A Little Finish

Good morning, my friends. Well, the rubber is about to hit the road here, both literally and figuratively. Time grows short. I had a moment of panic last night thinking about all I need to do between now and the day we leave on our trip. Then, as I've told a few of you, I talked myself back from the ledge by reminding myself that the truck can't leave without us. And, if I'm thinking straight, I know I have plenty of time. But the time is now. I need to get moving. 

Just before coming upstairs to write this post, I took a roll of Jimmy Dean Sausage out of the freezer to thaw in preparation for our beginning-of-the-trip Breakfast Burritos. They're a quick and easy breakfast on driving days, and bonus: they'll cross the Canadian border without getting confiscated.

But breakfast burritos will have to wait because I have a small finish to show you. After our morning outing, I spent about an hour yesterday afternoon hand-stitching the binding for the Kitchen Herbs quilt. And that makes a little finish.

It's now serving as a table topper for our breakfast bar. It's a good size for that. Here's how it looks from the back.

Of course, I couldn't have done this without the help of my stitching cat who kept my feet warm while I stitched. Sadie was standing by in the chair across the room in case her assistance was needed.

She was happy to be able to sit this one out after spending so much time on inspections the day before.

So I still have another larger quilt for binding, but I decided to spend a little more time on the Le Jardin piece. If I stitch fast, I could finish this today.

Mr. Random has already selected a "short" project from my list. He was smart and chose a redwork pattern. Next up, I'll stitch one of the pieces from this Kitty Lover Redwork pattern from Bird Brain Designs.

In a previous life, I stitched the 100% Kitty Lover piece for a swap some time ago. This time around, I'll stitch the one in the upper right. It says, "For the best seat, move the cat!" Purrfect. And Mr. Random was smart for choosing a redwork piece because if I don't finish it before I leave, I can just put it in the project box with Raggedy & Friends. Both projects are redwork, and so I can finish it on the road without adding a lot of extra baggage.

It was a busy morning yesterday. We had breakfast at a favorite local restaurant, and then we ran a couple of errands, including dropping off Big Bertha for her routine maintenance and adjustment. She'll be spending a good part of her summer hanging out at the sew & vac store. The store owner assured me their store is safe and they have a special room for sewing machines they're storing while their owners galavant around the country. She couldn't go even if I wanted to take her. She doesn't have a passport, and cannot get across the border. It was poor planning on her part. But that means my sewing machine is gone. Fortunately, I can always set up Pfelicity Pfaff if I get too weird, nervous, and thirsty from missing my sewing pal.

When we got home yesterday afternoon, I washed four loads of quilts and bedding. Aside from thinking and making lists, it was my first bit of actual getting-ready activity. We have what's known as an RV Superbag. Anyone who's ever changed sheets on an RV bed knows the challenges. Mike, in his great camping bed wisdom, found this "superbag." It has been nothing short of a Godsend. It's basically a king-sized sleeping bag that all zips together. Inside are sheets that are velcroed to the inside of the cover. The sleeping bag itself has a heavy side and a light side for cooler and warmer weather. We just flip it over, depending on the weather. 

And all of that to say the sheets inside can be machine washed and dried. The cover can be machine washed, but it has to be hung to dry. So the two sides of the cover are currently hanging to dry. One is over the shower curtain rod. The Bowflex is serving as a handy drying rack for the other side. I expect both sides are dry by now, and so I'll spend some time today reassembling it. It's a great product, but a puzzle to put back together once it's been separated into its component parts.

Dinner last night was quick and easy. I tried a new recipe for Chicken Teriyaki. 

I've given you the link back there. The trick with this recipe is remembering to start it in the marinade the day before, but you can start it up to an hour ahead of time. I neglected to add the cinnamon stick and the pineapple juice to the marinade, but we didn't miss it. Mike grilled the chicken on the barbecue, and I served it with some rice on the side. The marinade is boiled and turned into a sauce once the chicken is removed, and that was very tasty.

For another side dish, I made some Asian Coleslaw. For the two of us, I make just half the recipe. The first time I made this, I used all the ingredients listed, but I wrote myself a note to try it with regular packaged coleslaw mix. That turned out just fine, and so I only used the recipe for the dressing. That made an easy side dish. I mixed up the dressing in a large Tupperware, added the bagged coleslaw mix, shook it up, and let it sit. The only thing that would make it easier would be if someone else made the dressing.

Okay, so there's plenty on the agenda for today. I want to bake some muffins for our pre-breakfast snack, and I want to get busy sewing the binding on the Joyful Journey quilt. I doubt I can finish it in a single day, but sometimes I surprise myself. Mike is meeting up with Erik in the Columbia River Gorge today for some kind of annual road rally, and so I'll be attempting to reassemble the bedding mentioned above by myself. It's a trick, as I said, but I still think I can manage it single-handedly. I am woman. Hear me roar. And besides...bedding. How hard can it be?

When I finish here, I'm going to print off my packing list, which has been hanging out in its digital domain up until now. When I print my list, you know things are going to get serious. So...onward. There are many waypoints between here and D-Day. I'll start knocking them off in earnest today.