Holiday Time & RSC/PHD

The holidays are just about here and all the festivities are about to kick in. I've been cleaning, shopping, planning meals, decorating, writing cards, organizing, and preparing handwork for quiet family time. Of course the Parcheesi board will be brought out too! My brother, wife, and twins arrive this evening. They'll stay overnight at Mom's before heading over to the airport to pick up their son and settling in for a few days at the in-laws. My daughter arrives tomorrow with her two kitties. Gracie and Polly are looking forward to their company! Ha! They'll be staying here with us. Then mid-week my brother's family returns to us for a couple days until after Christmas brunch. Sarah leaves the following mid-week. Oh my! Busy! Busy! And it's all WONDERFUL!

Down to business now. I did not earn my PHD (Projects half Done). Not only did I not finish all of my projects, but I didn't finish all that I started during 2021. Guess it's back to the class room for me. I'm happy to say that I did manage to finish 5 PHD projects and several others. Here they are:

Table Scraps

Reindeer Frolic Wool Mat

Table Scraps

Table Scraps

Tiny Tuesday RSC Finish

Snowmen & Churches

Shark Bite

Halloween BOM top

Christmas Wool Mini

Positivity

Halloween Apron

Boo #2

Mini 10-Minute Table Runner

Hope (pattern by GEDesigns)

That's it from me for 2021. I doubt I'll have any other finishes and I probably won't be posting much until the new year. I'm working on  my RSC2022 list as well as my PHD2022 list -- hope springs eternal, doesn't it? Maybe next post will bring you knit finishes!

Until next year, I wish you the very best holiday season and I'm looking forward to a fabulous 2022. Thank you for following me through the year, inspiring me with your projects, sharing tips you've learned along the way. I hope you found some inspiration here as well and enjoyed my posts.

I'll continue to link with Angela at SoScrappy for Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Gail at QuiltingGail for Projects Half Done, and LeeAnna at NotAfraidOfColor for I Like Thursdays in 2022!

I Like Thursday #31

I have to start this post with how much I like a finished (finally) quilt. Shark Bite has been completed and presented to my local quilt shop's UFO Challenge group. There will be an official photo shoot but in the meantime I'd like you to see that it is Polly-approved.

Next step was to lay it out on the bed to see what exactly I have created.

I like it!

You may remember my picture last Thursday of the beautiful red bud tree outside our bedroom window. I noticed yesterday that on the tips of the branches there were tiny leaf buds. Boo! Hoo! That means the flowers will soon blow away and then all that will remain is a pretty tree.

With this in mind, I decided to take a walk around the garden to see what I could find of Spring again.

A lonely red tulip coming up in the middle of the hosta bed. Weird since I did not plant any bulbs here but I accept!

A shadowy glimpse of my pulmonaria or lungwort. There are also hollyhocks leaves surrounding it.

My azalea is just gorgeous this year. I've never trimmed it and I love the shape that it has developed all on its own. The day I bought this bush I was in search of a rhododendron. At the nursery I noticed this small azalea by the name of Olga. I had to buy it since Olga was my grandmother's name (on my father's side). She's a beauty! Did you also notice another patch of hostas growing to the left of her?

I'm still reading "A Stash of One's Own" by Clara Parkes. That didn't stop me from picking up a book from the library that I had requested. One of my blogging friends mentioned it and it definitely interested me. "Classic to Contemporary String Quilts" by Mary M. Hogan. On my goodness! Full of fabulous ideas! I will definitely be enjoying all the ideas in this book.

 The other day I got a package in the mail.

The Applique Society (TAS) is having its annual meeting at the end of this month and Dawn Heese from Linen Closet Designs will be giving a trunk show and teaching two applique classes. One class is a cotton applique project and the other is this Antique Urn wool class. The wools in this package are gorgeous and I'm looking forward to the meeting and this class. There are also other quilters doing presentations. It's not too late to join TAS. Just go to their website HERE and register. Annual dues are only $25 and the monthly meetings are jam packed with interesting artists, tips, and fun. This month's meeting is featuring Helen Stubbings all the way from Australia! Can you tell I really like TAS? Haha!

I think that'll cover my "likes" for this week. I think I'll pop on over to Not Afraid of Color to see what "likes" the others are sharing. Until next I see you, have a great week!

Retreat Wrap-Up

The last two days were so much fun as always. Spent them with about 7-8 once-a-month quilting buddies. We gather together in the parish hall, safely distanced, and share our quilting experiences and life stories. It's a wonderful time for all especially due to the constraints of the past year. Blech!

So what did I work on? I put in a lot of time on Twisted Mystery 2020. I'm hoping to finish the top by the end of the year. On Friday I finished up 44  of the dark blue and gold units (bottom pile). I think I did about 30 while at retreat. Forgot to count what I'd already finished. Then I did the 8 dark blue and gray units and completed 24 of the 40 gray and gold units. They are made using the Studio 180 Corner Beam ruler and, while they take a bit more cutting of the pieces and then squaring them all up, they come at perfectly!

On Saturday I actually finished up the gray & gold units and after lunch decided to put that project box aside and work on some of my guild's blocks of the month. I counted up what I already had -- yay! 6 already done. I recently learned that there will be a total of 16. I knew I was behind so I printed up six patterns & bagged up 5 to take with me. I actually managed to sew up three! I sewed this one first.

Then these two simultaneously.

Look! I worked in some bright blue for RSC!

Last night I came home to more of this, binding Shark Bite, a Bonnie Hunter Leaders & Enders projects from several years ago. Maybe I'll hit the finish line today!

Have a great week, everyone!

Linking up with SoScrappy and all the other Rainbow Scrappers. 

All Day Friday with Friends

Yesterday I had a wonderful day sewing with friends from all over. By day, it was day #1  days to sew together with my local sewing group but sleep at home at night. Last night was Friday Night with Friends where I sewed with my global friends! So what did I work on?

During the day I worked on the Twisted Mystery quilt from last year. I made a lot of corner beam blocks but forgot to take pictures Trust me, I got a big pile done with more waiting for me this morning. I'm really starting to get quite a few baggies full of "block parts" and am looking forward to sewing them all together .... one day!

Of course I left in time to call Mom and check in with her on my drive home and also (should I say most importantly?! Ha!) to make it home on time for Jeopardy. We just LOVE that show and turns out a lot of my daytime quilting friends do too. Do you? Don't you just miss Alex Trebek? Who has your favorite guest host been so far? The consensus for our group was: The best so far has been Ken Jennings & Mike Richardson (I think that was his name, the executive producer) with Katie Couric and Dr. Oz being a resounding NO. Aaron Rogers is doing alright too. We quilters always have opinions on important things, don't we?

So after dinner, I pulled out Shark Bite and did more hand-sewing down of the binding. I'd say that while watching Magnum P.I. followed by Blue Bloods I managed to get a complete 88" side done!

Sewing, sewing, sewing!

I would have sewn a little longer but someone wanted to go to bed. Or was she supervising? Ha!

What a great day and I'm looking forward to day #2 of sewing with my local buddies. That'll happen right after I walk the dog & get properly dressed! I hope you have as great day a day as I'm planning on!

Linking up with Cheryll at Gone Stitchin' for FNwF. Go check out what some global quilters got accomplished. It's always an amazing trip!

More RSC Green & FNSI

As most of you know, I've been trying to put in some good time on Shark Bite. It's coming along slowly but surely. In spite of what I used to believe, machine quilting is not some super-speedy wonder for quilt finishing. I did get all 484 "teeth" quilted -- that sure was a LOT of HSTs!!!! Last night I actually found the blue "teeth" fabric that I had left. Amazingly, there was plenty to make the binding ... so I did! Hurray for progress!

In the meantime, I found a little bit of green to make the other two Irish Courthouse blocks.

And here are all three of these for RSC green month.

I also put in a day working on my table mat. The top is done. Now to get it quilted and bound. It's adorable if I must say so myself. No pictures because the reveal is next week for Joy's Table Scraps Challenge. I've got a couple of ideas swirling in these few brain cells of mine for next month already ... depending on the chosen color for April. No pressure, Angela! Haha!

As for Friday Night Sew-In, I decided to pull out a cross-stitch project from a while back. These Xs are teensy, tiny so there doesn't seem like a lot of progress was made. However, I did work on it for a couple of hours last night. The tree roots were finished off and all of the green back-stitching on the left-hand side was done during FNSI.

So there you have it! Little green hills, little green greenery for flower stems, and little green stitches on the carrot quilt. I'm sure it'll be more clear once I get it 100% outlined. Did I mention that this would be nice to have done for Easter? Hahaha!!!

Thank you, Wendy, for the FNSI linky party (found HERE)

and

Thank you, Angela, for the RSC linky party (found HERE)

I Like Thursday #24

Thursday is such a great day. It's almost the weekend and it is overflowing with likeable things. Discover what I mean on LeeAnna's blog Not Afraid of Color where others share their LIKES!

I'm still liking to watch the birds at my bird feeders. We've had such cold weather lately. Some days we don't even break 20 degrees! As for snow, we've had maybe 3" total in the last couple of days. The weather predictors say we're going to be in this for a while longer. The birds (and squirrels) have really appreciated the full feeders and suet cakes. This fellow visits daily either on the suet or the peanuts further out in the yard.

I'll be running a few errands today. It's good to keep my driveway-kept vehicle driven every few days with this cold weather. I'll be getting my hair trimmed (I like that), getting more bird seed, and dropping in on my mother. Her Internet is out and I believe I can fix that with a quick modem reset. I'll drop off some of our dinner from last night with her while I'm there -- Corned beef with boiled carrots & potatoes. She's got a lot of Irish in her so she really appreciates a dinner like that!

Speaking of cold, not everyone  dislikes the cold.

This girl LOVES it! She runs all over with that tail just a-wagging! She just returned from the spa and posed for this picture before shutting her eyes for a nap. Isn't that bandana the sweetest with the hearts and roses?

Something I learned to like this week: stitching embroidery designs through Press N Seal! One can't use a light box with wool (too thick) but one sometimes needs to mark a design, say of antlers on 8 reindeer.

Markings on Press N Seal. It stays in place on the wool beautifully!

After stitching, you trim with scissors close to the stitching, followed by pulling the Press N Seal sideways out from under the stitching. I found it worked best by trimming VERY close to the inside curves and pulling off on the outside curves. This technique is shared by Lisa Bonjean of Primitive Gatherings. She's a brilliant designer and shop owner. Anyway, I'm all done with the antlers and am debating on the French knot eyes or not. Then I'll be on to the backing! I actually like finishing projects. Who knew?!?! Haha!

Speaking of finishing, I shared my Tiny Tuesday quilt with my UFO Challenge Club at my local quilt shop.

Cindy, our fearless leader, picked from the hat our next project number -- #4. Yay! That would be my Shark Bite quilt. This was such a fun Leader & Ender quilt and I just fell in love with that turquoise fabric that makes up the shark teeth. The fabric was a Jinny Beyer piece from her Safari line. It actually has giraffes printed on it!

I'm very excited to finish that one up. Now if only we could warm up a bit so I could get it basted and ready to go. I do that job in the basement and it is very cold down there -- 55 degrees by my thermometer. Definitely will have to set up a space heater. I like those too!

I have been enjoying the Australian Open Tennis which started this week. While watching the other day I chuckled as I was rooting on Stephano Tsitsipas, a Greek tennis player. He's very good and he obviously follows the Rainbow Scrap Challenge as February's color of the month is yellow!

I also like a kitty curled up between my feet. So warm!

Yesterday I baked cookies. I've got a 2-day sewing retreat coming up Friday & Saturday so I'll be bringing some of these there to share.

Peanut Butter Blossoms are one of my husband's favorite cookies. Early Valentines for him! And since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I've been lighting this up in our front window.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! And don't forget to visit the other bloggers sharing their LIKES this week!

PHD in 2020 - January Progress Report

Well, unfortunately I haven't finished anything yet in 2020 but I have made progress on a few fronts. So that's saying something anyhow. Here's how I did with my PHD projects.

Shark Bite has been assembled. I just need to figure out how I want to go about the borders. Currently measuring at 88"X88". I definitely hope to have this top completed in the next few months.

A Very Merry Christmas is really coming along. I thought I might have this top done by the end of January but it still lingers on. Progress made this month includes all 23 spool blocks. They are various sizes and colors but they are ALL done!

I also started the star blocks for this project too. These tiny flying geese units measure 2"X1.5". The stars will eventually measure up to 3". While I have a total of nine to make, here's a picture of the first three that are essentially ready to be assembled.

So I'm happily progressing on this one. There's another set under my needle and then only five more to go. I believe 9-patches are next, after these star blocks.

I'm also working on a BOM. The pattern is called Afternoon Delight and it was designed by Sue Garmen. It is offered by The Quilt Show. For January we were to  complete 4 applique blocks and two pieced blocks. Here is a picture of my four applique blocks.

Sadly there are no pieced blocks to show off. This is a year-long block-of-the-month project. I hope to stay pretty much caught up with it. I've already downloaded the next four applique blocks for February. These blocks are small, by the way, measuring at a finished size of only 6-3/4".

I just saw that the Dirty Dozen number for February is 1. That would be Scrap Dance Two-Step. Oh my. Not sure if that'll happen by the end of the month but here goes nothing! Lol! I'll be concentrating on Afternoon Delight and A Very Merry Christmas this month. Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Gail at Quilting Gail. Take a peek and be amazed at what we quilters can get done when we set our minds to it!

Truly! I've Been Busy!

Last weekend I spent a 4 wonderful days with 8 other women at quilt retreat. Due to it being a small number of attendees, we were bumped into a room that I was not familiar with. Turned out to be a beautiful place for us to sew, sew, sew! The room was octagonal with huge picture windows on the south side. We saw deer & wild turkeys. Right as I was pulling in, the freezing rain started to fall = perfect timing! By evening, our cars were all iced up. Who cares? We were there to quilt!

So what did I get done? So glad you asked! I got the centers appliqued down on all 18 dresdens and then appliqued to their 5" background squares. This is my Dirty Dozen #9 and also my 2020 UFO Challenge  for January/February with my LQS. Amazingly enough it is also on my 2020 PHD list! It's called A Very Merry  Christmas QAL from Suzn Quilts.

I've cut out almost everything for the ten red thread blocks and the green ones will be next. There will also be stars & 9-patches before this is done.

Angela from SoScrappy has chosen light/bright green for the 2020 Rainbow Scrap Challenge for January. I decided that I need to make 9 of these blocks each month for 9 months. The blocks are 6" finished and there is sashing which form the secondary churn dash blocks. I've got BUNCHES of black & white polka dot fabric that I believe I inherited from one of my deceased quilting friends. I'll think of Marie as I use this fabric from my stash. The pattern I'm using is called Awesome Land and it is from the book "Oh Scrap!" by Lissa Alexander. Such a wonderful book with so many ideas!!! Thank you, Sarah, AGAIN for this wonderful book!

At retreat I thought I had enough fabric ready to assemble the nine blocks but it turns out one of my green strips wasn't as wide as I thought. So here are the eight that I did finish!

My friend Edie was happily sewing together her Frolic blocks by Bonnie Hunter and I walked over to admire her progress. And what did I spy? A beautiful green fabric that Edie was no longer using. I told her that I would really love a 2-1/2" x 12" piece and she told me to take what I need. This is what became of that strip when I got home.

Isn't that green wonderful???!!! Thank you, Edie!

The main project I worked on at retreat was Shark Bite. It started as a leader & ender project with Bonnie Hunter on her Quiltville blog a couple years ago. Earlier I had seen a similar project on an American Patchwork & Quilting magazine that I loved also. The difference between the two: Bonnie used 4-patches and AP&Q used HSTs. The gorgeous turquoise fabric? It's a Jinny Beyer fabric that I managed to have my sister pick up for me quite some time ago. In the middle of this 2-3 year long project, I ran out of the turquoise and so did the original store. I contacted Jinny Beyer's shop and successfully got my hand on more.

This quilt has 121 blocks. 61 blocks have the "teeth" going one way and 60 blocks have the "teeth" going the other way. So glad I tried laying it out when I only had about 30 blocks made. Easy to catch up the alternate blocks that I didn't realize I would need! The blocks were all ready when I arrived at retreat, just needed to sew them all together. The quilt is 11 X 11 blocks, the blocks are 8". Do the math = 88" X 88". Still need to put a narrow border on it to finish it off and I think I have enough turquoise for the binding.

Such a big quilt. It was hard to get a picture of the whole thing. I'm really loving this one!

I also finished knitting a pair of socks. Picture later as they need to be blocked first.

One last couple of pictures that warmed my heart.

Gracie was so happy to see me when I returned home. Such a greeting followed by falling asleep with her bone on her paws.

And my Big Boy, Brody, sitting up all by himself. Can't believe how fast he's growing up! Seven and a half months old and wearing size 18 months clothes!

And Polly loving her morning nap on my fluffy robe. Life is good at the Hoover house!

Linking up with Angela and all the 2020 RSC quilters at Scrappy Saturday! Only a few more days to sew using green. Angela announced early that February's color will be ORANGE!