Lots of Sewing

We got through our grocery shopping trip without too much trouble yesterday. I'll never forgive my grocery store...one of those mega marts...for moving the cat food to the far end of the store. It's their way of forcing pet owners to walk through the whole store, presumably picking up non-list items along the way, before they can finish their grocery shopping. Walmart does this too, and that's only one reason I dislike Walmart. Anyway...we didn't need cat food yesterday, and so our mileage was less. And this begs the question...why move the pet food? Why not move, say, the candy or cleaning supplies? Why are only pet owners singled out for this extra grocery shopping insult? (Shakes head in disgust.)

Okay, so back home and in a better mood, I finished up the top-stitching for the ninth Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs block. This one is called Rainbows and Flowers (I think).

It has almost no embroidery on it, and so it won't take long to finish it once I start stitching.

Also, I made another mask for Mike. He let me do something with a little more pizzazz in the form of this Corvette fabric. He has a 2001 yellow Corvette, and so I chose the yellow car from the larger yardage. 

He prefers the straps that go all the way around the head, but he needed one with ear pieces he could wear when he gets his haircut. He usually only wants something plain and boring for his masks, but he consented to the Corvettes this time. Such a wild man, I'm telling you. Maybe it's permanent retirement that has allowed him to run amok.

With those two things done, I made good on my pledge to sew another row of blocks for the City Bank quilt. It has 7 rows of 6 blocks. The original pattern is all done in blues and greens, with the exception of one "lavender" block. I was going back and forth about whether to add in something from the purple bin. I'm making this quilt as a way to use blue and green scraps. I'm running out of appropriate blues and greens in a large enough size, however, and so I took my own walk on the wild side yesterday by adding in one purple block. I kind of like it. Maybe I'll add in a few more purples.

So I have four rows complete now. Here are all the blocks I have so far.

Today I'll make the next block for the Ties & Tails quilt. I've made this cat before, but this time, the bird will be facing the opposite direction. This is the picture from the pattern cover...sorry for the blur. I think this is a Sadie cat.

So that was all the sewing I did yesterday. For dinner last night, I tried this recipe from our diet for Spiced Meatball, Butternut, and Tomato Stew. This turned out to be a delicious and hearty choice for a chilly autumn day.

The meatballs are made with bread that has been cubed and then soaked in some low-fat milk. It gave them a nice soft texture that I liked. They are supposed to include some finely chopped cilantro. I thought I had some in the vegetable crisper, but when I found it, it had taken on the appearance of a failed science experiment. No worries. I substituted fresh parsley, and that was just fine. It still had plenty of flavor without the cilantro. I'll stick with parsley in the future since cilantro never lasts very long in the fridge. And I know some people really dislike cilantro, so no worries, you guys. Just use parsley, and it'll be great. It also gave me a chance to use some of the tomatoes I've harvested.

Okay, so today, I really must do some housework, but that won't take all day. If the weather holds, I'm going to force myself to get out for a walk. I think if I can get over the hump, I might actually enjoy a short walk. 

There's a 60% chance of rain today, but this morning's sunrise is looking like we could actually see some nice weather. I know some of you are seeing snow already. How's the weather where you are?