July RSC Pineapples are Done!

Here it is the last day of August and I finally got the July RSC pineapples completed. Ta! Da!

Sorry about the crappy photo

I also got the last (I think) Red Threads embroidery block done. It's definitely a weird one!

Not Sure What This One is All About

Yesterday I spent and today I will be spending time with friends at the monthly sleep-in-your-own-bed retreat. Yesterday I almost finished six of the paper-pieced sashing strips. They look like this when completed.

Scrappy Kansas Troubles (mostly)

These will make 22 strips completed with only 50 to go! OMG! What was I thinking!!??!! Lol!

I do have the orange fabrics with me at retreat and the necessary tools, I hope. After completing the started strips, I will take a break from those and make the orange pineapples. Then on to the next set of six sashing strips.

I hope you are having a fun weekend too and getting ready to start the next RSC color which I believe is going to be purple. Check out these posts at SoScrappy to see what progress others made with the last of their orange RSC scraps.

Not Much Orange ... Yet

The past week was a blur. Monday morning I had Quilt Club at my LQS and then hurried home to get Mom to P/T at 1pm. Somehow I managed to get 3.5 loads of laundry fully washed, dried, folded, and put away with the last load in the dryer as I went to bed. Tuesday I cleaned up all the floors in the house and finished up that last load of laundry. I also worked on getting prepared for Wednesday's expedition. My friend picked me up and away we went at 8am to knock out a few (six!) quilt shops on the All-Illinois Shop Hop. I was dropped off home at just past 5:30pm and I whipped up BLTs for dinner. Man, was I tired but in a VERY GOOD way. Thursday was up & at 'em for Tips at another LQS (aren't I lucky?). After rushing home to get Mom to P/T again at 1:00 and then home again for my sister's phone call at 3:00, it was on to Dairy Queen for dinner. What???? you ask? 20% of all proceeds that evening were being donated to the Troy Senior Center. We love our Senior Center so much that we decided that DQ Dinner was a win-win. Every Friday Mom & I leave at 11:30 for her standing hair appointment at noon, followed by a little grocery shopping. We usually get back home around 3:30.

That brings us to Saturday when I was signed up for a Zoom class through The Applique Society. Class was scheduled from 10am - 4:30pm and was all about broderie perse. Dena Rosenberg, our instructor, was wonderful! The class was informative, inspiring, and so much fun! She had given a lecture to our group earlier this year and I was so impressed with her knowledge and skill that I was excited for this class.

It doesn't look like much, but this was my progress on Saturday.

My Layout

A Close-up of my Appliqued
First Flower

As for my Red Threads project, I didn't get last week's block (the elk) finished. Rats!

Looking Good So Far

We got the very last embroidery block on Friday. After 50 months, it's a relief to be done getting them. Now to finish up the elk and get that last one done. Of course there's still all the paper-piecing of the flying geese sashings that run the length of the quilt -- 88" according to the pattern!!!

So that's been my week. Busy, busy. I'm looking forward to the upcoming calm week.

If you want to see orange blocks and orange creations, head on over to Angela's SoScrappy blog. There's lots there being shared.

Friday Night with Friends

I can't believe how far behind I've gotten myself. Yes, I know, there's no pressure but I like to give myself deadlines. Turquoise/teal July has finished and all I've got is fabrics selected for the pineapples and now I need to browse my purple orange stash for August's pineapples.

On the other hand, I've kept my hands busy with embroidery work on the Red Threads blocks. Here are the ones I completed last month. I can't remember if I've shared any of these already or not.

What did I work on last night? Last week's Red Threads block. I also downloaded this week's and it's the one I've been waiting for -- an elk! But anyway, here's the one I finished last night.

The only machine sewing I've been working on is the paper-pieced sashing strips. Lots to make, for sure. The horizontal sashing strips are in 2 pieces which I have yet to sew together. I am using scrappy predominantly Kansas Troubles fabrics with a few Kim Diehl thrown in.

I've got a few more to do before these are finished. The vertical strips are one long, long string of flying geese. The paper pieces are in sets of 8. I've got a bunch of the papers prepped and ready to sew!

Let's get this weekend started! Hope yours is a good one too!

Linking up with Angela @ SoScrappy and also with Cheryll @ GoneStitchin'. Go ahead and check out what my friends are doing too.

More FNwF, Less RSC

For those of us participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge,  Angela chose calm, serene aqua for July. I started looking at my bin for bits of aqua but that is as far as I got ... so far. I'm pretty sure my fellow Rainbow Scrappers have already gotten a good start and you can check that out here.

Last night was also Friday Night with Friends. I didn't sleep well Thursday night so, instead of dozing on the couch in front of the TV, I made my way to the sewing room. I'd already gotten a whole mess of foundation paper prepared earlier in the week for stitching and that's what I worked on.

7 More Units Sewn
34 of 112 Completed Once Trimmed

I'm using scrappy Kansas Troubles fabrics with a few Kim Diehl & Pam Buda thrown in for variety. Two units get sewn together to form the horizontal sashing for the Red Threads blocks. I finished this one up Friday morning while Mom was getting her hair done.

The project is being hosted by Sentimental Stitches and we are recreating an antique quilt. We are currently working on the 44th block of 49 so we are nearing the end. I can't wait to start putting this one together and so I'm very focused on getting the sashing strips together.

I'm sharing this post with my FNwF friends HERE and my RSC friends HERE. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

I Like Thursday #147

Happy Thursday, friends. Today is the day that I'll be sharing likeable things I've discovered during the week. I'd like to start with I love my country and am wishing the United States a happy birthday on this Independence Day. Our republic has stood for quite some time and I hope for many more years to come. Politicians and media folks talk really big about being kind, doing the will of the people, and getting along but it's hard to see that with all the blather we hear everywhere. Instead of shooting off our mouths, let's shoot off some fireworks and celebrate just how lucky we are to live in the "home of the free and the brave".

I have been remiss in not sharing with you my good fortune to win a FQ bundle from Island Batiks quite some time ago. All I did was leave a comment and next thing I knew they pulled my name! Check out these beautiful fabrics!!!

Fabric Line: Fire & Ice

I finished "Yellowface" by R. F. Kuang. All I can say is it wasn't worth my time. There wasn't really a story to interest me, the characters were nasty women (dare I say bitches?), and there was definitely a political breath behind the words. Blah! I did manage to get to the end. It may have been recommended by Reese Witherspoon but not by me.

I've just barely started "The Women" by Kristen Hannah. I hope I like this one!

Our monthly sleep-in-your-own-bed retreat was last weekend. Those ladies are fabulous! We always enjoy ourselves and it's always good to catch up with one another. I worked on flying geese units for the Red Threads project. Loads of Kansas Troubles fabrics in here.

27 pairs of 56 total

I'm please to say that we had some rain this week. Of course now we worry about flooding! In the meantime my crape myrtle has started to bloom -- even after I gave it an ugly cut earlier this summer!

Cute little rogue sunflower too!

I hope you have a great week and can celebrate America and for everything she stands for.

Linking up with my I Like Thursday friends HERE.

So Ends RSC Blue for June -- AND A FINISH!!

As the end of June is almost here, it's time for a bit of a wrap-up for the month of June. Angela chose BLUES for our Rainbow Scrap Color for the month and that meant time to pull out Rainbow Pineapple blocks, a quilt I started in 2023. Here are the three pineapple blocks I managed this month.

Three Blue Pineapple Blocks for June 2024

Close-Up Picture

I thought it might be fun to see what all of my 2024 blocks look like together.

A Field of Happy, Scrappy Pineapples!

Red Threads SAL has been progressing. Here are the embroidery blocks I completed this week.

Sweet Wren

More Wheat! Ack!

You may recall I won a Go! Baby AccuQuilt Cutter in 2022. I then decided to join the AccuQuilt Club at my LQS to learn about my "new toy". This past month, for Summer and all the Patriotic Holidays during Summer, it was suggested we make the Tumbler Flag using whatever size tumbler we have. Well, a 4-1/2" tumbler was included with the Go! Baby so that's what I used. Of course, I went scrappy. It turned out a bit larger than I anticipated. The pattern says it finishes at 28" x 48".

Scrappy Patriotic Tumbler Flag - 28x48

Some of the Free-Motion Quilting Done
on My Domestic Machine

Some of the Scrappy Reds & Whites

Had Some Stars Fabric in My Stash
Extra Tumblers were Made From a
Denim-Colored FQ Won in a Drawing

Leftover Gray Backing Fabric Worked Great
with Some Stars Printed in the Background

So see!!?? I got a finish! I got a finish! Yay me!!!! This sweet quilt will hang in the hallway until after Labor Day. (The blue field of stars keeps with the June RSC theme! *wink*)

Wishing you a terrific final June weekend. We've had a bit of rain here in the St. Louis area and a little cooler temps lately. Hopefully the weather will be cool enough for some greatly missed cook-outs in the near future!

Linking up with all the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters on Angela's blog, SoScrappy.

Blues, Browns, & Tumblers!

I've been trying to catch up on all things quilting, including this blog. I was absent due to a trip to be with Brody on his 5th birthday and then a couple days later my niece for a bridal shower. You can catch up on those events HERE if you like but I warn you -- it is very picture heavy.

Since this is my quilty blog, let's get down to business. Working on my Red Threads (which I'm doing in brown), my latest ones are shown below.

Last night was Friday Night Sew In with Wendy & Friends. I traced out a couple more Red Threads blocks and got to work on one. Here's my progress from yesterday.

I'm still working on pineapple blocks and trying to keep up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Any shade of blue was selected for June's activities so here we are. I need to dig through my green scraps and get the tops sewn on these pineapples. I think they turning out pretty good!

My friend Sharon & I go to an AccuQuilt Club monthly and it was suggested we make Tumbler Flags using our dies. Let me just say that these tumblers went together beautifully! I'm just about finished with the quilting on this project and then I'll need to sew on the binding. I think I'll have it finished by Club meeting this Thursday, don't you?

The Stars were Fussy-Cut

There is also a block that I'll need to make for the exchange and that should also go together in a snap.

We are hot, hot, hot here in the St. Louis area. I know we are not the only region suffering from the heat but, really, it's a super chore to walk the dog in the mornings. Looking forward to some relief one day ....

Linking up with Wendy at Sugarlane Designs to see how everyone's Friday Night Sew In went. Then on to Angela at SoScrappy to see how my Blues Sisters are doing with their RSC projects!

A Little Pink Coming Together for FNSI

I've been slowly getting my Strips & Nachos together. This is a Strip-a-Long with Gundrun Erla from GEDesigns. I must say that I enjoy sewing her patterns so I was ready, willing, and able to jump on board with this project.

All four rows (for a lap-sized quilt) have been sewn together including the end triangles. Last night I set about to getting the sashing strips sewn together and then assembled between the rows. I figured this was a good project to work on for Friday Night Sew-In! I did pretty good right up until I sewed the first two rows to the sashing. UCK! The triangles weren't matching up correctly! This is exactly what happens every time I hurry to throw something together. After unpicking, I carefully pinned making sure things were matching better. Then it was bedtime.

This morning, I sewed two rows with a sashing strip twice. Here's a picture of my progress. Don't the triangles match up nicely?! And again there's a little RSC pink involved!

Once more sashing strip to be sewn down the middle!

This week I finished another block for Red Threads.

I also discovered that the Chubby Charmer that I mailed off for a friend of my daughter's was delivered so I thought I was going to share it with you today. Hmmmm, guess I forgot to take pictures so you'll have to just take my word for it. It was so sweet. I did include this little quilt book that I tucked inside.

With all the storms we've had lately, the bike trail lost another tree. The guys came out and cleaned it up quickly. I thought the remnants looked pretty!

Thought you'd enjoy another Gracie shot!

We managed to squeeze in a lunch date with some family. A delicious BBQ lunch at Bandana's.

It was quite windy that day!

Linking up with all the participants at Friday Night Sew In & Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Have a great weekend!

Week #2 of RSC Pink

Happy Mother's Day weekend! I hope you are able to enjoy it with your children and/or mother. We've been having beautiful weather here in southern IL and our trees and flowers have been putting on a show. I love this time of year.

First I would like to share with you a puzzle I started while my sister was visiting. I got it from my daughter and all 1000 pieces were challenging. So, thank you, dear daughter, it was a good one. And look, everyone, there's plenty of pink in it!

Looking at this puzzle is reminding me to share with you a picture of a hungry hawk. I caught him waiting for lunch by my bird feeder while sitting on the deck stair rail. Isn't he gorgeous??! (Pardon the fuzzy picture taken through the screen.)

And speaking of hungry, our little Jacob is very fond of ice cream. Turn up your volume to really appreciate how happy he is that his daddy is going to make some ice cream for him. This video just tickles me so much!!

Ok, back to the sewing room. I finished up two Red Threads blocks. I love the butterfly and it was a joy to stitch.

I've also been working away on Strips & Nachos by GEDesign. I think I may even get the top finished before Memorial Day! I managed to show a little pink off too!

"What Happened to the Bennetts?" is in the Already Read category now. Lisa Scottoline is a wonderful author and she did it again. This book is a real page-turner. If you're interested, you can get the GoodReads synopsis HERE.

Since I finished that book and, per my CloudLibrary app, I had 20 more days until I can check out "The Frozen River" by Ariel Lawhon, I went back and picked up "Something to Hide" by Deborah Moggach. Let's just say that by the time I reached page 50 I was hooked. It's got interesting situations going on all over the world and I just know it's all going to get tied up together. I'll keep reading to find out how!

GoodReads synopsis HERE

That's what's been happening around here this past week. Time to get Gracie out for a walk. Have a great weekend!

Sharing with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters through Angela's SoScrappy blog.

PS I'm covered in pink calamine lotion (Ivarest, actually, which is a blend of calamine lotion and benadryl) due to the horrible pink poison ivy rash I've got going on. UCK but at least it's consistent with this month's color! Also seemingly effective on poison ivy is this:

And now I think it's time for another benadyl tablet. Night, night!