A Finish, A UFO, and A Continuation

This week as I waited at Mom's podiatrist appointment, hair appointment, and PT appointments, I managed to sew a bit on Grandma's Jewels. I'm using pastels since that is the color(s) Angela chose for us in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for June. 

Jewels in the Works

One Pastel Jewel Completed

While Mom was at one of her PT appointments, I ran to my library to pick up a book they were holding for me. While there, I chatted with the librarian about the puzzle handouts they had at the counter. She explained that they were available for free. Since I noticed there were quite a few Word Search puzzles in the mix, I picked them up for Mom thinking they may be a welcomed distraction from her TV viewing.

Mom Hard at Work on a Word Search

We had some "big doin's" in the neighborhood this week. The neighbor had a tree taken out of their backyard since it was hanging over their pool and Florida room. It was fun to watch the machinery go up & over their 2-story house to do the job!

I finished this cross-stitch piece this week. All that had been left to do was complete my initials and date. Can you find them?

I belong to The Applique Society (TAS) local and national chapters. The local chapter has challenged us to finish up a few of our UFOs. You may remember I recently finished a Christmas table runner.

Finished!

Now to choose another project that needs to be finished. I decided to work on Eye of the Beholder by Margaret Willingham. She was a Zoom class instructor through the national chapter. I took the class in Oct 2022. I think I should get this one done.

The Pattern

Where I Currently Am

Her technique was different from anything I'd done previously -- sort of -- kind of a cross between back-basting and Hawaiian applique. I'm loving working on it again so I think I'll be making steady progress. I ran into a couple of problems in 2022 which I've mentally worked out. Hopefully my thought-process will be successful!

 

Our old deck and back shed are scheduled for demolition this week and a new deck installed. I'll be sticking around the  house as much as possible to watch the process. I hope to get a lot of sewing accomplished this week!

Please drop by SoScrappy to check in on my blogging friends' scrap progress. Thank you, Angela, for keeping us on track with our scrappy quilts!

Good-bye, Blue 2026!

It's the last day of January and that means Angela will be announcing the new Rainbow Scrap Challenge color. I'm looking forward to seeing which beautiful color  she's chosen for us to pull scraps from. This month seemed particularly long to me so I'm looking forward to turning over the calendar pages around the house and digging into a fresh color.

My sewing goal this month was to make 5 blue jewels for Grandmother's Jewels. I finished #5 on Wednesday evening. Yay!

So let's hear it for BLUE! I predict pink or red for February in keeping with Valentine's Day. Keeping with that thought, I thought I'd show you a peek of a finished top. My chapter of The Applique Society has given us a UFO challenge and I finished my 2025 one. It's a table runner by Jillilly Studios called Tangled Daisies. I'll share more about it after I've shared it at this month's meeting later in February.

Have a great week. Stay warm! And don't forget to check out Angela's blog where lots of RSC posts are shared!

My Hexagon Obsession

Angela has chosen aqua/turquoise as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month. Perfect choice since I've been obsessed with my Fishbowl Hexie project lately and there's plenty of aqua to be seen there. It's growing quickly as I assemble the main parts. There are more light hexies to go in the corners for the first outer border.

Currently 34" across at the Widest Point

Do you do English Paper Piecing? Should I remove all the papers now with the exception of the outer edges? Would that make LARGE assembly easier? I'd be interested to know your opinions on these questions.

Last week during one PT appointment, one hair appointment, and one podiatry appointment, I managed to applique just about all of both large flowers on Tangled Daisies (pattern by Jillily Studios).

Cross-stitching in the evening gives me a different kind of peace. I've been adding the lettering to Be Kind by Primrose Cottage Stitches. Slowly but surely, this project is coming along.

As for Gem Tones, I can tell you that both blocks have been fully cut out and the sewing may start this week. We also got our next clue for the mystery sew along from my local quilt shop. Maybe I'll work on that! Who knows what mood I'll be in later this week.

The All-Illinois Shop Hop started this month and will finish Sept 30. I've managed to squeeze in a few stores, one of which I didn't even know existed and is so close to me! Tarsha Homestead is a lovely small shop and the owner is just about the sweetest person you might meet on the hop! Maybe it's just that I fell in love with her "yard". It's full of chickens running around everywhere. She said she may have about 45-50! Here are some of her chickens

Strutting her stuff!

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

I had to call my brother, who also has chickens, to tell him about the beautiful chickens. My SIL sent me a picture of theirs -- including a rooster too!

In between all this fun, I've been trying to get some of the gardens under control. This was this morning's project. Check out the mess in the wheelbarrow!

My current book is Nightshade by Michael Connelly. How can you go wrong with that author, right? I'm in about 75 pages and all I want to do is keep reading! I think it's his latest book and it may have been recommended by my blog buddy Little Penguin Quilts!

Read about it HERE

I guess I forgot to let you know I finished Quilt City Murders by Bruce Leonard. It was pretty good and I like his style. It was fun to read also because I've been to the AQS quilt show in Paducah many times so the town's descriptions were mostly familiar to me. I'd definitely recommend it if you like a murder mystery and quilting! It's the first in a series of his books. I just noticed too that Nightshade is also the first in a series. Guess I know what I'll be reading in my future! Lol!

I think I'll wrap this up now. I don't think there's much more for me to share this week. Let's hear it for another week in the books. We'd love to say that things are cooling off here in the Midwest but not just yet. Summer is still alive and HOT!

Make it a good week!

Linking up at SoScrappy.

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!