I Like Thursday #112

Welcome back to another I Like Thursday post. LeeAnna keeps track of all the I Like Thurs posts right HERE. Bet you find something interesting, funny, or just plain old good there!

The crew here did a portion of the Metro-East Shop Hop yesterday. After hitting a couple of shops, we needed nourishment and I chose the brand-new Sugarfire 55 in Arnold MO, where there was a very nice shop. We have a Sugarfire near us in IL but we've never been. Besides I choose new! Ha!

Mom enjoying her ribs at Sugarfire

My tray of brisket, slaw, and jalapeno augratin

I'm still enjoying "Survivor". I can't believe that Jaime is still sitting out on all the challenges. When will they catch on?? And Carolyn? What a weirdo. She can exit anytime too as far as I'm concerned. Ha!

This house is looking forward to the start of Cardinal season. The Blues are totally out of any playoff picture and it's time to think RED around here!!

"Dream Town" is just about over both in pages to read and library borrow-time. I thought I knew how it was going to end but it just took another twist. I better get to finishing it since it expires around 1:30 today. Of course, I usually manage a couple bonus days on my Nook but I try not to push it.

My neighbor moved away last Spring but came back for a visit. Her daughter has given her her first grandbaby. We enjoyed some wine that Sarah sent to me a while back. It was Pear Wine from her favorite vineyard, Fabbioli, in Leesburg VA. She had recommended it as a deck-sitting wine and it was!

Beautiful day even with a bit of wind

My son is always showing off how wonderful his steak turns out when cooking it first sous vide, then grilled. I've cooked pork chops that way and they ALWAYS turn out good so I decided to try a page from his book. Oh my! Was that steak delicious!! We all liked!

Sous Vide Strip Steak, Taters on the Grill, and Sauteed Asparagus
YUM!

Perfectly cooked!

You know Gracie and I always enjoy beautiful sunrises. Yesterday's was no exception. I'll leave you to meditate on these pictures I caught with the lightly frosted field and sun coming up over the trees.

Do you see Gracie?

Have a wonderful Thursday!

RSC - Nearing the End of Green & a Quilt Top!

As the days of March are running down, I wonder what color April will bring? In the meantime there are still green scraps to get sewn up. That's the beauty of Rainbow Scrap Challenge -- there always plenty of fabric to play with. As for me this week? Since there's been time at Mom's P/T appointments, I've gotten this far on Block 2: the Lucy Boston block. There's even a tad of green in the row with the birds I'm doing now!

I sewed with the ladies yesterday and I finally (yes, FINALLY) got the final outer border sewn on Awesome Land. I even stay-stitched the edge because I don't know when I'll get to quilting this one. I didn't take the time to measure the top, but it should be in the ballpark of 89" square. This RSC top truly has green in it!

On Monday I was in an all-day class to learn how to long-arm quilt and to get my certification so I'd be allowed to rent a machine at my LQS. Thankfully there was only me and one other quilter learning this craft. When I left at the end, my head was spinning. I dreamt about all the ins & outs of it for the next 2 nights. On Wednesday I read the "manual" we were given and things are finally coming together in my brain (I think). Here are a couple of pictures I managed to get at class.

Instructor did flower on right.
All the rest were my doodles for free-motion.

The two classmates for the day.
We are sword-fighting with our red snapper sticks!

As you might guess, I didn't feel too intimidated on the custom quilting since I do that a lot on my domestic sewing machine. I really want to learn to pantograph which is shown in the bottom picture. I'm on the schedule in about 10 days and am looking forward to finding out how much I forgot, Ha! I plan on working on a baby quilt I made quite some time ago during a SAL with Gudrun Erla. Since I'm still practicing, it'll be a donation quilt.

In looking for a picture, I can see I need to go through my photos, I can't remember when I started Awesome Land or the QAL baby quilt. Meanwhile, I hope you're having a great weekend. I'm going back today to sew with friends. I've got another project in mind that I'd like to make a good start.

You can catch up with the other RSC quilters on Angela's blog, SoScrappy, right HERE. 

I Like Thursday #111 - Recipes Galore!

 Oh boy! Did I have a good cooking week and everyone in this house liked that! Haha! No recipe for corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and red potatoes but sure enjoyed it. Just not on Friday since Mom is currently observing meatless Fridays. Believe me -- it was just as good on Saturday and she still wore her green beads!

As for the recipes I used this week, I made Irish Soda Bread for St. Paddy's Day. No meat there! Following a recipe from The Barefoot Contessa (aka Ina Garten) was easy although I used raisins instead of currants. Mom & I LOVED it! The orange zest adds just the right touch and made it so good with coffee each morning. Bet it would be good with tea as well!

My zested orange with the rustic Soda Bread.
It's supposed to look like this

Our breakfast plate

Since we weren't doing meat, I decided to try a recipe that was shared by Sherri on A Quilt Life blog. She shared Iowa Girl Eats's Easy Seafood Stew. Another easy one to make and you get to decide what you want in your soup. The recipe calls for 1-1/4# of mixed seafood: your choice. I used 1/2# shrimp, 1/2# scallops, and a little over 1/3# orange roughy. Whatever combo you use, I'm sure it'll be delicious. You can get the recipe HERE.

Last night I made Pumpkin Chili since I had half a can of pumpkin left. My BFF gave me nine LARGE cans of pumpkin. When I made pumpkin pie for Pi Day, I had half a can left so I decided to try something different. I've had this recipe from the Spend With Pennies blog for over a year and it was time to make it. I had to change it a bit for a certain palette in this house: I halved the amounts of chili powder and red bell pepper. It was still good but Mom & I would've preferred more spicy heat. Next time I'll throw a few chopped pickled jalapenos on ours! I forgot to take a picture but you can get the recipe HERE. It was really good!

As many of you know, I love knitting and then wearing my socks. They usually fit perfectly, look beautiful, and provide a different sort of handwork. Recently I finished my first attempt at mosaic knitting. This pattern is called Circuit Socks, written by Shuyi Wu. You can find the free pattern on Ravelry HERE. I'm showing them off below.

"Dream Town" by David Baldacci is really holding my interest as is "Survivor". I can't believe how again that Jaime girl got to sit out another challenge. She's so lame! Haha!

I'd say that pretty much wraps up my week except for an all-day long-arm certification class I took on Monday at my LQS. I really enjoyed it but my head was spinning by the end. I'll share a bit more of this day in another post. I will say I'm looking forward to my next session to work on one of my own quilts. Sure hope I can remember even half of what I learned!

Have a great week!

Not a Whole Lot to Share

Hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day. Mom didn't want to give up her Fish Friday so we're doing Corned Beef & Cabbage, potatoes, and carrots for dinner tonight. Right now I've The Barefoot Contessa's Irish Soda Bread in the oven and it sure smells good. I'll keep you posted on how that tasted!

As for green fabrics this week, it was slim. I started the March applique block for the Uptown BOM. Look! There's some green ...

There's been quite a bit of time for on-the-go stitching this week. I got started on the Lucy Boston EPP block for March. There's a bit of green with the birds, I think. The Karen Kay Buckley scissors definitely have green handles!

No green seen on my free-motion quilting but at least a little more progress was made this week.

I hope you have a good weekend. We're going to be cold with a high only in the 30s. There was a 9 degree wind chill on the morning walk. Gracie didn't mind, of course.

Have a great weekend. I'll be holed up, hopefully getting a little sewing squeezed in plus I have a Zoom The Applique Society meeting this afternoon.

Linking up with Angela @ SoScrappy.

I Like Thursday #110

Come join me on a stroll to see what I liked (and maybe didn't) this week. There are a group of us that share positive happenings in our week each Thursday and it's bound to be interesting. Join us at LeeAnna's blog HERE.

My week started out good. I finished a St. Patrick's wall hanging. It's showing off in the header today.

I have to say that the weather hasn't been all that nice around here for much of the past week. Old Man Winter returned with icy blasts. Here are screenshots from Monday's, Tuesday's, and Wednesday's walk. Although I didn't particularly care for the cold after being teased earlier with warmer temps, Gracie loved it! So there is a LIKE there!

Since I finished knitting my socks last week, I didn't have something ready to grab & work on during Mom's P/T on Tuesday. The sun was shining so I made my way to her house and trimmed up the bushes. Thankfully the yard waste had been picked up from last week so I refilled the can. I didn't take a picture of the hydrangea bush, but doesn't the front look nice now? I even found a couple of hyacinths trying to bloom! So pretty!

On the way home I noticed my neighbor's beautiful tree in bloom with a lovely blue sky. Photo op! Usually by this time we've had a heavy rain which knocks the flowers to the ground. Not this year ... yet.

Pi day (3/14) was celebrated here with a pumpkin pie, hubby's favorite. Of course I'd've preferred chocolate cream! Haha!

I had English Paper Piecing Club on Wednesday. We did a block full of hearts last month and this month we'll be making a Lucy Boston block. The five at the top of the photo are the heart blocks shown at show 'n' tell. That's mine with the blue frame. The bottom two are teacher's samples of the Lucy Boston block. We'll see how that one goes for me.

As for new recipes, nothing super exciting. I made a pork tenderloin with mustard sauce that was good.

TV watching continues to be the same -- Survivor & Blue Bloods. Of course we won't get BB for a while since March Madness has begun on CBS Friday nights. UGH! We watched some of the Oscars. They were OK but not a big fan of Jimmy Kimmel. I'm reading "Dream Town" by David Baldacci. It's the third in the series of Aloysius Archer. I like the character and it's written kinda 50's gumshoe style.

Read about it HERE

That's about it for this week It's getting dark here so I guess it's going to rain just as the weather folks predicted. Who knew?!?! I'll leave you with this sign I saw a long time ago in an NC State Ladies Restroom. I think we should keep this in mind as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Friday!

I hope you get your Irish on and enjoy corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots over the weekend. I'll be making Irish Soda Bread too! Have a great week!

RSC A Bit o'Green

I was busy this week and still managed to get in some sewing time. Friday night TV is limited for me. I only like Blue Bloods at 9pm so from 7 until 9 I go and hole up in the downstairs studio (aka basement). No pictures but I started machine quilting that adorable printed cross-stitched Noah's Ark baby quilt. Managed to get quite a bit of the ditch quilting done. All the while I was imagining what I'd do on the rest of it.

A Little Refresher Picture of the Noah's Ark Quilt

I do have a finish to share this week and it has loads of green! Good Luck was finished up Wednesday night while watching Survivor, my only other must-see TV. I know, some of you are cringing at my TV viewing. Haha! Anyway, here it is!

Good Luck - 12-1/2" square
Pattern by Kathy Schmitz

Close-up of the Quilting
Some Ditch-Stitching
Traditional Corner-to-Corner on Triangles
Goofy Little Clovers in the Corner
FMQ Around the Hands & Arms, Heart, & Crown

I also have made great progress on my EPP project. All that's left to do is sew on the frame around the main "block".

Main Part of the Block

Some Have Asked About the Size
Roughly 9"

Teal Frame Going On

I also finished my Mosaic Socks and proudly wore them this week. Will post a picture sometime soon. Until then, I'm linking up with Angela @ SoScrappy where all the RSC-ers go to share what they've accomplished this week! Have a great weekend!

I Like Thursday #109

It's Thursday and you know what that means -- I'll be sharing things I've liked from the past week. Others will join me and we share amongst ourselves. You're invited to check it out too! Just CLICK HERE!

To begin, things are beginning to bloom around here inside and out.

Inside: Spider Wort

Outside: Lenten Rose

At Mom's: Day Lilies Coming Back After the Big Burn

We've had quite a bit of rain of late. I got to wear my new boots to walk Gracie one morning.

New Rain Boots and Pink Hyacinths

"Survivor" topped my list for TV watching this week. Right up there also was "Blue Bloods" -- love watching NEW episodes!

I finished my book "Murder in the Secret Garden". It was a nice read. Later today I'll be downloading "Dream Town", a David Baldacci book that I put on hold months ago and my name has finally come up.

This past week once again had me running a lot with P/T for Mom, hair appt for Mom, and an additional appt for Mom's bone scan. There was nothing going on Wednesday so I declared it a "stay at home" day and I managed to sit at my sewing machine for a few hours. Now that's a true LIKE!

I'll leave you with a quote I read from the Secret Garden book. The quote was from Rumi's poem "Buoyancy". I really liked it too.

"A mountain keeps an echo deep inside itself."

Have a great week!

March FNwF and RSC Green

It was Friday Night Sew-In with the gals last night. My day started with getting Mom to her hairdresser and surviving the horrible rain & wind. Why do we have such bad weather every Friday when we take Mom to the beauty parlor?? I took along my latest EPP hand project to work on while she got gussied up. We then continued to dodge the rain as we ran a couple errands afterwards. After making it home safely but leaving everything in the car, I talked with my sister for a couple of hours. Finally the rain let up so I could run to the car and bring in the groceries, clothing, and my stitching. After dinner, it was time to give my brother a birthday call and then settle in for Blue Bloods on TV. During the show I continued to get a little more stitching in. Here's my English Paper Piecing project so far. Man, are the pieces TINY!!! The white triangles are only 1" on the sides.

One completed unit

Another one in the makings

Angela of Rainbow Scrap Challenge has announced that GREEN will be the color for March. Great motivation for me to finish off both of my St. Patty's Day decorations -- the Good Luck wall hanging and the Shamrock Pillow!

In the meantime, there has been no progress in either of those nor the Quadrille QAL. Best get moving. Have a great weekend!

I Like Thurs #108

Thursday is a Like-able day. Let's get smiling and, if there isn't enough for you here, you can check out more HERE.

How about Birthday Ice Cream sent to me from my daughter? Oh my! Look at those flavors!!!'

These will go nicely with the Black & White Cake from Rock Recipes that I made. It was so good! The marshmallow frosting had me nervous to make but it came out perfectly and tasty! Pretty sprinkles too!

And from my son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons I received this sweet bird feeder. The boys painted it and each side of the rooftop has a handprint!

Speaking of grandsons, here's Jacob sitting up all by himself. That giggle just cracks me up but oh! That hair! Grammy wants him to get a haircut!!

My wish was my command! Haha!

Look at that sweet face!

Of course Gracie & I like our walk and there is always fun & interesting things to see while outside.

I spied this kitty in the bushes. Gracie did not. Ha!

Daffodils starting to bloom around here

While on our way into P/T, Mom & I looked up and saw these beautiful formations of geese on the move. There were so MANY and they were so gracefully swerving in the sky! (Ugly-looking sky, though)

I really like retreats, especially this group that gets together once a month. We sew all day Friday, go home to dinner and sleep in our own beds, then sew all day Saturday, and then go home for good. Last weekend I said good-bye to my friend Phyllis. She works every month on the same quilt that only comes out for retreat. I've enjoyed watching her piece this one and have lamented with her over a couple of oopsies she made along the way. We've shared a sewing table several times and she & I have gotten to know each other pretty good. We both like to chat a little and sew a lot, which is good because we are both slow at the sewing machines. I wish her well!

Atomic Starburst by Violet Craft

Here's a wonderful Halloween quilt made by Karen. I just love how the birds overlap into the piecing. The pattern was called Blue Jay Way by Abbey Road Quilts. You can get the pattern on Connecting Threads HERE.

I put together the twelve 24" blocks of the Illusions Sampler BOM that I constructed all through 2022. There are two borders left to go and this beast will be done .... then will need to be quilted obviously.

We went out to lunch the other day. I'm not sure if I LIKED or didn't LIKE this. An older couple were each playing on their phones. Great that they're still "young" enough play with smart phones. Sad because they are communicating with each other the way I hate seeing young families communicate today.

I'm still enjoying the book "Murder in the Secret Garden". I do find this book to be a little "Hallmark-Channel"-ish. With just under 100 pages to go, I should be done this week.

As for TV watching, I happily watched all two hours of Survivor last night! Yay! Love that show and this will be the 44th season. I will confess that I didn't watch this show in the beginning but I have liked it for lots of years.

No picture of the 1500 HARD puzzle that I'm still putting together, but progress has been made. I hope to finish it before summer! Ha!

One last "sweetie" picture and I'm outta here.

Have a great week and I'll see you next Thursday for more "Likes"!