Quick Check-In

Just a quick check-in this morning. I'm retreating with friends I haven't sewed with since September! It's a very kind group and it does me good to sew with them. You may recall me talking about this retreat in particular -- I go home to sleep in my own bed with two full days of sewing on either end.

So what am I working on in Mascoutah? I had every intention of seriously working on the paper-pieced sashing for Red Threads. I had a whole basket full of triangles for the job. However I needed more background fabric cut to be sure I had plenty to work on. UGH! I cannot find that fabric!!!! Has this happened to you? I guess when I cleaned up for the holiday company it got put away in a safe spot. So what's a girl to do? I pulled out a UFO from a LOOOOONNNGG time ago that was started at a guild workshop. No pictures because it's still at retreat & I'm home but pictures to come.

Anyway, my RSC green month didn't really materialize. Here is a start to that Pine Tree Point table runner that I wanted to make. (Pattern by Bonnie Hunter.) I'll get it finished one day because I really want to make this.

I did, however, finish my Heartstrings table runner. (Pattern by June Pease, kit by Itch'n To Be Stitch'n.) I set it out on the dining room buffet. I love it, especially the supplied backing. I think the whole thing turned out so sweet!

Finished at 12"x 48"

Oh! I love that sweet backing fabric

I've kept up with the Twilight Stars QAL.

And I finally finished the Red Threads block from last week. That was a lot of stitching! I understand the next one, which is a cute Mama & Baby Horse, is another one that'll take quite a while to do.

As we are getting close to the end of the month, it wouldn't surprise me to find Angela announcing the RSC color for February. Check out all the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge makers' projects HERE.

I Like Thursday #135

Sorry I missed last week with an I Like Thursday post. Time really slips away from me. It's probably a combination of (dare I say it?) age, taking care of Mom, trying to keep in contact with family and friends,  trying to keep the house halfway straight, and staying on top of house maintenance/upkeep. There's really quite a bit on my plate but I suppose that's life, right? Don't we all have many things to take up our time? Enough of that, let's move on, alright?

There's been a couple more good recipes tried in this kitchen lately. I mentioned before about the cookbook I borrowed from the library called "Comfort in an Instant" by Melissa Clark. This time I tried Lemony Shrimp + Scallop Risotto with Chives. I didn't have any scallops so I just doubled the shrimp. No chives either so used onion. This risotto recipe was delicious and none of that stir in 1/4 cup of broth, stir, and repeat. Done in an instant in the Instant Pot! I served it with oven-roasted broccoli and yellow squash. Pretty and tasty! We all liked it.

On Sunday, Mom wasn't feeling well. She slept the entire day away and was not very cognitive either. She had a hard time understanding anything we said to her and she certainly couldn't answer anything we asked of her. The next day I decided to make some chicken soup to see if that would get her feeling better. Of course she woke up feeling and looking like her old self but I made the soup anyway to knock out any lingering crud if there was any! Haha!

Every week, Sherri McConnell has A Quilting Life blog post called Saturday Seven. One of the seven topics is cooking/recipes and I took her link  to Creamy Couscous Chicken Soup from the How Sweet Eats blog. It was delicious and you can find the link HERE. It was such a delicious comfort dinner! The couscous used in this recipe is the pearl variety which is noodly as opposed to grain-like. The recipe says it serves 4 but the three of us ate it twice and there's enough for Mom & me to have lunch. Fred in particular liked how thick this soup was.

Need to run and make dinner. Sorry this post is so short again but, as you can tell, food is important to this household. Lol!

Catch some more in-depth I Like Thursday posts at Not Afraid of Color. There's plenty more interesting things there.

RSC and Other Things

After such a great run on getting my Uptown top sewn together, there was only a little machine sewing this week. Part of the problem has been I can't seem to find the right backing fabric. I still need to cut and sew the borders on to enlarge it to queen-size. The borders will be the same dark green as the setting triangles which is also the same green used in the all the blocks.

Last week's Red Threads embroidery block was pretty intense. I didn't finish it but I have downloaded this week's. It's really sweet -- a mother & baby horse. I'm looking forward to stitching that one up. Not to mention finishing up The Old Mill embroidery from this week. Pictures to follow when finished, of course.

Twilight Stars is staying on track. Here are this week's blocks. I still have a few weeks to catch up on one day from when we were on vacation.

What good is a week if I don't start a new project? Oh my, I can't believe I put this pressure on myself!!! Lol! At Quilt Club at my LQS, I bought a Valentine's Day table runner kit. It's a nice size -- about 12" x 48". Here's a shot at the background. There are still four red hearts that need to be fused down in the center of the blocks.

And because I almost ran out of handwork to keep my hands busy during Mom's twice/week P/T and once/week hairdresser appointment and also while watching the Australian Open tennis tournament, I started a wool applique pillow. Bought the kit several years ago. Wouldn't it be nice to have it finished in time for Valentine's Day?

It's almost time to bundle up to get Gracie out for her walk. Last checked, it's 2 degrees and quite frosty outside (Feels Like -15 degrees). We haven't really had much snow -- maybe a total of a little over an inch? -- but the cold has lasted so long that the pond is quite frozen over. Gracie doesn't mind the cold but she gets a little impatient at how long it takes a human being to get ALL the clothes on before leaving the house!

Have a lovely weekend. We're supposed to warm up finally and actually get into the 40s this week. Break out the bermudas! haha!

Linking up with all my RSC friends on Angela's blog SoScrappy HERE. Take a peek and see if you can find some inspiration!

RSC #2 and Little Doll Quilt Beauty Shots

Angela chose dark & bright greens for our January Rainbow Scrap Challenge color. I pulled out my bin of green strings and decided it would be good inspiration pictured in my heading. I would like to make Bonnie Hunter's Pine Tree Point pattern, table runner size though. That is one goal for me this month. I need to make it happen ... er, at least get a start on it.

Last week I mentioned that I also wanted to get my Uptown blocks put together. I got the dark green setting and corner triangles cut out one afternoon and then I thought I'd get the blocks laid out. I won't be able to lay it out exactly like the antique quilt that it's based upon because my first 12 applique blocks have one background and the other 8 have another background. This situation arose because I ran out of the first background fabric.

Next I gathered up the 12 leaf blocks. Oops! I completely forgot that I was thinking about making the leaves scaled a bit larger than the original. Now I notice that I did exactly that on 3 of the blocks but the other 9 are the original size. I got out the pattern to see how I could arrange both differences (backgrounds & leaf sizes) into something that looks like I did it on purpose. Then I started arranging blocks.

Disregard the line -- it's the edge of the rug

OK, that looks good. Then I started sewing the blocks together.

Polly-approved!

The blocks are all sewn together. I hope to get the rows sewn together this week!

Another goal I had was to donate my doll quilt, which I did on Monday. Before I did though, I took some Finish Photos.

First finish of 2024!

Such a sweet little quilt. The finished size is approximately 13.5" x 18". Sewn with partial seams, so fun!

I finished this week's two designated Twilight Stars blocks from the Primitive Gatherings QAL.

And I also finished this week's block from the Red Threads SAL.

I'd say that pretty much sums up my week. Hope you had a productive week as well!

Thank you, Angela, for hosting our linking party HERE!

I Like Thursdays #134

I donated my doll quilt this week and made the shop's FaceBook page. I liked donating it, but not so sure about my picture! Hahaha! I also like that my friend Connie was the one to point out to me that my picture had been posted.

Lately there have been some beautiful sunrises. Sorry to bore you but here are a couple more pictures from earlier this week.

Polly went to the vet this week to get her teeth cleaned. I like making sure our pets are kept in good health but I didn't like the bill afterwards. Lol! Polly didn't like any part of it.

I started reading "The Ink Black Heart" by Robert Galbraith, aka J. K. Rowling. It's the 5th in the Cormoran Strike series. I'm enjoying it although some of it is beyond my comprehension. I don't have Twitter and there's a lot of chatter within that app in the book. I've just past 250 pages so I'm 25% of the way through. It's a VERY long book.

In the kitchen, there have been a couple of good things worth mentioning. My mom donated to Boys Town in the past and receives booklets periodically from them. There are usually 4 in a mailing: a Farmers' Almanac, Readers' Best Recipes, puzzles, and one other that I can't remember. Anyway I made "Third-Generation Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting" and it was yummy. Not sure how to share that recipe with you though.

One morning on TV I watched a cook make something delicious only to find out that her recipe could be found in the NYTimes and you need a subscription for their recipes now. She mentioned that she has also published cookbooks so I immediately went to my library website and checked out two: "Dinner in an Instant" and "Comfort in an Instant". I chose these books because they pertain to the Instant Pot with alternative slow cooker methods for most. I tried her Classic Boeuf Bourguignon and it was a winner all around! I also made her Maple Chile-Glazed Sweet Potatoes for Mom & me. We loved it! Sweet and spicy just like us! Lol!! Both recipes happened to be from "Dinner in an Instant". I recommend looking for these cookbooks. I'll be trying other recipes from them and I'll keep you posted.

On the television front, we're still watching our NHL team, the St. Louis Blues. We're looking forward to the start of the Australian Open on Sunday. Have you caught the new game show on Tuesday nights yet? It's called The Floor and we've enjoyed watching that one too. Other than football, there's not much else on that interests us. Mom enjoys Perry Mason reruns. Yowsa!

I'll be joining the others (late, yes) sharing the things that have interested us this week and that we've liked. C'mon over and see what others have shared right HERE!

First RSC and FNwF Post of 2024

Happy Epiphany! We went to bed while the snow came down. The meteorologists promised not too much. Woke to a beautiful winter wonderland without too much snow on the ground. Here's a picture I took this morning on my walk with Gracie.

The snow brought out the husky in Gracie. She loved it this morning, romping around everywhere!

But I digress. This post is all about quilting. Cheryll in Australia hosts Friday Night with Friends every first Friday of the month. You can see what the others got done HERE. I did manage to slip away last night and have a date with my sewing machine. Previously I had put together a sweet little doll quilt. I decided it was time to get it quilted up. I'd like to turn it in on Monday during Quilt Club at my local quilt shop. It started like this ...

Look at this sweet fabric I was given quite some time ago. I thought it was perfect for the backing!

I quilted it with the familiar serpentine quilting, going along the twelve block seams and then diagonally through the blocks. After searching high & low, I found the navy piece of fabric that I used for the block centers. There was plenty left to do a sweet binding. When I shut down  my machine, I was at the point ready to hand-stitch down the binding. I know what I'll be working on today while I wait to see if the snow melts and the rain begins as promised by the weather folks.

Angela, our Rainbow Scrap Leader, has chosen bright and/or dark green for our January color. If you look carefully in the photo above, you will see some bright and dark green fabrics! Win-win! You can see more "green posts" right HERE at our RSC Linky Party. Feel free to join in also. There's always room to see what you're up to as well!

I would like to get another set of pineapple blocks completed this year to go with the ones from RSC2023. Because I don't want to make green pineapples (I'd like mine fully ripe, please! Ha!) I will try to get some of the tops cut so I don't have to scramble around when I'm sewing my colorful pineapples. I also want to make a few table runners and table toppers this year. I've got an idea using dark greens for my first one so I plan on working on that this month.

Do you remember these Uptown blocks? I plan on trimming them down all 32 blocks, making the setting triangles, and sewing this top together this month. The triangles are cut from the same dark green fabric you see in the photo above so I'll be in keeping with RSC.

I think that's a wrap. Stay warm if you're in the Northern Hemisphere and keep the A/C blowing if you're in the Southern Hemisphere!

I Like Thursday #133

First I Like Thurs post of 2024. This year is starting off with a bang!!! The day after Christmas, we had company consisting of 7 adults and 2 dogs. That made my house a total of 10 adults, 3 large dogs, and a kitty. Quite the zoo around here. We snapped a quick picture of the dogs resting because it was a rarity. That's our 71# Gracie in the foreground, next is my brother's 80#, 1-year-old German Shepherd "puppy", and finally, laying at the front door is my niece's 3-year-old, 85# Golden Retreiver Mac. That's a lot of dog in this photo!

This sweet picture is my 90-year-old mother on the right. Next to her in the middle is Mom's daughter-in-law Karen (married to Mom's son), and then on the left is Katharine, Karen's future daughter-in-law (who will be marrying Karen's son). Three generations of daughter-in-laws!

Fred tried to get a picture of all of us, except himself of course. We missed our niece this year, who probably could have gotten a shot of all of us including her selfie!

So the house settled down for a  day or two and then came a little renovation. Note in the picture above how the wall on the right is partially painted, partially not. I'd removed the wallpaper quite some time ago and decided I didn't like that job. Haha! On the left you can see the very dark wallpaper is still in tact. I decided to contract out the wallpaper removal and repainting of the dining room, entryway/hall, and front wall of my sewing room. Here are a couple of pictures after Fred & I cleared out the dining room.

HD Painting & Stain LLC showed up to begin the job January 2 at 6:45am. They stayed until 5pm and returned at 7am on the 3rd to complete the entire job. Here are a couple of in-progress pictures. YAY! The wallpaper has been removed. Don't you love how the previous homeowners painted that merlot red only down to where the wallpaper was going? That deep red was actually previously painted from there up to the ceiling. So very dark!

Of course, during the process Gracie wanted to be part of all the excitement going on. She managed to rub against a wall sometime during the job.

Gracie still wearing her paint souvenir!

Then Mom supported herself going down the hall and got fresh paint on her hand one time and then again on the outside of her hand up to her wrist later. So you see, the zoo continued well after the company left! Lol!

My kitty Polly was traumatized during the entire process.

Polly checking out the situation

What the heck is this all about?

Yikes! They're coming back!

A couple "finished" pictures. Next step, get things put back.

Light bulbs replaced while they were up there!

Worth every penny spent!!!

I put my sewing room pretty much back together first and quickly finished off my two Twilight Stars blocks for the week.

There was a lot of sitting time with embroidery in hand, waiting to see if anyone needed anything during the renovation. I ended up finishing the current Red Threads embroidery block during Mom's P/T appointment yesterday. I really like this fuchsia block.

New Year's Day we enjoyed the Rose Bowl Parade. We just love hearing & seeing the marching bands and admiring the beautiful floral floats.

This has gone on long enough. Suffice it to say that we are liking the "new look" in the front of the house, we enjoyed our company but are glad to return to normal, and we're looking forward to the next home improvement project. Stay tuned!