It's a Start

Good morning, my friends. We're above the clouds here at the Three Cats Ranch this morning, although the sun has barely risen. I can see fog in the valley, but blue sky where we are. We had a major grocery shopping trip yesterday morning, followed by naps when we got home. (I believe a grocery shopping trip cannot be completed properly unless napping is the last thing on the list.)

Fully re-energized, I went to work quilting the Ties & Tails quilt. It's going okay, but I can't say I'm loving what I'm doing. The most I can say for it is that it will be functional. Nevertheless, it's early. In my experience, free motion quilting can be very forgiving. It's easy to be critical when one is watching every stitch happen. When the quilting is complete and the quilt is viewed as a whole, the little bobbles get lost in the shuffle.

So here's how it's going so far. It's hard to see the yellow thread against the yellow background. I first outlined the cat and then did a hooking meander in the background. I'm tempted to go back and add toes to the feet, and I probably will today.

The next block was the left-facing cat. I did the same thing there, but I gave the cat a hip for his back leg. I wanted to quilt a feather in the bird. I was at the beak end of the bird when I started, which meant I was quilting the feather backwards from my favorite way. I'm not happy with how this turned out, but I left it for the time being.

The next block was identical, except the cat was facing right. There, I made sure to start the bird at the tail end, and that worked out better for me. I'm planning to go back and redo the first bird. This time, I'll start at the end where I'm more comfortable. Do you find you can only quilt in one direction? It's probably a right-hand/left-hand sort of thing. Also, I noticed I didn't give this bird an eye. I'll have to fix that.

And I gave this cat a back leg too. I'm not doing any quilting inside the cat, except to outline their tails and their ties. I might decide to do something there later.

Of course, one cannot quilt without the advice of the expurrts. Smitty knows his cats.

I think he's laying claim to this quilt. It features his brethren, after all.

With his help, I finished the middle three cats. 

Here's a little peek at the back.

There's quite a bit to do in the kitchen today, but I'm hoping to get back to this and quilt the bottom row of cats. In the kitchen, I'm starting some chili in the slow cooker. To go with that, I'm trying a new recipe for Cast Iron Beer-Batter Cheese Bread. I'm linking to the recipe there, but I haven't tried it yet. It sounds good, and it seems like a good accompaniment to the chili. 

Also, I'm mixing up a dough for crust to go with a recipe I'm testing for America's Test Kitchens. This one will be for Cast-Iron Quiche with Caramelized Onion, Porcini, and Gruyère. I won't be able to share that recipe with you, but I can tell you how it turns out. Today, I'm making the crust. The quiche will be on tomorrow's to-do list. And if I'm feeling really energetic, I might try scaling down a recipe for Fresh Apple Cake to make it a cake for two. It'll be a good way to procrastinate on the quilting. (I'm very good at procrastination.)

So there you have it. Cooking and quilting. How will you spend your day today?