I Like Thursday #500

Post #500 in this series - wow!  Thank you, LeeAnna, for hosting this enjoyable weekly group.   I usually think about and collect ideas for this post all week.  It has made me pay closer attention to the good things in my life.

Things like getting a new garage door opener!  👍  We've had to haul it up and down manually for two weeks.  (Poor us...:)  What a nice treat to just push a button once again!  It's sort of space age looking, lol!

I have enjoyed working on this sunflower design this week.  I really like the look of the center of the flower.  There's still a border to stitch all the way around, but that should go quickly.

A friend served me this flavored sparkling water the other day, and I really liked it.  So I bought some for our house, and have been enjoying a cold, fizzy drink in the afternoon.

I loved this book!  Such a good story.  It's historical fiction, set in 1920, about the first group of women to be admitted to Oxford University.  There are four main characters that you get to know as the book goes on - and lots of interesting things about their lives.

LeeAnna's question of the week is- what has been the highlight of your week?  And I have to say, the highlight is coming up and hasn't happened quite yet.  But here's a hint!  

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

Midweek Update

Over the weekend I continued on working on a little of this and a little of that - mostly with my purple scraps.  I got out the gameboard blocks to do a little assessment of where I am with those.  I had planned to make 30 of them and there are now 25.  Three of each color except purple (two there) and light neutrals (only one).  I've been thinking a 5 x 6 layout would make a nice smallish quilt for donation - just have to decide on the layout.

That lead to making the center 16 patch for another purple block!

While still looking at my purple scraps, I came up with a plan for this month's scrappy placemat, too.  Hoping to have a finish to share on Saturday!

And I've made a couple more blocks for Melva's Irish Chain sew-along.  I like cutting a little and sewing a little, so that's what's happening here.  I'm up to six blocks now, with a goal of nine total for a tabletopper.

There's some scrappy fun! 

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

It's September!

When the calendar turned over to September on Tuesday, I got out my apple things for the little chest of drawers display.

I don’t have any apple themed bowl fillers, but I did fully finish the apple mini sampler that stitched last year.

Meanwhile, this sunflower is starting to bloom!

I also got the fourth seasonal design from Gail Pan's book, Changing Seasons, traced and ready to stitch.  I knew I wanted a variegated floss with browns and oranges for this one, so I stopped by my LQS on Friday afternoon to see what they had.  There were two choices, so I got one of each!  (I'll use both of them eventually!)  One has a little more orange in it, the other is a little more brown.

This is what I'll be working on for my Slow Sunday Stitching.

Linking up at Kathy's Quilts! 

Getting started with purple...

After the big push to finish up Patchwork Hearts, it has been nice and relaxing to go back to just playing with scraps!  I dug into my stash and pulled out all the purple I could find.  At the beginning of the month, I'm always looking at these with the viewpoint of what will work for each of my current projects.

I find purple really hard to photograph - as in, 

these are much prettier in person!

I started with the Jacob's Ladder blocks because they require the largest chunks of fabric.  First made was this combination - I love that floral print!

Pretty soon there were two!

Of course, I just had to lay out a grouping of them together.  I've made 18 blocks now, but for this photo I left out two - a very light blue and a brown one.  They don't quite fit in with this layout.  I'm going to have to figure out what to make for the last few blocks that will work with this layout.

In the category of "not purple, but still scrappy," along the way, I made a couple more blocks for the Lala's Irish Chain QAL, hosted by Melva over at Melva Loves Scraps.  I used these as leader/enders in between rows of the Jacob's Ladder blocks.

I think that blue bubble print is going to work for the chain!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday 

 

I Like Thursday #499

Did you get to see the lunar eclipse last week?  Younger son was following it with his smart telescope and got some great images of it, including a time lapse video, and this photo.

My sister gave me a bunch of her tomatoes and Mike had peppers from his garden, so we made fresh Pico de Gallo.  Yum!

I checked this book out of the library this week.  It's fascinating to follow Dolly Parton through the years of her career by looking at the costumes she wore.  I think she was an amazing inspiration for being who you are, no matter what other people think!

There's a whole section about the jumpsuits she wore for concerts and their bell bottom pant legs.  I got a kick out of this photo of her rainbow of "bells!"  She started out with a friend sewing these for her.  

LeeAnna's question of the week is about summer - I know it's the end of summer when...

the light starts to change.  Not just darker mornings and earlier evenings, but the angle of it changes.  It comes in different windows than it has all summer.  In our house it's the back porch window.  By the end of this month, I'll have to start closing those blinds because of the sun.

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

Finally Finished!

Patchwork Hearts!

I was looking back on my blog and photos and found this in January of 2024.  I think I made the red and blue hearts in December of 2023 just to see how the block would turn out and then added the 4 patch alternate blocks in 2024.  January of 2024's RSC color must have been green.

I ended up not liking the green heart with both darks and lights in it, so remade them into two separate hearts later in the year.

Much better!

After making all the blocks that first year, 2025 was spent figuring out a layout and sewing the blocks into rows, then prepping each row for quilting.  I liked the quilt-as-you-go process for the ease of quilting each row individually.

This year I continued quilting and figured out how I was going to connect the rows after quilting was completed.  That has worked out worked pretty well, too.  I kept the excess batting and trimmed the backing so that it would work for the back connection, and then sewed on a narrow light neutral sashing strip to cover that join on the front.  That required some top-stitching and quilting to finish, which was probably the hardest part of the whole project.

But it's done now!

A rainbow of fun color and lots of scraps make my heart happy!

Thank you to all my blogging friends for all the encouragement along the way!

Sharing at:

The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss 

Quilting Learning Combo for I Quilted This! 

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday

And at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! 

Slow stitching for a Sunday

For most of this week I've focused on the Sunflower Sampler from Melisa at PinkernPunkin.  I enjoyed stitching the alphabet, and got some of the sunflower - stem and partial leaves - completed.

Until Friday, when I got the binding machine sewn onto the front of Patchwork Hearts, and started hand sewing it down to the back.  There's 250 inches of binding to stitch on this quilt, and I've done one side (65 inches), so there's a ways to go yet.

This will keep me busy for Slow Sunday Stitching!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.