Friday Night Sew-In

Friday Night Sew-In was tonight. I thank Wendy for getting us together every third Friday of the month. This month it lands really early but that's fine with me. My Friday night sewing started early too but it was right on time Australian time! Every Friday I take Mom to the hairdresser and I take something to sew on during that hour or so. My Red Threads embroidery project is my "ole reliable" on Fridays.

In order to be ready, first thing Friday morning I traced out my block. Good thing because new blocks post on Fridays! Yup, officially a week behind again! Haha! I took my project bag with me to the hairdresser's.

I continued later in the evening while watching Laundry Basket Quilt's Wednesday YouTube video and then Primitive Gatherings' Thursday YouTube video. Made pretty good progress.

If you look closely, you can see that there is plenty more to go.

On the RSC Red front, you may or may not have seen that I finished my Valentine pillow just in time -- on February 13th. Of course it's red!

At this month's Quilt Club, I shared my Valentine table runner. My friend Connie brought it to my attention that it was posted on the LQS's FaceBook page.

I got to thinking this week. I'm supposed to be making more pineapple blocks! EEK! I need to get busy!

We got 4" of snow yesterday. It was forecast for maybe 1-2"  with nothing going to stick due to warm roads so our snow crews were not prepared. It is very unusual for our subdivision to not be plowed OR salt treated. Gracie and I still managed a mile and a half walk this morning though and BRRRRR! Was it ever cold again!

Have a great Presidents' Day weekend! I'll be snuggled up indoors wRhile seeing what the RSC quilters were up to this week right HERE.

I Like Thursday #138

Howdy to all of you! I got quite a few compliments on my horses embroidery. Thank you all so very much. I am loving working on these weekly Red Threads blocks but I am a couple weeks behind. I'm sure I'll catch up all in good time. The next few seem to be botanical so not as exciting as the critter blocks. Lol!

Look what I finished Tuesday, February 13th! Just in time!!

The pattern is from Primitive Gatherings and is wool applique on flannel. It is soft and beautiful. It was also a lot of stitching. The real problem that had me taking so long to finish though was the "Covered Zipper" backing that I wanted to make. Lisa Bonjean of Primitive Gatherings has a tutorial but I seem to be allergic to sewing zippers. I get so nervous because I'm very unsure of myself. It turned out pretty good and I'm thrilled to call it a 2024 finish!

Sunday, February 11, I spied this fellow, a sweet bluebird of happiness. Also just in time for Valentine's Day. He was perched on our back deck railing. Isn't he gorgeous??!!

Recently I've acquired a silly "Like". Every morning I look forward to watching a "Matlock" rerun. Andy Griffith just makes me smile. He seems like one of the most personable fellows ever, to me.

Yesterday and today I will be enjoying my "bestest like" -- retreating with friends and fellow quilters. I'm home in the late afternoon to watch Jeopardy at 4:30 with Mom & Fred. After sleeping in my own bed, I'm heading out the next morning to take up where I left off the day before. Isn't that a most splendid way to spend a day?

I hope you have the most splendid day yourself. Don't forget to appreciate those around you and don't forget to love yourself.

Sharing with others at Not Afraid of Color.

Friday Night with Friends

I am failing badly at Red RSC for February. I am doing pretty good on my embroidery. That's a good thing because there are 49 blocks total in this sew-along.

Here's a picture of the most recently finished block. It was finished during Mom's most recent P/T appointment on Wednesday.

Since that one was finished, it was time to start another. I got the flower portion started at the appointment. Last night during Friday Night with Friends I started the stem and got quite a bit of the leaves done. Still more to go so stay tuned!

Istn't the kitty needle minder cute???

That's been mostly it this week. I did get the side borders sewn on Uptown but no picture was taken. Hope to get more accomplished next week.

Linking up with Cheryll on Gone Stitchin' for FNwF and with Angela on SoScrappy for Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

I Like Thursday #137

Here we are enjoying and appreciating another week. What's not to like about that? Today I'm sharing a few "likes" that come to mind from earlier this week. Won't you join me? You can also join my "Like" friends HERE if you choose.

This year, Lent is early so from now until Fat Tuesday (the 13th), it's Paczki Season!!! These Polish doughnuts are so delicious and we look forward to eating our fill each year.

One of my favorite blogs is Stitch with Lisa. It's run by Lisa Bonjean of Primitive Gatherings. She has one of the best shops and blogs, in my opinion. By now you're familiar with my Twilight Stars blocks. This QAL is through Primitive Gatherings.

Well, periodically she picks winners from those who have commented on the blog. Recently my name was chosen. My package arrived this week and check out these goodies! There's a wool Valentine pattern with a couple of wool starter pieces, PG chenille wool applique needles, a seam guide, a couple of quilty stickers, and two pieces of scrumptious caramels.

Check out my orchid!!! It has seven lovely flowers blooming! It's been blooming for quite a while but I finally remembered to snap a picture.

My poor little grandson had a double ear infection that progressed to a ruptured eardrum last week. I just loved this picture of him waiting to see the doctor.

Here he is all set to get back to school, feeling so much better.

If you remember Tim (the Tool Man) Taylor, you will appreciate this video. I just love it!!! 💕

I'm still reading "The Ink Black Heart" by Robert Galbraith, aka J K Rowling. I'm almost 600 pages in with about 400 to go! Yee! Haw! Progress. The book is interesting and you can read the synopsis here. Thankfully it's really starting to pick up the pace because I've renewed as much as possible and will be due back to the library soon.

My friend Sharon & I had a quilting road trip this week. I won a Janome Serger from the All-Illinois Quilt Shop Hop. The store that sponsored this prize was Times Square Quilt Shop in Jacksonville, which is a little over an hour and a half drive from my house. Of course we found some fabric to buy also. It's a very nice quilt shop and we had a great visit with the ladies there. On the way back we decided to stop at another shop, Dora's in Brighton. If you live in my neck of the woods, I highly recommend a visit to this store. Sharon & I thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Not only did we enhance our stash, but we had such nice conversation with the owner about anything and everything!

I hope you had a nice week too. There is always so much to like if you only take a moment to reflect on your day. I wish you a wonderful week!

RSC Red & FNwF (not)

February is underway and Angela chose red for this month. Do you know what Paczkis are? They are sweet, deliciously-filled Polish doughnuts that are only available in my neck of the woods for about 2 weeks before Ash Wednesday. Mom & I stopped at the grocery store yesterday after her hair appointment on the off chance that Paczkis might be starting to show up. Yay!!! We found some!

Check out that lovely RED & white box!!!

Recently I  decided to join a Lori Holt Vintage Christmas SAL -- can you believe I'm joining in with yet another SAL??? Haha! Of course one Christmas color is red and I dug through my scraps for suitable scraps for this project. Two blocks were chosen for those wanting to participate with 12" blocks which is what I've decided to work on. Last night all I managed to do was cut out one block but I plan on getting both sewn up this weekend. They're due at the 10am monthly meeting on Monday. No point getting it finished up too early, right?

See the red poking out?

I was also waiting to see about joining in with the Friday Night with Friends group. I guess our hostess forgot or was busy. I have to say 1st Friday was pretty early this month so it very easily could have slipped her mind. I did work a little on a Red Threads embroidery block. Progress is progress, right?

I know, my Red Threads is NOT red

In case you didn't catch my I Like Thursday post a couple of days ago, I did finish my Valentine table runner. It's so bright & cheerful and RED! I put in on my header! Scroll back up to see it!

I'll be linking up with Angela this morning, joining in with fellow RSC quilters. See other RSC posts HERE. I hope you have a great weekend!

I Like Thursday #136

Happy February, everyone! Red & pink, roses, flowers, candy, love. That's what February brings ... along with my birthday later in the month. Short & sweet, I like February and this year we get an extra February day because 2024 is leap year!

Apparently it's Girl Scout cookie days. These sweet little Daisies were hawking their wares at the front of our subdivision the other day. Did I stop? Of course I did. I thought the stand with these sweet smiles were ingenious selling points. That and I was a Girl Scout leader so I know how important cookie-selling is to the girls. I had a $20 bill on me and the cookies are now up to $6/box!!!! Yup, came home with three boxes.

I had a couple of old-ish apples so I made my own version of apple pie filling and topped our Dutch Baby breakfasts with it along with a side of bacon. I'm sure I've shared the recipe before but you can find the Dutch Baby recipe HERE. We like these for breakfasts and look forward to strawberry season. Fresh strawberries on a Dutch Baby is a favorite around here.

One of our dinners this week was Sara's Sunday Pork Tenderloin with Mushroom Gravy, served with oven-roasted broccoli & carrots.

This dinner was tasty and easy -- two things that make a great meal in my opinion. A few modifications I made and will make next time. She called for 1.5# mushrooms. I was afraid that would be too much for us so I used 1# mushrooms and 2-3 stalks of celery. Man, was that a good sub. It made for such a fresh flavor! I won't use so much butter time. While delicious, I felt it was a little greasy. This recipe made LOTS of gravy and I froze some for a tenderloin that we cook another time!

Our prompt this week was what do we look for in a spouse/friend. I would say a sense of humor, a sense of adventure, and a desire to take care of others. Sharing a life together, whether talking spouse or good friend, requires understanding and accepting each other's needs and wants. It must be 50/50. Wow! Deep thoughts and that's enough from me! Lol!

I hope you've managed to have a good week and are looking forward to the week ahead. Head over to Not Afraid of Color to find more fun things!