I Like Thursday #410

Do you read the comics in the newspaper?  I have several that I enjoy every day, and one is "Pearls Before Swine."  This one made me laugh because I, too, actually like the buttered popcorn Jelly Bellies! 

I got out a few Halloween decorations out this week for the entry way chest.  I don't decorate in a big way, but these are fun!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about carving pumpkins, which I love to do, and have loved all my life.  I found an old picture of my siblings and I with my dad, all working hard on our pumpkins.

I don't carve one every year anymore, but I did do one in 2020.

Lol!

Nowadays, I'm more likely to stitch a pumpkin, which is what I was doing last night.  This is Melisa's Pumpkin Basket.   A teeny tiny pumpkin!

Hope you're having a great week!

Joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.

Midweek Makers

My sewing brain seems to be pulled in multiple directions this week - all good, but lots to do!  Carole, at From My Carolina Home, is hosting an event called Fall Fortnight over on her blog, and of course there is a little quilt project I can't resist.  You can see the project at the link above.  

Carole's version is Thanksgiving themed with appliqued wool pumpkins, but I ended up being inspired by some yardage of a sunflower print that I purchased back in August at a quilt shop over in Grand Junction, Colorado.  The background will be the cream with gold stars that came in Nann's box of goodies a while back.  Thank you, Nann! 

Some border fabrics are needed - something that coordinates with the sunflowers.  

I'm still thinking about that!

I starred by making some of the flying geese that are needed.  The center will be this sunflower design by Melisa of PinkernPunkin Quilting that I'll hand embroider.

I still need to get that traced for embroidering, and when I do, I'm going to leave the August part off.  Those happy sunflowers in the wheelbarrow with their bird friends should be perfect in the center surrounded by the flying geese!

But there are some other current works-in-progress that also need some attention this week.  I would like to finish up the last two blocks that are needed for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge patchwork hearts project.  The final heart is on its way - these rows work well as leaders and enders when sewing on other things.

It's also time to finish up the quilting on section 2 of the Pieces of My Life QAL, and get the section 3 blocks sewn together and ready to quilt as well.  

But, first on today's agenda is to say Happy Birthday to my dear husband!  He wanted to play a round of golf and grill some steaks for dinner.  So that's what we'll do!

Linking up with Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

Moving Along

The last time I shared the hand-pieced Hollow 9 patch project, I had sewn the blocks into four sections.  That was at the end of August!  This week I pulled those sections back out and stitched them together into a small flimsy - 24 inches square.

I found a backing piece in the box of goodies Nann sent me.  It's a pretty floral with tiny bouquets of pink and purple flowers.  It required a couple seams to bring it to the right size/shape for the backing, but that didn't take too long.

I've been in the mood for a hand-quilting project for awhile, so it was really enjoyable to get started on it on Thursday night.  It's such a treat to stitch along and look at each scrappy square!  I'm using white 12 wt. Perle cotton for the thread.

Stars, hearts, seagulls, clouds, even cats!

Sharing at all my favorite weekend parties:

SoScrappy

Quilting is More Fun than Housework and

Kathy's Quilts - because this will be my Slow Sunday stitching!

Melva Loves Scraps

 

I Like Thursday #409

I've been baking again this week!  After making all that applesauce over the weekend, I decided to see what I could make out of it, and found this recipe for Applesauce Cake.  It is yummy!   I substituted chocolate chips for the raisins - that works just fine.  Interestingly, there are no eggs in this cake.  Googling that, it turns out that applesauce can be a substitute for eggs! I'd never heard that before.

This is like a snack cake - no frosting - but very moist.

It's good with morning coffee!

My flower garden is pretty much done, but the sunflowers decided to put out a last hurrah!  I was just about to pull them out the other day when we were doing some yard clean-up, but realized there were buds on them.

Judy sent me a fun surprise package in the mail last week.  She made these neat little fabric baskets that start out flat, but snap together in the corners to make a little basket.  Pretty fall fabrics, too!  Thank you, Judy!

I read the best book this last week - The Music of Bees, by Eileen Garvin.  Same author as Crow Talk which I read back in August.  She is really good at creating a story with characters you care about and adding science into it.  This book is about a beekeeper, so lots of fascinating information about bees.

LeeAnna's question of the week is about hay rides - have we taken one? did we enjoy it?  And I'm not sure I have ever been on an actual hay ride.  I did ride in a parade in a wagon filled with hay bales for us to sit on.  It was a float in a local parade with our Cub Scout pack.  I actually found a picture from back then!  Being in a parade was kind of fun - different than watching from the sidelines, that's for sure.

Hope you're having a great week!  Joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.

Midweek Makers

Block 19 for Melva's Pieces of My Life QAL is called Rough Road.  Looking at the group of blocks that I've made so far, I decided I needed more red in this quilt, so that determined my fabric choices.  

Melva said in her post that the focus of this block and post is family and travel, which in our household went hand in hand as the kids were growing up!  We have two sons, both born in the 1980s.  Our oldest son loved maps when he was growing up (still does!) so he was always planning out places for us to go.  When my parents bought their winter home in Mesa, Arizona, in 1982, that became a frequent Spring Break destination for us.  Other road trip destinations included Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, and the Pacific Northwest.

But the ultimate road trip for us was a trip to Washington, D.C., in 1993.  I talked about my dad passing away in 1992 in my last Pieces post.  He left us some money which we decided to use for two things - this trip to D.C. and to pay my tuition to go to graduate school.  We also had a fairly new Dodge mini-van which we knew would be perfect for taking a long road trip.

And we had a blast!  We planned out stops along the way that were about every half day.  We stopped in St. Louis and went up in the Gateway Arch, and put our toes in the Mississippi River.  We toured the Corvette factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and watched fireflies by the river in Charleston, W. Virginia.  (We don't have them out here in Colorado.  We stayed with friends in Manassasas, Virginia, and took the Metro rail into the city every day, and visited all the monuments and memorials and important buildings.

A very special stop was the Vietnam Veterans Wall, because Mike is a Vietnam veteran and his best friend in high school died there.  We were able to find out where Dennis' name is on the Wall and go to that section to see it.  It's a very moving experience.

We took a northern route home, stopping at the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and visiting friends in Michigan who took us for a boat ride on Lake Michigan, and stayed in downtown Chicago in a high rise hotel with a roof top pool!  

Of course, there were a few "rough roads" along the way!  Younger son got sick and we had to find an urgent care to help us out.  When driving into Chicago, we took a wrong turn and got into a part of town that we didn't really want to be in.  And on the way home our route got diverted from our plan because the Mississippi was flooding and we couldn't cross where we had originally planned.  But we eventually arrived back home, very tired of driving, but full of memories.  This map is in the front of the photograph album I made of the trip.

4,326 miles!

These days instead of traveling with our kids, we are more likely to travel to see them.  But they are going on road trips of their own - and so are we!  

Linking up with Melva for Block 19

and at Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

Slow Sunday Stitching

This week I finished up the September heart for my Year of Hearts project, hosted by Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting.  It was a pleasure to stitch and I think it turned out so cute!  At the link ⬆️ to Melisa's post, you will find the new October heart and some bonus blocks, too, as well as the hearts from all the previous months.  

Remember the tiny apple I shared last week?  I had my tall son pick a basket full of them so that I could make some applesauce.

I cooked them down until they were soft and used my mom's (vintage now!) food mill to make the applesauce.

That basket of apples made quite a bit of applesauce, and it turned out yummy.  No sugar needed at all, just season to taste with some cinnamon.

I've stitched ten of the heart blocks now, a sweet group of blocks!

What will I stitch on today for my slow Sunday stitching?  It's time for the October section of the Kathy Schmitz Woven Wreaths project.  It's a jack o'lantern filled with oak leaves and blueberries - should be fun to work on!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Bits and Pieces

My September darks and October lights are finished for the patchwork heart project.  It has been really enjoyable to work with fall colors - browns, tans, golds, and whatever else fit in!

This group of blocks still needs one more heart and one more alternate block.  So I decided to make an additional four patch block in greens since there are two green hearts.  The four patches are made for it.  I used some very light greens for this one.

And then it was decision making time for the final heart.  And here's what I came up with -  a very random mixture of all the colors!  I'm seeing this as the center heart with all the other colors coming out from it.  It's not sewn together yet, but you can get the idea.  Those HSTs that look black are actually a dark green.

Hopefully in the next week, I can get these last two blocks sewn up and try some layout ideas for these blocks!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Sew and Tell Monday at Melva Loves Scraps