Hand Stitching

Good morning, my friends. It seems as if a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the last time we talked. When I left you on Friday, I was preparing to take Eliza in for a spa treatment. That turned into practically an all-day affair. We dropped off the machine, but I'd left the bobbin casing at home. The technician said it was better to adjust the tension if they had the bobbin casing. I said I'd go home, get it, and bring it back, but whoa. That was quite a journey. It's an hour's drive both directions, and so I ended up spending four hours on the road on Friday. Yeesh. No sewing for me. 

And now, my friends, please take a moment to feel the loneliness in the room as I write this. I've brought the Painted Ladies upstairs since they'll be next under Eliza's needle when she's home again. But, oh...what a sad sight to see for now. The Painted Ladies were looking forward to their chance to cuddle up with Eliza. For now, all they get is this flat table. Sigh. Probably their turn for quilting won't come until we return from our trip south in March.

On a more optimistic note, I've stitched two more Tiny Treasures since we last chatted. This is Tiny Treasure #18. This one has stem stitch, lazy daisy, and French knots.

This is Tiny Treasure #19. It's mostly stem fill, but there's one French knot.

My first stop yesterday was to bake these Brown Butter Pumpkin Cookies. These turned out nice. They're a little like a shortbread with just a hint of pumpkin flavor. They have a nice texture. Also, they used up the last of the can of pumpkin I opened a while back. When I took them from the oven, they were to cool completely on their baking sheets.

I've linked to the recipe back there. Just know that mine took 18 minutes to bake. Possibly, I need to check the temperature of my oven for accuracy because the cookies I've baked recently have taken far longer than suggested in the recipes I've used.

That was the last task standing between me and my sewing, and so my next stop was in the sewing room to square up the Whimsical Garden. Usually, I get a kitty helper, but not yesterday. They were busy doing other things.

When it was ready to go, I sewed on the binding.

When I took it upstairs to start on the hand-sewing, Sadie joined me. She was a little late to the party, but she's all about getting under the quilts I'm working on. Her other business would have to take a back seat to this opportunity for snuggling.

With her help, I was able to turn the first two corners. I'm probably just shy of half way around. Depending on how energetic I am, I might finish this today.

As a last gasp for the day, I tried this new recipe for Jezebel Chicken Thighs. The least expensive way I've found to buy chicken is to buy the big "family" packs of 8-10 pieces of chicken. It might be thighs or drumsticks or wings, or whatever. But I end up with lots of pieces of chicken. I've been breaking the packages down and freezing some for future use. In this case, I used four of the ten chicken thighs in the package. It was pretty easy to make...easy enough for RV cooking...and it was very tasty.

The recipe called for apricot preserves. I used some of my homemade peach jam instead. Also, my chicken thighs were rather large. I figure the chicken(s) must have been hitting the gym before they died. Anyway...they ended up taking about twice as long to cook as the recipe suggested. Because of that, the peach jam probably darkened more than it might have otherwise. 

On the side, we had Honey Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes. This turned out to be a good paring. While the sweet potatoes roasted, I could make the chicken, and so it was an easy meal to put together.

So in the middle of writing this post, I made and ate our Sunday morning pancakes. Did you notice me being any more coherent after I took sustenance? On today's agenda...the usual stuff...and I'm hoping to finish off the binding on the Whimsical Garden. It'll be good to have another in the finished column before the end of the year. I'm also still thinking about how to sew together "S" is for Sew. 

Just now, I'm heading for the next Tiny Treasure. We've had a couple of days of chilly but nice weather. I'm afraid the rain will be back today and for the remainder of the week. It hardly matters. Cooking for Thanksgiving will commence in a couple of days, and so I'll have plenty to do inside. What are you doing to stay busy?