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May 26, 2026
How to Spend a Rainy Day from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. I'm writing fast this morning. Mike and I have appointments for a COVID booster, so we'll be heading out early this morning. Let's just get right to it, shall we?

Knowing rain was coming, I went out early to check on the flowers. The Garden Treasures peony looked pretty much the same as when I looked at it the day before. The Fairy Princess peony was starting to show more of itself.


The Edda clematis continues to add more flowers.


And that was pretty much all that was going on in the garden ...

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How to Spend a Rainy Day from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. I'm writing fast this morning. Mike and I have appointments for a COVID booster, so we'll be heading out early this morning. Let's just get right to it, shall we?

Knowing rain was coming, I went out early to check on the flowers. The Garden Treasures peony looked pretty much the same as when I looked at it the day before. The Fairy Princess peony was starting to show more of itself.


The Edda clematis continues to add more flowers.


And that was pretty much all that was going on in the garden ...

read more
May 24, 2026
Sitting and Stitching from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's probably our last day of good weather here. We're told it will rain tomorrow. I have plenty of slow-stitching to keep me busy for the next several days. Yesterday, I stitched far enough on the Santa Quartet to decide to move my hoop to encompass the last of it.


Probably I have a couple of days left on the Santas, but I decided to trace the next 12 Tiny Treasures. I'm drawing lines to designate 2-1/2 squares for this, and then I center the design within the square.


It's hard ...

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Sitting and Stitching from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's probably our last day of good weather here. We're told it will rain tomorrow. I have plenty of slow-stitching to keep me busy for the next several days. Yesterday, I stitched far enough on the Santa Quartet to decide to move my hoop to encompass the last of it.


Probably I have a couple of days left on the Santas, but I decided to trace the next 12 Tiny Treasures. I'm drawing lines to designate 2-1/2 squares for this, and then I center the design within the square.


It's hard ...

read more
May 23, 2026
Binding Ahead from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. Another one bites the dust. I'm happy to say the quilting is finished for the Homestead quilt. When I sat down at the machine yesterday, just the outer border remained. As I've said before, I try to learn something from every quilt. From this one, I learned that choosing a dark color thread on light fabrics probably isn't a good idea. As I quilted some of the blocks for this quilt, I thought the dark blue thread overwhelmed the design of the quilt block. Originally, I had in mind to do something traditional ...

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Binding Ahead from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. Another one bites the dust. I'm happy to say the quilting is finished for the Homestead quilt. When I sat down at the machine yesterday, just the outer border remained. As I've said before, I try to learn something from every quilt. From this one, I learned that choosing a dark color thread on light fabrics probably isn't a good idea. As I quilted some of the blocks for this quilt, I thought the dark blue thread overwhelmed the design of the quilt block. Originally, I had in mind to do something traditional ...

read more
May 22, 2026
Sowing and Sewing from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy and tiring day yesterday, but I'm happy to say the vegetable garden is planted now. We've lived in our house 24 years, as of June 1st. I can't remember the exact year we created our garden plot, but it was early on. I believe I can safely say it was within the first three years...so at least 20 years ago. In years past, we've planted the whole thing. Here's one of the pictures from early on.

A few years ago, we decided to plant a smaller ...

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Sowing and Sewing from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy and tiring day yesterday, but I'm happy to say the vegetable garden is planted now. We've lived in our house 24 years, as of June 1st. I can't remember the exact year we created our garden plot, but it was early on. I believe I can safely say it was within the first three years...so at least 20 years ago. In years past, we've planted the whole thing. Here's one of the pictures from early on.

A few years ago, we decided to plant a smaller ...

read more
May 21, 2026
PT Graduate from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It gives me great pleasure to announce the end of my Wednesday treks to PT. It also gives me great pleasure to say that my shoulder is nearly pain free. And who among us doesn't have some ache or pain somewhere in their body? I'm hopeful that I can eventually put this annoyance behind me completely. For now, I'll just say it feels better on the days when I do my exercises. That alone will motivate me to keep doing them. Nevertheless, I'm happy not to be making that drive to the ...

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PT Graduate from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It gives me great pleasure to announce the end of my Wednesday treks to PT. It also gives me great pleasure to say that my shoulder is nearly pain free. And who among us doesn't have some ache or pain somewhere in their body? I'm hopeful that I can eventually put this annoyance behind me completely. For now, I'll just say it feels better on the days when I do my exercises. That alone will motivate me to keep doing them. Nevertheless, I'm happy not to be making that drive to the ...

read more
May 20, 2026
Home Stretch from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's a day for celebration. Today will be my last day of physical therapy. As I've grudgingly admitted, it has been very helpful. I was to return to the doctor tomorrow, but I canceled that appointment. My shoulder isn't completely pain-free, but it's improved enough that it isn't a constant annoyance. When I got into bed last night, I realized I hadn't thought about it all day. For now, I'll just keep doing the PT exercises at home. Surprisingly, it feels better on days when I do some exercise ...

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Home Stretch from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's a day for celebration. Today will be my last day of physical therapy. As I've grudgingly admitted, it has been very helpful. I was to return to the doctor tomorrow, but I canceled that appointment. My shoulder isn't completely pain-free, but it's improved enough that it isn't a constant annoyance. When I got into bed last night, I realized I hadn't thought about it all day. For now, I'll just keep doing the PT exercises at home. Surprisingly, it feels better on days when I do some exercise ...

read more
May 19, 2026
A Finish! from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's a sunny day. The promise of a warmer week seems to be coming to fruition. I was out early yesterday morning. The birds had emptied their feeders...again...and I needed to check on the seedlings in the greenhouse. (Both things are new additions to my morning routine.) While I was out, I checked on the flowers. (Checking on the flowers is also part of my morning routine.) I'd hoped the Coral Sunset peony would have bloomed, but it was still hiding itself. Nevertheless, the other peonies were putting on a show.


Also ...

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A Finish! from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's a sunny day. The promise of a warmer week seems to be coming to fruition. I was out early yesterday morning. The birds had emptied their feeders...again...and I needed to check on the seedlings in the greenhouse. (Both things are new additions to my morning routine.) While I was out, I checked on the flowers. (Checking on the flowers is also part of my morning routine.) I'd hoped the Coral Sunset peony would have bloomed, but it was still hiding itself. Nevertheless, the other peonies were putting on a show.


Also ...

read more
May 16, 2026
Slowing Down from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It was nice to have a day at home yesterday after such a busy week. It was on the cool side outdoors, and that made it a good day to stay inside and sew. 

My first priority was to get the binding sewn on the Merry, Merry Snowmen quilt. As you know, here at the Three Cats Ranch, a quilt cannot be considered complete until it has been fully inspected and appurroved by the Quilt Inspectorette-in-Chief. First, it must undergo the snuggleability test. Her expression had me a little worried, but she purrmitted me to continue ...

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Slowing Down from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It was nice to have a day at home yesterday after such a busy week. It was on the cool side outdoors, and that made it a good day to stay inside and sew. 

My first priority was to get the binding sewn on the Merry, Merry Snowmen quilt. As you know, here at the Three Cats Ranch, a quilt cannot be considered complete until it has been fully inspected and appurroved by the Quilt Inspectorette-in-Chief. First, it must undergo the snuggleability test. Her expression had me a little worried, but she purrmitted me to continue ...

read more
May 15, 2026
Ready for Binding from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's a new day. We had a week of summer last week, and now we're back to a rainy spring. It's been cloudy and cool all week. The sun is shining this morning, but we're still expecting some rain later today. Next week is supposed to be better. We're setting our sites on the latter part of the week for planting the vegetable garden.

In case it wasn't obvious from yesterday's post, we were both exhausted after two days of medical appointments for Mike. As for Mike, he's ...

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Ready for Binding from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's a new day. We had a week of summer last week, and now we're back to a rainy spring. It's been cloudy and cool all week. The sun is shining this morning, but we're still expecting some rain later today. Next week is supposed to be better. We're setting our sites on the latter part of the week for planting the vegetable garden.

In case it wasn't obvious from yesterday's post, we were both exhausted after two days of medical appointments for Mike. As for Mike, he's ...

read more
May 14, 2026
Eye and Needle from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It seems a lot of time has passed since my last post, but it was only yesterday morning. In that time, Mike had his left eye cataract surgery done. He's been amazed at how much more color he's seeing from that one eye. We were out and gone early this morning for his post-op appointment. It seems both he and the doctor are happy with the outcome of this first eye. According to the doctor, "It only gets better from here."

While they were gazing into his eye, I waited and stitched. I'm ...

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Eye and Needle from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It seems a lot of time has passed since my last post, but it was only yesterday morning. In that time, Mike had his left eye cataract surgery done. He's been amazed at how much more color he's seeing from that one eye. We were out and gone early this morning for his post-op appointment. It seems both he and the doctor are happy with the outcome of this first eye. According to the doctor, "It only gets better from here."

While they were gazing into his eye, I waited and stitched. I'm ...

read more