I Like Thursday #120

Welcome back to I Like Thursday, where several of us share happy things weekly. You can find all the fun stuff on LeeAnna's blog where she gathers us each Thursday.

In spite of the heat we've been experiencing here in the MidWest and the drought and the hazy smoke from the Canadian fires,

Our forecast earlier this week

the flowers are still blooming!

Agastache, aka hyssop

Agastache & Sunflowers
See the bird? Makes my heart sing!

My neighbor's double daylily

My pink daylily

View in my front flowerbed
Yellow daylily, red daylily, Shasta daisy

View from under the back deck
Pink astilbe blooming

Huge catmint -- can you spy the bees?

No I Like Thursday post is complete without a glimpse of the grandkids.

Big Brother Brody

Little Brother Jacob

I recently learned that my cousin is expecting his first grandchild the beginning of 2024. Won't that be a wonderful way to start the new year? I'll be combing through my books & stash to make a quilt for the new family member.

I tried a few new recipes this week that were tasty. The baked salmon and the sauteed asparagus recipes were super easy. Both recipes are from The Almond Eater blog and Mom & I enjoyed.

Carole at From My Carolina Home re-shared her recipe for Chicken Florentine Lasagne recently. In this post she mentions that she changed up her original recipe slightly but I made the original version. It was not difficult and made plenty! A 9x13 dish which we ate from twice and I froze the other half. We all loved this one!

I've made the Old-Fashioned Lemon Buttermilk Pie before from Kardea Brown, aka Delicious Miss Brown from The Food Network. We loved it before and are enjoying it again. It tastes really good on a hot day. (Refer back to the week's forecast above!) 

I'm still reading "Demon Copperhead" but it's kind of hit a lull. I'm sure it'll pick up as there have been some recent changes in Demon's life and there's only about 100 pages left of this 500+ page book.

I hope you can find something in this post to like too! Have a great week and we'll be trying to keep cool.

RSC and TMI

 RSC: Light blue pineapples in the making.

EPP Club: Last month's Apple Core block finished.

TMI: Gracie has diarrhea. UGH!

Linking quickly with SoScrappy and other RSCers.

I Like Thursday #119

Look at this haul!!! 34 fat quarters and 8 half-yard pieces!

Last week my LQS had a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate their new extension of their shop. They are now 3 shops wide, one of which is mostly dedicated to the longarm rentals. Throughout the store on the big day they had stations set up to visit and to learn, i.e. embroidery modules, marking tools, cool steam iron, longarms, Accu-Quilt, the store's app, and more including a cupcake at the end! As if that wasn't enough, there were prizes: a brand-new Janome sewing machine, an embroidery basket with a load of threads, and a Bernina chair. I did not win a grand prize but I did win one of the door prizes! I cannot believe how much fabric there was!! So many beautiful colors!

Speaking of color, my front garden had quite the array of colors this morning so I snapped this picture. Can you find the yellow, the white, the purple, the red, and how about that pink???

As for the book I'm reading, "Demon Copperfield", I'm still rolling along with it. The book is well-written and I'm still enjoying the story and wondering where it will go at the end. My ebook expires today but I'll see how long my Nook holds it for me. Sometimes it goes more than a week! I'll need it too since I'm only about halfway. I've already looked to see where I can pick up a hard copy if I need to to finish up .... just in case! Still recommending it so far.

Our prompt this week was all about the ice cream truck. We did in fact have one that came through the neighborhood while growing up. My favorite treat was a bomb pop. Tasty and patriotic. We also have an occasional ice cream truck come through where I live today. I live on a cul-de-sac so sometimes they don't come all the way down. However, I do know when they come because Gracie goes NUTS! Our previous dog, Gus, loved the ice cream truck to come through too. His response was a little different. The music made him howl! We always chuckled that he was singing with the ice cream truck!

That's it from the home front. I hope you have a great week and can find plenty of smiles. Here's one last funny we spied at a local restaurant. What a deal! Hahahaha!

If you'd like to read more happy posts, go HERE where we all share our LIKES for the week!

RSC Lt/Bright Blue & Friday Night Sew-In

Fridays are always on the busy side around here. Mom has a standing hair appointment at 11:15 about a half hour away. Makes for a quick breakfast and away I scoot Mother. Yesterday we had a list of errands to run. Her driver's license expires on her birthday and, since she doesn't want to renew it (or they won't give her one at her age anyway -- her words! Ha!),  since her hair was all "purty", we headed over to DMV to get her state ID. Afterwards it was off to Swansea to pick up bird (aka squirrel) food and pick up a flyer from the grocery store. Next stop was her favorite grocery store to browse -- Fresh Thyme. If you aren't familiar with that one, it's similar to Whole Foods. We browsed and shopped and folks wished her a happy birthday everywhere we went. When we got home, we discovered that we forgot to pick up the shrimp! Thankfully (huh?) we have to go back down that way today, Saturday, as she's got Terminix visiting her house this morning. Whew! Is it no wonder that I haven't had much time to sit at a sewing machine?? Haha! It's all good though, of course.

While Mom got her hair done, I worked on my English Paper Piecing project for the month. Better get moving on it since we meet again this Wednesday! I also picked it up after dinner. Thank you, Friday Night Sew-In, for giving me the perfect reason to sit down & relax with fabric in my lap!

Apple Core pieces I managed to baste.
Ten more black ones to go

The layout I plan to use

As for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I cut out some light/bright blue pieces along with some background ones. They will turn into the pineapples for my RSC project.

Mess to become pineapples!

Other works in progress include a mystery SAL organized by The Fat Quarter Shop called Haunted Halloween. It'll be a small wall hanging. You can read about it in my I Like Thursday post. I included a link to get you started on it if you're interested!

Clue #1 - Haunted Halloween

I'll be enjoying what others have managed to work on at the links below. Come join us!

Wendy @ Sugarlane Designs -- Friday Night Sew-In

Angela @ SoScrappy -- Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Have a wonderful Father's Day weekend. We'll be celebrating Mom's 90th birthday this weekend as well!

I Like Thursday #118

What a week it's been. So much to be grateful for that I want to share. Look at this little goober! And his Grampa approves of this little Grandson's shirt.

I started reading "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver and I'm coming right along, It is about a young boy going through the foster care system in rural Kentucky. While it is heartbreaking, it is also inspiring. I'm about a third of the way through and I'm liking it. I have to say I'm wondering how it's going to end.

On one of the morning walks with my daughter, we noticed a lot of buds on the plants surrounding a mailbox post at a house in my neighborhood. Sarah remarked that it looked like there would be an amazing amount of flowers once it started blooming. Well, I'd say the coreopsis has officially exploded!

My quilt guild, Hearts 'n' Hands, serves the Metro East area of St. Louis. Last weekend we had our every-other-year quilt show and this one was super special because our last one was cancelled due to COVID. Our monthly meeting was last Tuesday and most of the ribbon-winning quilts were shown off. You can see some of the quilts HERE at the guild's website. It was a breath-taking display and, of course, the pictures don't even do them justice.

If you know me, you know I love a quilt-a-long Did you know Fat Quarter Shop is having a Mystery Haunted Halloween QAL? You know I jumped in and you can too! All you need to do is visit their website to catch up. It's really not too late since we're only two blocks in so far. Here are my first two blocks.

The first two steps for the Fat Quarter Shop Haunted Halloween MQAL is right here. I believe it is finishing up by the end of the month or so. It's only 31.5" x 32.5" so a cute wall hanging. If you'd rather, you can also find the cross-stitch SAL there too.

Do you think that's enough to keep me happy? Heck no! Lol! Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts is also having a mystery quilt-a-long on her blog. She has only told us that it is garden themed and she is also only a couple of weeks in. I haven't started mine yet but will be soon. This larger wall hanging finishes at 53.5" square. You can find all the steps up to now right on her blog HERE. Of course I'll be sharing pictures as soon as I get going on this one!

We are warm and getting warmer here in the Midwest. The 90s are creeping up on us and we still haven't had rain to speak of. The corn all around us is growing taller every day so that is a good thing. Wishing you all a happy week! If you'd like to read more, go to LeeAnna's blog where all of us share good things.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge -- Light Blue

 On Thursday my brother, wife, and dog left our house with their car and Mom's van. 

The dogs getting in one last romp before Hoss loaded up

My brother & SIL packing out

Due to having a houseful this past week, there wasn't a lot of time left for sewing. I did manage to get the next Uptown block close to finished. There's a bit of dark blue in it so that'll have to be my RSC for the week.

May Block for Uptown BOM
(Red motif on left has yet to be appliqued)

I got a package in the mail from my son this week. He called it a belated Mother's Day gift. Look what he made! A solar-powered hummingbird bath!

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this has been "birthday week" around here. On the 5th, our sweet #1 grandson Brody turned FOUR YEARS OLD! Here he is driving his brother around the yard in his new Jeep.

The boys cruising the backyard in Brody's new wheels

And today marks a labor-intensive birthday (haha!): Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter, Sarah! 

Sarah
(pictured taken 40 years ago)

And that, my friends, is it for this week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. We are expecting rain and that would be truly wonderful here in the Midwest. Wish we could send some up to Canada as well.

Linking up with SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I Like Thursday #117

Thank you for stopping today. We've had quite a week around here! My brother & his wife drove my mother back home to us from NC last Saturday. They stayed here with us until Monday afternoon, then the two of them went to visit her family for a couple of days and were back on Wednesday afternoon. They just shoved out of here this morning and will be home this evening. Oh, did I forget to mention that they also brought their sweet puppy, Hoss? Hoss is a 60 pound, 6-month-old German Shepherd. He and Gracie got along so well. He's young and full of energy but sweet as can be. He loved our big backyard!

Gracie & Hoss

Polly, of course, was not a big fan of Hoss. However, she was curious of him and enjoyed when he took a nap periodically. She'd come out of hiding to grab a bite to eat while he was sleeping which, of course, wasn't often enough in her opinion.

Most of the time, the dogs enjoyed rumpty-dumping outside.

We certainly enjoyed the visit and them bringing Mom back. It's always sad to see company leave but we'll visit them this Fall. Safe travels to John & Karen, taking two cars home. They're taking Mom & Dad's 2003 Honda Odyssey mini-van home with them as they can use another set of wheels. Mom has decided to let her driver's license expire this month. June is her birth month and she'll be 90 and is finished with driving.

Saying good-bye to John & Karen (& Hoss)

And speaking of "wheels" in the family, we had a birthday this past week. Our Brody turned 4 years old! He got a Jeep for his birthday and he's already toting his little brother out and about the yard. Such a cute picture, including the dog!

As for TV watching, we enjoyed the new American Ninja Warriors and we've also been glued to the tennis. You may or may not realize that Roland Garros has begun and the finals will be this weekend. Ha!

I started reading "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver. I began with great trepidation due to some seriously disturbing reviews from some of my blogging friends. There are also great reviews by others. So far so good for me and I'm about 100 pages in now.

Our weather has been great of late. We did "enjoy" a couple of red sunrises & sunsets due to the Canadian fires but no real breathing issues here. My kids in MD/VA area have seen a lot of smoke though. My daughter works on the 5th floor and said it looked like a foggy day all yesterday while looking out the window.

That about sizes up the week of this happy camper. I hope you've also had an enjoyable one. Feel free to stop by LeeAnna's blog for more inspiring posts!

A Closer Look & RSC Purple Finished

 What a week! I got Mom's Christmas laundry all caught up the other day for starters. That included six sets of bedding and towels for five. Pretty much consumed one whole day. Other than that, summer has returned in a red, hot minute. Last week we were lucky to get to 75 degrees. This week we're all around 90 by day and poor Gracie has had to endure almost 70 on her morning walks. Watching Roland-Garros inside most of this week has not produced one iota of guilt due to the heat. However we've been busy getting things in order around our house because my brother & his wife are driving Mom home from NC today! On top of that, they're bringing their 6-month-old German Shepherd. He's adorable (of course!) but he's still a puppy and he's going to be so much entertainment for Gracie! Oy! I'll keep you posted about all that energy! And I'm sure there'll be pictures!

Last night was Friday Night with Friends. Always fun to catch up with some of my cyber friends. So what did I work on? I've kept up pretty good with the Uptown BOM. This block-of-the-month started in January 2022 and I've stayed true to it until April when I was gone for more than half the month. It is my goal to get myself caught up again. I had started on the April block a bit ago but last night I put the final stitches in it.

Uptown - April Block

After that, I pieced the pattern together for May and then I printed out & pieced together the June block. With company coming in today, I probably won't get back to then until next weekend.

Also behind due to the April travels was RSC purple. I put the tops on my purple pineapples finally! I think this is going to make a very fun quilt! The June Rainbow Scrap Challenge has been determined to be light blues, That should make more pretty pineapples!

Speaking of light blue, I'd like to share with you a finish. May I present Oh My Strippy Stars, a QAL with Carole at From My Carolina Home.

Carole ran this during National Quilt Month in March. The challenge was to find a jelly roll that has been gathering dust and a yard of background fabric. She promised to teach us something new in the process of making this quilt. Who could resist? Not me!

The jelly roll I used was definitely an oldie. The line was Sunshine by April Cornell of Moda. The jelly roll was so old (How old was it?) that it was offered pre-pinking the edges!!! I'm pretty sure I bought it when I was working at the quilt store in Troy, Sweet Annies.

The original directions called for 16 blocks but I decided to make 25. After all, they were so much fun to make and I had plenty of fabric! The learning experience was making the 2" finished HSTs that make the star points. Usually you would use 3" squares but we were using 2-1/2" strips from the jelly roll. Carole showed us how to use the Tucker Trimmer ruler after sewing a jelly roll strip to a background strip along -- wait for it! -- BOTH edges forming a very long tube. Plus there was very little waste.

The pattern and directions are still up at the blog's site. Check it all out HERE. The directions are very good. They even include how she quilted it on her longarm with only a few stops. Well, you should know by now that I had to try that out too!

Oh My Strippy Stars set up to longarm quilt

Close-up of the quilting in one block

Beautiful backing was part of the Sunshine line

Close-up of some quilting from the back

My quilt ended up measuring 52" square. I used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting. It is soft, pliable, and wonderful. The quilt is currently hanging over my couch in the den. This finished quilt will also be reported on my PHD progress report. While it was actually a new start, it was also 100% finished which gives me extra credit!

Linking up with SoScrappy for RSC, Gone Stitchin' for FNwF, and Quilting Gail for PHD. Whatever is on your agenda for this weekend, ENJOY!

I Like Thursday #116

The prompt this week is our favorite ice cream, brand and/or flavor. I think it may be more like what ice don't I like! I'd say probably my go-to flavors are Cookies & Cream or Mint Chocolate Chip or Chocolate Cookie Dough. I have discovered I like Malt ice cream with or without chocolate pieces in it too. As for brands, I accept Tillamook or Schnucks Cullinaria (local grocery store up-scale brand). I used to like a couple other brands but, when they switched from ICE CREAM to FROZEN DAIRY DESSERT, I left them flat. Check your cartons -- there really is a flavor difference. Now, I will also admit a fondness for Culver's Custard and Bobby's Custard and Ted Drewe's Custard. Can you tell I like ice cream??!!?? Oh! And don't forget a Dairy Queen Blizzard although I don't go there often. The flavors are delicious but I'm not sure they're ice CREAM any more.

So enough of that! I feel the pounds piling on from all that delicious talk! Let's talk TV viewing. I really enjoyed this season of Survivor and was sad to see the finale. I wasn't all that keen on the winner but that's usually the case for me. CBS has started some of the special editions of American Ninja Warriors so that's something to look forward to watching again also.

In sporting news, I've been watching the Cardinal games as usual. However, this week started Roland-Garros. That's a fancy way of saying The French Open. By now you should know that I like watching the major tennis tournaments. I'll be tuned in all this week and next.

I started a new book recently by Linda Castillo. I enjoy her Kate Burkholder series. This book was not one of those and I wondered how I'd like something a little different. The book, "Just a Little Bit Dangerous", sounded like it would be good. Last week I mentioned that it seemed a little Hallmark-ish. Turns out, it was VERY Hallmark-ish. I'm glad it was relatively short at only 189 pages. And I am done with it. I don't recommend it.

I finished it up in a hurry because my library notified me that a book I'd placed on hold was available. I've downloaded "Demon Copperhead" and will start it tonight. I've heard lots of things about this book and am intrigued. It's written by Barbara Kingsolver who also wrote "The Poisonwood Bible" which I thoroughly enjoyed. You can check out Goodreads synopsis HERE on "Demon Copperhead".

A couple weeks ago I saw Kardea Brown (aka Delicious Miss Brown) make a Cherry Coke Cake. I made it this week and it was delicious. Hubby totally agrees! The recipe is HERE.

We've enjoyed Lucy & Brucey Goosey's family swimming on the pond this week. Usually, when there are babies, we see them only for one day and then not again until late summer when the babies are more like teenagers. We assume they go to the larger pond in our neighborhood for daycare co-op. This year we enjoyed them for several days. However, today we didn't see them so I guess they've gone to the big pond. Hubby caught this picture  one evening and I just love it!

I like these also. You can see the babies pretty good.

That's it from around these parts. Hope you've found a few things that have tickled your fancy this week. I'll be sharing with the others right HERE on Not Afraid of Color.