Another Finished Quilt Top

It was a quiet day here at the Traveling Three Cats Ranch. We had a much-needed day to recharge after more than three straight weeks of socializing. It has been wonderful seeing so many good friends, and now we're starting to wind down for the next part of the journey. We have one more day here in Escondido, and then we will move on to Boulder City tomorrow.

My morning started as usual, with my morning slow-stitching. I filled my hoop.

And then moved to the next position.

By then, the kitties were fully involved in their morning naps. Smitty was soaking up the morning sunshine.

Sadie chose a space on the couch next to her catio door.

And then I went to work adding borders to Grandma's Thimbles. And now this is a finished quilt top. It ends up at 29 x 27 inches. Of course, it still needs quilting and binding, but that will need to wait until we get home. You might remember I stitched up all the thimbles when we were traveling in Colorado last fall. If you like this pattern, you can find it right here. It also comes for machine embroidery.

Having given this "booster seat" I purchased a good try now, I'm going to say it's very helpful and comfortable. In the image below, it happens to be sitting on top of my sewing machine and leaning against a wall. It took me a bit to realize the brand name goes at the edge of the chair. By that I mean, where your knees are. I had it backwards for a while. 

On the opposite side, it has an opening in the filling that advertises it helps with tailbone, lower back, and coccyx pain. And I can see how that would be helpful. I purchased it because I needed a little boost up, but mainly because I was getting neck pain. I'm not sure any of the shapes of the cushion are beneficial in my case, but the boost up definitely helps. I was able to sew for longer yesterday with no neck pain whatsoever. It gives me a good boost without being too high or too low, and it has a firmness that makes sitting in my chair more comfortable. So, I'm happy with my purchase, and my thanks go to my friend, Cathy, for recommending this cushion. If you think you could benefit from one, I found this one on Amazon...right here.

Later in the afternoon, I finished off the fourth of nine baskets.

Here are the four I have so far. 

Now I have the next one ready to stitch, and I'll start there this morning. 

And this being Sunday, I'll be linking up to

Our avocados are ripening quickly, and I put them to good use in last night's dinner. First, I tried a new recipe called Chicken Tender Fajitas. It's all made in one pan. Someone posted the link on Facebook and said it was easy and delicious, in addition to being diet friendly. Well, count me in. And it was good! You can find the recipe right here. (The recipe was from the Washington Post, and you might need a subscription to see it. If you can't see it, and you want the recipe, then email me, and I'll send it to you.)

Also on the menu, one of our favorite dishes left over from Mike's Mom. It's the simplest thing to do. Get yourself a can of grapefruit...canned actually works better than fresh in this case. Drain off the juice and add some to a ramekin, then add some chunked up avocado over the top, then a little drizzle of Catalina salad dressing. Mmm, mmm, mmm. We tried to make this last time we were down, but couldn't find any canned grapefruit. Weird. But we found some this time, and we enjoyed this salad with our fajitas last night.

Okay, and that was the end of our day. But here's something. Have you played Wordly? It's kind of fun...a daily word game. Basically, you guess at a random five-letter word. And...I learned this the hard way...if a letter appears in the word, it can be used more than once. When you finish the puzzle, it lets you upload a little image showing how you did without giving away the clue. The little daily images look like this (this one is from a previous one of my plays):

One of my Facebook friends has been teasing me about these. When I posted the picture of the finished Grandma's Thimbles quilt top yesterday, he responded telling me this would be my next quilt:

which made me laugh, but actually...it's not a bad idea!!! So many ideas for quilts...so little time. I might actually do this sometime. Just add it to my list of Quilts I'll Probably Never Start.

Finally, Mike uploaded his drone footage from our previous campsite at Lake Skinner State Recreation Area. If you want to see a little more of the area where we were previously, you can watch the video. If you can't see the video, then click right here.

So that's all I have for you today. Depending on how late I sleep tomorrow, I might not take time to blog before we head off to Boulder City. Our plans for today include heading over to Lake Hodges to see the suspension bridge there. I was going to try making some French Onion Soup in my slow cooker for tonight's dinner, but then realized my slow cooker can't hold the volume I need. It'll have to wait until we get home. But, hey! All is not lost. It gives us a chance to have Mexican food one last time here in San Diego County, where...and this is my learned opinion...Mexican food is the best tasting of any found outside of the actual country of Mexico.