Final RSC Post for 2022

In my usual fashion I've got nothing to show for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022. I worked on projects though. For example, I started a new pair of socks. This pattern is called Kazak by Hunter Hammersen. I like her patterns because they are difficult enough to keep my interest yet easy enough to not give me troubles. The yarn I'm using is Invictus's Master of my Feet. Progress so far:

The Rudolph pillow is coming along. I did run into a problem which will be taken care of slowly. I couldn't get the wording traced onto the beautiful flannel background and really scratched my head trying to come up with a way to do it. Then I remembered a "trick" I used on the Reindeer Frolic wool mat using Press 'n' Seal. So that's how I set about to work on Rudolph.

The directions call for 2 rows of stem stitch for the embroidered words. I started with "nose", a short word to see if I was going to be successful. FAIL! The red Sharpie I used for the wording colored my floss pink! UGH!!! Only one row in, at least I learned something ... like there was a problem that needed to be dealt with!

So now I've decided to use a running stitch to outline the words, pick the Press 'n' Seal off, and then stem stitch the first row using the running stitches to guide me. I'll probably start on the word "the" to see how it works. If it's a go, I'll pick out the running stitches for "the" and add the 2nd row of stem stitch to the lettering. You can see in the first picture where I've got the top half of the words completed with the running stitch. Below you can see what it looks like with the running stitches on top of the Press 'n' Seal  prior to removing it. A bit of work and I sure do hope it works!

As for RSC 2023, I'm looking forward to starting a few new projects. Surprise, surprise, huh?!!? I bought the templates for Tennessee Hummingbird which I hope to hand-piece. I plan to also continue with the rainbow hexies that I started in 2022.

Then of course I need to consult my sewing machine periodically and I love making 4-at-a-time flying geese units. I'm considering the free pattern Anna by Andover Fabrics. Inspired by Bonnie Hunter's H blocks, I was thinking that would be fun for this Hoover girl also. The other project I'd like to start is a tumbler quilt. I think this will help familiarize me with the AccuQuilt Go! Cutter that I won earlier this year. Still working on a plan to incorporate the tumblers with Rainbow Scrap.

And there you have it! My final RSC2022 post! Thanks goes to Angela at SoScrappy for keeping all of us inspired to use up our scraps!

I Like Thursday #99

It's been a while since I last posted. We've been having a wonderful Christmas holiday with family. Our daughter and two kitties arrived on the 18th. My brother, his wife, twin daughters, one dog, and one cat arrived the 22nd. My nephew flew in on the 23rd and his girlfriend on the 26th. Daughter and kitties left yesterday, my brother's family and critters left this morning, the nephew and girlfriend will catch their flight this afternoon. Pshew! I believe we're finally going to get back to normal or as normal as we get!

Obviously my first "like" is being able to share the holidays with family, no matter how helter skelter it was at times.

One of the twins and my mom (her grandmother)

My niece, mother, nephew, and daughter

My brother, his wife, his twin daughters & Mac

My brother's three kids

I also liked how the animals got along. Not saying they were necessarily friends but at least they respected each other's space.

My brother and SIL being monitored by my Polly

Polly loves wrapping paper & boxes

Penny keeping a close eye on Polly

Gracie got a How-Do-You-Do present from Mac

My kind neighbor bought an amaryllis for me again this year. I chose a red one with hints of orange. It looks like this. Isn't it pretty?

Last year's amaryllis was a bright red, more traditional color. I kept the bulb outside over the summer and put it in the basement in the late fall. I'd forgotten to do that before I went on vacation but figured better late than never. It started to sprout mid-December, looking like this.

Today it looks like this. Pretty sure I'll get a small flower at the very least!

After the holidays I like to get out a jigsaw puzzle. It's a relaxing thing to do that I enjoy very much. Gives me time to reflect on the past holiday and all the commotion it brings. 1000 piece puzzles fit perfectly on my dining room table without pulling out the leaves.

I finished the book "Pachinko" a while ago. I really enjoyed the first 2/3. The next bit seemed more like the author was writing from her outline. The ending was very good and appropriate though. I loved reading about the Japanese and Korean cultures and I  recommend this book but BEWARE! Her use of the F-word is not something that I care for. However, I gave her a pass for learning the English language and maybe not from a certified teacher. Not sure I explained that quite right. Sorry.

My current read is "Sworn to Silence" by Linda Castillo. You may recall that I read "Fallen" by the same author and really enjoyed it. Turns out Kate Burkholder, the main character, has been in lots of Linda Castillo's books. "Sworn to Silence" is the first in the series so I thought I'd double back and read it now. So far it's good but I'm only about 100 pages in.

As most of you know, I love my morning walks with Gracie. My daughter joined us most days while she was  visiting. Even better! However, were you aware that we experienced some VERY COLD weather over the holidays? It was so cold and windy that some days we were -40 degrees wind chill! No walks for Gracie on those days but we did go when it was a bit warmer, like only -12 degrees! Ha! Anyway, I asked Sarah was her hair wet when we left or did she brush against wet paint or something? Here's her picture -- look at the hairs on the edges of her face. Turns out it's ice from her breath!!

And guess what, Mom? You do too! Mine's not all gray!

Even Gracie sported snow on her snoot and icicles in her chinny-chin-chin hairs!

Oh my! We had such a good time on our walk!

I think that's it from here. My I Like Post is caught up. You can always see more fun observations and get good tips by visiting the other bloggers sharing their likes HERE.

Have a safe New Year's holiday!

FNSI but no RSC

Last night was the last Friday Night Sew In for 2022. I'll be looking forward to sewing with Wendy and all my cyber quilters again next year. Here's to all our projects for FNSI 2023!

Last night I sat down to start this really cute Rudolph Christmas pillow. Got the pattern traced to my fusible and cut out.

Next step was to apply the fusible to the wool and then cut it all out on the lines. After ironing it on the beautiful flannel background, it looked like this. I need to find my Clover white pen to trace the writing that goes on this project and then get started stitching this down!

Now that that was done, I thought I'd get a start on the Uptown BOM for December. I got it all traced onto the proper fabrics and quite a bit of it glued down for the first round of applique. All that's left is a couple of heart-shapes and giant leaves!

Hope you're having a good weekend. Mine has started off pretty good!

I Like Thursday #98

 It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, even at Mom's house. I was there Wednesday and put up her tree. In the boxes was also her decorations for around the house including her beautiful pine cone wreath that she made long ago. Why did I not take any pictures??!! Maybe for next week's post. I have to go down to her house again Friday. The part for her furnace will be installed. Don't want Mom's furnace to go out, especially since that cold spell is dropping in on us right now as we speak!

My guild's Christmas part was Tuesday night. It had an Hawaiian theme and was so fun. We were encouraged to wear our Aloha attire so I grabbed one of Fred's shirts and wore it over a turtleneck. There was a picture station so I grabbed friends Cindy & Edie (also in appropriate attire) and "Shaka, Bruh!"

I made Peanut Butter Buckeye Pretzels to share. A little time-consuming but very delicious. The recipe is HERE.

Piled them into a Christmas container and put them on the dessert table.

The food is always so yummy. Patti makes our brisket every year and everyone brings in something to share. Here's a look at my loaded plate with brisket, Asian salad, a kale salad(?), cheesy broccoli casserole, Italian salad, crudites, and praline sweet potatoes.

Those were big LIKES this week! Here's anoth super LIKE: My favorite cousin became a 1st-time Grandma this week!!!! Meet little Libby surrounded by her very happy parents! 8# 6oz of pure joy!

And speaking of babies, after coming home from Mom's I found a baby shower invitation in the mail. My previous neighbors, who moved to MS to take care of aging parents, are also going to be first-time grandparents too!!! The shower is next month and the baby boy is due in March. So happy for them!!

I liked watching the season finale of Survivor although Gabler was definitely not my choice to win. After winning, he disclosed that he's not going to keep the prize money but donate it to US Veterans, a noble cause. I still didn't want him to win and I hope this doesn't set a precedence for future winners. 'Nuff said.

This week the family starts coming in for the holidays. I like that but there's always a bit of stress in getting ready. Once things get under way it'll all be fun. We're meeting my nephew's girlfriend for the first time so that should be exciting. Hope the poor girl can stand all of us! Haha!

Please feel free to stop by HERE to see what others are sharing this week. This time of year usually means load\s of fun & happiness.

Not Much RSC

Since I returned from Cleveland, I haven't really sewn as much as I would have liked. Just mostly trying to get into the swing of things again. Mom will be coming up this afternoon and I know we'll have a "grand reunion"! Haha!

I did finish up the November block for Uptown while catching up on Blue Bloods before watching the season finale later. Here she is ... Another strange looking block but they should all blend together perfectly?

Earlier in the day I worked very hard at getting the Illusions Sampler November block completed too. The construction of the main part of the block was really cool. I think this would make a great block for RSC2023!

Yesterday I was so inspired by the I Like Thursday posts that I set about and made Snickerdoodle cookies. My recipe yesterday made 46 so they'll likely be gone before next week! Cookie Monster had nothing on this group! You can find my recipe HERE.

There were a lot of recipes shared on the I Like Thursday blog. LeeAnna prompted us with "Christmas/Hannukah Cookies" for this week. You can jump to her page with recipes HERE and then leap-frog to the other posts at the bottom of the page. Just scroll on down.

I'll leave you now with a sweet, sweet picture of our little Jakey. Just look at that hair! and that smile! and check out how that big toe is curled under to help hold him upright! Haha!

Have a great week!

I Like Thursday #97

Good day, everyone! I'm a little late posting but I just got back Tuesday from my best friend's mother's funeral in Cleveland OH. From my Hampton Inn hotel there to home was 523 miles so quite a long drive. I have to admit it was not too bad driving it all by myself. I stopped when I wanted for as long or as short as I wanted. Also SiriusXM had free music so I listened to what I wanted and sang OUT LOUD!! Haha! My usual travel companions might not have enjoyed all that!

While in Cleveland, I met Vickie's mother's cat Jasper. What a sweetie-pie and he's HUGE! My friend is adopting Jasper and that made her mother happy.

Our prompt this week is what is our favorite store-bought or home-made Christmas treat. Of course I have one of each. Store-bought hands-down are my lebkuchen cookies from Germany. They come in to the Scott AFB commissary every Christmas and I buy several bags. If you don't know what they are, they are a gingerbread type of cookie. I like the ones that are chocolate dipped and have a light schmeer of jam inside. Don't wrinkle your nose -- they are so good!

As far as home-made cookies go, most years we make many kinds of cookies and pass them out to the neighbors. I'd say probably my favorite one is Snickerdoodles. I received some years ago from a friend when I lived in Maryland. She gave me her recipe and they are absolutely the BEST. This is how we make them:'

Snickerdoodles

                            1 C shortening                         2 t cream of tartar

                            1 1⁄2 C white sugar                   1⁄2 t salt

                            2 eggs                                    2 T white sugar

                            2 3⁄4 C all-purpose flour        2 t ground cinnamon

                            1 t baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. In a small bowl, stir together the 2 T of sugar and the cinnamon. Roll dough into walnut-sized balls, then roll the balls in the cinnamon-sugar. Place them onto an unprepared cookie sheet, two inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 mins. Edges should be slightly brown. Remove from sheets to cool on wire racks.

It's been hard to keep my nose out of my book lately. I started reading "Pachinko" by Min Jin Lee, a recommendation from my daughter. It's about a Korean girl back in the 1900s when Japan was expanding. So far some of it has been heartbreaking but there's also an inner strength that Sunja exudes. For a better explanation of the story's theme, read Goodreads's synopsis HERE.

Gracie and I have been enjoying the process of our neighborhood getting into the Christmas spirit. Each week there seems to be more & more lights twinkling our way to the trail. Speaking of Christmas, here's Brody not quite sure of Santa.

Earlier he met The Grinch at the mall.

High Five, Grinch!

No Way am I Going to Sit on Grinch's Lap

That's it from this corner of the world. Check out all the other I Like Thursday posts from today and go make yourself some cookies!

RSC, PHD, & Random Thoughts

RSC & PHD reports are easy. I didn't accomplish anything on either account. I've sewn a bit but there were no quilty finishes to speak of. However I did finish up these Mood socks. They were designed by Hunter Hammersen and published in her "Silk Road Socks" book. Remember those sweet slippers I knit a little while ago? Those were from the same book by the same Hunter! Never mind ... apparently I didn't post about them. Guess I'll have to take a few pictures to share later. Sheesh!

Anyway, the yarn I used was a skein that I won from Invictus through Very Busy Monkey.

One thing I did finish was the October block for Illusions Sampler. I don't care for the sideways rectangles in the outer border but that's what it's supposed to look like. My friend Sharon made hers with the rectangles angled the other way. No improvement there. Haha! Our blocks will look fine once all the blocks are assembled.

I also wanted to share a recipe for homemade bread. There's no kneading. There's only four or five ingredients. It's SUPER EASY! Oh yes, it also tastes wonderful! I got the recipe from Sherri's blog A Quilting Life. The recipe is called Easy Artisan Bread and it was created by Spend With Pennies. I loved that it was baked in my 10" cast iron skillet. Such a chewy crust  with a tender delicious middle. Try this recipe! Here's a picture of my Artisan Bread with homemade turkey soup with couscous.

That pretty much sums up my week. I hope you have a good weekend. I'll be driving to Cleveland for a funeral because my best friend's mother lost her 25-year-battle with breast cancer.

I'll be linking with Angela at SuperScrappy when I get a chance.

I Like Thursday #96

This week's prompt is inspired by the beginning of December. What is our favorite Christmas movie or show. I have a two movies that I like to watch: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Elf. At the very least these were the two that popped right into my head. What about you? Any favorites out there?

As for my "likes" this week, this little guy turned seven months this week.

Look how curious he is!

Check out this funny video. Jacob is trying to lay his hands on a green bean but it keeps evading capture!

I also liked this week's episode of Survivor and we really enjoyed the St. Louis Blues's come-from-behind win in overtime. I finished my recent book, "The Hidden One" by Linda Castillo. It's the most recent Kate Burkholder mystery novel. It was very good although this time I pretty much had the ending pegged. Yay, me! I need to browse the Cloud Library and get something new downloaded to read next.

Friday we also enjoyed Framilygiving (? or some such name) that Fred's nieces put on. The invitations went out weeks earlier and, before they knew it, the number of attending grew so large that the venue had to be changed and the meal was now going to be catered! Everything was perfect! Not only was the food delicious, the venue was the perfect size, and we got to play games! We had three gifts raffled off, played a game of BINGO, and then there were two sessions of Musical Chairs. First the adults (and there were about 20 of us that played) and the younger kids (there were only 4). Anyway, much gratitude goes out to Debbie & Tina. Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Strictly Family Picture

That'll be a wrap here. I hope you had a good week and that the upcoming week proves to be just as good.