Thursday, November 26, 2020

I Like Thursday #136

 Happy Thanksgiving.  

I am Thankful for too many things to even begin to list.  I am Thankful to LeeAnna for encouraging me to join 4 years ago. 

I am Thankful for friends, and family that love me unconditionally.

I am Thankful for blogger friends that visit weekly and keep encouraging positivity, beauty, and looking for the good in this world.

 I am working Thanksgiving day so this is a quick post.

Now head over to LeeAnna's at Not Afraid of Color to see all the other I Like posts.


Monday, November 23, 2020

Staycation

 I know most of you are probably so sick of COVID and sheltering in place, quarantine at home, and I will admit when I decided I had to take vacation before my work anniversary date, I wasn't too thrilled about staying at home.  I have tried to make the best of it though.  

I got Amish With a Twist IV done, well at least the top completed.  Borders and everything!

I have been making some more pineapple blocks.




According to the pattern top row is pink, 2nd row is orange, 3rd row is yellow, but we are talking Kaffe Fassett fabrics and those lines blur quite often.  I knew the design wall was going to be a necessity.

This is when the camera and picture editing comes in handy on my IPhone.  So I can work on the values.  


There will be more block moving, and rotating of blocks within their rows as I finish more blocks.  Two more yellow blocks and I will be halfway!

I have some more stuff in the works.  Only one more day of vacation then back to the grind. 





Friday, November 20, 2020

Snatching a Moment and Vacation Sewing

I have been doing a little sewing here and there when  can snatch a moment or two. I think I am in hibernation mode, even though it hasn't really gotten cold here yet.  I have been making meals, and then freezing part of them.  My freezer is looking pretty good, other than needing a good defrosting.  Hmmm I may need to do that while I am on vacation. 

I have been working on the Amish with a Twist and sewing the rows together.  I am currently working on row 5.  

Here are the first 4 rows sewn together.

I have also been working on my pineapple quilt which had some fabric challenges since it came in a kit. 

I love the name of the fabric Brassica which is a genus of plants in the mustard family, which include cabbage. I  ordered some fabric online, and surprise!  It matched.  So I finished this block.


I had trouble matching this one.  I am not sure if it is called millefiori or paperweight.  

Remember I shared that the instructions tell you to cut your fabric into 1 3/4 inch strips.  But further down it tells you to cut four 2 1/2 X 4 strips to finish the block.  I used the 1 3/4 inch strips but still had a wee bit of space left. 

I kind of pieced it.  If you look at the bottom left corner you can see how I pieced it to make it big enough.  

After those two blocks things progressed rather nicely.



I made this block today.  I have 8 blocks done and am working on block 9.  

Today was my 2nd day of a 6 day vacation before the holiday insanity.  Day one I spent running errands and cleaning house.  Today though was a stay at home day!  YAY!

I pulled weeds, it was a balmy 63 degrees outside.  I have amassed quite the wagon load again.  I still need to bring in my solar lights, wind whirly gigs, lounge chair and pool ladder.  If the weather holds I may be able to reside my chicken house too. 

I started quilting the Saw Tooth Square quilt.  


Amazing my Iphone at times takes better pictures than my Canon camera.  

I finished stitching down all the parts for the chickens.

Now to sandwich it and quilt it.  I now have several things to make pillows. 

I started stitching down the applique on the Cultivate Kindness quilt.  I finished all the motifs that were

the aqua color.  Now I am working on the green ones.  

I had made this pumpkin from a pattern from Quilt Fabrication,  I forgot to share it.  I actually had it folded and it had disappeared under a pile of fabric I was folding to put away.  I enjoyed using some favorite scraps.  It is now hanging with my other pumpkin.  

I finally hung my Good Mom's wall hanging.  

I traced out an embroidery pattern from Crabapple Hill Studio.

I am going to try the tinting with the prisma color pencils.  

Finally today I made a tomato cage Christmas Tree.  I used a  garland that was fake but looked real, and some green and silver garland, and fairy lights, that change colors.  


No laughing, I am exhausted and it is not even 8 pm and I am considering heading to bed.  So much to do and so little free time. 







Wednesday, November 18, 2020

I Like Thursday #135

 Welcome to my little corner of the blogiverse and 135th I Like Thursday.  Thank you to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for encouraging us to find, and share a little brightness and positivity.

 I like that I am going to have 6 days off in a row.  I had to fight to get my vacation, but I feel bad because I know that out of the 5 other employees only one will end up working harder, but some times things have to fall apart for someone to take notice and make changes.  

I like my all purpose Thanksgiving decorations.  I am a purist.  I have to have Thanksgiving first before I start to think about Christmas.  My little pumpkins which were part of my Halloween decorations can be turned with their sweet sentiments and be part of my Thanksgiving decor.

I love my silly turkey which I made many years ago when my daughters were young.  

I love this little pumpkin tea light holder.  

I saw this meme and it made me laugh.



The weather has gotten cooler so I pulled out one of my favorite wool hats.  My cousin Hazel created the pattern based upon on of the Hupa Tribes motifs which are used as decorations on basketry, wood carvings, and clothing.

My books for the week were The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner.  Just after WWII an unlikely group of people in the village of Chawton band together to try to save a home that was one of the last that Jane Austen resided in.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book.


Due or Die is the 2nd installment in the Library Lover's Mystery by Jenn McKinlay.  Carrie Rushton the newly elected president of the Friends of the Library has been accused of murder.  Throw in an nor'easter and Lindsay is busy trying to clear Carrie, and solve where the puppy came from that was left in the book drop.  


Killing Trail by Margaret Mizushima book one of the Timber Creek K9 Mysteries.  Mattie Cobb and her dog Robo have been called in to track a killer.  What they discover is a partially buried body of a local teen and her Great Pyrenees is laying buy his former master and been shot.  With the help of Cole Walker the local veterinarian, and newly divorced single father will Mattie and Cole be able to locate the killer?  


Now head over to LeeAnna's at Not Afraid of Color and check out the other I like Thursday posts.   




 


Wednesday, November 11, 2020

I Like Thursday #134

Welcome to my 134th I Like Thursday post.  Thank you to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for encouraging me and others to find things to like and share during the week to bring a little sunshine, and happiness.  

While many of you have experienced snow.  we have had a beautiful week here.  

It sparkled in the sunshine and I love how that very top left hand quadrant was bright orange and it shaded to green .  

I was having a hard day walking into work one day and I saw this gift bag and I thought, wow I really needed that.


Speaking of work I love the Christmas decorations out already.  

The Christmas music, not so much.  

But while wandering through I saw a close out table and I found a gift for Bobbin.

A unicorn costume which was originally over $16 I got for $1.49.  I am so glad my dog is a good sport.

She ran around outside with it on for a while.  I can tuck it away for next year, I don't think she will be getting any bigger.  

Speaking of presents for Bobbin she was in need of a new collar.  I get my collars from a company called Abbey and Ella.  They are the normal nylon straps, but she covers them in fabric, and considering how much wear and tear they get Bobbin's lasted for about 9 months, recently her and the cats had a rumble playing and a hole developed in the fabric.  


Here is her new collar.  I purchased it at a boutique store, but I can also request specially made collars too, with certain colors.  

And here is Miss Bobbin modeling her new collar.  

I recently also purchased Miss Bobbin a new bed and moved the old one to the sunroom.  

She seems to like to snuggle down into it in the early mornings while I get ready for work. 

I love my  design wall.....

Until Bobbin gets rambunctious and runs into it full speed.  

*Note no quilt blocks were hurt in this accident, and neither was The Bobbin.

I love these hangers for my laundry room.  I wear tank tops or camisoles all year long, and I can hang

8 at least on one of these hangers.  Which means more space in my chest of drawers.  

I thought these dog Pajamas were so cute.  

My youngest daughter wants me to have a picture taken with Bobbin in front of a fireplace for Christmas cards.  ROFL.....Um me in buffalo plaid pajamas....I don't think the world is ready for that yet.  I know I am most certainly not. 

I like my little pumpkin wall hanging I made a few years ago.  

I only read a couple of books this week.  

Hokee Wolf by Clark Viehweg.  

I like what I term Native American literature whether it be a mystery or just a story.  Hokee is a private detective who is brought in my the local police in Pocatello, Idaho to assist in a bread truck heist.  The thing is the bread truck was carrying all the cash, travellers checks and credit card receipts from West Yellowstone and its businesses.  Throw in a beautiful New York new reporter and things get interesting.  There is a lot of mystical, shamanistic things going on in this book, so it was a tough read at times.  

The other book I read was Rosemary Remembered by Susan Wittig Albert.  China Bayles goes to pick up McQuaid's truck from Rosemary, their CPA, and China finds her dead.  What is concerning to McQuaid, is recently there is a prisoner released, and he has vowed to get even with McQuaid for sending him to prison.  Was Rosemary, who bears a striking resemblance to China mistakenly killed by Jacoby?  If so why is Rosemary's love interest missing and supposedly headed to Mexico?  


Now head over to LeeAnna's at Not Afraid of Color and check out the other I Like Thursday posts. 













Wednesday, November 4, 2020

I Like Thursday #133

 Welcome to my 133rd I Like Thursday post.  Thank you LeeAnna for encouraging us to find things we like during this crazy time in our world.  

I like prepping for future projects.  There are a couple of Halloween ones I would like to do so I have been buying some things for the embellishments.  

Some fun purple stars.

Candy Corn buttons.


The Beary BeWitching embellishment kit, there is  teeny tiny black cat sequins in there that is amazing. Someday I will sit down and quilt/sew the applique down. 

Bobbin has had an ear infection for over a month, which means a visit to the vet every two weeks.  With COVID I have to wait in the car.  Great time to work on binding while waiting.


I finally finished the binding on this piece.  Still working on the hanging sleeve though.


I like that I have many different options for skin repair.  Lately we have been having problems sourcing gloves at work, so they purchased some from a local company.  They have a powder in them and soon my hands were cracked and bleeding, not across the finger tips, or knuckles, but from my wrist up to my knuckles all the way across.  The powder would get into the fine lines in your hands, that even after washing, I couldn't get a band aid to stick.  My new boss looked at my hands and somewhere found some gloves and the next day brought me my own personal box to tide me over until the newer shipment came in.  

I have used the Aveeno Cracked Skin Relief CICA Balm, it is nice, and soothing, but it is very greasy so I felt like I was sitting for hours waiting for it to soak in.  I also bought some O'Keefe's Working Hands.  It too is very soothing and not quite as greasy.  

I like that on my day off I finished all the blocks for my Amish With a Twist.  

Sewing the rows together as you can see there are a lot of intersection seams to match.  So far I have the top two rows sewn together.  

Since you can only pin and match for so long, I grabbed another UFO, something that was black of course because I have black thread in my machine.  *Giggle*

My pineapple quilt.  This was a kit from Shabby Fabrics, I actually went to a Pineapple party at a local quilt shop and we all worked on pineapple quilts.  The fabrics are all Kaffe Fassett, one major problem though.  The instructions were to cut my fabric into 1 3/4 strips.  Which I did, but further down the instructions there is a note to cut four 2 1/2 x 4 inch strips.  Um I don't  have any fabric to do that.  Second problem watching the video for Shabby Fabrics there is a comment that there is plenty of fabric to fussy cut, so you can pull out the colors you want for that block.  Nope not true! 

Looking at this block, I ran out of fabric on the 3rd round and have 3 more rounds to go.  Kaffe Fassett fabrics used to be carried by Free Spirit, but it was purchased by Jaftex, so the fabrics may have changed a wee bit.  I did manage to find this one online so here is hoping I can finish this block.  



This block I think I can cheat to get the final corners on.  

I was excited to change out my Halloween Wall hanging for this sweet pumpkin wall hanging.  

My book picks for the week are A Distant Echo by Val McDermind.  A Barmaid is murdered, and a group of college boys have stumbled upon her body.  Even though they are never proven guilty, they live with the suspicion that they killed her.  Years later the men begin to die, in mysterious accidents one by one.  


My second book was One for the Books by Jenn McKinlay.  Briar Creek librarian Lindsay Norris and Mike (Sully) Sullivan are finally getting married.  But a number of things begin to go wrong.  Lindsay left the wrong list with the stationary shop, so unwittingly her small intimate wedding has grown by at least 3times.  Add to it the murder of the local justice of the peace who was supposed to officiate at their wedding  


Now head over to LeeAnna's at Not Afraid of Color and check out the other I Like Thursday posts.