New Month & FNwF

Last month Angela, our fearless leader of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, announced that aqua/turquoise would be the color for August. I don't know why but I have trouble with those colors. Seems I don't use that shade much and so I don't have a lot to choose from when sewing with RSC. I like the color, just don't have much to work with. In spite of that confession, I do have some things to share.

August 1st also happened to be the first Friday of the month and that meant I would be joining my international friends for Friday Night with Friends. Many thanks to Cheryll for being on top of things and reminding us of the event. I set out to work on my current EPP obsession.

Sewed these together Friday night
and first thing Saturday morning

Added the two end hexies
to make it easier to sew later

Started sewing these together Saturday

What on Earth am I actually making? Here's the layout of my parts. Some assembly required.

That open area in the middle is actually together too
My "senior moment" didn't see I forgot it until seeing this picture!

Plenty of aqua/turquoise here! I'm having a lot of fun with this project. there will be an outer row of the white-with-aqua-dots and then a final outer row of the dark turquoise. That's the plan at this point anyway.

My TAS UFO table runner has seen some progress this week. I mostly finished the brown vines. Then I prepped some of the flowers and actually started sewing a few petals down.

Jillily Pattern - Tangled Daisies

Over last weekend I also got the green Gemtones blocks sewn together.

The other day I started a new 1000-piece puzzle. I should be able to finish it up today!

In other news, last weekend was Fred's 50th high school reunion. We had dinner out and Mom had Visiting Angels stay with her. Shelly was wonderful and she & Mom enjoyed each other's company and Mom was safe and I could enjoy a night out with open bar. Yahoo! As for Visiting Angels, expensive, yes! Worth every penny!

Photographer's staged picture of us

Selfie by me!

Thursday was the final day of Quilts & Stitchery: Past and Present, an exhibit at our Madison County History Museum. It was very nice and had some fun things to look at and admire. I'll show you what you missed.

Close-up of the embroidery stitches used in the applique

Love sewing and the look of partial seam blocks!

Laughed when I saw this sweet crewel embroidery
My sister made one like it for my Sarah when she was a newborn!

My favorites!

I hope you enjoyed the exhibit tour as much as I did.

My niece sent me a few pictures of her engagement pictures. Her dog Mac is always included (if you recall he was also featured in her graduation pictures! haha!). Such a good-looking couple plus a dog. Wishing them a future of happiness.

If you stayed with me through this very picture-heavy post, congratulations! You made it to the end!!! Thanks for coming along on the ride. Now I'll wish you a  fantastic upcoming week!

Please visit Cheryll at Gone Fishin' to see what others sewed this past Friday Night with Friends. Then go see Angela at SuperScrappy to see how others fared with their aqua/turquoise scraps!

Purple Sewing Began This Week

Last night was the 3rd Friday of the month and that meant it was Friday Night Sew-In. I thought it was high time I started on another cross-stitch project. This pattern has been hanging around the house for years, sometimes lost and sometimes right under my nose. Time to get a move-on!

Old Pattern, New Project

My Grand Start!

Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color this month is PURPLE! I'd bet there's not a lot of people out there that do not like purple. It's a wonderful color and sure brightens up the hot, humid weather we've been dealing with lately. If it's not scorching here in Southern Illinois, then it's raining. It is what it is because it's mid-July.

Because I'd already cut out the pieces for Gem Tones, I thought that might be a great place to start this week. Over a couple of days I managed to complete one of two blocks!

Purple Gem Tones #1

Polly Approved!

In between sewing the 16" finished block, I used The Quilting Life BOM for my leader & ender. This month was a churn dash block in RSC Purple.

There was a PT appointment and hairdresser appointment this week and so I put a little time on my TAS (The Applique Society) UFO project. Here's a peek.

My best friend arrived last Tuesday and will be departing Tuesday this week. It's been nice having a fellow-quilter in the house. She has just started a Dear Jane project and her fabrics are beautiful as is her applique. I believe she said she has 14 of the 169 center blocks done. She's got a ways to go! I'll try to take a couple pictures for next week's update.

Keep stitching wherever you are! Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Wendy at Sugarlane Designs and Angela at SoScrappy.

Not Much Purple But I Have a Finish!

Hip! Hip! Hooray! I have a finish! Miss Jane's Best is done.

I took it outside for some beauty shots.

So pretty!

A glimpse of the back.
I love the fabric from my stash!
OOPS! Not signed!

Quickly corrected!

The little embroidery blocks measure 2-1/2" finished. They're tiny! I worked on these during Mom's PT, podiatrist, and hair appointments. I could have had this finished if Mom wasn't in such good physical shape! Lol! She doesn't have many doctor appointments. She's a wonder Woman! 92 years young and still going strong! Hahaha!

I took some close-ups of the embroidery. It really was fun to stitch.

Purple flowers!

More purple flowers

And more purple flowers!

A couple more snuck in here too!

The kit was all inclusive to make the top & binding. The cornerstones were supposed to be white like the embroidery blocks but, not realizing that, I accidentally chucked the scraps after cutting out my flower blocks. I'm so glad I did because I found that sweet 30's print in my stash and I thnk it worked better than perfectly! (Can that even be? Lol!)

As for true RSC purple month, I collected these fabrics for the GemTones this month. 

Lights, Mediums, & Darks for Two Blocks

I am a bit behind on these. I never did the Green RSC or the Orange RSC blocks!!! Thursday morning I cut out two sets of green before anyone else was up. Have to do things when the opportunity presents!

So that's it from around here. Hope you're having a great weekend. We're still unbelievably hot & humid in these neck of the woods. Ugh!

I think I'll try to catch up at Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge post HERE. You should join me!