Shop Hopping

Good morning, my friends. Please say hello to my little friend. She was an excellent helper cat for yesterday's sewing.

We made a short trip into town yesterday to run some errands. Before we left, I had all the strips cut to sew together the final four Shop Hop blocks. When I returned, they were right where I left them. What a surprise. Usually, Sadie has other ideas about how to arrange them. But since elves invaded the sewing room recently, I thought they might be finished when I returned. No dice.

This one from Annie's Quilting Den was a shop I visited when I spent a day with my dear friend Debi from high school. She was a part owner in the store at the time, but says she isn't any longer. "Annie" is the name of the dog, not the owner. We'd visited three shops that day, and so I chose something sewing-related. 

I have another fabric to add from that day, but that will have to wait for the next Shop Hop quilt. I've run out of room on this one.

When we visited Sequim, Washington, a few summers ago, I picked up this one from "A Stitch in Time Quilt Shoppe." A lot of lavender is grown in Sequim (pronounced Skwim), and so this was an easy choice.

On our trip east last fall, I picked up this next one at Up North Quilt Shop in International Falls, Minnesota. It reminded me of the landscapes we'd seen in our travels. It was also a good choice for a backing fabric for the Heartland Barns quilt.

Finally, this one from Lavender Rose Fabrics & Retreats. We were in Eureka, California, on our way south. This was the trip where we skedaddled out of town ahead of a big snowstorm. We were near the ocean, but it was still snowing. To my eye, this fabric captured both.

When those were finished, I laid them all out together. This will be how the finished quilt looks. I'll probably add a narrow black border, but otherwise, I'll just sew the blocks together side by side, with no sashing. It will be a fairly large quilt...around 65 x 65 inches, as I envision it.

My first Shop Hop quilt contained 64 quilt blocks, all from different quilt shops. Since I didn't get the idea to make this quilt until I'd been quilting for several years, it didn't contain a block for every quilt shop I'd ever visited, but I'd reconstructed most of our travels and collected most of the fabrics still in my stash at the time. The rest were gathered along the way.

Adding those 64 to the 24 in this second quilt, I have 88 quilt shops represented. Already I have 10 fabrics accumulated for Shop Hop 3.0. I'll start on that when I begin working through my WIPs on the next go-round. For that one, I'll be using this "Book Nerd" block:

It's a paper-pieced block. I'll add the name and place to the "spine" of the book, but I'll probably have to make the block before I can do the embroidery. I don't have all that worked out just yet.

So that was the end of my sewing day. I tried the new test recipe from America's Test Kitchens last night. It was a Cranberry-glazed Pork Loin Roast. I can't say any more about it until it's published in the magazine, but we liked it. I can tell you about the salad I made for a side dish. This is a Copycat Chick-fil-A Kale Salad. 

Since I've never eaten at Chick-fil-A, I haven't tasted this salad before. But I figure if a publication like Eating Well wants to make a copycat recipe of something, it must be worth a try. Why bother copying if you're not expecting good results, right? 

So I actually love kale in a salad. Mike...not so much. This recipe also used cabbage, and I had some leftover in my crisper. It seemed like a good way to use it. I offered Mike a taste, with an alternative of applesauce for him, if he didn't like it. He did! So I'm giving this salad two thumbs up. It was easy to make. You combine the cabbage and kale, then pour over a viniagrette that's sweetened with maple syrup. (And, I don't know about you, but if it's sweetened with maple syrup, I know it's going to taste good.) Then, using your clean hands, you scrunch up the salad, wilting the kale until it's reduced by about 1/3. I expected that part to be a hassle, but it was surprisingly easy and quick. 

For sure, I'll be making this salad again. And let me just tell you, having eaten kale for dinner last night, I feel as if I can jump tall buildings in a single bound. Instead, I'll just walk on the treadmill today, and call it good. Tall buildings can wait until the next time I drive into downtown Portland. (I wonder if there are any ordinances that prohibit jumping tall buildings. Further investigation is required.)

Today I'll be spending a little more time in the kitchen catching up on the camping food we'll be eating at home. Things are looking up though because we've scheduled another camping trip for next month. By then, I believe all danger of snow will have passed. One can only hope. When my kitchen activities are finished, I'll get busy making the 9th Tiny House, and that will take up the rest of the day.