have some hanging beads added below the lampshade.

And finally, Chicken Gumbo. I think this was the first block I made for this quilt back when I started it.

All that's left now is to quilt chicken wire into the horizontal sashings and then quilt the outer border. I know just what to do there, which is half the battle.

Tuxedo Tales was hung in the second floor of the Mewseum yesterday. It's borders are a little wavy, and so I'm considering how I could weight the bottom to make it hang a little straighter. Any ideas?

I did some quick housework after lunch, and then we needed to head to downtown Portland. We were able to get Smitty inside before we left, but Sadie wouldn't budge from under the juniper bushes outside. We knew where she was, and as much as we hated to leave her, we had to. She likes napping under the juniper bushes, and there's little hope of catching her when she doesn't want to be caught. We were gone about two hours. When we came home, we found the two of them like this.

Open the door, wouldja, Smitty?

She was happy to come inside at that point. She'd been cut off from her kitty treats, and she was hungry. About half an hour later, a chipmunk decided to climb the outer screen door. Well. Don't you know that drove some kitties crazy?

Around 5:00 p.m., I was thinking about dinner when I heard Mike start the mower outside. It didn't seem as if dinner was a high priority, and so I decided to head into the sewing room to make up the next embroidery section for I Believe in Snowmen. You might recall I have all the blocks finished now. 

I won't be ready to finish off the quilt top, however, until I do a couple of longer pieces that will go across the top and bottom of the quilt. 

Next up will be the piece that goes across the top. It's 7-1/2 inches top to bottom and 42-1/2 inches across. Fortunately, my fabric was plenty wide enough for that. I need to get this ready to go because there is applique and top-stitching to do. The applique is fused down now, but I still need to top-stitch it before it will be ready for hand embroidery.

It's a little hard to see where the embroidery will go, but I'll be adding antlers to the reindeer, and then he's towing a row of stars behind him. Or...maybe it's a her. I can't really get a look at the parts I need to see to be sure. We'll go with "him" for now.

And that was the end of my day, except for dinner, of course. Dinner was leftovers, but I did make a recipe in my ongoing attempt to not die from suffocation by zucchini. This is a recipe I tried once before, but I'd forgotten how easy and good it is. I didn't take a picture of mine, but I was able to capture this little snip from the video on the website. These are Zucchini Fries.

I used two "medium" zucchini. They're first dipped in egg white, then dredged in a combination of panko, parmesan cheese, Italian seasonings, and a little cayenne. Then, they're baked in a hot oven for about 20 minutes. (Mine took more like 30 minutes.) Super simple, and the cayenne gives them a nice little kick. We dipped them in a little ranch dressing. You can find the recipe right here. I'll warn you though...the recipe makes way too much breading. I cut it by 1/3, but I'd cut it by half if I make it again. I ended up freezing the leftover breading, and I'm sure I'll have an opportunity to make this again real soon.

This was my view this morning while I was reading my email. She's obviously gotten over her abandonment issues of yesterday.

Today I'm getting my hair cut. It's a good thing because my life depends on it. Seriously. Every time I look in the mirror lately, I consider slitting my throat rather than go on another day with my hair looking the way it does. It'll be the first time my regular hairdresser has had a go at it since last November. Mike cut it once around March of this year. Then, when salons reopened, my hairdresser was dealing with a Stage Zero breast cancer. (I didn't even know Stage Zero was a thing.) Anyway, she's back at work now and considered cancer-free, so good for her. In the meantime, a different person cut my hair in June. He did a good job, but after having Mike hack away at it in March, it needed to grow out a little more on the sides. Well, that brings us to today and me considering desperate measures rather than go on another day with it. The end is in sight. You can look for me to blog another day.

Also, we need to go back to downtown Portland to pick up Mike's car. He's having the windshield replaced. A few of you noted that you'd had your windshields replaced at home. Yes, and we have too. And we tried this time. But this is Mike's Corvette convertible. We had a company come out and take a look at it. They said it needed some weather stripping replaced. Well, the car is a 2001, and we've spent the past month trying to get this weather-stripping issue resolved. Finally, we decided to go with a different company after getting the run-around from the first company. The guy in downtown Portland is something of a specialist when it comes to Corvettes. I don't really care. Just get it done, already!

So all of that to say, I'm hoping to get in some sewing today, but it's looking like another run-around day. Whatever happens, I'm going to harvest green beans first thing. I'm hoping I'll have enough to make some Dilled Green Beans, but that won't happen today. Also, I'm hoping I can get Chicken Buffet ready for binding over the weekend. Lots to do, so I'll get going now. Happy Thursday!