Lackluster Day

Good morning, my friends. I moved through the day like a zombie yesterday...not that I felt dead, but I tried to bore myself to death. It took me half the day just to get off the couch, and then I completely forgot to do my assigned housekeeping chores. And it got so late in the day that I decided not to walk on the treadmill. Some days are like that, I guess. 

On the must-do list, however, were these Lemon-Blueberry Muffin Cookies. I'm linking to the recipe there, but that in no way indicates a recommendation from me.

Here's what happened: I made just half the recipe, and that meant using one of the egg whites from my freezer. (For a half egg, I use just the egg white.) Aside from making just half, I made these exactly as instructed. But the dough never really came together as dough. It was more the consistency of streusel. I tried forming it into balls with my hands, but it fell apart as soon as I let go of it. Then, I thought, well, okay...they're "muffin" cookies. I wondered if they'd bake up better in a muffin tin. And that didn't work either, but it did contribute to the huge mess I was making. 

So, okay, it needed something to bind it together, and so I added another whole egg. That did the trick, but I was still nervous about whether it was going to work at all. (I noticed one of the commenters said she used applesauce. That would have been a good choice too.) Before putting them into the oven, I was to add a streusel topping. I had the same problem with the streusel. I could mold it together with my hands, but it crumbled and ended up virtually everywhere when I tried to apply it to the tops of the cookie/muffins. I did my best, getting as much streusel topping adhered to the dough as I could. But there was streusel everywhere on the cookie sheet, and I knew that was going to bake down into a big sticky impossible concrete mess. So, I used a dry brush to brush as much excess away as I could. And lo and behold, miracle of miracles, they actually looked good when they came from the oven.

From there, they needed to cool 20 minutes before I added the lemon glaze (delicious, by the way). We each had one with our afternoon cup of espresso, and we've each had one this morning. They taste good, and I can't say the recipe was a failure. It wasn't. It just made a huge mess and caused me no end of angst (because I hate wasting the ingredients on a failed recipe). So, I won't make them again because they were a painus in the anus. Also, cookies are a perfect food. And muffins are a perfect food. Why bother trying to make either what the other is? I rest my case. Make them if you must, but do so at your own risk. How's that for a rousing endorsement?

So, I needed something simple to do after that debacle. I decided to trace out the next two Raggedy blocks.

After tomorrow, I should have them all finished.

And then I went to work picking through scraps to make the scrappy borders for The Story of My Day. As a reminder, I'm making the inner borders shown in the image from the pattern below. Two borders are 1-1/4-inch strips sewn together end to end. Two more borders will be from 1-3/4-inch strips.

I started picking from my tiny scrap bins. But then I got the idea to start picking from my leftover bindings. I pulled the shortest strips from that bin. And then I got another idea to pick from the bins that hold my cut-off and leftover strip sets. I keep bins with nothing but bonus triangles. And I keep bins with nothing but cut-off strip sets. When we travel I like to take those along to sew into scrappy quilts. But they're also working for this project. I can cut the strip sets into the appropriate width. Since they're sewn together end to end, the strip sets just shortcut the process a little bit. Before I stopped for the day, I had this pile. There might be enough to make one border here, but I'll keep cutting for a while. I'll need somewhere in the neighborhood of 98 inches for the first two borders.

And then my last gasp for the day was to quilt another row of blocks for Jericho Walls.

I've reached the final row of blocks, and there is also a row of setting triangles. I'm hoping to get both finished today. I've left it needle down right here. I love that pink cat fabric. It was a gift from my friend, Robin. Thank you, Robin.

I'll still need to quilt the border before this will be to binding stage. Already I know how I'm going to quilt it. I'm just now sure how much quilting I should do in a single day. It's a big quilt and so the borders are long. I'll probably break it into four days of quilting. So far, I've managed to get through this whole big quilt without hurting myself. 

Today will look a lot like yesterday, although I'm hoping I can muster a little bit more energy. Probably I'll be able to start sewing together the border strips for The Story of My Day. And since I missed walking on the treadmill yesterday, I really need to do that today. Also, I need to make up a grocery list. Tomorrow is our grocery shopping day. There's never a dull moment here at the Three Cats Ranch. Actually, all the moments here are dull, and that's just the way we like it.