Short-tailed Cat

Good morning, my friends. We got just a little bit more snow overnight. The little dusting we got yesterday was gone before noon, and there were snow showers throughout the day with no accumulation. Looking out our living room window this morning, it looks like this:

It's still nothing to write home about, but then...this is my only home and I'm writing from home. I suppose that counts for something.

You might recall the partly-finished kitten in a teacup from yesterday. I was mulling over how to give it a short Sadie tail.

Well, it took less than ten minutes, and I had myself a very stylish short-tailed cat.

She just needed a teacup, and so I finished it off with February's blue.

These are the two blocks I have for this quilt so far. This is my 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.

 

Now, you might remember how I was gnashing my teeth about this when I made January's pink cup. I thought there was an error in this already-confusing pattern. As it turns out, the error was all mine. My (grudging) apologies to the pattern designer. My bad. The handles on both cups are made the same way. Clearly, I got confused about which piece went where when I made last month's cup. Seeing the two side-by-side helped me understand what I was supposed to have done.

So, initially, I thought I'd write something about how I was going to saddle up my horse and ride by the quilt block to see if I could find the error. 

But then I went to work on the next row of blocks for the "Land and Sea" quilt...made in the "Duckworth" style. These go pretty fast. I'm choosing blue centers and using a ruler for a straight cut, but otherwise, they're just cut in whatever way I hold the ruler...no measuring allowed (my rule).

When the blocks are large enough to trim to 10-1/2 inches, I call them finished. Here are the two rows of blocks I've made for this quilt so far. There will be six rows when it's finished. I felt a little "meh" about these when I made the first row. Now that there are more blocks, it looks a little more interesting to my eyes. 

And while I was working on these, I talked myself into fixing the handle for the pink cup. It shouldn't take too long.

It was nearing the end of my sewing day when Sadie showed up to help. She helped me make six half square triangles for the Lightframe quilt. 

This is what I have for this quilt so far. The blocks start with the half square triangles arranged in different configurations. Then they're turned into a sort of half log cabin block. 

Sadie helped me line them up for a picture.

It was nearing dinner time by then, and I was kind of done picking through my scraps for the day. I decided to hang up my scissors there, turned out the lights, and called it a sewing day.

I tried a new soup recipe for dinner last night. This is Creamy Butternut Squash and Coconut Noodle Soup.

It was actually pretty easy. The butternut squash is peeled and chunked up. Then, it's browned in some olive oil. After that, you add some seasonings and two cans of coconut milk. The recipe called for full-fat coconut milk, and that's what I used. I do think it could be exchanged for the lite coconut milk and still taste good. The recipe also suggests mashing the butternut squash when it's soft enough. I used an immersion blender and pureed mine. I think the creaminess of the pureed squash could stand-in for the fat in the coconut milk.

The noodles (I used linguine that was broken in half) are added to the bowl, and the soup is ladled over. Then, it gets a squeeze of lime juice and a few drops of chili oil. It was supposed to have some sliced shallots, but I already had some sliced green onion, and so I used that. Onions are onions, right? So we liked this. I'd make it again. I've linked to the recipe up there. Recently, I figured out I can "gift" link to an article, and so you should be able to open that one. If not, you can always email me, and I'll be happy to send it to you.

Okay, so that was my yesterday. Today I'll start my sewing by fixing the handle on the pink cup, and then I'll get on my way with the Lightframe blocks. If the snow is no worse than this tomorrow, I should still be able to make my doctor's appointment. (Fingers crossed.) Probably I'll be posting a little later than usual tomorrow morning. And if the snow keeps me in, you can look for me to be whining, wailing, and moaning at my usual time.