Busy Day

Good morning, my friends. It was a full day here at the Three Cats Ranch. No time was wasted, and it was all well spent. I finished the stitching in my hoop, and then moved to the lower position to capture the rest of it.

I'll probably finish this one up in a couple of days. Sadly, the floss I'm waiting for to start the next "short" project won't arrive until Friday. If it doesn't come soon enough, I can always spend some time stitching the book spines I had ready to go for our canceled camping trip. 

The camping trip has been rescheduled for mid-December, but I'll have to come up with some other stitching for when we're on the road. I expect I'll take the Ties & Tails quilt to hand-sew the binding on that trip. We're expecting rain in mid-December, but one can never rule out the possibility of sunshine. Nevertheless, it will be a good time to hand sew a long, long, long binding.

Okay, so getting back to yesterday's activities, I started a stew in my slow cooker. (More on that below.) Then, I went to work making the promised Gingerbread Biscotti. When it came out of the oven for the last time, it looked like this. It's made with crystallized ginger and slivered almonds, and this is a perennial favorite. 

After giving it time to cool, I drizzled it with white chocolate. To be clear, "drizzled" is a euphemism I picked up that actually means I flung white chocolate all over the room. It makes a tasty mess to clean up.

Okay, and then I was determined to get the black border quilted. It was a tight motif I was doing, and so it took more time than you might think to work my way around all four sides. When it was finished it looked like this.

Here's how it looks from the back. I should remind you again, the backing fabric is a grunge fabric, and so it looks as if its been used as a drop cloth. I can assure you it is clean.

When I was ready to stop, I quilted a little test of the motif I want to use in the red border. There's just this one border left for quilting, and then it will be ready for binding. I saw a similar motif on Pinterest that I tried to copy, but I messed it up right away. Still, this looks okay to me, and so I'll just continue with what I'm doing.

Here's how it looks from the back.

There was still time left in the day, and so I made my way to the sewing room. Smitty was there waiting for me. He was very concerned about the status of the Purrfectly Pieced quilt. It's one of his favorites.

Aren't you going to finish the cat quilt?

In just a few minutes' time, the last border was sewn on, and I had myself a finished quilt top. Smitty thinks that cat in the lower right is him.

Also, I noticed the cat at the top had lost one of his eyes. I probably have another one in my collection, and so I'll fix that today.

Sadie is wondering when we're going to finish the next quilt. She'll just hold it down until I can get to it.

But before we talk about future sewing, let's talk about that stew I started in the slow cooker. I was trying a new recipe I found in the NYTimes for Slow Cooker Beef Stew with Maple and Stout. I was motivated to make it from this picture that accompanied the recipe:

(Image credit: Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.)

Looks pretty tasty, huh? And it was super easy. I like slow cooker recipes where you can just dump everything in and turn it on. This required a little peeling and cutting up of the vegetables. I was using a pot roast that I'd cut into chunks, but pre-cut stew meat would probably work just as well. The only liquid added to the pot was 1/3 cup of a stout beer (I used Modelo Negro) and 1/4 cup of maple syrup. It makes the most delicious "broth" after cooking for 8-10 hours. If you want a non-alcoholic substitute for the stout beer, you could use a strong beef broth. It was easy enough to do while RVing, and this is a definite keeper. I've linked to the recipe above the image, but you might need a subscription to open it. If you want the recipe, and you can't open the link, email me and I'll be happy to send it to you.

Okay, so I was expecting the fabric for my art quilt to arrive yesterday, and it did. It came in a package barely larger than a deck of cards. I wouldn't think a yard of fabric could be folded so small.

And I know I said I couldn't show it to you, but I can at least give you a little peek.

And now that the fabric is here, I'll be able to finish off my piece. I've had about a hundred and one ideas about how to do this, but I think I've settled on just one. I still need to decide on some fabrics, and it's possible I'll have to review my entire stash before I'll be able to settle on something. That will probably take a good part of my day. It's a nice day, though. I really should get out for a walk. Probably, I will. I'm laying off the Bowflex for a while...at least until I finish with my quilting. And I only mention this because that would make it a treadmill day. If I'm walking, then outside is better.

Okay...so onward. There's plenty to keep me busy today. Time to get going. Smitty has been sitting beside me while I've been writing. He wonders what's taking so darned long.

Also, he wants me to remind you that tomorrow is the last day to enter my giveaway for the Cats in Pajamas quilt pattern. The winner will be announced Monday morning.