I Like Thursday #139 - This and That

Happy Thursday, friends!  Thanks for visiting this week's I Like Thursday post - and be sure to check out the other bloggers who participate every week over at Not Afraid of Color!

Have you tried butternut squash noodles? I just did the other day, and they are yummy!  I was able to buy them already "spiralized" from the grocery store, and that made them really easy to fix.

I roasted them in the oven using THIS recipe.

They were very tasty with some meatballs and spaghetti sauce.

Recently we were visiting my MIL in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she now lives, and there is a Menards there.  Do you ever visit Menards?  It is like a quilt shop for the do-it-yourselfer!  This one is the closest to us at about an hour away, so it's a "must go there" when we have a chance.  I enjoy shopping there, too - probably as much as Mike does.

While we there, I decided I had to have a couple of new solar garden lights that rotate with different colors - green, blue, purple, red.  They're fun!

Wendy, at Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life, 

will know just what I'm talking about!  :)

I love this picture of my dad, taken in about 1985, with my younger son.  I got it out on Father's Day this last Sunday.

My dad passed away in 1992, so old photos are always enjoyed!

Carole, at From My Carolina Home, released the last clue of her Scrap Dance Minuet mystery QAL last Friday, so I sewed up all the pieces I had made into four blocks for a tabletopper size.

This is made from the August Blogger Bundle that I purchased from Bernie at Needle and Foot - fabrics for the bundle were chosen by Carole, so it seemed like the perfect project for them.

I like this star that emerged when you sewed up the flying geese and four patch units!

I have enough fabric left to make a pieced backing and for the binding, and then this will become my August tabletopper for the dining room table!

I've also enjoyed working on my Tiny Tuesday block this week - a little appliqued basket.

This is the first one I've ever made, so a good learning experience for me! 

 I like learning new things!

And a good book I enjoyed reading earlier this week - 

The quote at the top on the cover calls the book, "the gold standard of summertime escapism!"  That made me laugh!   It was a very good story, though - more to it than what I expected from a book on a list of the best beach reads!

Have a great day, everyone!  

Flowers for Shanawdithit

Shanawdithit was a Native Canadian woman, the last of the Beothuk people, who inspired Sandra at mmmquilts to design the Beothuk Star quilt.  Thank you, Sandra, for inviting all of us to quilt along and make our own versions of Beothuk Star.

Mine is called "Flowers for Shanawdithit" because of these pretty florals that I used in both a purple and coral version to make 3 of the 4 stars for this quilt.

That blue with green flowers is the 4th star.

It has been a delightful experience to go from this -

my careful plan and diagram drawn out on graph paper!

To this - 

With lots of this along the way!

Yes, that block on the right had to be unpicked and redone!

I've chosen a lovely purple fabric for the backing and binding, so all that is left to do is to baste and quilt my Beothuk Star, Flowers for Shanawdithit. 

Only a few scraps left!

I'm still thinking about how to quilt this one, so I'll share again when it's all finished.

Thanks, again, Sandra, for sponsoring this QAL!  I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Sharing at the Beothuk Star final link-up, HERE, and at

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.

Bits of Blue and Birds

Loving birds as I do, you know they have to make an appearance in my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks once in awhile, right?!

After hunting around in my blues for this week's Tiny Tuesday block, I chose these three fabrics to make Cynthia's design.

Chickadees!

I liked the striped rectangles in the block Cynthia made, so I decided to borrow that idea for mine!

Now there are two June blocks!

That fan block makes me laugh every time I see it...

It may have to be redone!  :)

These robins are another favorite bird fabric - they found their way into a red, white, and blue tablerunner I'm working on.

And, of course, the leftover 2.5 inch squares fit right into my latest RSC squirrel! (Because you know when you invite birds into your yard sewing room, the squirrels will come, too, lol!)

This beautiful Great-Horned Owl has been hanging out in our backyard this week.  I think he's saying, "What are you doing out here?  Why don't you go sew?" I think I will!

Sharing at Soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!

I Like Thursday #138 - a new camera!

Mike surprised me with a new camera last week, and we've been having fun playing with it!  Although still a fairly simple point and shoot type camera, it's quite a bit fancier than my old one and, so far, I like it!

Besides trying to figure out all of its "features" we've just been taking lots of different pictures in different light and locations to see what it does, so for I Like Thursday, I decided to share my favorites of the week.

In my basement sewing room -

Diann, unpicking a seam on Beothuk Star - oops!  :)

Outdoors - happy red and white petunias!

We liked the color in this one!

Late in the day - the sunset - 

A mountain photo - Long's Peak - 

Zooming in on flowers by the river - 

My old camera does not do close-up shots well, 

so this is something I'll keep playing with!

Yarn-bombed trees in Estes Park - these just make me smile!

And a photo of my completed Beothuk Star quilt top - I've had a hard time getting the colors in this one to come out right with the old camera, but this looks just about right to me!

The background fabric is Kona Butter, but it was looking an awful lot like Lemon in my older photos, and there's a big difference in the two.

This morning, I'm off to finding backing and binding fabric for Beothuk Star, so I can get it basted and quilted.  I'm ready for a finish!

Happy Thursday, friends!  I hope you're having a great week!  I'm joining in with LeeAnna and the other I Like Thursday bloggers at Not Afraid of Color.

It's all about the blues!

In thinking about my scrappy sewing week, I realized that not much was really accomplished.  But I did get out the blue scraps, do a bunch of cutting, and played!

In between sewing up the blocks for my Beothuk Star, I cut up lots of different blues into 4.5 inch squares and stitched up a patchwork piece to see what it might look like as the sky for my Scrappy Sprouts project.

Birds, butterflies, sky, clouds, sun and flowers.  This could work!  I have lots more to do on this project - good thing we have two months to work on blue!

And I'm continuing to slowly hand piece these blocks with my blue scraps every evening.  

Every group of four small blocks gets sewn together into the larger 12 inch star block.

Inspired by Cynthia's Oh Scrap post last Sunday, I had to go dig out more blue scraps and cut a bunch of 2.5 inch pieces.

Dark navy blue to almost white with just a hint of blue...

Because I wanted to see if I could make a block like this - 

Laying it out...

All sewn up!

  I see more of these my scrappy future!

And finally, the first dark blue Tiny Tuesday block - my (sort of wonky, but I'm okay with it for now) Grandmother's Fan.

Looking forward to more with my blue scraps this week!

Linking up with my favorite weekend parties - 

ScrapHappy Saturday at SoScrappy

Oh Scrap at Quilting is more fun than Housework and

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts 

I Like Thursday #137 - Wide Open Spaces

🎼🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵🎶
I'm singing along with the Dixie Chicks in my head this morning... "Wide open spaces..."

"Who doesn't know what I'm talking about
Who's never left home, who's never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone"

There's nothing my husband and I like better than finding a beautiful new spot to wander and explore, and the other day we did just that!

We had to drive a ways to get there, way out in the boonies, almost to Wyoming, and on lots of dirt roads.  Wide open spaces!

Our trail followed this creek - 

And into a canyon of red cliffs.

Looking up...

Looking down...

Lots of bird noises, but hard to see them, except this little guy!

I can see this as a little yellow warbler in a quilted piece - can you?  I might have to try that!

Waving hello from the wide open spaces, with not another soul around!

"Down that red dirt road..." (Are you singing along with me now? :)

Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday!" Hope you're having a great week!  

Joining in with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.

Circle of Sisters

I have lots of sisters...

Two sisters in my immediate family.

Mom, me, and my two sisters in 2012

Plus, four sisters-in-law.   All precious to me in so many ways.

Sisters who started out as co-workers and have become life-long friends, here in my community.

Spring of 2014 - all my favorite teaching partners and friends.

And Quilty Sisters, too numerous to count, from all around blogland - you are all so appreciated!

And now I have International Sisters, too.  Thank you, Preeti, for this fun block!  I turned my four sisters (last week's post) into a mini quilt this week.

Concentric circles of quilting seemed just the thing for this mini.

Backing and binding are this yellow-gold with plus signs - bright and fun!

I found the perfect spot for this quilt...

I'm going to enjoy looking at it every day!

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!