Playing Catch Up

I didn't realize that I haven't posted anything for weeks other than my I Like Thursday posts.  I think I will back up and start from back in December.

The beginning of December I was thinking about what to do for Christmas gifts.  I don't buy toys, I don't like giving money so what to do?  I decided pillowcases for some, and wallets for others. But that meant I needed to go shopping for some fabric. 

While contemplating I realized I had a coupon that I had to use before the 15th of December for 12 fat quarters.  I  had purchased it the year before for $20 from the LQS during the Santa Stuff My stocking promotion, so off I went in search of pillowcase fabrics.

 The above were the fabrics I purchased for pillowcases for the boys.

 Black and white fat quarters.

 Some purple fat quarters.

 The only Christmas fabric I could find which didn't have a white background.

 Some fun more modern looking fabrics.

And a cut loose pattern.

I didn't find fabrics to make pillowcases for 4 of my gift recipients so I went shopping online.

I bought this group of cute forest animals. 

Sharks

Emojis.

 These fabrics I got to make wallets.

As well as these. 

Of course while shopping I was looking for Christmas Fabric on sale I could use on my HOHOHO quilt.

I also needed some purples for my bee block for the month of December and maybe some more black and whites.

I did finish my bee block and got it in the mail before the end of the month even.

Civil War reproduction fabrics for my Tuesday quilt guild 12 inch block exchange.

A week later I had to head back to the LQS to pick up my purchases from the Santa Stuff my Stocking promotion.  I explained about it here. This is part of my bounty this year.

A featherweight sewing machine tool kit.

 A Fat Quarter bundle of grunge.

 Some fun dishtowels.

Quilty pencils

 Olfa Endurance Blades

 An Eyeglass Case and cleaning kit

And a project bag.

I also picked up a table runner kit and pattern which will remain secret for a few more days.  

During the month I also picked up some patterns and quilt books.

Mystical Quilts by Jason Yenter.....even if you don't make his quilts they are definitely coffee table worthy. 

Bonnie Hunter's new book String Frenzy. 

Finally the Mini Wonderful Curves book that uses the QCR mini.  I own the ruler and so thought it would be a great book to have. 

A neat pattern with accompanying templates.

A creative grids double wedding ring template on sale!

 Last but not least I bought this little needle threader during a promotion.  I always can use needle threaders.

Wow this post is getting long and I haven't even shared the gifts I received or some sewing I actually did.  I guess I will have to write another post.

I Like Thursday #54

Welcome to my 54th post of my list of I Like Thursday.  Thank you LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color for encouraging us to find positive things in our world to share and uplift.  I have found some products that I like recently and I would like to share.  I am not receiving any compensation from these vendors. 

Bobbin is not a fan of her booties.  But when you have -35 with the windchill they are necessary.  I like that she keeps them on and at least goes out.

 Once upon a time I used to wear a lot of jewelry.  I hardly ever wear jewelry anymore other than Jeff's wedding ring, my Kokopelli ring, and a pair of heart hoop earrings.  Recently I keep seeing raw gemstone jewelry and I will say that it suits my style.  Etsy is a wonderful place to shop all sorts of different artists, including jewelry!

These are raw garnet earrings.  I totally love them and have taken to wearing them often.  When I ordered from the shop called Three Magic Genies I also received a pendant as a gift with purchase.

It is raw garnet too.

A few days later I saw these baroque freshwater pearl earrings.  I love freshwater pearls!

Here you can see how big the pearls are.  When they arrived there was an additional pearl pendant.

I know there are other items from her shop I would like and they are very reasonable.

I like body butters, and was very disappointed when I cleaned out a tote a couple of weeks ago and the body butters smelled funky.  I started looking and saw this company called Beekman 1802.  They carry body butter made from goat's milk.  I thought this one looked yummy it is honey and orange blossom.

 I just love the scent and how it feels applying it to my skin.  They also had lots of other products and I grabbed these facial wipes which were honey and orange blossom too.

Finally as I was cleaning I discovered this little candle lamp.  I have one, but this isn't it.  It is nice in the bathroom and holds tealights, and give out a nice light.

I found another shirt about quilting that I knew I had to own.  I thought it was amusing.

Finally I saw a blurb about a book recently and it sounded intriguing.  I know I enjoyed The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco and thought this may be a good read since it was similar, but during the monastic dissolution in England during King Henry VIII.

I could not find the book in the local library but we have a system called MelCat that many of the libraries in Michigan participate and you can request a book from them also.  In this case it was an audio book.  I will say that while I do text to speech many times or get a book through Hoopla, I enjoyed listening to this book on my seldom used stereo.

Now head over to LeeAnna's and check out the other I Like Thursday posts.

I Like Thursday #53

Good day, and welcome to my 53rd I like Thursday post.  Thank you to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for encouraging us to find something positive each week. 

We had a crazy weather week.  Snow, extreme cold, then ice.  Poor Bobbin seems to fare the worst.  She will wear her coat when it is cold, and she loves the snow. 

In fact snow is awesome fun.

Unless it is very windy, and it is sub zero weather.  Poor little girl actually limped around outside, even thought I tried to keep her in during the couple of sub zero days.  We are prepared for the next sub zero days with doggie booties!

Bobbin will be sporting them next week.  I will say the little girl always makes me laugh and brings a smile to my heart. 

I like trying new things.  The last time I tried to make sourdough bread it was a terrible fail.  I have lots of home time so I decided to try again. 

This is my starter.  I will just say I am thrilled because when I finished making bread today I barely had 1 Tablespoon of starter left.  I fed it and when I saw that it looked like this just a couple of hours later,  I was totally thrilled.

The black line is what it was when I added flour and water to my teeny tiny amount of starter left.  I am going to need to move to at least a 1 1/2 quart jar or even a 1/2 gallon jar to continue to grow my new passion.

I like trying new recipes.  No laughing I never made a corned beef before.  I tried a recipe last week and it turned out awesome.  My next trick was Colcannon which I had read about reading a cozy mystery called Off Kilter by Hanna Reed. 

I thought it was a fun book, and I read the 2nd book called Hooked on You.   Oh colcannon is basically mashed potatoes with bacon, cabbage, and onion.  I cut up what was left of my corned beef and it was awesome.  OK back to my new found love of trying new recipes.

Sourdough bread!

The first recipe I tried used a bread machine.  I think it turned out wonderful, and it has an awesome crumb, and lovely chewy crust.

Nothing like bread with butter and raspberry jam.  YUM!

The next attempt will be an artisan type of loaf.  

The downside to not having television is that occasionally there is something you would love to see.

This documentary was on PBS called Rumble:  The Indians Who Rocked the World.  Awesome documentary it is part of the Independent Lens series.  I actually found it looking on the internet, and could stream it through a television.  It was very good, and the music was awesome.

You would be surprised how many Native Americans were huge influence on American Music.  Jazz, blues, and rock and roll, and how many of the big names had Native American Blood.  I will leave you with one of my favorites.

Now head over to LeeAnna's and give some more I like Thursday love!

I Like Thursday #52

Whew I guess I am  a wee bit late---but I made it.  Wednesday had been "one of those days".  From the moment I awoke until I finally fell asleep I was constantly being bombarded with texts, instant messages, phone calls.  Now most of the time I am not even remotely that popular.  My mom calls me every couple of days.  My daughters call me maybe once a month, and I have no problem with that.  I know they are busy with work, families, life in general.  I get a text or two from my male friend John, but otherwise, it is relatively silent.  So here it is actually Thursday and I am writing a quickie I Like  post.  :D 

I like having a stash....a big stash.  Every year one of the local quilt shops does a stuff your stocking event which I mentioned in this blog post. (I guess I should share what I acquired during that event soon!) The devious little elves at the shop set out all this cute holiday projects right by the check out and every year is a super cute table runner and pattern.  I picked up this years which had these cute chickadees.  I started to cut the runner out the other day and one fabric was cut so crooked I could not get 4  two and a 1/2 inch strips like I needed. 

This is the fabric.  I even tried a Google image search to no avail.  I didn't want to drive to the quilt shop so I went stash shopping. 

This is what I found, in my whole stash one red which was close.

Not too terrible I think.  Thank goodness for stash. 

I like flowers but sometimes I can't justify the cost.  Every time that John and I have a date he brings me something.  This past week it was these gorgeous flowers.

They sure do brighten up my day, and freesia smells wonderful. 

 I like that sometimes I am ahead of the pack when it comes to quilting.  The trends come and go as fast as the runway fashions from New York, Paris, and Milan every season.  I started using scraps for guild to make string blocks. 

  It helps use the ugly fabrics and florals because they kind of get lost in the design.

Trust me I create a lot of strings when I cut for guild.  Empty and cleaned kitty litter buckets come in very handy. 

Finally I read a lot, or listen to a lot of books.  I saw this cozy mystery series and thought it looked fun, so I borrowed it from the library online through an audio book service called Hoopla.  I can get up to 6 books per month through Hoopla alone.  I will say I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the person who read the book on the audio added to it so much.  I definitely will be reading or listening to the 2nd one.  

Thanks for visiting, I guess better late than never.  Now head over to LeeAnna's at Not Afraid of Color and check out the other I Like Thursday posts.