End of 2024 RSC ...

 ... As well as the beginning of 2025. You can probably tell by my lack of posting, things have been busy around our house. At least I've managed to read a couple of blogs here and there and saw that we will be starting the year with Pink! Thank you, Angela -- our fearless Rainbow Scrap Challenge leader, for giving us a heads up already.

The holidays here started on Dec. 18th with the arrival of our daughter and the two grandkitties. Two days later on the 20th was the arrival of my brother, my SIL, and their German Shepherd. Saturday, the 21st came our son with his wife & the two grandsons and then right behind them was our niece Kelli and her fiance Jack. Out of their car also jumped her Golden Retriver, Mac! My nephew & his wife flew in on Sunday. Whew! Lots of names for my mother to remember. Lol!

Not everyone was at our house at one time -- only one dinner actually -- but there were multiple meals where we had ten. We swapped Christmas gifts, we talked, we laughed, we remembered good times, we played games. Have you ever heard of the game Double Ditto? It's a great one for a crowd.

Here are some pictures I've got to share. NOTE: There are a lot so feel free to scroll down for a quilt picture.

Grampa with Jacob
Hase & GG watching

Kelli & Jack in the St. Louis Arch Car
Preparing to Go to the Top

The Gateway Arch with Busch Stadium in the Background

Kelli & Jack Enjoyed Ballpark Village

Jared Daring to Touch Polly

Grampa Showing Brody How to Ride His New Scooter

Karen & Me Posing for Our Picture
Gracie in Front

Mom, John III, Kelli, Jack, & John Jr
Mac in Front

Karen & Me

Sarah, Jack, Kelli, John III, & Katharine
Gracie in Front

Katharine & Karen Have Matching Shirts!
(DIL & MIL)

Pile On Katharine!

Grandkids & Mates with Mom

Sarah got me a Lego Poinsettia project. We assembled it together. Good thing since I'm not good at pictures for instructions (give me words!) and spatial relationship gives me fits!

We Finished Step One

Step Two Completed

Worked Out Step 3

Step 4 Had Us Blooming

And Done!

It's very sweet and makes a great centerpiece. I'll bag it up later for next year.

Polly Wondering About the Tree

Sarah left this morning from our house for Virginia. Kelli & Jack left from her other grandmother's house and are headed back to NC. Jared & family have spent the last few days at my DIL's house and are on their way back here right this minute. John III & his wife fly out of here tomorrow morning, Oklahoma City-bound. Jared & family will depart on Monday for their Maryland home and my brother & SIL will go home to NC too.

Quite a couple of weeks. No sewing done to mention. Of course, there was some handwork and don't forget my Lego Poinsettia! Right before Christmas, I did manage to mostly finish-up a couple of placemats. Well, poop! Guess I didn't take a picture. I'll catch up with those another time. I did get the final borders on this beauty though! Even managed a quick picture!

So that's been my story lately - very busy and it ain't over yet! Dinner for 7 tonight, breakfast & dinner for 9 tomorrow, and lastly dinner for 5 Monday night. Even though it's been great having everyone here & there and I know that family comes first, I'm looking forward to kicking back and petting my sewing machine! First thing I'm going to sew up will be the final pineapples and it looks like they'll be pink!

Sorry this ran on so long but I wanted to get it down for posterity. If you or family are traveling this time of year, I pray everyone gets where they need to go safely. Happy New Year!

Pineapples!

Finally I can share with you two dark purple pineapple blocks! I even have another in the works. I'll need to do a recount but I believe I'm only two short now. Progress -- I really like that!

Wow! That top green is really bright!

Another thing I liked this week was news that I received from my niece & goddaughter. She's engaged!

Beautiful Rock(s)!

Here are a couple of extra pictures from last weekend. Kelli works for Wilson Sporting Goods and had an event in the metro-St. Louis area so she was in the area. Jack decided to join her. We caught up with the two of them at Kelli's other grandparents' house for lasagna dinner. I brought Turtle Brownies for dessert and for her birthday which was the previous Thursday.

Turtle Brownie Recipe

Headed Home with Layover in Philadelphia
Philly Cheesesteaks for Breadfast! Hahaha!

We enjoyed the December Senior Luncheon. As promoted, we had fried chicken, macaroni & cheese, salad, roll, and a special cupcake for dessert.

Santa Passed Out Candy Canes Too!

Holiday Cupcakes -- Yum!

We were entertained again with a Christmas song-a-long. Mom really loves that!

Afterwards we had a "snowball fight" and it was so much fun. Where they got those ginormous cotton balls I don't know but everyone got into the spirit for sure!

It seems like I can't do a post without sharing something from a morning walk. The other day I heard this rustling in the bamboo that grows along some of the trail. Look what I spied (wish I'd gotten a better picture)!

After looking through my Illinois Bird Book, I discovered it was a bobwhite! One time, and only once, I watched a trail of baby bobwhites following their parent across the bike trail. Wonder if this one is related??!!

Chuckle for the day: I saw this on Facebook and it pretty much sums up the pre-holiday preparations:

I hope you are having a great week and are looking forward to fun times this weekend. I'll be sharing this post with LeeAnna's group at Not Afraid of Color and also with Angela at SoScrappy.

Later!

I Like Thursday #163

Another week of good things brought to you again by me! Christmas will be here in only a few weeks and we are busy making plans for the in-coming relatives. So looking forward to seeing everyone again. It's been quite a while since I've seen my daughter -- long overdue!

Our prompt this week from LeeAnna is do we get a real tree or an artificial one? We generally put up an artificial tree. I'm accustomed to them due to growing up with a father that was allergic to pine. Isn't that sad??? This year we will put up our artificial tree again. However, I also have a "live" one this year too!

For the last three years, my friend Sharon has come over on the Friday after Thanksgiving to enjoy some pumpkin pie, coffee, and catch-up time. As a thank you, she gave me this sweet little LIVE Christmas greenery. She told me it was a fairy tree. I'll be doing my best to keep it alive. Isn't it sweet???

Our "live" Christmas tree

One wonderful thing that came out of Covid was the transition to Zoom classes. The Applique Society (TAS) has provided some wonderful opportunities to take classes with instructors from all over to include anywhere USA and Australia. I recently took a class with Katrina Hadjimichael, an Australian designer. We were learning her prepared-edge technique with her pattern called Daphne. Here is my completed Part 1 of the class which was on November 3.

Daphne center with inspiration fabric

We had Part 2 of our class this past Sunday, December 1, and I've got a good start on it.

Glued down and needing to be sewn

I really liked this class done in two parts. If you ran into any problems during the interim, you had a second chance to ask the teacher questions!

Recently I finished the book "Sister" by Rosamund Lupton. It was very good! So good that I downloaded another book by her called "Afterwards". I can't say much about the new book as I only just started it last night.

GoodReads Synopsis Here

Do you watch Survivor? I still enjoy watching it after all these seasons! The season finale will be the next two weeks' shows. Then what will I watch? I'm so glad that so many of you have made recommendations for shows to stream. It'll get us through to the new year!

I recently sewed up the Cactus Flower table runner that I started years ago and worked on at a couple of Mascoutah sleep-in-your-own-bed retreats. I'll quilt it sometime over this winter but not until we get past Christmas.

This afternoon we'll be going to the Christmas Luncheon at the Troy Senior Center. We'll have singing and, rumor has it, Mr. & Mrs. Claus will stop by for a quick visit. The menu today is fried chicken, mac & cheese, Carol's famous Salad, and a gourmet cupcake! All that for a low price of $10 -- can't hardly beat that!

We are very cold here but, after all, it IS December. November went out with a bang here -- 70 degrees one day and then 3.5" of snow the next. We've been pretty cold since then except for yesterday we hit 50. Today's walk with Gracie was definitely back to winter again.

My weather app when we got home. Brrrr!

This home's residents will be thoroughly warmed up while singing Christmas songs at the Senior Center today. I hope you have a snuggly, fun day ahead of you too!

Linking up with LeeAnna and all the I Like Thursday folks HERE.

Also sharing my stuff with all the scrappers at SoScrappy HERE.

A Few More Pineapples

 A few more pineapples were added to the mix this week. I call these caramel brown pineapples,

I have two deep purple pineapples cut out. They'll get sewn up this week. I only need four more pineapples and then I'll have my 60 ready to lay out and sash. I'm thinking maybe a dark brown -- as in chocolate colored? Maybe I'll have this one put together soon (?)! Lol!

Here they are individually in case you wanted a closer look.

Today is day 2 of retreat. I forgot my phone yesterday so I can't show you what I worked on yesterday. I'll be sure to get pictures today. It's a Judy Niemeyer table runner that was started at a guild class so very long ago. I'm anxious to finish it -- I think it's beautiful!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Don't let the spooky Spidermans, princesses, or goblins play tricks on you Thursday. Go ahead and pass out those treats! Hahaha!

I'll leave you with a sweet picture of Brody. He went to the pumpkin farm on his kindergarten field trip this week.

Sharing with the other Rainbow Scrap quilters at SoScrappy.

RSC Deep Purple & Caramels

This week I counted up my pineapple blocks and, yes, I'm a little short of the 60 that I need. Of course, right now I can't remember how many short but last night I went ahead and started cutting fabrics for more. I made up the start of 5 more blocks. There will be two deep purple (almost brown) ones and three caramel-colored ones. (Yum! Caramels!)

Here's the work in progress. I'll get out my Sew Wonderful Curve ruler and start cutting this weekend and hopefully get a few more pineapples under my belt.

Have a great weekend, everybody! I'll be looking in on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge friends to see how they're coming along with finishing up 2024 projects. You can take a peek HERE also!

Light Browns

Lori from Humble Quilts started a SAL a couple of weeks ago called Homestead which she is basing on an antique quilt. Of course I was late for the party because of all my recent company followed by a trip to NC for my niece's wedding. Luckily, she shared what fabrics/colors we might want to use before we left so I had a fabric pull ready to go when I got home.

Check out those RSC lights & browns!

When I got home, I checked out the first clue in the SAL and changed my mind on a few of my original fabrics. First up was pairs of 9-patches with a red center.

I quickly moved on to the second & third clues. I got the top assembled last night. It could use another good press.

I love it!!! I'm patiently awaiting the finishing and quilting suggestions she promised to share soon. I would have never put that green with the pink with the light brown, wavy print but I think it works.

Here's another picture of the top with the diamonds going the other way. What do you think?

I think it looks different turned even though it's the exact same top. Funny about perceptions, huh?

If you would like to read more about this SAL or join in, here's the link to get you started.

I hope you have a great weekend. I'll be working on something else until I get the last clue to Homestead!

Linking with Angela at SoScrappy.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Turned into FNwF

This is my first RSC post in quite a while. We had a lot of company the middle two weeks of September followed by our week-long trip at the end of September. Not much time to read or post blogs. Hopefully things will be settling down for a bit again.

While on the All-Illinois Shop Hop I picked up a scarecrow pattern to embroider. It is called My Fall Guy. I'm not going to show you a picture of the pattern because it is not a good picture. Why do pattern designers typically have the worst pictures on the covers of their patterns???? Anyway, I saw it done at a quilt shop and decided it would be a good project for on the road. Plus it's pretty dark so fits in with the RSC scheme of things.

He's a Long Fellow

Last night I worked on the leaves and the Xs at the bottom.

I started the Xs at the top also.

I managed this while watching the season opener to Survivor. Besides falling behind on my sewing, I'm also behind on the new shows for 2024! Lol!

I hope you have a great weekend. We have lovely weather here which I hope to enjoy myself!

Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy.