I Like Thursday #343

 How was your 4th of July?  Hope you enjoyed it, however you spent it.  Ours was stormy!  The weather folks were predicting *massive* storms, and Mike and I were joking about them not materializing... until they did!  (About 5:30)  We had another round later in the evening, and overnight about 2:30 in the morning Wednesday.  We are soaked!

Flooding?!

We did have a nice afternoon for taking Mom for ice cream, though.   I think she enjoyed it!  We both had Butterfinger ice cream - yum!

My little garden is happy!

On the left are miniature pumpkins, and the right vine is cucumbers.  Both have blossoms and babies on them.    In the back are the green beans which are just blossoming now.  My tomatoes are in pots elsewhere, but they're setting fruit, too.

I've been enjoying the latest book in the Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito series by Anne Hillerman.  Anne Hillerman continued her father, Tony's, best-selling series that he wrote from 1970 - 2006.  I'm pretty sure I've read them all.  

Goodreads

Unfortunately, as I was planning and writing this post this morning (Wednesday), we got the news that my husband's sister, Sandie, passed away.  She was just 18 months younger than Mike - only 71 - so they were pretty close.  She will be missed so much.  Hug your loved ones for me - sometimes life seems too short.

I love this picture of my sister-in-law- 

she was in her happy place, her son's boat!  💖

Sharing at I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.

Happy 4th of July!

 and a few to-dos... for To-Do Tuesday #187

Today's to-dos include taking my mom out for an ice cream cone, having hotdogs and potato salad for supper out on the back porch, and walking down to our city park to watch the fireworks.  My favorite way to spend this holiday!

Meanwhile, in the sewing room... I did manage to get Rainbow Neighbourhood sandwiched and spray basted so that I can get started on quilting it.  That feels like a big accomplishment!

I also continued making leaf blocks for Positivity and another block for Scrap Dance Quadrille.  See my post about those projects here. 

*Those two projects will stay on my list this week, but I'm going to try to stay focused on quilting Rainbow Neighbourhood.  

*The color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for July is red, so playing with red scraps is also on the list.  Since my sewing machine will be used for quilting this week, I've prepped some red pieces for hand-piecing the bowtie blocks I've been working on throughout the year, and will include them in my evening slow stitching.

Have a great week, everyone!

Linking up with Carol and friends at Quilt Schmilt for To-DoTuesday.

A little cross-stitching...

 After the lemons were stitched last week...

instead of tracing another embroidery design, I decided to do a little cross-stitching.  Melisa so generously shares her little designs that are fun and easy for me to stitch, so I thought, "Why not!"  This is Melisa's Summer Stamp.  I love sunflowers - they really say summer to me!

Previously, I have stitched three of her Spring Stamps from the SAL, and I just finished up two of them.

I decided I would try to fill up this wooden bowl with little cross-stitched pillows.  Three isn't really enough, so right now they're propped up by some pincushions.  But it will be fun stitching up more little designs.

Next I want to do this one.  Perfect for 4th of July week!  Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.

This and that...

My scrappy sewing has taken me all over the place this week!  

Into the trees, with leaf blocks for the Positivity QAL, from Preeti's design.  See more about that here. 

Just a few of these so far, but I'm trying to make at least one a day.

And back to Cape Cod with another block for the Scrap Dance Quadrille project, a mystery QAL at From My Carolina Home.  I've made two block As and one block B.  Now I need another block B, so I'm cutting, sewing, and trimming more HSTs!

And then, into a project box to get caught up on the Split 9-Patch blocks for June.  In our earlier blue month, I had made two dark blue blocks and two brighter ones.  This week I made two in light blues.

Since I had all these going, I decided to make two more red blocks, too.  I had made the first two earlier just to try these blocks and see if I wanted to continue with them.

Apparently I do want to continue with these because now there are 26!

I'm figuring that I need at least four more, for a total of 30 blocks to make a child's comfort quilt.  I think I'll make them in yellow month.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #342

Good morning and Happy Thursday!  I'm joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.   Let's see what happy things I found to share since last week.

More bunny visits.  This little guy seemed to need a rest, and apparently the landscaping log was a good place for that.

A walk at one of our favorite natural areas.  This is the one where we always find the yellow-headed blackbirds, and they are still there, but the reeds and bushes have grown so much taller that the birds are harder to see now.  We could still hear them, though!  

I liked this view from across the lake there.

Younger son is on a long road trip, and has been texting and sharing pictures as he goes along.  This one made me smile!

Watseka, Illinois

He has been visiting historical battlefield sites in Pennsylvania, like Valley Forge and Gettysburg.  They look like fascinating places judging by his photos.  I'm enjoying traveling vicariously through him!

On Sunday I shared my finished teapot embroidery and told a couple of you that this reminds me of a vintage soup tureen that was my grandma's.  So I got it down (and dusted it :) to show you.  It's not really my style of dish, but it's kind of neat.

For the end of June and into July, LeeAnna is asking if we enjoy going to the county or state fair in our area.  We haven't done that often, but before Covid I remember that we did take an afternoon to wander around the Larimer County Fair here - that must have been in August of 2019. I enjoyed the quilts and the photography, also the 4-H exhibits that reminded me of the Science projects we had our 5th graders do.  But I LOVED the animal exhibits - especially the chickens!  So many different kinds - some didn't even look like chickens!

Fancy Chicken Breeds

Hope you having a great week!

To-Do Tuesday #186: Getting started on some Positivity

For the last week I have really tried to stay focused on getting the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt top together, and it paid off!  👍👍👍

I absolutely love this quilt, and am excited to get the layers 

sandwiched and ready for quilting!

But... I was ready for a few days of small sewing - just making blocks - playing with something new.  You know what I mean!  So I decided to try some Positivity blocks that will turn into a comfort quilt for Mercyful Quilts, a quilt drive sponsored by Preeti (Sew Preeti Quilts) and Bernie (Needle and Foot). 

Let's just say if I could do something wrong with these blocks, I did! Lol! 

But, I decided that if my blocks were all consistent with each other (even if they are a little different from Preeti's blocks), then they will go together and make a beautiful quilt. 

Here is what I have sewn so far.  I made one set of blocks with some long strips, and that gave me a few of the neat alternate blocks that Preeti showed were possible.  But some of my green pieces are 10 inch squares, so I cut shorter strips that just make one leaf block, which leaves a different alternate block, plus some squares for 4 patches.  It will be interesting to see what I can do with all these different blocks!

I'll keep making leaf blocks little by little until I have enough for a quilt. 

I may not keep up with the QAL, but I know the quilt will be useful to Mercyful Quilts whenever I finish it!   Meanwhile, I'm sharing my progress so far at the 

2023 Positivity QAL link-up at Needle and Foot.

One other project I wanted to get back to was making blocks for the Scrap Dance Quadrille QAL over at From My Carolina Home.  I need lots more HSTs for this one.

I enjoyed getting my Cape Cod fat quarter bundle out for this project again!

So for the coming week, each of these things will be on my list:

• Get the Rainbow Neighbourhood sandwiched for quilting.
• Keep making Positivity leaf blocks.
• Make more HSTs for Scrap Dance Quadrille.

I think that's plenty to keep busy with!  Linking up with Carol and friends at Quilt Schmilt for To-DoTuesday!

 

Still slowly stitching...

 A few weeks ago, I shared that I had started this Kathy Schmitz design, Tweety Tea Birds, which I was stitching in a variegated red.  This is DMC 4210, Radiant Ruby.  And earlier this week I finished this little design up!

I love these little singing birds - our neighborhood is full of them!

Of course, I can't go a day without tracing another design to stitch, and for this week I chose a fun little doodle from Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting called "When Life Gives You Lemons."  The last few days, I've stitched the lemons and the glass of lemonade.  Today I'll be working on the lettering.  I added a little color with my colored pencils, too.  

In her post, Melisa shares how she makes homemade lemonade.  It sounds delicious!  Let me show you how I drink lemonade...

It's pretty tasty, too!

Enjoy your stitching today! 

 I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.