I Like Thursday #59

Welcome to my 59th I like Thursday post.  Since I have been lax I have been stocking up and snapping away.  First I want to thank LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for encouraging us to find some things to like and share each week.

I don't watch much TV, but I will confess to binge watching 4 seasons of Outlander the past couple of weeks. 

I read the original book Outlander when it came out in 2004.  I am not much into romance, but I was on vacation and needed something to read and found it in a store in Flagstaff, and thought it sounded interesting.  I have read most of the other books, and I will admit this is a series I have revisited many times.  I was filled with trepidation when they announced that they were going to make a series of it on STARZ, but I decided to give it a chance when the series premiered in 2014. I will say that Diana Galbadon, the author is a consultant so it stays pretty true to the book.  Jeff scoffed at it, so it was my guilty pleasure when he was gone.  Then one day Jeff started watching, and was sucked in and he loved it as much as I did.  I hadn't the heart to watch it after he died.  I bought the first 3 seasons and they sat on my shelf for a few months.  I finally decided to watch, and got caught up with the last season on cable.  I am going to also confess I plan on going back and watching them again with the deleted scenes and commentary next.

I love the longer days, and a new visitor that seems to have joined my merry little band of birds.

A bluebird!  When I go out, he will come and sit nearby and just stare at me.  I thought it was interesting that I hear the cardinal but don't see him.  I hear him every morning (cardinals represent our loved ones that are gone) , but when I go out to drink my coffee on the porch the bluebird (signifies happiness, hope, knowledge and enlightenment)  makes an arrival while I sit, and give thanks for the new day.

With the warmer weather comes time to sit and sun.

The kids are already haranguing about the pool.  They sat and put their feet in yesterday.

With the warmer weather out come the classic cars.  Like those of us that get older they enjoy fair weather.  This one was getting a ride to a new home.  Oh Malibu!

I was out near the garden and spotted some rhubarb pushing its way through the dirt.  Imagine my delight, but a wee bit of sadness too.  Getting the rhubarb going was a fight--poor placement, drowning, and Conan the Plant Destroyer you can read about the trials of me growing anything here in that post from many years ago. 

and today after another gorgeous sunny day there were even more plants pushing through the ground, at least 9 or 10.  I just looked up, smiled and said, I know you did that for me didn't you?

Finally I am currently reading A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn.  I like a book with a mystery, adventure, a strong female character, maybe a little sexual tension and this one makes me laugh out loud. 

Set in Victorian England it is a fun read for me at least. 

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

Seriously I Have Been Doing Something Sewing Related

I haven't posted for a very long time.  So here is a quick catch up.  I have been doing some sewing honestly!

BOM from the LQS

Amish with a twist

This next one is called Kaleidoscope.  I am having challenges with this one.  When you get your block for the month you get a roll of fabric, and there is just enough to make your block.  Misread your pattern, or cut wrong and you are out of luck, because they had more people sign up than they were expecting there is no extra fabric.  Um lets just say that I have had 2 months that I have cut wrong and been on a search for matching fabrics.

This months block I cut this color wrong, the strips laying across the pile of green batiks.  So I had to go shopping and I chose online and several shops that specialize in batiks for my spree. 

 These are all from Batiks Plus which is out of Missouri.  I love that if you order a yard you get 40 inches, if you order 1/2 a yard you get 20 inches.  I also like that they always label the fabrics so you know which colors they are.

The above picture is what I ordered from Batiks Etcetera &Sew What Fabrics.  

I ordered 12 different fabrics and none of them are quite right.  I was told that it maybe an Anthology Batik and so may be hard to match because they know the line, it was created for Jacqueline De Jong, and they have noticed that the colors are drastically different between runs and the one they had in their store was more blues in it. Urgh!

At the Tuesday guild we are doing a bag lady quilt. My block with my fabrics.

The January bag I received.

February

March

Each of these blocks belong to a different lady and her fabric pull.

We are also doing some HST blocks.  But I have been working on my quilt math so I am doing flying geese, square in a square.  I broke into my stash of Bonnie and Camille to make these.

January I hadn't figure out how big the square in a square was yet.  But if you did a square in a square for the center, 4 flying geese, and 4 HST units it would be just as easy.

February I figured out how to do the flying geese instead and my block turned out the right size!

March.  This time I did use the square in a square, flying geese and HST.

I have also been fixing guild quilts that someone turned in and they are way too small.  So I am digging through the boxes trying to find fabrics that will work together and make odd sized quilts fit at least 36 X 60.

This one I added some muslin borders, and then found some fabric to make flying geese and then a floral border.

I have also been working on a label and binding for my quilt I brought back from the quilter in Oregon.  Maybe I will get that done this week.

I Like Thursday #58

Ever have nothing to say about anything? Not that there is nothing I like.  I just don't have much to say, or the things I really wished I could have got pics of I didn't get the opportunity.

There is a new member to the farm.  Her name is Dolly and she is a teacup pig.

I will say that Bobbin is not a fan of Miss Dolly.  Luckily for Bobbin the pig lives next door, she is a house pig.  She is potty pad trained.

Remember how when we were traveling that Bobbin would just plop in other dog's beds?

Well Dolly did that to Bobbin--in Bobbin's bed!  Oh no!  Bobbin was definitely not amused.

I have a confused Christmas cactus that I struggled to keep alive. Suddenly it is blooming, and so is the poinsettia.

I discovered that my plants do awesome on the sun porch if I remember to water them.

I finally figured out the last time I got a new flock of Buff Orpingtons.  They were new in 2016, which means that my flock has 3 year olds, and the Silver Laced Wyandottes are 1 year old.  I decided I would go back to the Buff Orpingtons.  Meet the 2019 girls.

 Here in this picture they are 1 day old.  They arrive in the mail, and I pick them up at the post office.  We had a few cases of pasty butt the other day, which meant chicks in the kitchen sink to clean up their bums.  But all are doing better now, and they are getting tail feathers, and wing feathers already.  They are so cute.

I love old stoves, things that we take for granted, always wanting newer, modern, more features, but it is funny that in many ways these were so much better.  This one was at the European market that I like to shop.

Finally I am always taken aback when things just appear on my farm out of nowhere.  The newest item?

A bicycle type planter.  I think the kids may have found it when they were doing clean ups on abandoned properties. 

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

I Like Thursday #57

I am back!  Did you miss me?  Life got a wee bit out of control.  A plane trip to Oregon at the last minute, a run away dog, and trying to get things in order once I returned have been quite overwhelming.  I think I am kind of ready for an I Like Thursday post.  Sorry it will be short and sweet. 

I like surprise birthday wishes from quilty friends. 

 A panel with chickens from Dawn.

Hot pads, and a casserole hot pad from No Blog Jacky! 

A card, and some candies.

I love smarties!  Don't you?

And scraps.

I like shamrocks.  I had one that kind of died.  I bought a couple of new ones. 

In all the cold weather I liked looking over and spying a shiny rock around my little pond.

It made me smile.  I guess I never realized it had the shiny flecks in it.

I like going to Portland, but it just doesn't feel quite like home anymore.  Seeing the Portland sign though makes me smile.

I like experimenting and I love Middle Eastern food.  My favorite is toum which is a garlic type paste you can spread on pita.

Yep the recipe I had makes a lot.  Lucky for me it will last for up to a month.

Finally I am reading Mortal Fall which is the 2nd in the Glacier series by Christine Carbo.

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

Show Your Wings Blog Hop Day 2

If you are looking for the bloggers for day 2 of the Show Your wings blog hop, below is the list.  Visit their blogs and show them some love.

February 19

Patchouli Moon Studio

Vroomans Quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Songbird Designs

Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales

Kathleen McMusing

Life in the Scrapatch

DesertSky Quilting

Clever Chameleon Quilting

Show Your Wings Blog Hop Day 1

Welcome to day one of the Show Your Wings Blog Hop hosted the awesome Carol of Just Let Me Quilt.

February 18

What About Rheema?

Hill Valley Quilter

Nutz For Redwork

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Melva Loves Scraps

Creative Blonde

Keepsake Moments

Whims And Fancies

Quilt n Party

                                                                    Seams To Be Sew

 The parameters of the hop was your project has to have something to do with wings or something that flies. 

Flying geese

Birds of any kind

Butterflies or dragonflies

Airplanes or helicopters

Fairies or dragons

So many options and a great way to push me to work on some kits that I have been laying around for the past year or more.   

The past 2 years one of the LQS has a Christmas type table runner and each year I have purchased the kits because they have featured one of my favorite things.  Birds.

The 2017 table runner was called All Squared Up by Cut Loose Press.  

I loved the cute little birds and the houses.

Cardinals in a block that say Heaven & Nature which reminds me of the carol Joy to the World.

Little bird houses, and other stylized birds.

Even the back is cute cardinals.  I miscut the back so I used some scraps to make it the right size.   The quilting was just straight line, stitch in the ditch.  I tried something new using a medium weight interfacing.  I also made single fold binding.

The 2018 table runner was called Snowball Table Runner.  I loved the little chickadees.

I fussy cut the birds from yardage.  The only down side to this kit was that the red was not big enough to make the number of squares that I needed so I had to go and match something from my stash to make enough 9 patches.

Fabric that came with the kit.

Fabric from my stash.

Comparison.

I tried to quilt on one machine.  It wasn't working good. Translate to tear out some really bad quilting.

I tried the quilting machine.  With the medium weight interfacing it too didn't work so well. Let's tear out quilting for the 2nd time.

Finally I pulled out a model 66 that Jeff had retrofitted for me to use to quilt.  Recently I have been really cleaning my house and putting things away.  I could not find any of the supreme sliders that I own.  I read somewhere that you can use a teflon sheet, and I recently had purchased a 10 pack to do applique with.  I took on, I measured it, cut a needle hole, and used some painter's tape to hold it down.  I only found a small bit of tape.  I taped it down, got my tension set, and started sewing.  And discovered my tiny bit of tape didn't hold, and I had quilted the teflon sheet to the back of my table runner.  So tear out for the 3rd time at least....and look for one of the bazillion rolls of painter's tape that I know I own.  Imagine me finding the tape that I was looking for.....for hours..... sitting on top of the machine case right on the table.  URGH!

 My quilting is not perfect but done is better than nothing. 

 I love the backing, and the border fabric with the metallic, it makes the piece so rich looking.  I have also got so I can do a killer single fold binding

Finally my last project was a kit I bought over 1 1/2 years ago.  I remember that it was a kit created by Moda.  I got the applique' done, stitched down, and started working on the quilting using a specialty holographic thread. 

 I have seen reviews for this item called a Thread Director to use with metallics and I will say so far with my Husquvarna Viking Sapphire 855 it works awesome.

I didn't finish after about 12 hours of working, but a couple of hours a day the quilting will be done in the next week.  Using the holographic thread is a slow go, but the results are awesome.

The piece says, "What Good Are Wings Without The Courage to Fly?"

Thanks for visiting, and now head over and check out the other blogs for today--you can find the links above.  Then come back and see the rest of the bloggers that are participating the rest of the days of the week.

February 19

Patchouli Moon Studio

Vroomans Quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Songbird Designs

Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales

Sew Many Yarns

Kathleen McMusing

Life in the Scrapatch

DesertSky Quilting

Clever Chameleon Quilting

February 20

Creatin' in the Sticks

MooseStashQuilting

The Joyful Quilter

Home Sewn By Us

Selina Quilts

Websterquilt

Beaquilter

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Ms P Designs USA

Bumbleberry Stitches

Mageez Room

February 21

Just Let Me Quilt

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Sew Fresh Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

Words & Stitches

All Thingz Sewn

Kathy’s Quilts

For The Love Of Geese

Two Maker Chicks

madeNcorrea
That Fabric Feeling