PHD Report

Did you know I am trying to finish my PHD? I'm sure you know I'm smart but I'm definitely not that smart! Haha! I am looking to finish my Projects Half Done ... PHD! I must confess that I did not get any closer to finishing anything on my PHD list. However, I did have a finish this month of a project that I started earlier.

I started Twistie in June and finished in August. That is a very quick turn-around for me! Presenting Twistie here.

So I am able to close the quilt out on my 2022 Starts even if I didn't gain any ground on my PHD. That's quite alright with me. There are still four more months to 2022 and plenty to keep me busy. In the meantime, you can read all about Twistie HERE. I was more than happy to donate Twistie to Mercyful Quilts, a charitable organization providing grace to those in the final stages of life and comfort to those that will be left behind. Many thanks to Preeti, Patty, and Bernie for keeping us organized and on track for getting our quilts done.

That's my August PHD report. I'll catch you next month ... hopefully with a little more progress! Thank you, Gail, for doing your darnedest to keep me focused on my Projects Half Done.

RSC Orange

Yup, I finally got some orange scraps sewn up for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Our leader Angela  chose orange for August and some of the others have really gone crazy with the color. You can see lots of this beautiful color HERE at SoScrappy.

Here's my orange zigzag border piece for String-X. Look at all those orange strings! There is an elephant, an owl, neck of a giraffe, a pumpkin in the orange fabrics. There are peace signs, writing, and cross stitch in the neutrals. Can you find them?

I think some of the problem I was having getting motivated to finish String-X this year was I just wasn't sure how I was going to turn the corners.

Looking back at what String-X looks like so far showed that the corners would entail dark blue, aqua, purple, and black. The color for July was purple, I believe, so I really needed to get a plan in place. Here's what I came up with:

This will be one side.

This will be the other side including the corner block.

When set together, it will turn like this. It's not perfect since I was fudging around with ideas but it'll do. I'm pretty sure I made a couple of extra sides for at least one other corner and, now that I have a plan, I'll have to go back and see. We had dark blue in June and aqua in February. This quilt is getting close to finished!

On a side note, I sewed with friends today (Friday) and will again on Saturday. Have you heard about Moda's Letters to Santa QAL? You can read the introduction HERE and then link up with the first two clues. I jumped on because I thought it would be fun. Turns out I'll have even more fun since I found out a friend was also sewing alone. I think this quilt will look so fun on the guest bed at Christmas time! Today I sewed up JOY and CHRI of Christmas. I'm looking forward to getting my machine busy with the rest of Christmas. Might even squeeze in a little MERRY if there's time! Wish I'd taken a picture or two of what I accomplished. Will do so next week!

Until then, have a great week!

I Like Thursday #86

I Like Thursday has arrived once again without fail and I'm starting it off with my finished Twistie quilt. You can read all about it HERE but let's just say I love it. The pattern was fun although I must admit 80 blocks almost did me in! Haha! I draped it across a lounge chair with another one of my likes:  the Limelight hydrangea. It is so full of heavy blooms that the branches droop -- some all the way to the ground! The blooms start off with a green tint, turning whitish, then fade to a pink. It probably towers 12 feet high!

Last Saturday when Gracie and I took our morning walk, I noticed A LOT of bikes! There were a lot of different colored arrows stuck along the trail too. Then I spied this sign and realized the reason behind all the activity. I liked the reason for the crowded trail.

Forty mile route with the green arrows marking the way? I'll pass, thank you, but you all go ahead and enjoy the ride! Haha! It was a nice day though for a bike ride.

Fred & I had already seen "Top Gun: Maverick" and enjoyed it very much. This past Tuesday we took Mom to see it. Her hairdresser told her how good it was too so she was wanting to see it for herself. She was WOWed by it! Hahaha!

I bought the tickets through my movie membership so we didn't even have to wait in line. We also got our "Members Only" free popcorn. Mom really liked that! We plan on going to see "Where the Crawdads Sing" next. Mom & I read the book and loved it. We're planning on taking Mom's neighbor too because she also enjoyed the book. You can't hardly beat $5 tickets and free popcorn now, can you?

Speaking of books, I'm currently reading "The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" by Stuart Turton. This is one strange book. I'll finish it because my daughter recommended it to me. I'm still undecided about whether I like it or not. Guess I must like it though because I keep wanting to read more! You can read about it HERE on Goodreads.

As for our prompt this week from our fearless leader: relate a place where you take an annual summer vacation or attend a summer event. This was a hard one for me because we don't have "usual" anythings planned for summer. Every Spring & Fall we make the trek to the East Coast to visit family but nothing in the summer. I guess I'd have to go back in time to visiting the Lake of the Ozarks as a kid. Dad came home with a boat one year. He named it SuJoLi for his three children: Sue (me), John (brother), and Linda (sister). We went most every summer after and we all learned to water ski and drive the boat. It wasn't anything extravagant with only a little 35 or 40 horsepower motor. We had rules we had to follow too. We weren't allowed to go over 20mph if we were pulling a skier! I'm not sure the boat could go much faster than 25 or 30mph anyway. Haha! And I have to admit that the water is hard if you fall, even at only 18mph! 

The lake was beautiful early in the mornings. The water was so calm it was like skiing across glass. We'd see fish, deer, turtles, and plenty of other wildlife. It sure brings back wonderful memories, for sure.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down Memory Lane and found something to amuse yourself. Stay tuned next week for more likes and another "summer prompt" from LeeAnna. You can always find more fun stuff with the other I Likers HERE.

Twistie!

It seems like a long time ago that we had dark blue for our Rainbow Scrap Challenge. It was then that Preeti from Sew Preeti Quilts blogged about Mercyful Quilts and the need for quilts again this year. I participated last year in the drive and, since I had all my dark blue fabrics strewn about, I thought I'd choose them for this year's project. I also had quite a bit of a gray paisley fabric laying aside from the leftover backing from another quilt. Voile! A quilt idea was hatched.

My start-up post from June 25 was HERE. It was followed up on July 2nd HERE and then again on July 16th HERE. So you can see I've been plodding along slowly but surely. Like the Little Engine That Could, I just kept working on it and working on it and now I can say I finished it! Meet Twistie!

Twistie finished at approximately 64" x 80", the blocks being 8" each and set eight rows by ten columns. Isn't it spectacular against that blue sky today??

And blowin' in the wind?

Sit and rest a spell while you check out all the different shades of mostly dark blue fabrics. So calming.

Thought you might like to see what the back looked like too. I had bought this Kate Spain fabric eons ago ... B.C. (before Covid)! It was on clearance and I loved it. After I got it home, I just wasn't sure how I could use it. Well, now I know!

Here's a close up look at the quilting that I did on it. First I ditch-quilted and then I did the double-loop design in each of the blue sections using King Tut thread. The color was Mariana, a variegated navy blue. I used the same thread for the gray paisley sections only the color was Pumice, a variegated gray. I love King Tut thread for quilting.

A sneak peek at the back again. Look at that texture. This quilt is soft and snuggly. I hope it provides the comfort I'm intending.

This quilt will be shipped out in the mail this week, landing at Bernie's. You can read all about the Mercyful Quilts cause at her blog Needle and Foot HERE. I'm happy to provide some peace and grace to those nearing the end of life and to their loved ones.

I'm linking up with Bernie and others that have also contributed. These are some amazing quilts and will be so appreciated.

I Like Thursday #85 (Sandals)

Welcome to another addition of I Like Thursday. Isn't it fun to see what others are enjoying? Always good for some fresh ideas. Besides what I share, you can also see what others are liking as well HERE There's a list of participants towards the end of that page. Enjoy!

My week started off last Friday with shop hop hopping. There is currently an All Illinois Shop Hop going on during the months of August & September. Missouri is overlapping with an All Missouri Shop Hop from September 1 through October. Anyway, Fred volunteered to drive me around to collect the passport stamps and enjoy our beautiful state. Our first stop was to a town I'd never heard of to a quilt shop I knew nothing about. Of course our state has a town named after President Lincoln and we parked right in front of his statue. The statue commemorates the spot where Abraham Lincoln stopped on the campaign trail and was greeted by thousands arriving by train. It was a huge occasion in history!

Right across the street from the statue & municipal building was Indigo Quilt Studio. We were greeted by Heather. I immediately knew this was a quilt store to remember. She had more fabrics from different companies and designers than I'm accustomed to in my local area, She also had a lot of fun novelty prints that are more difficult to find around me as well.

Just around the corner to the left you can see red umbrellas. That was a local bar/eatery called Alley-Bi and Fred found it for lunch. We enjoyed very good hamburgers there. We need to return to Lincoln again because I hear there's also a wonderful local ice cream shop but we were looking for lunch this time.

Travel time to Lincoln was 1 hour 45 minutes so we made our way home catching two other shops. One was in Springfield called Sew Sweet Quilt Shop and then Piece & Applique in Rochester, just south of Springfield. Sew Sweet was very nice and she does a lot of long arm quilting for her customers. She has a separate shop located in Jacksonville IL and I'm thinking she probably has more fabrics there.

I'm familiar with Piece & Applique. That's where I bought my first Bernina! I really like that shop. There's a candy/ice cream shop two doors down that we managed to visit for our ride the rest of the way home. All in all, I liked my day out and we even made it home in time for Jeopardy! Now, I really like that!! *wink*

Earlier that morning, I smelled a sweet, familiar smell. The honeysuckle was reblooming. Probably due to the rain and cooler temperatures we've been having lately. I like the nicer weather and I really like the smell of honeysuckle.

I made peach ice cream over the weekend. It was OK but the peaches were good!

Our leader has given us the prompt this week of our favorite sandals. Anybody that knows me knows that I pretty much only wear Birkenstocks. Doesn't matter to me if they're between the toes or not. I have the usual white pair, tan pair, brown pair. I also have blue patent leather ones, a beautiful green pair, a lovely floral pair, a wild pink pair. Of course when winter arrives I even have Birkenstock clogs -- my usual black pair and also a maroon wool pair with little sheep and a rawhide looking pair with sherpa lining. I could be in a Birkenstock commercial, couldn't I? Hahahaha! Here's a picture of my shoe rack.

I'll leave you on that note, scratching your head over my Birkenstock obsession. It's not really an obsession though -- it's just that they accommodate my very wide feet. Also they have a good, hard arch which is a necessity ever since I had plantar fasciotomy.

Have a wonderful week!

I Like Thursday #84

Welcome back to another week of I Like Thursday post. Our prompt this week is what is our favorite fruit/vegetable that we are enjoying this time of year. I'd have to say zucchini. I'm growing it again this year so it is fresh, fresh, fresh. It's also so versatile. We enjoy it sauteed with onions and any of the herbs from the garden: dill, oregano, basil, or just plain. We like it sliced into long slabs, seasoned with herbs and olive oil, then baked in the oven. If I feel like it, I'll even make zucchini fitters. They're a little time consuming but not hard at all when you follow this recipe from Food Network. Probably our favorite though would be zucchini bread following this recipe from allrecipes. I usually add pecans instead of walnuts but either way is delicious -- especially with coffee.

I've been playing Wordle for quite a while now. It's a good way to keep in contact with my daughter each morning. I've heard a lot of buzz about the game Quordle so I decided to give it a try this past Sunday for the first time and beat it!

So I tried it the next two days and POOF! I won both days again! I really liked that!

Too bad I bombed out Wednesday! Ha!

The flowers in the garden are looking good. Each Spring I get a clump of what looks like daffodil leaves. They die off, I cut them back, then they disappear. Then in late summer, stems sprout up quickly and within a couple of days they look like this!

I love the tinge of purple with the pink blooms! And these four stems have no leaves at all! I was told they are called "surprise lilies" but my daughter heard they were also called "naked ladies". Hahaha! I totally understand that name for them too! Here's a couple of long looks down the front garden this week.

This past week we celebrated my honey's birthday. After the family get-together on Saturday, his party continued with dinner at our favorite Korean restaurant complements of Mom and then opening a pair of new wifi earbuds. I like his goofiness too!

He mowed the lawn yesterday afternoon and said they worked great and were comfy too!

I enjoy my monthly quilt guild meetings. This month we were introduced to a fabric designer from Riley Blake. Janet Wecker Frisch of Joy Studio was so nice, personable, and generous! She shared lots of her quilts and gave away A LOT of door prizes. I think there were 50 prizes with 85 of us present. Pretty good odds to snag one but I wasn't so lucky. However, everyone got a goody bag that contained a fat quarter from one of her collections. Here's my red FQ with little white buttons. So cute! And it looks perfect with my "red solo cup" although it's not really a red solo cup.

This cup was given to me by my mother's neighbor quite some time ago. It was during the time when the song "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith was popular. I happen to like any song that Toby sings but she just hated that song. She gave me this cup with a $20 bill inside as a thank you for driving her to St. Louis for her cancer treatment. She has long since passed but I think about her every time I pull this cup out. Pauline was a good neighbor to Mom and a good friend to all.

Still reading "The Night Tiger" but I need to hurry up. The library just notified me that a book on hold has just become available. Wonder which book it was. Guess you'll find out next week on the next I Like Thursday post!

Have a great week!

FNwF & RSC Purple/Orange

Starting off, I'd like to say that I love purple & orange together. Throw in a little green and that's a winner-winner-chicken-dinner! Looking back at my Star in a Star quilt on the bed! I just love it.

But I digress. Last night was the first Friday of the month so that meant Friday Night with Friends night! I started the day off ditch-stitching Twistie. It was VERY early morning, like 4:30am early. I was hoping I was stitching with my Australian friends in their afternoon/evening! I managed to get quite a bit done, almost half!

Later in the afternoon I downloaded the next block for Uptown. I had to laugh since I thought it was a peculiar looking block. Then I read that Gay (our leader) said it wasn't her favorite block either. I planned on starting it in the evening but plans change, don't they? After dinner I settled in to watch the Cardinals play the Yankees. It was so good to see Matt Carpenter, who used to be a Cardinal and was one of my favorites. Cardinals won in their truly exciting come-back style. First inning looked like this in my lap.

By the end of the 8th, it was looking like a good stopping point and my eyelids were drooping. It was a good FNwF!

Thursday I did get in a little Rainbow Scrap sewing. I realized I hadn't done the purple strings for the zig zag border on the String-X quilt and August meant it was time to dig out some orange. I looked back on String-X and discovered that there's a purple block in the corner, meaning I had not one but two sides to cover. Thankfully the orange block is not in the corner. Here's a visual.

So I pulled out my purple strings, got some old phone book pages cut up, and set to work.

What a creative mess! In the bottom right, my Kai purple scissors are holding open one of the purple string HST blocks for the zig zag border. The paper has yet to be torn off. There is a pile of thirteen more under the half purple-half background block also. That halvsie block is for the corner turn. Off on the left are several more background string blocks waiting for the matching orange string blocks to become HSTs. You can see that I've already gathered a nice pile of orange strings just waiting in the wings. It's all glorious in my book although it looks like a disaster.

And that has been what I've been working on this week! I hope you see lots of orange wherever you wander this week!

Thank you to Cheryll for pulling FNwF together this month and to Angela for gathering us together this week for RSC.

I Like Thursday #83

Here we are at Thursday once again and once again I have a few pictures to share with you and the other I Like Thursday bloggers at Not Afraid of Color.

First up would be my Polly. She is 9 years old and still quite playful. She loves when I have a wall hanging long enough to reach behind the couch. She makes it her personal tunnel and hiding spot. Of course it quickly gets untucked from behind the couch. Here she is playing with her yarn string, another favorite, while hiding behind the wall hanging.

My grandsons are two of my favorites also. Jacob is getting so big. First picture is of the Jacob & Brody side by side wearing the same onsie. The only difference is: Brody is 4 1/2 months old and Jacob is only 3 months! And we thought Brody was a big boy!!!

Here is Jacob celebrating his 3 month birthday.

Brody enjoying a day at Skyzone. Jump, Brody, jump!

I made a delicious peach pie this week. I used this recipe from Allrecipes. I've made it before and it's a keeper!

I visited my doctor yesterday. He proclaimed that I was in excellent health. My sugar, iron, thyroid, cholesterol, etc. etc. were all fabulous. He said my cholesterol was a little high (197) but that was only because my HDL (the good number) was very high. He asked me my secret and I told him it was my daily walk with Gracie. Everyday, even in the rain, snow, heat, freezing cold, we walk 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 miles. The only thing that keeps us home is ice and thunder & lightning. I was shocked yesterday when I was fiddling with my phone to see that I was at exactly 2600 miles!

My hydrangeas are in full bloom. Don't they look pretty with this little baby quilt I recently finished?

My Naked Ladies are starting to bloom. They're also called Surprise Lilies because after the daffodil-looking leaves die off, a couple months later these spring up!

Gracie thinks they're pretty too!

Yesterday we finally got the rain we've desperately been craving but it came with a cost. We had high wind gusts and my back neighbor lost several trees including this big one. I'll miss it this Autumn because it always gave a colorful show against the pond.

The bike trail didn't fare too well either. Here are a couple pictures from my walk this morning.

I like that "the boys" will be out in the next day or two cleaning it up for all of us walkers, bikers, and joggers!

That's it for this week. I'm still reading "The Night Tiger" and will let you know how I feel about it when I reach the end. Until next week!