No Blue Yet

Since today is only the start of February, I continued working on my January pink projects. This even though Angela was so kind as to give us a heads up that February's RSC color would be BLUE. So let's see what got done. (Not much.)

I decided that my scrappy, piecing blocks would be A-Maze-Zing ones. I believe it was Julie who introduced us to these as she made placemats through RSC2024. If you know me, I'm going big. My blocks will be 15" x 20" and I'll need 30 total for a nice-sized quilt. Since I only just decided on these this past week, I only got three part-ways finished. I'll have to continue on them while getting a few blue ones done too this month. I'll talk more about this pattern in the months ahead.

I also realized the end of the month was quickly approaching and no quilting projects were 100% finished. That meant nothing to report for Stashbuster2025! I was very close to having enough cut-offs and tidbits of fabric to get a pet bed sewn up so that's what I did. I'll donate it to my guild's charity group. It used up a half yard of fabric for the back & front and even has some pink!

Stashbuster 2025 Project

For those of you that remember my long-running project Brown Threads, I thought I'd share with you my friend's version. The original quilt was called Red Threads and was a redwork quilt. I chose brown threads and my sashing flying geese will be Kansas Troubles, Kim Diehl, and Fall-ish colors. I'm still working on the sashing strips at my monthly retreats and will continue until I get them all finished. In the meantime, here's a picture of Dorothy's quilt in teal/aqua fabrics. Isn't it gorgeous and what an inspiration for me to get mine done!

Besides the flying geese, I also worked on these tiny 4-patches. My local quilt store (Itch'n to be Stitch'n) is hosting a mystery quilt this year. She is also encouraging us to use up our scraps! Our first clue was given at the January meeting and the February meeting is quickly approaching. My 54 units will be completed this weekend.

42 of 54 Done

Thank you to Angela at SoScrappy to coordinating us Rainbow Scrap quilters. I hope you manage to click your way to her link to see what others have shared with their scraps. And a special thank-you to Carole of FromMyCarolinaHome who is doing her best to get us to whittle down our stash. Ha! Like that's gonna happen! Lol! Join in this challenge HERE.

Have a great weekend. Here should be a quiet couple of days after last week's multiple days out with Mom for PT twice, a dental appointment, and of course her weekly hair appointment which ends with a little grocery shopping too. Pshew! Exhausting! As for me? I'll try to get in some sewing!

I Like Thursday #168

Happy Thursday! See? The day is already starting out pretty good. Thank you to LeeAnna for hosting the I Like Thursday links HERE so we can all share all the fun & interesting things around us.

I'll start off with the interesting animal sightings in my yard. Remember those turkeys out back?

I've learned from my son and my neighbor that they are both female. I'm sure that there is a male lurking somewhere close by too but I have yet to see him. This week one of the gals got pretty brazen and walked up through to the front!

With all the cold weather we had been having, I've done my best to keep the suet feeders filled. One day this past week I caught this red-bellied woodpecker fending off a starling and getting himself a bite to eat.

Isn't He Handsome??!!

On the TV front, we're happy around here that some of our favorite shows are back, including NCIS and Price Is Right at Night. Also this week began Tournament of Champions on Jeopardy. Mom is really looking forward to the return of Matlock this week too!

I am still reading "The God of the Woods" and am now thoroughly into it. Whoever recommended it -- Thanks! It took a bit to get into due to a lot of characters introduced and also going back and forth between current and past times.

Since I finished the last monthly cross-stitch project, I decided to knock out another month. I figured that I'd better before my eyesight goes to pot. These monthlies are worked on VERY TINY aida cloth and there are lots of half crosses.

Finished Project (Upper Left)

New Project

I guess that's it from me this week. Time to get out with Gracie this morning and then it's off to the periodontist with Mom for her annual visit. She's been very anxious to see this dentist in particular. She's sure that her teeth have moved and wants him to take a look. I hope she'll be able to rest calmly after the visit and he can satisfy her anxiety.

Have a great rest of your week and don't forget to visit the others sharing fun tips & sightings & whatever else they decide to share HERE.

RSC Pink Report

I'm enjoying my monthly weekend of sleep-in-my-bed retreat. I wish all my fellow scrappy quilters a good final week of RSC Pink! I myself managed to dip into pink this week and did the following two GemTones BOM blocks offered by American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.

That's all from me this week. I'll be sewing today with my friends although cut a little short due to hubby has an MRI appointment in St. Louis this afternoon. I'll need to get home to be with Mom.

Thank you, Angela, for getting all us scrappy quilters together again for the final push on pink! See more pink HERE.

I Like Thursday #167

Thursdays are good days to reflect on good things in our lives. LeeAnna gets us together each week to share these things. You can see what others have posted HERE.

My cross-stitch project was finished this week and I managed to get it set for hanging. Here it is in my entryway.

New Cross-Stitch Project Hanging
with the Winter Embroidery.
Pattern by Kathy Schmitz

I started the next cross-stitch in the series already too. I need to get as many of these done as soon as possible. The count is very tiny and my eyesight will not be able to handle many more of these. Lol!

This week I finished reading "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah. It was a super book and truly worth reading.

I was glad I finished it when I did as my next eBook was ready to check out. It is called "The God of the Woods" by Liz Moore. It was recommended by one of my blog friends and looked like a good one to read. I'll let you know as I dig into it soon.

GoodReads Synopsis HERE

I had a little time the other afternoon and broke out another puzzle. It was only 500 pieces and I figured it would be a good "confidence builder". It was!

Sushi Puzzle

The other day I posted this picture of the current weather as I was walking out the door to take Gracie for a walk. Note how cold it was, including the Feels Like temperature.

Here's a picture from my phone on the coldest day this week that Gracie and I walked. Brrrrrr!

We are actually warming up over the next few days to high temps in the 30s and 40s. There's a rumor that we may even hit 50 on Saturday! Bring out the bermudas! hahaha!

Wednesday afternoon, Hubby hollared for me to look out the window. Look what we saw! I guess they were very hungry as they were heading towards out bird feeders to see what they could scrounge.

Television-watching was good this week. As you know I've been enjoying the Australian Open. I absolutely love watching the tennis and watching out for rising stars. I hope to see more of Learner Tien from the USA. He's only 18 and has really made an impression on us all with his talent.

We also were glued to the tube on Monday watching the Inauguration of our 47th President. We are loving how he seems to enjoy talking and joking around with the press. It's good to see a president taking questions, answering them to the best of his ability, and smiling the whole time. This house is hoping that our country is turning a corner for the better. Having hope is another thing to like too!

Speaking of hope, I hope you're having a good week too. I have my monthly sleep-in-your-bed retreat coming up later this week and that is truly one of my best "likes"!

I Like Thurs #166 and RSC Pink Update

Sorry to disappoint but there was no pink sewing this week. There just wasn't time for that. I did start thinking about how I wanted to quilt the pink top I finished last week but that's only been a thought process with nothing to show.

As for things that I've liked this week, Saturday I took a Zoom class with The Applique Society group. Our teacher was Tina Craig and she was wonderful. She is a master at English paper piecing and has a "Wonder Window" tutorial that gets you precise positioning of the motifs on your fabric. Here's the block I almost completed. I guess it's got a little pinky-coral in there!?!?!

I also finished up a wool table mat, sewing up lots of pennies. It's a pattern by Primitive Gatherings called Winter Penny Mat. I'd bought the kit a while ago. I like working with wool.

We had quite a lot of snow lately. I've enjoyed seeing some of the winter projects in our neighborhood. Gracie admired a lot of it too!

I happily worked on my seashells puzzle while the freezing temperatures persisted all week. It was finished up this week too! There's pink in there too!

With Valentine's Day less than a month away, I decided to get started decorating for the next holiday. The lacy hearts were made by my friend, Vickie, with her embroidery machine.

Kitchen Hearts

Dining Room Hearts & Table Runner

There has been a long-running cross-stitch project. It is SO TINY! I finally finished it up and it needs a good press.

I'll take another picture when it's in its proper setting.

I'm enjoying the Australian Open. It's been a bright spot on my TV watching. I sure do like the major tennis tournaments. "The Nightingale" by Krisitin Hannah is still getting my attention too. What a great book. I'm under 100 pages left and I imagine the pages will really start flipping by! Lol!

I'll see about getting to work on some RSC Pink this next week and report back in on whatever progress I make. Have a great week!

Linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color and also with Angela at SoScrappy.

Getting Into Pink?

During the first full week of Rainbow Scrap Challenge Pink, I thought I'd dig into my pineapple blocks and get that taken care of right away. I needed two more of these blocks and figured I make them pink since that was the color Angela called for. Ta! Da!

And while I was at it, I finished sewing up the third dark purple pineapple too!

Next, I grabbed my bin full of pink scraps and quickly set to cut the first couple of blocks for the GemTones SAL with American Patchwork & Quilting. I decided this would be a great time to break in my AccuQuilt cutter. If I never use it, I'll never learn it. I converted the pieces into die numbers, grabbed my cutter & dies, nabbed the pink scraps and a background, and set about to the task. In really not that long, I had a bag of cut pieces for two 16" blocks!

I guess I'll find out later this week if I cut
the first set of blocks correctly when I start sewing!

 
I did go downstairs with the intention of sewing the pieces together and seeing if I was going to be happy or disappointed with my pieces, but then I spied a very pink project that just needed three borders and then quilting. After two separate days of sewing, I got the first two borders on! Look at all that pink!

A Portion of Grandma's Stars

This is the project I started a couple of years ago at a Kinderhook Retreat. I'd cut out all my 12" blocks and also that of Vickie's with my AccuQuilt cutter. The fabric was bought while we were at our husband' military reunion a couple of years ago in Florida. Of course, I'm lagging because Vickie's quilt was completed a  long time ago. Lol!

On Monday, we got quite a bit of snow -- 8 or 9 inches. We were recovering from that when yesterday, Friday, we got a couple more inches of snow. Goodness! Enough is enough until we catch up a bit, please! Here are a couple of pictures taken Friday morning before our walk.

Cleared Space on the Pond Dueto the Fountain

Ready, Set, Go!

I hope you've all stayed warm if you happened to have been in the snow belt this past week. I wish a speedy recovery to the people of California. Those fires have been too much to fully comprehend.

If you'd like to see more pink, visit Angela's blog SoScrappy! Have a good week!

I Like Thurs #165

Thursday has made its way once again and time to share a few likes from the past week. It's always nice to visit all who share their posts HERE as it has a positive effect. Thanks goes to LeeAnna for keeping us together to put up these posts. There's usually some tidbit of information to glean from someone else's sharing ... like a good book or fun TV show and sometimes there's a recipe to try!

So, how about that snow we got out here in the Midwest??!! My town got 8 or 9". I give credit to our road crew who had us all plowed out in no time. Even us way back in the back of the subdivision on a cul-de-sac! Here's a peek at some of the snow after we'd shoveled for the umpteenth time!

Believe it or not we're expecting a few more inches tonight! I'd say "Let's Sew!" except I have to get Mom out for her podiatrist appointment today and then there's the usual Friday hair appointment.

The above pictures reminds me that I forgot to share my latest hand stitching project. I've been working with wool and wool pennies on a project by Lisa Bonjean of Primitive Gatherings. I love her STUFF!!! The project is called Winter Penny Mat and is a great portable project.

My Center is Done

Almost Done with the Pennies

Now that my Christmas company is gone and the weather turned to Winter Wonderland, I broke out a "warm" puzzle. Can't you just smell the beach?

Taken Sunday -- Good Start

Yesterday's Photo

Those large shell pieces make for some very wonky pieces next to them. It also makes things difficult to keep the puzzle square.

On TV we finished watching Season One of "Man on the Inside" with Ted Danson. He is definitely NOT one of my favorite actors, but he is very good in this Netflix comedy series. His "handler" is wonderful too but I don't recall her name. Supposedly there will be a Season Two released sometime this year.

I'm still enjoying "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah. I know there are several of you out there that also love Kristin Hannan.

My beautiful amaryllis plant is in full bloom. My very sweet neighbor brought me another one this year for Christmas.

Taken Last Week
Small Bud on Right

Taken a Couple Days Ago
Bud has Stretched Tall & has Color
The Bud has Started Opening Now

I'll finish up this I Like post with a couple of recent family pics. After all, I like my family too. Well, most of my family and most of the time! LOL!!!

Sarah's Feelings on Shoveling Snow

Jacob has a Friend at Day Care

Mom Stepping Lively at P/T
That's Her Obstacle Course on the Left

And that wraps up another week of Likes from around here. Look around you and appreciate all the good things near you. It might just be a surprise how good life can be!