I Like Thursday #149

Happy Thursday and let me share with you some things I've "liked" over the week. First of all I'm happy to see the sun shine again. Tuesday we had torrential rain for most of the day. Although my backyard rain gauge measured only 4.25", nearby Scott AFB received 6.1"!!! Roads were flooded everywhere, the base closed down, and a close town's dam broke and flooded houses. So ... I am grateful for sunshine! I also need to add that I love my rain gauges from my daughter and SIL.

I'm still enjoy reading "The Women" but, WARNING: there are some very tough spots to read. I'm under 100 pages to go and will let you know overall how I liked the book next week.

Last Thursday was Sr. Center Luncheon day and we enjoyed our bratwurst and sauerkraut meal. Ice cream sandwiches were passed out afterwards for dessert! Yippee! I love ice cream anything! Our entertainment was Elizabeth Lakamp after lunch and boy is she fun. Energetic, vivacious, and happy! We are even encouraged to sing along with her. Mom really loves it.

On our walk the other day, Gracie spied something ....

Gracie Found a Toad

This past week in the backyard, Gracie found a mole too. Let's just say that with Hubby's help, that will be one less mole digging through our yard. Good dog!

Our prompt this week was have we ever been to a summer outdoor play or concert. Yes to both. Back in my high school days, I went a couple of times to the MRF (Mississippi River Festival) to hear music at the Southern Illinois University campus in Edwardsville. St. Louis also has an outdoor theater with plays performed outdoors. It's all nice but our weather can be brutal in the summer with heat & humidity. It's a weather-timing thing here if you will have a good time vs a GREAT time.

I hope you've had a good week. Later today I'm getting the post put in my mouth for an implant. We'll see how that goes. I already have one but got it quite some time ago so I don't really remember much. I think I might be "uncomfortable" for 12 - 24 hours. Oh well, it'll be better in the long run!

I'm sharing this post with my friends and LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.

I Like Thursdays #148

Wow! Did we get a lot of rain from Hurricane Beryl on Tuesday! My rain gauge only goes up to 4" and it overflowed! The best part was it cooled off our weather with barely 70 degrees F on Tuesday and just into the 80s yesterday. Summer is expected to return this weekend and we'll be seeing near 100s again. Ugh! It beats Las Vegas weather though!!!

Before we got drenched, I saw my neighbor's tiger lilies were blooming. Aren't they the sweetest the way they bloom looking downward? And especially pretty with the daisies.

Yesterday's walk caught a couple of glimpses of the effects of rain.

Mushrooms Popped Up Overnight

Check Out the Green Moss on this Big Tree
(So Pretty with the Sunshine)

I'm cooking right along with "The Women" by Kristin Hannah. It's hard to imagine how difficult it was in Vietnam but especially for the women nurses. I find it hard to put this one down.

Cooking this week has been uneventful. I did try to make a strawberry rhubarb pie for Mom. I'm not familiar with rhubarb except it's supposed to be quite sour. Mom wants more rhubarb than strawberry in her pie. The one I cooked turned out quite soupy and the rhubarb cooked down to nothing. Anyone out there have a good recipe for Mom?

Television watching has been a lot of Wimbledon tennis. However a friend recommended a Netflix movie -- "The Queen Bees" with Ellen Burstyn, Jane Curtain, James Caan, and more. We found it quite entertaining. If you have Netflix, check out this light, funny, old-people movie. Ha!

Our prompt today from our hostess is if we have a favorite summertime drink. I, of course, went straight to cocktails. My favorite would be a tall glass of Jalapeno Lemonade spiked with tequila or vodka. Second choice would be a refreshing Moscow Mule. If needy no with time to make a drink, then I'd pop a bottle of Coors Light. If all else failed, I would reach for a big glass of cool water.

I hope you have a great finish to your week. Stay cool! I'll be checking with the others HERE to see what they've found likeable this week.

More FNwF, Less RSC

For those of us participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge,  Angela chose calm, serene aqua for July. I started looking at my bin for bits of aqua but that is as far as I got ... so far. I'm pretty sure my fellow Rainbow Scrappers have already gotten a good start and you can check that out here.

Last night was also Friday Night with Friends. I didn't sleep well Thursday night so, instead of dozing on the couch in front of the TV, I made my way to the sewing room. I'd already gotten a whole mess of foundation paper prepared earlier in the week for stitching and that's what I worked on.

7 More Units Sewn
34 of 112 Completed Once Trimmed

I'm using scrappy Kansas Troubles fabrics with a few Kim Diehl & Pam Buda thrown in for variety. Two units get sewn together to form the horizontal sashing for the Red Threads blocks. I finished this one up Friday morning while Mom was getting her hair done.

The project is being hosted by Sentimental Stitches and we are recreating an antique quilt. We are currently working on the 44th block of 49 so we are nearing the end. I can't wait to start putting this one together and so I'm very focused on getting the sashing strips together.

I'm sharing this post with my FNwF friends HERE and my RSC friends HERE. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

I Like Thursday #147

Happy Thursday, friends. Today is the day that I'll be sharing likeable things I've discovered during the week. I'd like to start with I love my country and am wishing the United States a happy birthday on this Independence Day. Our republic has stood for quite some time and I hope for many more years to come. Politicians and media folks talk really big about being kind, doing the will of the people, and getting along but it's hard to see that with all the blather we hear everywhere. Instead of shooting off our mouths, let's shoot off some fireworks and celebrate just how lucky we are to live in the "home of the free and the brave".

I have been remiss in not sharing with you my good fortune to win a FQ bundle from Island Batiks quite some time ago. All I did was leave a comment and next thing I knew they pulled my name! Check out these beautiful fabrics!!!

Fabric Line: Fire & Ice

I finished "Yellowface" by R. F. Kuang. All I can say is it wasn't worth my time. There wasn't really a story to interest me, the characters were nasty women (dare I say bitches?), and there was definitely a political breath behind the words. Blah! I did manage to get to the end. It may have been recommended by Reese Witherspoon but not by me.

I've just barely started "The Women" by Kristen Hannah. I hope I like this one!

Our monthly sleep-in-your-own-bed retreat was last weekend. Those ladies are fabulous! We always enjoy ourselves and it's always good to catch up with one another. I worked on flying geese units for the Red Threads project. Loads of Kansas Troubles fabrics in here.

27 pairs of 56 total

I'm please to say that we had some rain this week. Of course now we worry about flooding! In the meantime my crape myrtle has started to bloom -- even after I gave it an ugly cut earlier this summer!

Cute little rogue sunflower too!

I hope you have a great week and can celebrate America and for everything she stands for.

Linking up with my I Like Thursday friends HERE.

So Ends RSC Blue for June -- AND A FINISH!!

As the end of June is almost here, it's time for a bit of a wrap-up for the month of June. Angela chose BLUES for our Rainbow Scrap Color for the month and that meant time to pull out Rainbow Pineapple blocks, a quilt I started in 2023. Here are the three pineapple blocks I managed this month.

Three Blue Pineapple Blocks for June 2024

Close-Up Picture

I thought it might be fun to see what all of my 2024 blocks look like together.

A Field of Happy, Scrappy Pineapples!

Red Threads SAL has been progressing. Here are the embroidery blocks I completed this week.

Sweet Wren

More Wheat! Ack!

You may recall I won a Go! Baby AccuQuilt Cutter in 2022. I then decided to join the AccuQuilt Club at my LQS to learn about my "new toy". This past month, for Summer and all the Patriotic Holidays during Summer, it was suggested we make the Tumbler Flag using whatever size tumbler we have. Well, a 4-1/2" tumbler was included with the Go! Baby so that's what I used. Of course, I went scrappy. It turned out a bit larger than I anticipated. The pattern says it finishes at 28" x 48".

Scrappy Patriotic Tumbler Flag - 28x48

Some of the Free-Motion Quilting Done
on My Domestic Machine

Some of the Scrappy Reds & Whites

Had Some Stars Fabric in My Stash
Extra Tumblers were Made From a
Denim-Colored FQ Won in a Drawing

Leftover Gray Backing Fabric Worked Great
with Some Stars Printed in the Background

So see!!?? I got a finish! I got a finish! Yay me!!!! This sweet quilt will hang in the hallway until after Labor Day. (The blue field of stars keeps with the June RSC theme! *wink*)

Wishing you a terrific final June weekend. We've had a bit of rain here in the St. Louis area and a little cooler temps lately. Hopefully the weather will be cool enough for some greatly missed cook-outs in the near future!

Linking up with all the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters on Angela's blog, SoScrappy.

I Like Thursday #146

This week's list starts out with the yard. So many things have been happening there lately to share. Let's start with some critters in my front yard.

Woodpecker eating peanuts and various birds eating seed.
Look closely and see yellow finches eating the seeds from the spent flowers

In the backyard, Gracie found a turtle. This turtle had been digging in the yard with what I presume was an egg-laying activity!

Here she is leaving

This is what she left behind

Upon closer inspection ...

Can't have an "I Like Thursday" post without a mention of Mom. We hit up one of our favorite lunch spots for their daily special of fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

Happy Campers

It's been so very hot lately everywhere. My son sent this video to show us how the grandkids in MD stay cool. Bet you giggle too!

Jacob Had a Great Day at Day Care This Week!

Our prompt from our hostess this week: Does Summer bring about any changes in your life/routine? Nope! We're retired. Every day is Saturday! Lol!!!

Sharing with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color and all the other Thursday Likers! Have yourselves a great finish to your week!

Blues, Browns, & Tumblers!

I've been trying to catch up on all things quilting, including this blog. I was absent due to a trip to be with Brody on his 5th birthday and then a couple days later my niece for a bridal shower. You can catch up on those events HERE if you like but I warn you -- it is very picture heavy.

Since this is my quilty blog, let's get down to business. Working on my Red Threads (which I'm doing in brown), my latest ones are shown below.

Last night was Friday Night Sew In with Wendy & Friends. I traced out a couple more Red Threads blocks and got to work on one. Here's my progress from yesterday.

I'm still working on pineapple blocks and trying to keep up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Any shade of blue was selected for June's activities so here we are. I need to dig through my green scraps and get the tops sewn on these pineapples. I think they turning out pretty good!

My friend Sharon & I go to an AccuQuilt Club monthly and it was suggested we make Tumbler Flags using our dies. Let me just say that these tumblers went together beautifully! I'm just about finished with the quilting on this project and then I'll need to sew on the binding. I think I'll have it finished by Club meeting this Thursday, don't you?

The Stars were Fussy-Cut

There is also a block that I'll need to make for the exchange and that should also go together in a snap.

We are hot, hot, hot here in the St. Louis area. I know we are not the only region suffering from the heat but, really, it's a super chore to walk the dog in the mornings. Looking forward to some relief one day ....

Linking up with Wendy at Sugarlane Designs to see how everyone's Friday Night Sew In went. Then on to Angela at SoScrappy to see how my Blues Sisters are doing with their RSC projects!