RSC - Last Teal/Turquoise

Back from retreat and feeling good. There were only 6 of us and it was good to see all of them, but especially the three from Springfield. I hadn't seen them since October in Kinderhook.

So what did I accomplish besides renewed friendship? My "secret" project is a completed top! I'll need to find a backing and start thinking about the quilting. Meanwhile, I can begin cutting and sewing binding. I did manage a sneak peek at some turquoise again!

I get the binding on this little mat named Maple Leaf. I pieced the top at last Kinderhook retreat. It was quilted here at home. Then at this retreat, the binding was sewn on and stitched down. I added a hanging sleeve because I think I might want to hang this little 15" x 15" cutie.

Of course I did a little RSC sewing while there as well. This is my scrappy border coming along for String-X Such beautiful color!

I had to make two because it will be going around a corner. It will join the red section in the pile for when all the border pieces have been readied.

One more thing: I signed up for a block-of-the-month program at Rosemary's. I finished the first 24" (Yowza! They're HUGE!) block and made a good start on the second one. I spy teal!

So that's my progress report for this week. It's month-end soon. Wonder what color Angela has up her sleeve for March?

Linking up with my fellow RSC quilt group over at SoScrappy. Thank you, Angela, for keeping us on track weekly!

I Like Thursday #65

Happy Thursday and welcome to I Like Thursday. There are a group of us that focus on the good things happening in our lives and we are rounded up weekly by LeeAnna where we share our posts on Not Afraid of Color . We invite you to check out all our positive posts there.

Each year I renew my membership to the American Quilters' Society (AQS). I like supporting the art and sharing of quilting through this group. As a bonus, I receive discounts on the major national quilt shows, discounts/special offers on select vendors at the quilt shows, and the monthly magazine "American Quilter" which showcases the winners at the national quilt shows and tips & patterns from acclaimed quilters.

Recently they had an offer to renew and receive some complimentary thread from Wonderfil. Since my membership was going to expire in April anyway and I've already reserved my spot on the Paducah bus, I went ahead and sent in my money. Shortly thereafter, I received this package in the mail.

Inside this box were these gorgeous threads! Such a beautiful bonus for something I would have done anyway. Makes these threads extra pretty!

This week was a good week for food. Hope you're hungry because you probably will be if you read on! Haha!

My daughter sent me this recipe for Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction. She had tried this recipe out on her co-workers and received many thumbs up. My entire house agreed. As the name of these suggest and as my daughter pointed out, the ingredients pretty much let you know that these are practically a "breakfast food"! Haha! Mom & I totally agree that these are delicious with coffee in the morning.

The cookies are very light textured, probably because there's a lot of beating to making them. My very nice neighbors across the cul-de-sac that helped us shovel the snow off our driveway got this baggy-full as a thank you.

One day last week, Mom & I picked up a piece of salmon at the grocery store. This ended up being our dinner that night. Chipotle Cocoa-Rubbed Salmon from Kardea Brown, microwaved asparagus with lemon & parmesan, and leftover Pumpkin Pasta with Winter Herbs and Parmesan Cheese from Alex Guarnaschelli. It was wonderful dinner!

I went to the grocery store on Superbowl Sunday. That was ALMOST a big mistake. Was it crowded? Of course it was crowded! However they had a deal going that if you downloaded the store coupon, you could get a bag of Dot's Pretzels for FREE. It was only being offered that day (I think)! Have you ever tasted these? Delicious! There are a couple of other flavors but we like the original best.

As usual I'll leave you with a picture of family. As you know, my nephew is in the USAF, stationed in Colorado Springs. He has twin sisters, one of which hadn't had the opportunity to see Colorado ever. She also got herself a Cricut over the holidays that she's been having fun with. Below is a picture of the twins with a good friend of theirs in matching hoodies personalized by the Cricut-user. They're waiting at the airport for their flight. Look out, Bunny Hills, here they come! Haha!

I hope you have a wonderful week. Try to keep your stress levels down and your health up. The two go hand in hand ... just my opinion.

Moving Into Aqua/Teal/Turquoise

I'm going to sound like an "old lady" because this past week has been defined by doctor appointments! Hahaha! It started on Tuesday with my eye appointment. I touched on it in my I Like Thursday post HERE. The gist of it was that my longer-than-a-year of dry eye symptoms have led to scratched corneas. My left eye is scratched more than the right and my eyesight in the left has been blurry since the end of November. The cold air (think morning walks with Gracie!) and bright sunshine causes quite a bit of pain as well. Anyway, the eye doc said this is not terribly unusual with dry eye and I'm now medicating both eyes to repair the corneas. Anyway, not a good situation for a quilter!

So that was Tuesday. Then Wednesday I took Mom to the dermatologist for a lump on her wrist and another look at the bump by her nose, close to her eye. The doc wasn't too thrilled with Mom's wrist and wasn't quite sure what to make of her nose so she scraped off both and was going to send them away for biopsies. We'll hear the results sometime next week.

Today was consultation/physical therapy for Mom. So much documentation which was definitely confusing for Mom, not to mention it was on a tablet. So many of the questions seemed geared for younger folks too ... like how much pain do you experience while using a broom? Um, we have housekeeping, no need to sweep. Man, oh man.

I did manage to get a bit of sewing done in spite of my blurry eyes and doctor appointments. String blocks of aqua/teal/turquoise have commenced. They will be part of the border of the String-X quilt.

I also need some background stings as well Here's what I managed. Such a beautiful collection!

There was also sewing on my "secret project" so no pictures yet. I must admit that it has been my primary focus.

I'll be linking with Angela and other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters. So much teal/aqua/turquoise beauty!

Have a great week! And Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln!

I Like Thursday #64

What have I liked this week? The highlight of this week (ahem!) had to be my daughter texting me Saturday to say that it was "National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day"! YIPPEE! I really like ice cream and I thought it would make a wonderful breakfast! I promptly made myself a bowl of Triple Vanilla Ice Cream with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, whipped cream, and -- because it was a special day! -- Valentine's Day sprinkles! Celebration in a bowl! This was the picture I texted back to my daughter.

My daughter texted me back shortly after with a picture of her "breakfast". Hahaha! A chip off the old block, for sure!

Last week's snow amounted to about 8". I really like it when it snows. Everything looks so pristine and I don't mind the cold. I do feel bad for the little birds though so I try to keep the feeders full and suet in the baskets. I am also enjoying the brisk walks with Gracie. Unfortunately her knees don't like tromping through such deep snow. We had to give her some pain meds one evening because we could see she was hurting. Poor little Gracie.

I noticed on our walk this week that someone made a snowman on the trail. My mother said he looks like he's got a flat top. It's hard to see but there are sticks sticking out of the top of his head for hair! Anyway, he's the keeper of the trails!

We spied Hootie this morning as he flew by. No time for pictures, of course.

Have you been watching the Olympics? We have in spite of the awful way their government rules but we sympathize with the athletes that have been training for years to compete. Go USA!

On a good/bad situation: I have been dealing with very dry eyes for the past year or more. They are so dry that my eyelids stick to my eyeballs while I'm sleeping and then I can't open them up. Stuck solid, especially the left eye. I had my eye appointment this week (finally!) and, due to the dryness, was told my corneas were scratched. Apparently this is not an unusual thing (thankfully) and my eye doc prescribed eye drops 4X a day and eye ointment at night. A recheck has been scheduled for 6 weeks and hopefully this problem will have been resolved. The good news? No glaucoma, no cataracts, and the corneal scratches should be OK with a little time! That is VERY good news. No one wants to think about losing their eyesight especially not a quilter/knitter/cross-stitcher, reader, etc! I'm really liking my eye doctor!

And on that note, I'll finish up this post by linking with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color where other "I Like Thursday" bloggers will share the goodness of their week too! Why not join us?

Have a good week!

FNwF & RSC

Just thought I'd pop in to let you know I'm still around. Seems ages since I posted for Friday Night with Friends (thank you, Cheryll!) and Rainbow Scrap Challenge (thanks, Angela!).

Last night, Friday night, I worked on my Frosty McCool blocks. They are coming along quite nicely. The one on the left with the sled was already finished earlier in the week and the one on the right had been started previously as well. Last night I accomplished two of the snowflakes, all three buttons and down & around his leg. I believe there are a few more snowflakes and of course the right-hand side of him where he is holding a tree for Christmas. I was hoping to get a little more done but I got caught up in the final three episodes of "Save" on Netflix with Mom. Pretty fun little British murder mystery series.

I've been doing a little secret sewing so can't share much of that. However, I can show you this much which includes a little teal/turquoise for Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Polly was playing Super Spy the other day. Bet you can't see her! Ha! (Notice the turquoise/teal tupperware bowl on the table too!)

She popped her head up just in time for a picture! Sweet Polly!

As much of you know, I live in the Midwest and we had our share of winter this week. Fortunately we only got a little ice before the ice pellets and finally about 8" of snow. Here are a few pics.

Sunrise on the icy trees

Digging my car out

Walkway will need a 3rd shoveling

Downy woodpecker enjoying a bite of suet

Buddha reminds us that there is peace in the snow.

Hope you have a great week!

Linking up with Cheryll @ Gone Stitchin' and also with Angela @ Super Scrappy.

I Like Thursday #63

It's Thursday and we here in the Midwest are getting snow ... FINALLY! It's our first "real" snowfall this year which seems pretty late to me. Yesterday started with rain, followed by ice, and then sleet/frozen pellets. It ended with a few inches of snow. Fred & I got out there and cleared most of it up and I am grateful that he managed to get my SUV's door open since it was all iced up. I took the dog for a walk around our property and took this interesting picture down by the woods.

Still dark outside so the flash went off. Very icy.

A few minutes later, no flash, but loads of ice.

Here's a picture of my dogwood tree. Look at the top of the tree. You can tell the wind was blowing as it was getting all iced up.

A look out the front. Yup, icy!

A look this morning out the front door of more snow falling. I already shoveled the walk about an hour ago and you can see the snow is still coming down because the walk is covered again. It's supposed to stop by afternoon.

I did get the suet out on the back deck and this little downy woodpecker is thankful.

Can you tell I like SNOW!!??!! I don't mind shoveling since I don't have anywhere to go. I really like watching it come down and I like watching Gracie run through it. The husky in her really comes to life in this weather!

On the tube, we enjoyed streaming "Joe Pickett", a short series on Spectrum. It's based on a couple of books by C. J. Boxx. It's rumored that Spectrum will be filming a 2nd season and we like that! In the meantime we started streaming "Save" which was written by Harlan Coben, an author that Mom & I have enjoyed in the past. "Save" isn't a book but I see that there are numerous of his books that have been made into movies on Netflix. Bet we check them out soon!

I made Katie Lee Biegel's Hometown Lasagna last night. It was a bust per Mom & Fred. I kind of liked it. The biggest complaint from the peanut gallery was it was dry. So glad I added an extra cup of water since Katie had us use uncooked lasagna noodles! Truthfully, I loved the texture of the noodles in the "dry" sauce. Oh well, we'll smother the leftovers in Prego and call it good another day! Ha!

Last weekend I liked sewing with my friends. I hadn't sewn with this group since September last year, I believe. We were probably gone to visit Brody in October and we don't sew in November or December due to the holidays. It was SO GOOD to see "my peeps" again!

One of the ladies there, Pat, was just starting a new Crabapple Hill embroidery project called "Snow Days". The weird thing is, while I was searching earlier for something else, I came across a bag full of fabrics, floss, and this very pattern to make for myself! So funny! But, even funnier, another quilter there said she had just finished her version and so she brought it the next day. That's the top below! Pat & I both agreed that we need to make ours too! Then all three will need to be quilted.

I'll close this week with a family picture! Ha! Then I'll be off to visit Not Afraid of Color to see the others sharing their "Likes" for the week. Thank you, LeeAnna, for gathering us together weekly!