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  • free-motion quilting
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June 17, 2026
Late Post from ... Cat Patches

Good afternoon, my friends. I'm slow on the switch this morning, but I have a good excuse. A whole lot of water has passed under the bridge in the last 24 hours. Mike had his second cataract surgery yesterday afternoon. We got lunch afterward. Then this morning we were up at the butt crack of dawn to see the doctor for his post-op appointment. We got breakfast afterward. I started a load of clothes before we left home this morning, and the last load is washing as I'm writing. There are a couple of easy housekeeping chores on ...

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Late Post from Cat Patches

Good afternoon, my friends. I'm slow on the switch this morning, but I have a good excuse. A whole lot of water has passed under the bridge in the last 24 hours. Mike had his second cataract surgery yesterday afternoon. We got lunch afterward. Then this morning we were up at the butt crack of dawn to see the doctor for his post-op appointment. We got breakfast afterward. I started a load of clothes before we left home this morning, and the last load is washing as I'm writing. There are a couple of easy housekeeping chores on ...

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June 3, 2026
Facing the Music from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. Today comes the "find out" part of my recent FAFO actions. (Google it, if you don't know.) It's the day I go to court over my recent speeding ticket. There's no whining or making excuses on my part. I'm just hoping for a reduction in the fine if I throw myself on the mercy of the court. What form do you think this should take? Should I writhe on the ground for a while? Would kicking and screaming be ill-advised? Probably I should wait and read the room before making any rash ...

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Facing the Music from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. Today comes the "find out" part of my recent FAFO actions. (Google it, if you don't know.) It's the day I go to court over my recent speeding ticket. There's no whining or making excuses on my part. I'm just hoping for a reduction in the fine if I throw myself on the mercy of the court. What form do you think this should take? Should I writhe on the ground for a while? Would kicking and screaming be ill-advised? Probably I should wait and read the room before making any rash ...

read more
June 2, 2026
Summery Day from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. The Summer Solstice is still a couple of weeks away, but it sure felt like summer yesterday. I took time in the morning to stitch Tiny Treasure #55. This one has stem stitch, stem fill, basketweave stitch, and straight stitch.


From there, I headed outside to check on the flowers. There were just four poppies this year. The poppies are biannuals, but I’ve been getting flowers from them every year. I’m not sure why this year was so skimpy. There was one other, in addition to the three in the image below. It got ...

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Summery Day from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. The Summer Solstice is still a couple of weeks away, but it sure felt like summer yesterday. I took time in the morning to stitch Tiny Treasure #55. This one has stem stitch, stem fill, basketweave stitch, and straight stitch.


From there, I headed outside to check on the flowers. There were just four poppies this year. The poppies are biannuals, but I’ve been getting flowers from them every year. I’m not sure why this year was so skimpy. There was one other, in addition to the three in the image below. It got ...

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June 1, 2026
Joyful June from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends, and welcome to June. Today is the 24th anniversary of the founding of the Three Cats Ranch. We moved into our home on June 1, 2002, bringing with us this crew for whom the place is named. If you've been reading a long time, you'll remember George and Gracie. You won't remember Krissy, the tortie bringing up the rear. She was a memorable kitty, and she lived to be 19. She lived with us longer than either of our boys. 


And the best part about June...summer will be here before the month ...

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Joyful June from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends, and welcome to June. Today is the 24th anniversary of the founding of the Three Cats Ranch. We moved into our home on June 1, 2002, bringing with us this crew for whom the place is named. If you've been reading a long time, you'll remember George and Gracie. You won't remember Krissy, the tortie bringing up the rear. She was a memorable kitty, and she lived to be 19. She lived with us longer than either of our boys. 


And the best part about June...summer will be here before the month ...

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May 31, 2026
A Good Day Ends Badly from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's the last day of May. We're onto June tomorrow. Are you ready? On June 4, 1944, my mom and dad were married. They were married 52 years when she passed away in 1997. Also, my grandfather's birthday was June 14th...Flag Day. (Also the same day as...you know...he who shall not be named.) My grandfather always told me they put the flags out on Flag Day for him. He was a WWI veteran, and so it made complete sense to me.

As you're reading along this morning, you can ...

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A Good Day Ends Badly from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. It's the last day of May. We're onto June tomorrow. Are you ready? On June 4, 1944, my mom and dad were married. They were married 52 years when she passed away in 1997. Also, my grandfather's birthday was June 14th...Flag Day. (Also the same day as...you know...he who shall not be named.) My grandfather always told me they put the flags out on Flag Day for him. He was a WWI veteran, and so it made complete sense to me.

As you're reading along this morning, you can ...

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May 30, 2026
Swirls and Curls from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. Sheesh...what an exhausting day we had yesterday. We had a lot of errands to run in the morning in addition to doing our grocery shopping. We got our beloved Egg McMuffins first...mainly to take the sting out of the whole morning's mission. From there, we headed to the recycling depot, then the pharmacy, then the feed store, then the grocery store, then the gas station, then another grocery store (because, weirdly, our regular store doesn't sell canned crab), and finally...the liquor store. I swear the liquor store was always a part ...

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Swirls and Curls from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends. Sheesh...what an exhausting day we had yesterday. We had a lot of errands to run in the morning in addition to doing our grocery shopping. We got our beloved Egg McMuffins first...mainly to take the sting out of the whole morning's mission. From there, we headed to the recycling depot, then the pharmacy, then the feed store, then the grocery store, then the gas station, then another grocery store (because, weirdly, our regular store doesn't sell canned crab), and finally...the liquor store. I swear the liquor store was always a part ...

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May 29, 2026
Busy like the bees from A Prim and (not so) Proper Quilter

...with a little bit of sewing. It’s all good.
I'm going to be as "Readers Digest Condensed" version as possible because I've got a lot going on right now. Katrina was here for Mother's Day weekend and we had a blast--I can’t believe how much I got done, even while talking! A backing for the Antelope Canyon quilt, quilted a machine mat for my Luminaire and prepped the binding for it, and upcycled a pair of jeans for Katrina by inserting a gusset in each pants leg with pieces from a vintage quilt. That was ...

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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 ...

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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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  • free-motion quilting
  • Page 1 of 46 ( 918 posts )