I Like Thursday #115

 LeeAnna's prompt this week was where we go on vacation if we could go anywhere? I would go back to Hawaii. I absolutely loved the weather while we were there and I love the ocean. I'm talking about waves-that-knock-you-over type of waves! Lol! So how long would I like to stay? My ideal vacation would be a week on the Big Island of Hawaii (where the volcanoes are active), then a week on Lanai (because it wasn't available back when we were stationed in Hawaii in the 80s), and then a week on Maui (to see the humpbacks & turtles and to relax & enjoy). Three weeks away from home would be long enough. I'm pretty sure I'd want to do it again every five years or so. Lol! That would be my perfect  vacation.

On to the Likes for this past week. I had a pretty good week and I'll be sharing on Not Afraid of Color as will some of the other bloggers. Be sure to hop on over to see what's good in the world!

Recently I finished up "The Lost Village" by Camilla Sten. I was glued to this book! It was an eerie, scary book ... Halloween-style. Something awful happened years ago and a group of kids (late-20s but kids to me! Lol!) go back to see if they can find out how the village disappeared and to also see how it relates to the present. I recommend it if you like a haunted book!

GoodReads Synopsis

Now I'm reading "Just a Little Bit Dangerous" by Linda Castillo. This author may sound familiar as I've read a couple of her books that have a revolving cop character in an Amish community. This book does not have that character so I thought I'd read something new by someone old. The jury is still out on this one. VERY HALLMARK so far. Hmmm, oh well. I'm mostly killing time because my name is coming up for "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver. I'm about 2 weeks out for that one which I've heard so much about. Looking forward to seeing for myself! I'll keep you posted!

My niece is getting married in 2024 but she and her fiancé were invited to a friend's wedding recently. Her boyfriend is a friend of the groom so they attended the rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding. Don't they look sweet and isn't she going to make a beautiful bride next year!!??!

Rehearsal Dinner

Friend's Wedding

Yesterday I rented some time on the longarm at my LQS. I wanted to free motion my Oh My Strippy Stars, a QAL with Carole @ From My Carolina Home. The original pattern made 16 blocks but I went ahead and made 25, so 5x5 layout instead of 4x4. I used lemon yellow thread in the top & the bobbin because I didn't want my stitching to show up too much. After all, this was my first attempt at free motion quilting on a longarm.

Loaded and Ready to Go

Let's Get Quilting!

I'll share pictures later after I get the binding sewn on. Let's just say that it took me the better part of a day and it was exhausting. Lani, our longarm guru, said it was because I did dense quilting. She did say I did good and that it looked like I'd been doing this a while, not a first attempt! Encouraging words, for sure.

I've rambled on enough. Let's get this day going!

FNSI & RSC Orange Progress!

Angela has chosen ORANGE as our color for May in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I am thrilled to share with you the orange pineapples I made over the past week.

Four Orange Pineapples

I also have a Chubby Charmer tote that I can share today. I'd hinted at it last month but couldn't show pictures since it was a gift. It has now been officially gifted! Check out all that orange!

Summer Chubby Charmer

Gifted to Sarah

Last month's chosen color PURPLE was a bust due to so much travel and the prep that goes with it. Since I finished up my orange pineapples, I thought it was a good idea to play catch-up with the purple pineapples. Progress was made there also.

Just Need to Make & Attach the Tops

Last night was Friday Night Sew-In with my global sewing friends. I made progress on my cross- stitch project called Spring Stamps. It was a freebie offered by my good friend Melisa at Pinker 'n Punkin' Quilting. You can see what happened across the globe HERE at Wendy's Sugarlane Designs blog.

Making Progress!

Yesterday was Sarah's last day with us. No one wants to have a super busy day the day before they're going to drive 13 hours home and especially not after a 4-day work conference. We made the most of it by going to Grafton's River Dock for lunch. We enjoyed watching the barges go up the Mississippi River while we ate & chatted and left before the rain arrived. The waitress offered to take our picture and we accepted.

Our Gang
Look at My Orange Shirt!

As always, we had a great visit with our daughter. The Chihuly art at the Botanical Garden was fun and lunch on the river was a relaxing last day. Polly will be able to breathe a little easier once she realizes the "houseguests" have departed, although Gracie will be looking for her "friends" for several days to come.

Jake

Penny, the Polly-Stalker

Safe travels to this happy family.

Linking with Angela and the other scrappy quilters at So Scrappy. Have a great week!

I Like Thursdays #114

It's been a while since I posted last (AGAIN!) but my daughter came into town the Wednesday before last. She and her two kitties. Besides being here for Mother's Day, Sarah also came in for a work-related conference right here in St. Louis. Actually, she has been at the conference since Monday and I'm expecting her return sometime today. She'll leave for her VA home on Saturday. Boo! Hoo! But we've had fun and that certainly counts for an I Like Thurs post!

Last Friday I thought it would be fun to go to the St. Louis Botanical Garden. We've lived here almost 20 years now and I've never been. PLUS they were having a collection of Chihuly Art scattered throughout the gardens. (You can read about Dale Chihuly HERE. ) About 12 years ago we had tried to see some of his work in Nashville at a Hoover Family Reunion and got rained out. I thought it would be nice to try again. Oh my! So much beauty! I will say that the gardens will probably look a little better as it is very early in the growing season around here still. But we were certainly not disappointed! Here are some of the pictures we took:

And now for a few select pictures. By the prairie gardens, there was a wagon that Sarah climbed right up in.

Fred & I jumped into this "vehicle".

Here's a bit of trivia for you that -- George Washington Carver was born in Missouri! My group was stunned since we associated him with peanuts and therefore with Georgia. Turns out he died in AL but GA is closer to AL than MO! Anyway, the Botanical Garden had a fountain with George Washington Carver's bronze statue and some of his sayings leading the way into the tribute area. I took a picture of the two sayings that I found especially meaningful.

"No individual has any right to come into this world and go out of it without leaving behind him

distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it."

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young,

compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong.

Because someday in your life you will have been all of these."

While Sarah has been here she spied Mrs. Mallard passing through our yard with two little ducklings in tow. Mr. Mallard was close behind securing the rear. I like seeing the wildlife in the yard and also on the trail.

Mrs. Robin had her nest under our deck once again this year. Here are the babies on May 7. So sweet!

Glad I snapped a picture because on May 9th, the nest looked like this.

Tuesday I had the chance to sit and play at my sewing machine for a little bit. Penny (one of Sarah's kitties) was doing her best to help me keep a straight 1/4" sewing line.

Gracie has been having a great time keeping up with all the unusual activity in and around our home lately.

I hope today your smile is as wide as Gracie's and you have  a wonderful week! I'm linking up with everyone else on LeeAnna's blog -- Not Afraid of Color -- this week.

I Like Thurs #113, PHD April Report, RSC Orange, and FNwFs

I have been off-grid for 2-1/2 to 3 weeks due to trips. April 11 or 12 through the 17th I was in Del Rio TX to witness my nephew earn his USAF pilot wings. He was selected for fighter pilot school next which takes 6-9 months to achieve. We are so proud of him and the time I spent in TX was wonderful. There will be pictures later probably but I have other things to talk about right now.

Mom & Me with my nephew.
We are standing in front of the airplane
 hon which e has already qualified

I had barely finished the laundry and caught my breath when off Fred & I left for FL on April 23 by way of Savannah GA. We met my BFF and her husband there and spent the afternoon & evening of the 24th on the waterfront. The next morning we caught the trolley for the historical district tour and then drove on to Cocoa Beach FL for the guys' military reunion. Too much fun to go into but here's a picture of the four of us ready for dinner at the Patrick AFB Club.

We finally made it home on May 2 but not before visiting Chickamauga Civil War Battlefield on the way. Located on the border between Georgia and Tennessee, it was the perfect opportunity to stop and spend an afternoon.

LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color gave us the prompt -- Do we like to sing and, if so, what & where? Yes, I like to sing! I probably mostly sing in the car or while I'm cooking. I don't always know the words to the song so I'll just make up what I am currently feeling or what may rhyme. I also sing a lot on the bike trail with Gracie. I usually rely on songs I learned in 3rd grade. My dad was stationed in Germany at that time and my wonderful, piano-playing teacher (Miss Brueggeman) taught us all sorts of patriotic songs. We learned all the anthems for the military branches, a load of America songs, and some fun ones like Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, I Love to Go A-Wandering, and of course a few songs my mother taught me like Oh Dunderback, The Cannibal King, Oh I Walked to Toledo, and more. Piano music in our house led to even more singable songs like There Is a Tavern In the Town and so many other silly songs. Gracie seems to enjoy them all!

Gail @ Quilting Gail is working through her Projects Half Done (PHD) and has encouraged us to join her. I didn't do too bad this month. I started and finished a "secret" project which I'll share later after the recipient receives it. I also completed a UFO. It wasn't on my list but the top was done and I turned it into a quilt this month when I rented time on the long-arm at my LQS. The binding was also applied, of course!  Here's a picture of Harmony, designed by GEDesigns. I pieced this during a COVID QAL.

Picture of the Front

And the Back

Any and all of my RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) projects suffered last month. April's designated color was purple and there were no purple pineapples pieced. May's color is orange so that will need to be completed this month also. My May goal is to get both sets of RSC pineapples sewn.

As for miscellaneous projects, I did manage to finish the Lucy Boston block from English Paper-Piecing Club.

I picked out fabrics for Uptown but not one little piece was appliqued down. Zero progress on that. Ugh!

Tonight is Friday Night with Friends, brought to us by Cheryll @ Gone Stitchin'. I started this morning (which was of course evening by Australian time!) with Oh My Scrappy Stars. I managed to get all 25 of my star blocks finished up. The pattern only uses 16 blocks but I wanted mine to be a little larger. The sashing is the next step and I've got some 2-1/2" strips set aside for that.

I'm also working on a Spring SAL cross-stitch project. Melisa @ Pinker 'n' Punkin' offered this freebie up on her website. I've been enjoying working on this in the evenings.

Early Evening

Late Evening Progress

While we were driving to & from Florida, I was working on the next EPP block. It is called Buzz Saw. Here's a little peek into my project box which worked very well while traveling.

All in all, I didn't do too bad considering I wasn't with my sewing machine much last month. However  some progress was made. Let's hope May is more cooperative but I don't know about that. The yard and gardens need much attention now too. It just never ends!

Have a great weekend!

In case you missed the links, here's a recap where you can see what all my quilty friends managed to do:

I Like Thursday - LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color

PHD April - Gail @ Quilting Gail

RSC April - Angela @ So Scrappy

FNwF - Cheryll @ Gone Stitchin;