163 I Like Thursday Posts

 Welcome to my 163rd I like Thursday post.  Thank you to LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color for encouraging us to find things we like/and or love and to share during the week.  Seem like the weeks are flying by lately.  Work, gardening, the cold weather, just trying to keep up with house keeping, laundry, cooking, the chickens, the cats and life is full. 

All the cats have been spayed or neutered so they are all outside now.  It is kind of funny that they have staked out their specific territories.  

Ashes likes the barn door.  She guards that territory to make sure that the Rogue Chicken doesn't go in and eat the cat food.  

Haze likes the area by the other barn and Roscoe the pigs pen.

You can see haze near the truck. 

Girl cat guards the back porch and stairs.  Bobbin is tentative to head down the steps because she never knows if girl cat is going to grab her from underneath.  

Then there is boy. He is a brute.  He is also the worst feral cat ever!  He loves to sit on your lap, even though he doesn't seen to understand that he should retract his claws.  

I decided I wanted to work on a different project so I went on a hunt for my black thread.  I found it.  Covered in Bobbin hair.  Seriously I wonder how my dog can have any hair left on her body with as much as she leaves behind.

I finally had a finish, of sorts.  I had a garbage bag full of 30's reproduction fabrics which was given to me by one of the ladies I sew with on Tuesdays.  We haven't been together for over a year now, I miss the old ladies.  I decided I wanted to do a Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Trips quilt from the fabric.  I finally got it all cut into 2 1/2 inch strips.

I would say that the garbage bag was a tall kitchen garbage bag and was 1/3-1/2 full. 

It is funny when you look at people's fabric choices.  Most of these are green, pink, or red.  I threw some solids in that match a bit.  I am wondering if I should add some 30's reproduction fabrics which are purple or just use these colors.  

I don't know about you, but do you have a surface in your house that everything lands on?  Mine is my kitchen island.  I try to keep it neat, but quickly it becomes piled with mail, batteries, pens, pencils, snacks, and other debris. I saw this 2 tier rack at Tractor Supply and thought it would work perfectly.

I will say that I can lay my hands on stuff much quicker now.  It would help if I didn't have such picky houseplants.  It gets too light and hot on the sun porch, so I have several plants that seem to like the light that comes through the tall thin window in the kitchen.   Sigh. 

Back to the reason why I needed my black thread.  I wanted to work on my pineapple quilt.  The last time I shared it I had finished the yellow row and had laid it out dark to light, in December.

In December I made a couple green blocks then set it aside.  Here are my green blocks so far.

Then I came to a screaming halt.  I didn't like the next fabric that was with the kit.

 

When inventorying the fabrics with the kit I new I didn't have enough of a couple so I went shopping (online) and I discovered this green I thought I would try instead.

I think it would be better.  I have one green block to make, and I have the blue, blocks all cut out and ready to sew, and the purple fabric prepped so that I can cut. 

I will need to take a picture with my cell phone so I can do it in gray shades to arrange the blocks light to dark.  

Saturday the 22nd of May my family had an 80th birthday party for my dad.  Unfortunately I could not attend since it was in Oregon, and my family home.  During the party my dad said he didn't feel well and actually went and climbed into bed.  My mom said in the middle of the night he started shivering like he was extremely cold.  She tried to get him to put his wool socks on but he refused.  He then started to get sick to his stomach.  He finally fell asleep in his recliner.  

I spoke to my mom, the next day, and she said he had only been up a couple of times, refused to eat or drink.  The next morning my sister questioned my mom about him still being in bed.  When she checked on him, he was unresponsive.  The ambulance came and took him to the hospital.  He was initially placed in an isolation ward until he was cleared of COVID. He was then put into ICU.  He has a kidney infection, infection in the tissue surrounding his kidneys, a blood infection, something going on with his heart, and a bunch of kidney stones.  He was in ICU until Saturday, they are trying to get his infections under control.  Once the infection is completely gone, he will have his kidney stones removed and then have to go to rehabilitation since him being ill so long, and his age he becomes a fall risk, and will need to build his strength and muscle while supervised.  It has been a stressful 12 days.  My parents were supposed to meet me in California at the end of the month, but that won't be happening.  I have been very fortunate that my parents are still alive, and know that sooner or later I will lose them.  I know that each time I see them the likelihood of me seeing them again becomes smaller and smaller.  I will be going to visit them at the end of the month. 

My books for the week....

A Study in Death by Anna Lee Huber which is the 4th book in the Lady Darby Mysteries.  

Kiera is commissioned to paint a picture of Lady Drummond who dies suddenly.  The doctor's diagnosis of apoplexy is not acceptable to Kiera, especially after recently witnessing Lady Drummond's abuse at the hands of her husband.  

As Death Draws Near is the 5th book in the Lady Darby Series.  Kiera and Sebastian are now married, their honeymoon cut short when sent to Ireland to investigate the death of a distant relative of the Duke of Wellington at an abbey.  Kiera and Sebastian are thrown into the middle of the dangerous religious and political intrigue of Ireland at the time.

House Party Murder Rap by Sonia Parin.  The book takes place in 1920's England.  Evie Parker the young widow of the Count of Woodbridge has been invited to the Duke of Hetherington's house party, but on her way, Evie's car is shot at.  Evie's new Chauffeur is more than he appears.  Who is trying to kill Evie and why?

Murder on Black Friday by PB Ryan is the 4th book in the Nell Sweeney series.  Black Friday in  1869 during the gold market crash, which was caused by speculation.  When one of Boston's and one of the up and coming, nouveau rich are both discovered dead by their own hands after the crash, Will Hewitt is curious after the post mortem.  Nell and Will begin to investigate and many secrets will be exposed.  

The Irish Inheritance by M J Lee is a Jayne Sinclair Genealogical Mystery.  Former DCI Jayne Sinclair is hired to look for the father of an 80 year old business man who is dying of cancer.  With only a picture of the man when he was adopted and brought to the US, and a book Jayne unravels the past during the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence. 

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