Ready for Thanksgiving

Good afternoon, my friends. Technically, it's still morning as I'm writing this, but it'll be afternoon by the time I finish. We were up and out early this morning. We stopped off for a gourmet breakfast of Egg McMuffins, and then we picked up a long list of grocery items. We were home before 10:00 a.m. Heck, I considered getting back into my pajamas, and then it would almost be like it never happened. 

The only good thing I can say about grocery shopping that early in the morning is that the store was mostly empty. Just a few die-hard shoppers like us...all trying to avoid the pre-Thanksgiving panicked mob. For those of you who don't celebrate Thanksgiving, know this: It is my favorite holiday. I love Thanksgiving. What could be a better tradition than getting together with loved ones to feast on all the family food favorites? On the other hand, it is my least favorite grocery shopping trip. It's a big relief when it's over.

There were wreaths for sale today for the first time. We picked one up for the front door. This is about as festive as we get here at the Three Cats Ranch, although we'll be decorating inside with the many Christmas quilts I've made over the years.

Let's back up to yesterday, though, shall we? Of course, my day started with some slow-stitching. Sadie was my helpful stitching cat.

And you probably can't appreciate how exhausting it is to be a stitching cat. Sadie had to call in reinforcements and Smitty took over for the final half of the day's Tiny Treasure.

With their help, I finished up Tiny Treasure #16. This one is basket weave stitch, stem stitch, and stem fill.

From there I went to work quilting the vertical sashing on the Whimsical Garden. Smitty watched carefully to make sure I was doing it right.

I used the same motif I used in the horizontal sashing. This was an easy one, and I'm sure I'll use it again in the future.

Here's a peek at the back.

Now I've reached the outer border, and I expect to finish the quilting today.

I found this motif on Pinterest, and so I'll give it a try. I've drawn it with a pencil on paper, and it seems pretty straight-forward.

When I finished with everything else yesterday, I went to work sewing the binding on the Sewing Room quilt. And now that's a finished quilt.

Here's a peek at the back.

I had in mind to hang this on the opposite side of the wall pictured below, but then it made more sense to me that a quilt called the "Sewing Room" would be on entry side of the door, rather than the exit. So there it is.

Okay, so it feels as if the day is finished now, but there's still plenty to do. I'll do the next Tiny Treasure, and then I'll get back to my quilting. If I'm very energetic, I might see the Whimsical Garden through to binding stage by day's end. Mike is going for a rare evening out with some former co-workers, and so I'll have the house to myself for several hours later today. The mind reels at the possibilities.