A Little Blue Going On

Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for January is blue so I pulled out some blue scraps this week and set to work. Do you remember my inspiration photo from last week?

Grandma's Jewels
Photo from PaperPieces.com

So I grabbed my 1" English Paper Piecing Jewels and set to looking through my blues, concentrating on contrasting fabrics. Prep time came next -- I'm a glue-girl but you do whatever makes you comfortable. I managed to get one star sewn together and have a 2nd one ready to go. Now  I'm ready to watch some football!

I'll be going through the scraps again. I'd like to have at least 6 of these done by the end of the month. I'll be sticking with a plain ole blue palette and saving my dark blues, light blues, and turquoises for if/when our Fearless Leader Angela calls on those in later months.

In health news: I had my DEXA (bone density) scan yesterday. I figured it was a good idea since my "baby" sister had hers recently and was diagnosed osteopenia. Of course, if you're familiar with my blog, you already know my mother has severe osteoporosis. I don't have the report yet but they did measure my height. OMG! I'm shrinking! I am down to 5'2". No wonder I've been using a stool to get things down in my kitchen! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed until I hear back.

In the meantime, keep on sewing! And don't forget to check in with Angela's RSC quilters to see what they got up to this week!

MIA with My Friend at Retreat

Hard to believe but my last post was almost a month ago, October 6. The last month just flew by and I was gone for much of it. Let's continue from October 7 and see how far we can go. I sure don't want to overwhelm anyone!

My best friend arrived on Friday, October 7th, traveling in from Knoxville TN. We got squared away on Saturday and left Sunday for retreat at Kinderhook IL. If you're wondering where on Earth that is, it's about 30 minutes due east of Hannibal MO, home of Mark Twain! The grounds are lovely and there were about 16 of us in the main retreat lodge. Another group of my friends happened to be retreating at the smaller lodge so there was plenty of fun.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures that I took while there from October 9th - 13th. First up is my friend and me with our matching quilts. Primitive Gatherings had this pattern in their book "American Gatherings" and all it took was 5 charm packs more or less. We loved the scrappiness which also made our quilts similar but not identical.

I'm on the right

Here is a quilt I put together using a panel from quite a ways back. The yellow was a fabric that I bought at my LQS. It was the "color of the month" and I believe it was called Highlighter Yellow. The corner stones of two bats, one skull, and one pumpkin were freebies from April Rosenthal, a talented Moda designer. Visit her website here and click the Free Patterns tab at the top.

Take a look at this beautiful Christmas plaid quilt that my friend made. Isn't it gorgeous??? She found the pattern in a Quilts & More magazine. I don't know which issue -- sorry. I think this quilt would be a great gift for a graduate in their school colors too!

I managed to get another word sewn up in the Letters to Santa QAL. They really are fun to sew!

Of course I have to include a few pictures of quilts made by some of the others. This one was Sandy's. I just love the colors and the striped border she made for this panel.

I just LOVE this quilt by Jody. Wish I could remember the name of the pattern she used. Could it have been Flip Flop? Hmmmm. I don't know.

This quilt was nicknamed The Green Monster by its maker. Michelle had it all put together, didn't like the way the colors went so she ripped out A LOT of stitches and resewed it back together. Turned out  beautiful!

While I was retreating, hubby had his quarterly endocrinology appointment. He is a type-2 diabetic and once again his numbers weren't good. The doctor decided to slap one of these on him to help monitor his sugar levels for two weeks.

After a few days, it looked like this. Does anyone know if this is normal? He is on blood thinners so maybe normal for that?

When we removed it at the end of two weeks, it looked like this. We're thinking that if it was stuck somewhere else it might not bruise so much? We'll get the report from the doctor at the next appointment. I just thought I'd share since it was so odd! Ha!

I think that's enough for now. Stay tuned for the next October Chapter post.

Have a great weekend!

I Like Thurs #75

Happy Thursday and welcome to I Like Thursday. My first like would have to be our weather. Even though we are into June, we have been relatively cool & mild. We got a nice rain last night and it filled up Rain Barrel #2. Now I really like that!

The cool weather has prevented us from really testing our new air conditioner. This awesome new one not only has a humidifier but it also has a dehumidifier. We can really use that here in the Midwest. We're really going to like that feature.

Here's a picture of Grandson #2. He's coming up on 6 weeks old and  I can't get over how much he's grown. This Grammie wishes she lived closer to really appreciate how quickly he's growing. Grandpa & I think his hands look pretty big. We think he's going to be as big as his big brother!

Brody and Jacob got to go on a lunch date with their Mommy. Chick-Fil-A has delicious waffle fries. Brody likes that! I like that Amanda sent out pictures of their outing. Too bad the play area was closed. I do NOT like that!

Mom has been healing nicely. This picture was taken on Monday. I think it shows GREAT improvement. Little to no swelling left but the shiner remains. 

I'll be seeing her Thursday. Now that she's "of a certain age", she has to drive annually for the Dept. of Motor Vehicles to keep her license. Tomorrow is her big day! If by some chance it doesn't go well, she'll still have more than a week before her license expires on her upcoming 89th birthday. Plenty of time to try again. However, I'm confident she'll do fine the first time.

That's it for me this week. I hope you'll visit Not Afraid of Color where others will be sharing things that they've liked this week.

FNwF & RSC Dark Blues

I truly have the "blues". I sewed up the dark blue strings for my zig zag border. Trimmed them down to make my HSTs only to discover that I trimmed them down too small! Arrrrgh! So I've started making more, of course. Man, and I had high hopes that I'd have them already finished up 100% to show you today. I did get the center of the May Illusions Sampler finished. Right now it is 12-1/2". I hope to make more progress this week and get on to the June block.

May Illusions Sampler Block
Check out that dark blue! Score!

So that's my Rainbow Scrap Challenge report for this week.

For good news: I have to do a bit of cleaning up in my sewing space due to getting a new HVAC installed next week. Both the HVAC and my sewing space are in the basement. When my neighbor moved last month, she gifted me a cabinet with a few shelves and a door that closes. I told her I could probably use it for fabric. So I measured the shelves, bought a few baskets to fit, and started sorting in the basement yesterday. I plan on using the baskets for strips. I'll update you on my weekend progress.

As for Friday Night with Friends, I did manage to fit a little embroidery in. Don't know if I mentioned to you that last year or the year before (or could it have been the year before the year before? Ha!) I picked up a UFO embroidery kit from my guild for a few dollars. It included the stamped top and just about all the floss needed to complete. The original owner had barely started it.

Cover of Project

The Lion & Puppy Block Was Started.
(Oof! Do you see where the stitcher left her hoop in too long.
Yup! There's a little rust. I think it'll be OK for a donation quilt anyway.)

I Worked on the Heart Border First & Got Bored.
So I Started the Zebra & Kitty Block.

My Progress Yesterday

The Whole She-Bang!
(Check out Polly about to run through here! Haha!)

That's where I am right now. It's a great TV-watching and Take-Along project.

Wednesday I took Mom in for her Mohs surgery. The picture looks bad but she said there's not much pain. She'll be staying with us through the weekend so I can change out her bandage and keep an eye on things for her.

Teeny, Tiny Stitches From Her Eye to Her Nostril
Mom Says It Looks Worse Than It Feels.

While Mom & I were at the surgeon's, Hubby was at the dentist due to much pain & some swelling where his tooth had been extracted to get ready for a bridge. Yup! He's got an infection going and is now on antibiotics. He'll be fine in a few days but in the meantime, sleep doesn't come easy for him.

That's been my week here. Hope you have a great weekend!

Linking up with Angela @ SoScrappy for RSC and Cheryll @ GoNe StItChIn for FNwF.

Finishing Up May's Dark/Sage Greens

Recently I haven't focused on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I've had so many other things to catch up on. Before I get to that, I'll show you what I did manage to accomplish for RSC this month.

Two Hexi Flowers in Dark/Sage Green

April's Pink String-X Zigzag Border

May's Green String-X Zigzag Border

In other fun news, I managed to finish both April's and May's blocks for Uptown, which is a quilt-a-long with Sentimental Stitches. Check out those dark green leaves!

April's Uptown block

May's Uptown block

I completed a pair of socks that I had started for our road trip earlier in the month. This pattern by Very Busy Monkey is called Phoenix Rising. You can find the pattern HERE on Ravelry.

I just picked up the kits for May's & June's Illusions Sampler. This is a block-of-the-month program run through my local quilt shop. I'll be working on the May block over the weekend. I've also been very busy quilting a quilt to be gifted. I hope to be able to show it to you REALLY SOON!

Believe it or not, I'm thinking about starting a couple of new QALs. The first one is called Remembering Betsy by Pam Buda. It should be a quick patriotic quilt and it just started. Here's the link for the introductory post and you should be able to proceed from there for Clue #1.

The other quilt-a-long I'm thinking about joining is called Oh Say Can You Sew with Primitive Gatherings. There have already been two clues. The first clue will cost you $5 now but clue #2 is still free until clue #3 is released at the beginning of the month. The details are available on Lisa's blog HERE.

Speaking of Primitive Gatherings, I joined the challenge of sending in a red & white quilt for her retreat center. She asked for her readers to send in a quilt to be received by November 1 so she could have quite the display of R&W quilts over the holidays. I was just about to start embroidering the 12 snowmen stitcheries that Melissa so generously drew up and shared with her blog readers at Pinker n Punkin Quilting and Stitching. Here's a picture of all 12 of my snowmen. I just have to come up with a plan to finish these. My brain has been spinning several designs lately. (Sorry about the crappy pictures but you get the idea, right?)

Of course there's one other QAL I'm very tempted to join in on. It's through Laundry Basket Quilt and my sister will more than likely be jumping on. It's always fun to sew along with a pal! However, sometimes you've just got to say no! Ha!

If you're still reading along here, I think that pretty much catches us up on the hobbies. I'll just add a quick note health-wise now.  On our trip back from NC & MD, Mom starteds feeling really tired & cold. She slept pretty much the whole time on our two-day trip home. Then I started feeling bad with chills, sore throat, an awful pain in the middle of my back, and a sore throat. The next day DH started coming down with the crud too including a bad headache. I'm happy to report, about two weeks later, we are finally coming back to ourselves. We all still have a cough and are not quite as spunky as usual but WAY BETTER. I have one plugged up ear and an awful metallic taste in my mouth. Red wine & coffee don't taste good right now. But I'm happy to report that it seems we have all three of us survived what I suspect was COVID. And that, my friends, makes me happy!

I hope you have a great week! I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy and all the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters.

RSC Reds

This week was a cold week here in the Midwest. I walked Gracie with a wind chill of -9! No precipitation though so safe driving around here. That's a good thing since Mom had three places to be this week! Tuesday she had her quarterly podiatrist appointment. Thursday we were off to her hair appointment. That brought us to Friday for a follow-up/annual doctor's appointment. Her back is the same as it's been or possibly a little worse as I've noticed she's watching the clock to take more pills for the pain. The doctor said we are to start incorporating some stretches into her day and get her set up for both back-issue & balance p/t. That'll keep us running around, won't it?!? Thank goodness I'm not at all sad to do handwork! So what have I been up to?

I added block #2 to Gardenhurst. This pattern is by an amazing Australian quilt designer, Irene Blanck.

Block #1 (left) and Block #2 (right)

I finished block #1 of Uptown. I signed up for this BOM through Sentimental Stitches. Gay is reproducing an antique quilt and I was excited to do one with her. Check out the bits of red in here too. Just in time for RSC January - RED!

I also started the first embroidery block of Frosty McChill. There are 12 of these blocks offered from Pinker n Punkin Quilting & Stitching's blog. He's just about finished and it's just about time to trace out block #2. And check it out -- RED! Worked in a little more red for Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Needs a little ironing but he's been a travelin' man!

And last but not least, I actually sewed on the machine a little for RSC Red. Can you believe it? I experimented with an idea for the border of my String-X top. Here's a memory refresher of the top,

I really need to sew this together!

After getting inspired by Bonnie Hunter, I decided to do a zig-zag border with strings. The outside of each block will get the same color zig-zag. Since that leaves out yellow and brown which are located in the center, I've decided I'll probably sew a narrow yellow border around the edge before adding the zig-zag. So here's my first border section.

Won't this add some zing! Do you see that bit of St. Louis Cardinals fabric? How about both of the Valentine fabrics? Just so much FUN! And boldly RED!

That's what's been happening around here. Now I need to zip on over to Angela's blog ( SoScrappy ) to see what everyone else has been up to. Have a great week!

I Like Thursday #38

Yup! It's Thursday and I've got a few happy thoughts & things to share with you this week. I'll be joining the others who share their happiness every Thursday also on LeeAnna's blog Not Afraid of Color. Stop on over there to see what the others have been up to this week as well.

This week started with a stop by the local produce stand after quilting with friends last Saturday. I had noticed the day before that they were having a shrimp & crayfish boil. Mom & I were looking forward to that so we headed over to pick up a take-out box to go with our wine at home. Here's the face of a happy camper! We both love "mud bugs" and managed to plow through almost all of that pile! Do you like crawdads?

I finished knitting my socks. I really like how they turned out. The pattern once again is "Eternal Spring" by Very Busy Monkey. You can find the Ravelry link HERE.

A couple of days ago, I started a new book called "The Dry" written by Jane Harper. It is set in Australia so sometimes the wording is a little strange to me but I'm getting the gist of it. Of course it's a murder mystery, my favorite type of book! I heard of this book through a recommendation of a fellow blogger (can't remember exactly who right at the moment) but then heard from another blogger that she also enjoyed it but figured out the mystery way too early. I read as I fall asleep every night so I'm not all that sharp by that time of day. Probably won't figure it out until the very last page! Haha! You can read what its all about HERE.

Speaking of falling asleep, yesterday was hubby's surgery. What a long day! The alarm was set for 3:30am so I could get dressed and take Gracie for a short walk. She does her "constitutional" every morning down at the bike trail and I didn't know when I'd be back home. Turns out I was home around 4pm so I had plenty of time to get her out again, call Mom, pour a glass of wine, and watch Jeopardy. I didn't get a lot of answers but at least it was routine! Guess that would be another like - I like Jeopardy and I sure do miss Alex Trebek. Can't say that I'm overly thrilled with Savannah Guthrie as guest host but, then again, I'm definitely not her biggest fan anyway.

OK, so I got home, got organized, and discovered I was hungry. I'd packed a sandwich for the hospital and ate it at 9:30am. My 4am Cocoa Puffs were long gone! Ha! Anyway, I found a little of my son's pulled smoked pork and promptly made myself a plate of nachos with the pork. Easy AND DELICIOUS!

The avocado was thrown on for good measure! Just looking at this picture makes me salivate all over again! Hahaha!

That pretty much sums up my week. I'll be heading back over to the hospital this morning. I've already walked Gracie and will head up for a shower. Hope your day is shaping up too!

Company, Wool Mini, Twisted Mystery, & an RSC2021 Plan

I haven't been scrapping it lately but I can share what I have been working on. This little Christmas mini wool project was offered some time ago and I've been sharing the little 4" finished blocks as I was working on them. I've now sewn them all together and embroidered the little snowflakes on the "corner stones". Cute little touch, don't you agree? Yesterday I started the embroidery on the top border and it is just sitting at the top of the finished center.

My daughter will be arriving tonight from VA. I'm very much looking forward to that. Everything is set in the house for all the expected visitors and Christmas  season. The house is decked up, including very necessary cleaning. The Christmas cards have all been mailed out as well as the packages. Two of the four have already been received! Mom's house lights have been put up and the 2nd trip down to her house was made to replace burnt out bulbs. Menus have also been made for various meals as well as the shopping for said meals. All that's left is to make the beds up and spruce up the bathrooms. Whew!

Yesterday hubby had what was to  be his final check-up from the kidney removal but Wait! There's More! A couple of days ago he noticed what he called a "bubble" near the top of the incision's scar. Dr. Aliperti confirmed that there was a hernia now to deal with. As a matter of fact, the doc  pushed  three of his fingers through the hernia! He said that was actually a good thing and will put in a referral for a general surgeon to determine if yet another procedure will be necessary. Oh my goodness? Can anything else go wrong? Wait -- don't answer that! Lol!

I've also jumped in on a group quilt-a-long with several guild members. The group is called Twisted Mystery and LindaLee is our fearless leader. She designs the quilts we will be making. I participated in this group for several years, dropped out for a couple of years, and decided to join in again. My color palette is patriotic -- red, white, blue, a little gold, all on a gray background. We work at our own speed and I've finished the first 2 steps. Today's Zoom meeting will be Steps 7 & 8, I believe. I'm a little behind! Haha! I've included this project in my RSC report since you may have noticed it's a little scrappy! I just can't resist!!

As for my official RSC project for next, I've decided to work on Bonnie Hunter's Daybreak from her book "String Frenzy". I've got a lot of neutral scraps that I hope to put a dent in. I still need to decide what my main color will be for this one. I've got a couple ideas but will need to check my stash to see what I can come up with. Stay tuned!

Red is Coming to an End

We are nearing the end of September which means the end of "Red Month". My fellow quilters are betting on yellow for October. Will they be correct? We will find out from Angela on Thursday, October 1! And speaking of Angela,  she has provided our Linky Party for us Rainbow Scrappers to share our RED and whatever else we have going on. You can enjoy visiting at SoScrappy here too!

I finally finished up ALL the red Awesome Land blocks. Last but not least was #9 who is dressed for Christmas!

And here it is with the other eight red blocks.

This being the 9th month that I've been working on these, I've grown quite a stack!

I'm looking forward to October's color (yellow?) and then trying to figure out how I want these all laid out. Probably won't finish until sometime next year.

In the meantime, I've been happily knitting along. Finished my socks! The one on the wooden form is just finishing up blocking, still a little damp. The other one is done!

Pattern: Destination Unknown
Designer: Very Busy Monkey
Yarn: Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight

These socks are going to be so WONDERFUL this winter. They're soft, they're squishy, they're beautiful!

Afternoon Delight had another block finished this week. This is #27 and check it out -- bits of red!

I hope you stayed with me this far. Here's the biggie for the week ..... drum roll, please! My Tiny Tuesday quilt top is all together! So many fun little blocks. So much fun working on this top. Thank you, Angela, once again for helping us all stay on track. This was the official (?) RSC2019 quilt.

So cute all dappled in the sun & shade

My layout

I can also share with you that yesterday I got it pin-basted and I'm itching to get started quilting this one up. The size at this point is 59" x 78". That'll make a nice couch quilt when I'm done!

Fred & I decided Thursday was going to be the day for us to get our bloodwork done for the doctor. We were both due in the Spring but due to COVID & honey's kidney woes it was delayed. We like to celebrate getting our fasting bloodwork done by the vampires by treating ourselves to breakfast out. We went to the usual IHOP to discover that outside dining was the only option. Thankfully we were a late breakfast couple because only 6 of the 10 or 12 outside tables had guests. It was a beautiful morning and we had great service from Mary.

Ahhhhhh! Food & coffee at last!

Honey enjoying the fresh air & my company, of course!
(Still got the red theme going! Check out the red umbrellas!)

Fred is doing much better, Thank you all for the prayers, hugs, and best wishes. We see the kidney doc this Wednesday and hopefully we will be DONE! Fred still needs to put back on some weight, gain some strength, drink more water, and stay off the smokes! (Don't I sound like such a nag?!? Lol!)

Wishing everyone a good weekend!