I Like Thursday #34

I must apologize for being so spotty on the blog lately. We only returned from a trip out East about 10 days ago and here we are planning a trip out West. Both trips are college graduations and we are happy to see family and celebrate the graduates.

With that said, I do like Thursdays where a group of us post things that have made us smile and/or happy during the past week. Join us at LeeAnna's blog Not Afraid of Color. There are always wonderful things to see, learn, enjoy.

What made me laugh this week?

How about silly US Air Force cadets so happy to be done with finals that the roommates fell into a pool together while in uniform! I like that you can see snow in the background and I'm happy to say the pool is indoors. (The one in the back is my nephew.)

Every year I wait for these irises to bloom. I have never seen ones like this and they are gorgeous. This was taken a couple of days ago. This morning  I counted seven blooms! Apparently these iris require no care. At the end of the season, the home owner mows them down!

Anyone that knows me knows I love my birds. The other day there were two birds at the window feeder with two more waiting in the wings. I don't know if you know your birds but the three yellow ones are finches and that blue one on the right eating is an indigo bunting. We get lots of little birds at this particular feeder but I don't believe we've ever had an indigo bunting up there. I blew up the picture so you could see better!

I like that I'm making such good progress on this UFO. This was a BOM from Polka Dot Pincushion in Ohio that my friend and I signed up to make. The pattern is called Sew Spooky and is copyrighted 2012. I guess that means we started this project in 2012 or 2013 because the fabrics are identical to what is on the cover of the pattern. Anyway, when I got out the box that it was housed in, I found the individual blocks were done but not put together, nor were the corner triangles on the witch or the crow & pumpkin blocks. I dove into the box to see what else needed to be done and found that there is a bat border. I cut out the blocks that the bats would be attached to and took them on the trip out East. You may have seen my mention of them earlier. If not, here's a reminder.

Eight bats done with only six more to go!

Once I got home, I finished up all fourteen 5.5" x 14.5" bat blocks. I also noticed a candy corn border which intimidated me at the time. Yesterday I strip-pieced them, made the template, and cut them all out. I also cut the background fabric so I'm ready to sit down and sew those together. (I'm still nervous about starting them but I can't finish the quilt until I muster up the courage to give it a go!)

Here's a picture of the completed quilt to give you an idea. Adorable, huh? So now you can also see that, after the candy corn, I'll be adding a black/candy corn fabric border followed by the bats and a final border. I'm looking forward to a completed top!

We watched the Season Finale of Blue Bloods this week. We love that show and will look forward to the next (and rumored to be the final) season next Fall.

I finished my book "Sex, Lies, & Serious Money" by Stuart Woods. While reading, I kept feeling like I was going back in time to a black & white gumshoe book. Anyway, I enjoyed it. It was a light read. I wouldn't highly recommend it but would if you just want to kill some time with a fun story.

I returned "The Dry" and put it on Hold again. In the meantime, I've downloaded "Grandma Gatewood's Walk" by Ben Montgomery. Diann @ Little Penguin Quilts recommended it and the story sounded good. I'll let you know how I like it after I get into it this week.

That's it from here. I hope you have a wonderful, upcoming week!