I Like Thursday #405

Hello, and happy Thursday, friends!  Can you guess where I am?  

The view was a bit different than the last time we visited this amazing place, but we enjoyed it just as much!

Have a wonderful day!

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

 

Pieces of My Life QAL - Noon and Night

I wasn't sure I could get it done before we left on our trip, but I did!  "It" is the next block of Melva's QAL called "Noon and Night."  There are a lot of half square triangles in this one - lots of cutting, sewing, and trimming.  

And a fairly complicated layout to keep track of while sewing, but I managed to keep everything straight.   Such a pretty block!  The two main prints - the blue and turquoise - came from a scrap bundle I purchased over in Grand Junction a couple weeks ago.  I thought they might work together in this block - the same print of fabric, but different shades.

With this block, we're focusing on our early years as a married couple.  What was it like, adjusting to living together?  I've been thinking about that as I worked on this block.  And I have to say I don't remember it being a hard adjustment.  Although I had been living with my college roommates,  I had spent a fair amount of time at Mike's (soon to be our) apartment, so we were very comfortable shopping, cooking, eating meals, and all that typical stuff.  

I would do my homework for classes while he watched football or basketball games on Sunday afternoons, and whenever we had a free day we went skiing!  That was one of our favorite pastimes, and it was pretty affordable back then, too.   I could not think where there might be a picture from back in those days of us skiing, so don't have one to share.  I guess we didn't carry a tiny phone with a camera in it everywhere we went back in the 1970s!

So I also picked the fabric for this block because the print on it reminded me of snowflakes!

After I graduated from CSU, we moved here to Loveland, and lived in another apartment for about a year.  Then we bought our house, where we still live today - 47 years later! 

We joke that we bought a brand new house and it turned into a fixer-upper!  We've done many of the usual things - replaced windows, the roof (twice!), and repainted, changed the landscaping numerous times, and the trees have definitely grown.   And about 1985, we built an addition on the back of the house.  It expanded us from two to three bedrooms, and gave us a dining/family room.  Very helpful space with two growing boys!  (But I'll save those stories for another post!) 

Home Sweet Home!

Sharing at Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers. 

Sampler September

I still feel relatively new to the world of cross-stitching, so didn't catch on until just recently that there is a thing called "Sampler September!"  Fortunately I was already working on one of the mini samplers that I enjoy inspired by all the bee activity around our newly blooming sunflowers. 

We're pretty sure this is a wasp in the photo here, 

but they're pollinators, too, right?!

The bees in this sampler are much cuter!  This is the Little Bee Sampler from Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting.  

After finishing that one, there was time to start a new mini sampler, and since it's September, and I'm a retired teacher, I decided on the Little Red Schoolhouse Mini Sampler.   Check out Melisa's adorable finished piece at the link.  I have just gotten started on it, but you can see the little red schoolhouse starting to emerge!

Plenty more to do!  Thank you, Melisa, for keeping me in stitches!

We're going out of town this coming week, and I think this will make some good travel stitching.   I'll work on it today, too, for my Slow Sunday Stitching!  Linking up at Kathy's Quilts. 

 

 

A Heart for Fall

I do love fall, and even if it isn't officially here yet, I was happy to dig up some fall fabrics and start working on a patchwork heart.  I had a basket of fall prints picked out for Cynthia's block drive earlier in the summer, so I pulled it back out and started sorting.

Darker browns and lighter sandy golds.

It didn't take long to get the pieces cut and parts made for a fall heart in dark browns.

I got the alternate block sewn up, too!

Here they all are.  I just need four more blocks for a 60 x 60 quilt. 

I think I'll make a heart and a chain block from the sandy gold pile,

and then dig back into my blue scraps.  Hopefully I can find some that are a medium blue - not too light and not too dark!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Sew and Tell Monday at Melva Loves Scraps.

I Like Thursday #404

Good morning!  I really enjoy being the first one up most mornings, and starting the day quietly with my coffee, and sometimes a treat.  I made some muffins this week using a basic muffin recipe and adding some shredded zucchini and chocolate chips.  They were good, but pretty dense.  I'm wondering now if they needed more liquid because of the zucchini.  Baker friends, what do you think?

The sunflowers are getting prettier and prettier as more blooms open!

I'm so proud of my pumpkin harvest this year - I got four of them, lol!  They're small, but I might be able to get some pumpkin out of them to bake with.  I'll try that later in the month.

I just finished this book, and really enjoyed it.  Apparently it is Elin Hilderbrand's last book set on Nantucket which makes me kind of sad - I've enjoyed reading them.  I bet I haven't read them all, though - I'll have to go back and look for ones I've missed.

LeeAnna recommended this series last week, and since we have Acorn TV again, we decided to try it.  It's really good, and has one of our favorite actors as the main character - Sanjeev Baskar.   He has been in other shows that we really like, including "Unforgotten" on PBS, and played the young singer's dad in "Yesterday."

Thanks for the recommendation, LeeAnna!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about how we help ourselves maintain a level mood.  That is an interesting question, and one I had to think about for awhile.  I'm not a moody person, and am generally pretty positive and optimistic about life.  But I am also a person who likes routine, and when my routine gets messed up, I definitely start to feel off-kilter and that affects my outlook.  So... what helps?

• Escaping into a good book. (See above!)
• Fabric fondling.  Or an hour in my sewing room, if possible.

• A walk, either with Mike or a friend.  Exercise combined with someone to talk to makes a huge difference in my mood.

What helps you when you get off-kilter?  I'll be interested to know!  Have a great Thursday!  Joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.

Pieces of My Life - Chimney and Cornerstone

I just finished up the next block for Melva's Pieces of My Life QAL, and here it is!  I've enjoyed making each block so far, and it was the same for this one.  Choosing scraps, figuring out their placement, sewing, pressing, and doing it again until finished - my favorite things to do!

When Mike and I first met, he had just gotten out of the Navy a few months before, and he worked at Kodak in Windsor, Colorado, and lived in an apartment near his work.  I was in college at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, so eventually he moved there, so we could be in the same city before we got married.  After we were married, in January of 1976, I moved into this cute little place where he had moved in the months prior.

This is a screen shot from Google Maps.  We lived in the left side of the little duplex, and the owner's elderly mom lived in the other side.  We took the rent money over to her every month - I think it was $200!  We had one bedroom, one bath, a tiny kitchen, and a living room.  It seemed old back then - and that was almost 49 years ago!

Mike continued to work at Kodak - in fact he worked there his whole career - and I finished my last semester at CSU.  We only owned one car, so I rode my bike or walked to school.  (Although, Mike will be quick to tell you that I did drive the car to campus a few times and ended up with some parking tickets... I couldn't get my diploma after graduation until I paid them off!  Oops!)

Once I graduated, we moved to Loveland - just down the road about 10 miles.  That was where my family lived, and we still live here today, although my siblings are spread out around the country now.

This week I also got around to sandwiching the second section of the quilt top with its batting and backing, and started on the quilting, too.  

Lots more to do!

Sharing at Sew and Tell Monday at Melva Loves Scraps.

And at Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.