Holiday Time & RSC/PHD

The holidays are just about here and all the festivities are about to kick in. I've been cleaning, shopping, planning meals, decorating, writing cards, organizing, and preparing handwork for quiet family time. Of course the Parcheesi board will be brought out too! My brother, wife, and twins arrive this evening. They'll stay overnight at Mom's before heading over to the airport to pick up their son and settling in for a few days at the in-laws. My daughter arrives tomorrow with her two kitties. Gracie and Polly are looking forward to their company! Ha! They'll be staying here with us. Then mid-week my brother's family returns to us for a couple days until after Christmas brunch. Sarah leaves the following mid-week. Oh my! Busy! Busy! And it's all WONDERFUL!

Down to business now. I did not earn my PHD (Projects half Done). Not only did I not finish all of my projects, but I didn't finish all that I started during 2021. Guess it's back to the class room for me. I'm happy to say that I did manage to finish 5 PHD projects and several others. Here they are:

Table Scraps

Reindeer Frolic Wool Mat

Table Scraps

Table Scraps

Tiny Tuesday RSC Finish

Snowmen & Churches

Shark Bite

Halloween BOM top

Christmas Wool Mini

Positivity

Halloween Apron

Boo #2

Mini 10-Minute Table Runner

Hope (pattern by GEDesigns)

That's it from me for 2021. I doubt I'll have any other finishes and I probably won't be posting much until the new year. I'm working on  my RSC2022 list as well as my PHD2022 list -- hope springs eternal, doesn't it? Maybe next post will bring you knit finishes!

Until next year, I wish you the very best holiday season and I'm looking forward to a fabulous 2022. Thank you for following me through the year, inspiring me with your projects, sharing tips you've learned along the way. I hope you found some inspiration here as well and enjoyed my posts.

I'll continue to link with Angela at SoScrappy for Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Gail at QuiltingGail for Projects Half Done, and LeeAnna at NotAfraidOfColor for I Like Thursdays in 2022!

I Like Thurs #58

Happy Thursday! It definitely makes for a happy day when you look back over the week and think about all the wonderful things around you. My first like would have to be my grandson Brody. He was trying on Daddy's glasses. Doesn't he look sooooo smaaaaaart!?!

Next would be how we quilters share tips and our love of quilting. Recently Katy @ KatyQuilts shared a method for easily applying binding using Elmer's Washable Glue. You can find her post HERE. I'd like to add that I also like using that glue for applique. Just a little dab will do ya! (Did I just age myself? Do you remember that jingle too?) Anyway, in order to get just a tiny dot or line, I like to use this tool that was shared to me by my friend LindaLee. You can find this applicator at JoAnn stores. It's made by Dritz and is only a few bucks.

See that tiny applicator tip? Makes VERY FINE dots or lines of glue.

Convenient lid for keeping tip clean. Just add glue! The bottle comes empty! I had a friend that also used glue for matching teeny, tiny points while piecing. Match it up perfectly, apply a dot of glue, hit it with the tiny Clover iron, and stitch it up perfectly!

As you may recall, our anniversary happened recently -- right on Thanksgiving Day this year. This week we finally celebrated with "date night". In the past, whenever there was a new James Bond movie out, we would go see it. So that's what we did this year!

I really enjoyed it. Fred did too until the next day after thinking about it. That's the problem with thinking! Hahaha! Anyway, we went to the early show on $5 Tuesday when we also got free popcorn. Afterwards we headed over to Red Lobster with gift cards to enjoy a nice dinner.

We got home around 7, just in time to turn on the TV to watch the St. Louis Blues. What an exciting game. We won in overtime! That was a triple trifecta that day -- good movie, nice dinner, wonderful hockey game!

Speaking of TV, I've been enjoying Survivor this go-round. The season finale is next week and it's shaping up to be a good one. The previews look like there will be a lot of twists & turns. Stay tuned!

I hope you can take a few moments to review all the things you've like this past week. You can also go visit LeeAnna's blog where there are several of us that share our "likes". Just go HERE!

Make it a good week!

I Have a Finish! Meet Hope!

I've been working diligently on Hope. Hope is the quilt I started during an all-day, live quilt-a-long with Gudrun Erla of GEDesigns. If you remember this project from the summer of 2020 (I think), I worked on it with my sister. We shared our progress with each other over the phone as she was sewing along at her own home.

Sometime last year I pin basted Hope. Then at the beginning of this year, I put her on my 2021 UFO Challenge & my PHD2021 lists. Her number didn't come up until finally for December at the UFO Challenge. In the meantime, I'd needed the basting pins for other quilt tops so I tried out some water-soluble thread from Wonderfil, I used it to thread baste Hope, using the longest stitch possible on my sewing machine and my walking foot. It wasn't easy. The thread broke several times along the way. I'm sure it was operator error but I did manage to get that part finished eventually.

Jump ahead to November 2021 and time to start quilting her up. After all, it is due December 14th at UFO Club. I'm happy to say that the thread basting worked beautifully!

All the triangles got a fun flower quilted on them. I used a variegated green on the predominantly green triangles and a pink-ish, coral thread on the pink/coral triangles. A variegated gray was used on the predominantly dark triangles and there was gray serpentine quilting in the dark sashing (?) strips and along the outer borders.

After squaring up the approximately 60" x 80" quilt and sewing the 300" of binding on, I spent the last few days sewing the binding down by hand. When completed, I crossed my fingers as I threw the quilt into the washing machine, hoping that the water-soluble thread would indeed be gone and the quilt would come out of the dryer still in tact and beautifully fluffy. Ta! Da! Hope is complete!

Here are a few close-ups.

A picture of the entire back. I had plenty of the fabric left over so I used wide swaths on the back. I believe it was from a line called Urban Pets. You will notice dogs & cats on the different fabrics. Along the outer edges I used some wonderful Bee fabric with positive thoughts. Bee Positive. Bee Kind. Bee Respectful. Bee-lieve in Yourself. Get it? I love this fabric!

And here are a few last parting shots of Hope.

I hope you enjoyed Hope's debut. I believe Hope will be gifted to a young lady that I know who helps take in foster dogs and has even been known to have a few jobs pooper-scooping yards for working families. Since this is a lap quilt, I hope she enjoys many happy hours snuggled under it while reading books and playing on her electronic devices.

Even though this isn't a scrap quilt, I'll be sharing with Angela & Rainbow Scrappy Challenge friends at So Scrappy. I know they'll be thrilled to see I've finally got a finish to share. Ha!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Last 2021 FNwF

Yesterday was Friday Night with Friends night and I made sure I could be happily stitching with my global friends. I would like to thank Cheryll @Gone Stitchin' for getting out the reminders and organizing us each & every  month. It's the perfect excuse to HAVE TO sew in the evenings and possibly get something done! Click on the link above and see what all the friends have worked on.

As for me, I started off the Australian evening (afternoon here in USA) with the opportunity to prepare my Christmas mini pillows. I did most of the wool applique while at my last Kinderhook retreat. Besides finishing up the applique, I also did all the embroidery during free time at home. Yesterday I found a suitable backing fabric ...

and next applied some fusible interfacing to both the backs of the embroideries and the backing fabrics.

Then last night I sewed around all six pillows, clipped the corners, turned them right-side out, and finally gave them a good pressing. I'll stuff them Saturday and sew the openings closed while Mom is here this weekend. Aren't they so cute??!!

I still had time on my hands while watching one of my favorite TV shows, Blue Bloods. So happy I'd earlier also prepared this little bit.

I managed to get all the whip stitching done on this little Santa Tree. It'll be a Christmas ornament which I'll work really hard on to finish up this weekend as well as the Christmas pillows.

I hope you had an enjoyable Friday evening. There's nothing like spending it virtually with friends. Have a great weekend!

I Like Thursday #57

 One week after Thanksgiving and I'm still smacking my lips. I like turkey, dressing, jalapeno cranberry relish, and broccoli. I also like to celebrate fancy dinners with candles on the table.

I also like Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt. This year she is calling the quilt Rhododendron Trail and the first clue dropped last Friday. The next clues will appear each Friday right through the holidays, finishing up usually towards the end of January. I added her button & link on my right sidebar so click there if you're interested.

Our weather turned very enjoyable right after Thanksgiving and folks in the neighborhood have started dressing up their yards for Christmas. I especially like this ginormous snowman!

My son got his Christmas decorations up over the holiday weekend too. I'm sure Brody likes it!

Holidays are always a good time to catch up with far-away-family. My niece called to wish us all a Happy Thanksgiving and shared the new member of her family. Meet Mac!

I'll bet Gracie would love to meet Mac!

I'm joining LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color, sharing things that we've liked over the past week. It's always an uplifting experience. Check it out and see for yourself! In the meantime, I hope you've had a great week!

I Like Thurs #56 & Happy Thanksgiving!

How appropriate that our I Like Thurs posts land on Thanksgiving Day today. I will keep this short and sweet today because I hope that all my American friends are focused on everything that they are thankful for today. I will say of course that I am thankful for my family and friends everywhere that see me in the best of times and also the worst of times.

So for my Likes this week: 

I like warm kitties on laps on cold mornings.

I like quilting/ Quilts keep me warm, inspired, and my creative juices flowing. I really like it when I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on a project!

I like reading good books. "Troubled Blood" is keeping up with the other Cormoran Strike books. This one is the 5th in the series and it started right up. Love that Robert Galbraith (aka J. K Rowling) is writing for us big kids too! 

I like that my cousin always remembers to send me an anniversary card. Best cousin ever!

I wish you ALL a fabulous week. Don't forget to notice all the things we have to be thankful for. Not just today, but every day! Happy Thanksgiving. Gobble! Gobble!

Linking up with LeeAnna and all my likable cyber friends HERE!

FNSI & a little RSC?

Happy Saturday before Thanksgiving. This time next week we'll be full of turkey sandwiches & stuffing. I hope all your plans are in place. This year the holiday falls right square on our 43rd anniversary and, yes, I'll still be cooking. After 43 years (and this coincidence has happened before already) I'm kind of used to it. I must confess that I did look into going out or picking up a pre-cooked meal at the grocery store but it didn't seem right. So next Thursday you'll find me in the kitchen cooking for Mom & Fred as usual and I'm pretty OK with that.

Last night was Friday Night Sew-In and I managed to get some time to myself. Yay! I knew what I wanted to get done so I got my fabric together.

I found the red snowflake fabric in my stash. Hope I didn't have different plans for it. Too late now! The adorable snowman fabric was a piece I picked up at Pineapple Fabrics when I met Joy @ The Joyful Quilter. I'll always think of her now when I see this fabric.

Fabric was cut and sewn together. Just needs the back handsewn down. Perfect timing because Friday is a good night for TV around here. First comes Magnum PI followed by Blue Bloods. So I stitched ... mostly on commercials! And finished! 

Ready for the back of my toilet after Thanksgiving, of course.

There was time for a little more handwork so I got out some cross stitch. The pattern is Gentle Words by La-D-Da. It started the evening like this ...

and progressed to this. Doesn't look like a whole lot but we cross stitchers know that  it's a slow process.

So that was my Friday night. A little of this, a little of that. Mostly just happily doing what I like!

Thank you to Wendy @ Sugarlane Designs for hosting FNSI. I'm linking up & sharing there with my friends. You should go too if only to see her new grandson Ryker. He's a cutie!

I'm also linking up with Angela @ So Scappy to share and see what my RSC friends have been up to as well.

Have a good weekend!

I Like Thurs/Fri #56

Guess I'm a little behind. I feel like the days continue to pass without much happening, quilt-wise or otherwise. Maybe I'm still trying to wrap my head around the time change? Whatever the reason, I have LeeAnna and other grateful bloggers to thank for uplifting posts. Join us HERE to find happy thoughts.

This past week our weather has fluctuated between highs in the 70s to 40s. On one of the colder days, I made chili. Mom & I added green onions and cheese. Unfortunately, what I thought was my son's delicious smoked cheddarjack was smoked horseradish cheddar! Yes, there was a little heat in the bowl! Ha! It was good but I had a leftover bowl to which I added the correct cheese. Even better!!

Last month Carole from My Carolina Home hosted her annual Autumn Jubilee. You can find the details on the button on my sidebar. I like how every year she puts together several projects to celebrate Fall.  A quilted project is always included and I finally got my top done. It's not quilted yet. I plan on getting it 100% finished for next year. In the meantime, it'll hang as is until we get the house ready for Christmas.

I've mentioned before how much I like my guild Hearts 'n' Hands. We are a very active group and the past couple of years I've been very grateful for that. This is my November BOM, the 5th of nine. I'm using mostly scraps of lime green and dark blues. We've been using 16 HSTs for each block using different settings. It's been fun so far.

I know I post a lot about Gracie because I really enjoy my morning walks with our dog. However, there is another member of our family that doesn't get enough attention. This is Polly, our kitty. I was surprised when I took her to the vet for her annual check-up to discover that she is 8 and a half years old and weighs in at nine pounds. We had her a couple of years before getting Gracie and she took to the new puppy in the house very well. I can report that Polly has never made Gracie bleed even though Gracie sniffs her in obscene places and nips at her back legs for attention. Polly is very patient as well as photogenic.

I did finish the book I was reading by Harlan Coben, "Fool Me Once". It was a very good read. Lots of twists and turns ... all the way to the end. Harlan did it again with this book.

I just checked with my library and discovered that "Troubled Blood" by Robert Galbraith is available. I plan on running down and checking it out today. It is the 5th book in the Cormoran Strike series and you can read about it HERE. In case you aren't familiar with Galbraith, that is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. Whereas Harry Potter was written for young adults, the Cormoran Strike series is for adults. I've loved the first 4 and figure I'll like the 5th as well. I understand that there is a 6th one due to come out soon. The author has promised that there will seven books in this series, just like the Harry Potter series!

If you've lasted this long, I'd also like to recommend "Red Notice", a movie on Netflix. It features Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, who was hilarious! There's plenty of action in this film and, mixed with the humor, makes this a fun movie. Highly recommend! Read about it HERE.

I think that ought to do it for this week. Hopefully I'll my mojo will return and I'll be right on time next week!