So Much Sewing

Good morning, my friends. All of my to-do's were crossed off yesterday, including walking on the treadmill and the one housekeeping chore on my list. Yay me! 

Once the meat and potatoes part of my day was complete, I could move on to dessert. There was lots of time for sewing. Fortunately, my purrtector cat was on the job, keeping an eye out for any invading forces from the north.

It was unclear how much quilting there was left to do on the Fantastic Felines, and so I just sewed until I was tired of sewing, and then laid the quilt out on the floor to have a look-see. Smitty was Johnny-on- the-spot to give it his once over too. Also..."Fantastic Felines"? Pshaw! There's no more fantastic feline than Smitty, and this quilt did not convince him otherwise.

And I looked carefully at all the lines and discovered the quilting was FINISHED!!! Yahoo!!!!

Here's another peek at the back.

So I turned everything off, folded it up, and carried it downstairs. There, I went to work on the binding for the Painted Ladies, turning the fourth and final corner.

There's just this much left to do:

And so I should easily finish this today.

As I was preparing to go downstairs to my sewing room, I happened to look outside to see that our star magnolia is starting to bloom. I noticed it a few days ago, but this was one of the first flowers to open.

A bird was living in this tree last year (or maybe it was the year before). I looked down to see if the nest was still there. It is, which had me wondering if a bird will take up residence there. If so, it'll have to do some housekeeping since the nest has accumulated some leaves and twigs with the passage of time.

It was tempting to call it a day at that point, but there was still another hour left to kill. I headed down stairs and pretty quickly finished sewing the Gumballs quilt into a finished quilt top. Yay! It ends up at 60 x 72 inches.

This was so much fun to make that I'm planning to start another one soon. I'll do the next one in greens, blues, and aquas. 

Sewing the Gumballs quilt into a finished flimsy was my goal for March's

and so I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month. 

And that really was the end of my sewing day. Last night's dinner was a new recipe for this One-Pot Cheesy Orecchiette with Cabbage and Paprika. We liked this a lot. I liked it because it as so easy to make. The whole thing is cooked up in a single skillet, including boiling the pasta.

We had that with a side of Texas toast, and that was one tasty dinner with easy clean-up. I'll be marking this as suitable for RV cooking.

So there won't be as much time for sewing today. I'm going to do some cooking this morning. Erik, the Grill King, has invited us for dinner tomorrow. He has an enormous pastrami brisket to grill up, and he says they need "all hands on deck" to devour said brisket. They're going to be serving Reubens (practically my favorite sandwich) with homemade sauerkraut. My contribution will be a macaroni salad. Also, and just for fun on Friday, I'm going to make some more lemon pudding cakes. I made them while we were traveling, and Mike asked for another round. 

Also, we've really enjoyed the Irish Brown Bread I made for St. Patrick's Day. It was good with the Irish Beef Stew I made for dinner that night, but we've really enjoyed it toasted in the morning.

The first loaf is nearly gone, and so I'll bake another. It's mixed up in a single bowl, and so it's easy enough. As long as I'm going to be in the kitchen anyway, I might as well bake some more. Also in the I-might-as-well category, I'm going to hard boil some eggs. I like to have at least a few on hand at all times, and we're fresh out.

Okay, so it's a busy kitchen day ahead. Also, I'm going to try to continue my effort to get back into some movement by doing a Bow-Flex workout. And I really have no idea how well that will work. Certainly, I can't be doing any resistance work with my hurting left shoulder. I can still do leg work, but I'll have to try doing the arms without any resistance on the left side. Maybe it'll work out, and maybe it won't.  Finally, I'm committed to finishing up the Painted Ladies, and so that'll be at the top of my list.

We're still gray and gloomy here. I'm anxiously awaiting some warmer weather so that I can get out and do some yard work. Looks like it'll be Sunday at the earliest now, and the weather is looking dry, even if it is on the chilly side. Still...the hairy bittercress is calling in reinforcements every day. I really need to get out and start yanking it up.

What's on your agenda for the weekend? Something fun, I hope.