2020 Wrap Up

Merry Christmas! Late as usual but wishing you ALL a good season and a bright outlook for the upcoming year!

Looking back on 2020 is a mixed bag of emotions. Pandemic. Guidelines. Limited Travel. Cancelled Quilty Events. That in itself is a depressing list. On the Up side though, Zoom. Spotify. Morning Walks with Gracie. Friends. Family.  And of course, creating!

During my year in review, it looks like I finished six quilts.

Merry Christmas SAL (top finished)

Hospital Sketches

Kyoto

Winnie the Pooh QAL

Oh My Stars!

Of course, there were a few miscellaneous finishes or near-finishes also.

Mini Wool Christmas SAL

Halloween Stars & Pumpkins

Patriotic Gameboard

Hope Quarantine QAL

PG Wool Mini Cushion

As is so true with my projects, some of these are still works in progress and will be looking forward to getting finished up this year (fingers crossed!).

Of course, Knitty Quilter also finished a few knitted pairs of socks. Wow! Surprised myself with four new pairs!

Margaritaville

Destination Unknown KAL

Jeck Socks

Green Checkers

There was also this little project: Kitties for my Grandkitties!

Mini Kitties

2020 was a rough year for us health-wise. However, things are looking up for Fred & his kidney woes. His blood counts are good, his weight is near-normal, and he has gained and lost a doctor to keep his health in check. Dr. Aliperti, along with Dr. Chambers and Dr. White, did a fantastic job of getting him through the loss of his right kidney and overcoming infections. While we grew quite close with Dr. Aliperti, we look forward to saying goodbye to him and welcoming Dr. Purcell as his new nephrologist. Dr. Purcell will look after Fred's solo kidney and help us maintain the health of that organ. After all, we can't afford to lose that one!

So what will keep me occupied during 2021? I've got several projects that need finishing. I've got several projects that I would love to tackle. I've got several ideas floating around in my head that I'd like to explore. But all of that will have to wait until another post.

Until then, Happy New Year! Cheers to good health, peace, and prosperity!

Linking with Angela at So Scrappy, Gail at Quilting Gail (tomorrow), and LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.

Company, Wool Mini, Twisted Mystery, & an RSC2021 Plan

I haven't been scrapping it lately but I can share what I have been working on. This little Christmas mini wool project was offered some time ago and I've been sharing the little 4" finished blocks as I was working on them. I've now sewn them all together and embroidered the little snowflakes on the "corner stones". Cute little touch, don't you agree? Yesterday I started the embroidery on the top border and it is just sitting at the top of the finished center.

My daughter will be arriving tonight from VA. I'm very much looking forward to that. Everything is set in the house for all the expected visitors and Christmas  season. The house is decked up, including very necessary cleaning. The Christmas cards have all been mailed out as well as the packages. Two of the four have already been received! Mom's house lights have been put up and the 2nd trip down to her house was made to replace burnt out bulbs. Menus have also been made for various meals as well as the shopping for said meals. All that's left is to make the beds up and spruce up the bathrooms. Whew!

Yesterday hubby had what was to  be his final check-up from the kidney removal but Wait! There's More! A couple of days ago he noticed what he called a "bubble" near the top of the incision's scar. Dr. Aliperti confirmed that there was a hernia now to deal with. As a matter of fact, the doc  pushed  three of his fingers through the hernia! He said that was actually a good thing and will put in a referral for a general surgeon to determine if yet another procedure will be necessary. Oh my goodness? Can anything else go wrong? Wait -- don't answer that! Lol!

I've also jumped in on a group quilt-a-long with several guild members. The group is called Twisted Mystery and LindaLee is our fearless leader. She designs the quilts we will be making. I participated in this group for several years, dropped out for a couple of years, and decided to join in again. My color palette is patriotic -- red, white, blue, a little gold, all on a gray background. We work at our own speed and I've finished the first 2 steps. Today's Zoom meeting will be Steps 7 & 8, I believe. I'm a little behind! Haha! I've included this project in my RSC report since you may have noticed it's a little scrappy! I just can't resist!!

As for my official RSC project for next, I've decided to work on Bonnie Hunter's Daybreak from her book "String Frenzy". I've got a lot of neutral scraps that I hope to put a dent in. I still need to decide what my main color will be for this one. I've got a couple ideas but will need to check my stash to see what I can come up with. Stay tuned!

I Like Thursday #18

Hello and welcome to my world. We are really getting close to Christmas so I'm happy to say that this house is pretty much as ready as it ever will be. Ta! Da! Christmas tree went up yesterday. I ended up with a headache from all the dust. Not from the tree but from the cleaning that must take place or I won't be happy. Who wants a pretty tree (with company expected) in a dirty house!??!

Now this makes me very happy too. My friend Vickie made this Santa for me years & years ago! I love it and it will sit in the den with us and keep us company all the way until Epiphany!

To keep things in the merry, merry mood, we received a dusting of snow Wednesday morning. Gracie & I enjoyed our walk with the sky still letting loose with some flakes (besides us!).

Lately I've been enjoying the book "Camino Winds" by John Grisham. It's not the usual lawyer-type-book he normally writes and is the follow-up book to "Camino Island" set in Florida. The winds refer to a major hurricane that ran over the island causing devastation and .... a murder! So far a fun read.

It's really chilly in the house this morning but I'm warmed up with the thought of my daughter arriving in a few days. I've also got a Christmas quilt across my lap with a snuggly kitty on top!

Have a wonderful day!

Sharing all my "likes" this week on Not Afraid of Color. LeeAnna and friends are doing the same!

I Like Thursday #17

How about a few "likes" today to get this day rolling? My first "like" is turkey soup with jumbo noodles. This soup was made from the turkey bones, add a little sautéed celery, onion, & garlic, a few carrots, and a little salt & pepper.  You add anything else you desire. This year I added frozen peas and some edamame. Cook the noodles separately and add however much you want to your bowl. Then throw the soup on top. This way your noodles won't get soggy. Some folks call this Mother's Penicillin. I've always called mine anti-flu soup. In 2020 I call it anti- COVID soup!

I also like my few TV shows are coming back! I've been enjoying The Amazing Race. Season finale next week! This 3-team alliance will be FINALLY playing for themselves and I'm wondering how well that's going to go over. I also enjoy Blue Bloods. I just love the family dynamics in this show. Then throw in a police case and I'm a happy girl! Bull had been new but he was a re-run this week. Whaaaaat! The season only just started!!! Anyway, I also couldn't believe that The Weakest Link wasn't on this week either. Such disappointment here in Sue-ville! Lol! NCIS did start in again but I had to miss. I had my guild's virtual Christmas party to go to! I liked it well enough but it sure wasn't the same as in years past. Oh well! The board did an amazing job working with what they had.

Mom & I caught "Holiday in the Wild" on Netflix last weekend starring Kristin Davis & Rob Lowe. While it was kind of Hallmark-y, we liked it. It was about a rich woman whose son goes off to college and her husband leaves her. She ends up in Africa on what was supposed to be their 2nd honeymoon but finds herself tending to elephants at a sanctuary. She used to be a vet before she was married with a child. Great scenery, adorable elephants, nice story made this movie watch-worthy.

Yesterday I liked that Fred & I enjoyed 66-degree-weather by getting Mom's Christmas lights up. That always brightens her holiday and she loves welcoming the family home with her lights on. Sorry there aren't any pictures. It was still light outside when we left.

I'm joining in with the others for optimistic "like" posts with LeeAnna. Join us HERE!

FNwF & RSC

It was so nice to get together last night with my sewing friends near & far. Cheryll is so sweet to host this event monthly. If you go to Gone Stitchin' you will find a lot of fun things going on! As soon as I got the invitation, I knew what I was going to work on .... and I actually did what I was planning to do!

First up was to finish off my pair of knitted socks. Here's a picture of one, the other is soaking for blocking. I'll post a complete write-up when both are all pretty & blocked!

Since I knew that wouldn't take too terribly long, I ran down to my sewing space and finished sewing on the binding of Snowmen & Churches. All I had left to do was sew the two ends together and then sew down the last 10 or so inches. On to hand sewing the binding down! Yay!

I'm looking forward to finishing this one up. I started it many moons ago. There will definitely be a final post just as soon as I git 'er done! This quilt is my bonus project for my LQS's 2020 UFO Challenge and it is also part of my 2020 PHD. I'm itching to get done with this quilt so I can get back to finishing up the Tiny Tuesday quilt!

I'm also sharing this post with all the RSC quilters on Angela's So Scrappy blog. I figured since I mentioned Tiny Tuesday this post will be OK to share there too!

Until next time, make it a great weekend!

I Like Thursday #16

Here we are again. It's Thursday and our day to share our likes with LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color. There's quite a few of us that do this every week which makes for lots of fun posts. Go on over to Not Afraid of Color and see for yourself!

So here are my likes for the week. I like Thanksgiving dinners and my mother. I made those placemats and there are four of them. It does make me a little sad that there is one that doesn't get used ever since Dad passed away but it also makes me smile to think of him. Anyway, Thanksgiving is always a "Like" in my book!

The other day we had some cold set in to remind us that winter is near. If you look really hard, you'll see a few flakes against our window. It flurried on Gracie & me our whole walk that day and I truly liked that!

On our walk another day Gracie found the deer first. You can't really tell from my picture but there were four there that day. I think they're getting used to Gracie & me because they never skittered away!

I have been enjoying "The Amazing Race" this season. However, I don't like the alliance aspect. I think every team should be out for themselves. I was not happy that the alliance chose to off the "Geeks" because I really liked that couple.

We happened to watch "The Christmas Chronicles: Part 1" on Netflix with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. We really liked it and watched it because we heard that Part 2 was now airing. We watched Part 2 a few days later. It was OK but I enjoyed the first one better even though I would have liked to have seen more of Goldie in the first. She's adorable and is always a bright spot to me.

I like Superior Threads, more specifically their King Tut thread. It's the perfect size for my quilting and I really like it best when it's on sale!! I bought these 4 cones the other day and they arrived this week. Just in time too because I was just about out of the thread I've been using on Snowmen & Churches quilt. It'll be finished soon now and I like that too!

I changed out my header this morning. It's time for a little Christmas so I thought I'd showcase some of my favorite Christmas quilts. I like that too!

Have a great week and don't forget to stop by the other posts!

Friday Night with Friends

Last night I sewed with some of my virtual friends. We come from all over -- Australia, France, Canada, USA, and more -- and love to check in on each other monthly and last night was just that. Thank you goes to Wendy who sets this up for us each and every month on Sugarlane Designs. Pop on over to meet my amazing friends!

So what did I work on? Earlier in the day I did some secret sewing. Wonder what's going on here ...

In the evening we tuned in to "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" TV special. I just love Little Cindy Lou Who! The Minions special was a bit disappointing with only one of four minis dealing with Christmas. Then we switched channels to watch Sunday Morning on Friday Night: Pet Project. It was a really fun show all about how we affect pets, their effects on us humans, and many different pet stories. I really couldn't get into some of those folks that had their pets cloned for a mere $50K! Oh well, different strokes, right? So how did I keep my hands busy during TV time?

I finished this little wool cabin by stitching in the trees and "noel".

And then I started this angel. (Sorry about the fuzzy picture.) She needed all the parts whipped down. Then her face was added along with her wing definitions. Just need to add some hair and a halo, followed by some decorative stitching on her gown.

And that, my friends, was my evening. Have a great weekend!

I Like Thursday #15

Thursdays are always a good day to reflect on the many things we like but especially so on Thanksgiving. Please join all of us sharing our "good things" on Not Afraid of Color. I like that LeeAnna has given us a specific day to share these things. Come back every Thursday, not just on Thanksgiving!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I like to eat! Surprised? Probably not. Haha! This week I tried the recipe that Diann shared on her blog Little Penguin Quilts. They were these Pumpkin Pancakes and I loved them! Big, fat, tasty deliciousness! I made them for my mother, Fred, and me last weekend with thick-cut bacon. Oh my!

I also like beautiful sunrises, especially in the Fall in the Midwest. We can see for miles & miles and the fields may be cut down but they're still golden.

Last Mother's Day, my kids (and yes! that includes my daughter-in-law!) got me a Nixplay photo frame. At first I thought it was the ordinary frame that "played" pictures but it's more than that. It hooks up to my wifi and each of the kids, my hubby, and I downloaded the app. Now we can all send photos directly to this marvelous gift! When other friends & family send pictures, I can also download them to the Nixplay. Recently I got these pictures so I like my Nixplay photo frame!

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends & family. I wish you all good health & full bellies today!

Checking in with Angela

 After going on vacation last weekend, my days are so mixed up! I posted my I Like Thursday post on Wednesday and I've been a mess ever since. Thank goodness I've got my sewing because any AND every day is a great day to sew! Am I right? Hahaha!

I managed one Easy Peasy block.

Mostly I've been doing the quilting using my domestic sewing machine. Snowmen & Churches is coming right along. The main part of the quilt is done. Next up -- the borders! This project counts towards my LQS's UFO Challenge and I also put it on my 2020PHD list so it is on a deadline. Here's a sneak peak.

My embroidered little woolies are coming right along too. I work on these while watching TV in the evening. I started working on the candle last night. They will be cut to finish 4".

Of course since I was on vacation, I started a pair of socks. The pattern is Chequer Socks by Very Busy Monkey. I love her patterns which are all on Ravelry. Anyway, I finished the leg portion and have just finished the heel flap.

As soon as I finish Snowmen & Churches, I'll be back on Tiny Tuesday. I am so close to finishing it and hated putting it away for S&C but the latter took priority at the moment.

Linking up with Angela at So Scrappy with all the other Rainbow Scrap Challengers even though I haven't been RSCing lately. Have a great week and enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner. We do truly have a lot to be thankful for even if this year we have to look a little harder.

I Like Thursday #14

So much to like in my world. I'm sharing some of it with LeeAnna and friends on Not Afraid of Color. Happiness abounds and we're all sharing with anyone who would like to take a peek.

My hubby,  mother, and I just returned from a quick trip to TX to visit my sister & her hubby. She moved from Colorado after 30+ years to Texas about 2 and a half years ago. This was our first trip to see her although she had made a trip up to us in Illinois about 14 months ago. My mother was the driving force to go see her, wanting to see her "baby". Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures ... not even of her cute little dog and ginormous cat!

On our way to Texas, my husband suggested we stop in Pawhuska OK. For those of you that don't know, Pawhuska OK is the home town of Ree Drummond, better known as Pioneer Woman. Mom & I really liked this suggestion!

The Mercantile is the general store with all her wares and food. Mom picked up a gluten-free lemon-blueberry pound cake to share in Texas. Fred picked up a blueberry hand pie with lemon glaze for lunch. We liked it both!

Charlie's is the candy and ice cream shop. It may be hard for you to believe but I didn't succumb to any treats here! I have to say that I liked the suggestion to make a little side here.

On our way out of town, I saw a sign that said "Drummond Home" with an arrow to the right. I like how my husband can whip off a turn when Mom & I get excited! Lol! This home was where Pioneer Woman's husband Ladd grew up, I believe. We took pictures but didn't get out since we'd already spent our free time browsing around Pawhuska.

Besides, Mom & I had already seen the inside of this home one morning on the Pioneer Woman's cooking show. They were showing off the remodeling job that day. Quite the colorful job on the outside, isn't it?

Yesterday morning was Gracie's first walk since we left and wow! was she excited! I walked about 2.5 miles but I think she ran closer to 5! Haha! While out this on the bike trail, we came to "the clearing" and spied this.

Do you see those two deer? Right in front of the field (check out the picture at the top of this post) the farmer has a No Hunting sign posted. I like how the deer are able to read signs during this time of year! Lol! There is a larger deer and a smaller deer. I'm wondering if these are the two that were in my backyard about a week ago. The trail is right behind our subdivision. So maybe?

The morning before we left on our trip, we had a good storm moving in. I like how the last of the sunshine glowed on these yellow trees against the darkening sky.

I love to travel and see sights, family, & friends. Most of all I like returning home to my own bed!

Have a great week and don't forget to stop by Not Afraid of Color to see other posts of gratitude.