I LiKE Thursday….Its Leap Year!

Last Thursday my Stitching group surprised me with cupcakes and ice cream. The ice cream was from a specialty shop in our city. Locally owned by the daughter and son-in-law of one of our group. Yummy! Cookies ‘n Crème, Salted Caramel, Mudpie, Raspberry Cheesecake , and Pina Colada! 

 

I was tickled that they did that. 

Friday was my birthday and Mr Busy and I went to a local Ribband Chop House for dinner. I had plank grilled salmon with Jamaican Spiced Rub an a huge baked potato. Also a glass of White Zinfandel. 

We decided to split a dessert, and chose this Mile High Almond Ice Cream Cake with Molten Chocolate Glaze. Oh boy was it good. Best of all, when I said “it’s my birthday”, the waitress said, “then the dessert is free!”   Nice!

Last week I completed the fourth round of Project Quilting. The challenge was Hourglass. I wanted to do something artist, but the week was against me. So this colorful table runner is  what happened.

It’ll be good for summertime, I think. 

LeeAnna posed these questions: 

if you came home to a beautiful multi- course meal made by your husband (let's assume he can cook) what would you hope it was? I would hope it included a green salad, steak on the grill( he’s really good at that) and a baked potato with sour cream, cheddar cheese and chives. That being said, if he ordered in….

What would be your favorite meal? If it's too much of a stretch that he made it, assume he got if from a favorite restaurant? Tell us what the courses are...

I would want the Chicken/ Seafood Enchiladas, pico de gallo, guacamole and a house margarita from Las Margaritas. Our favorite Mexican restaurant! 

Thanks for the prompts, LeeAnna. They alway make me think!

I’m linking up with like minded friend at Not Afraid of Colot

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

SAHRR Round #6. Words and Numbers

I was pretty excited when I saw Kathleen’s challenge for  Round 6!  Letters and or Numbers! Well, that’s cool! I’ve been calling my SAHRR, “Rudy”. He’s an elf and he’s done in redwork, so Rudy seemed appropriate. I have a copy of  Word Play Quilts: Easy Techniques from the UnRuly Quilter  by Tonya Ricucci. I have been wanting to make her Words for awhile. So I decided on letters about 2.5” high. I, thankfully, decided to make some trial letters. I figure I could make letters for  my name and if that worked, I could probably do “Rudy”! 

Well, these are iffy ( they are just too big) and I can’t do them smaller, at least not this first time. So these were scrapped!

I got on my laptop, searched Free printable alphabets. Success! They are called balloon letters. So I printed capital letters, lower case letters and the number sheet. 

But to appliqué them, they need to be reversed. I’ve never mastered that on my printer, so I just turned the paper over, traced the backwards letters with a Sharpie and then traced that heavier more legible line on to my fusible!

Voila! Words and Numbers added to my wall hanging. And now it is rectangular! 😊

I will appliqué around the letters during the quilting process. I have this 

“Wordy” piece of Christmas fabric for the back! Not quite big enough on its own, but I made it work!

Linking up with Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing and the Linky Party for Round Six! 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’m sort of caught up with my slow stitching. I will put last week’s temperature stitches in my Temperature Heart! It has been unseasonably warm. I’ll show all of Feb stitches next Sunday!

I did some binding stitching this week. 

This ⤵️

turned into this⤵️

And I finished my February part of Woven Wreaths from Kathy Schmitz. The fan stitch was a fabulous way to finish the small leaves!

Today, I’ll pick up this cross stitch again. It’s getting close.

I’m linking up at Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

SAHRR. Round 5…… 4’s or fours.

This week is Round 5 and is hosted by Quilting Gail.  She wrote: 

My choice for this round is “4.” You can do whatever you want – but it needs to have an element of “4” in it. You can choose 4 colours, 4 different blocks, 4 of one block … it’s YOUR choice.

You can see I added four different reds to the top between the 2 cornerstones. And the same for reds to the strip on the left side between the 2 small square in a square. 

I thought Rudy would be a medium sized rectangular wall hanging. He just keeps ending up square! Wondering what the last round will be? I’m linking up with Gail at Quilting Gail for Round 5 of SAHRR. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful! 

ScrapHappy Saturday 24.8

Last week I showed some split nines, some red squares and red with white hearts fabric. I hinted that the heart fabric might end up as binding for Table scraps Challenge. It didn’t. Instead, I brought the backing fabric forward. 

I sewed some thin red strips to Rudy’s top and left side. He just keeps ending up square. Only one more round to go for Stay At Home Round Robin! 

I hope to make a few more zipper blocks with red. I didn’t see a color chosen for March, so I’ll continue with the red.

My week was mostly spent on PQ 15.4. Something using Hourglass shapes.

Not any red, but some vivid berry pink.

I’m linking up with Angela for Rainbow Scrap Challenge! 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

PQ 15.4. Hourglass

Trisha QuiltChicken is our challenge mistress for Project Quilting ! She wrote: 

It’s one of the most common yet foundational of geometric shapes: the hourglass. Just two triangles stacked tip-to-tip. Put them inside a square and it’s a block even beginners can sew. 

 

But it’s also a symbol embued with meaning – representing the passage of time, a reminder of our inevitable mortality. A grim reminder of things lost and … wait, it got real grim all a sudden. 

I’m linking up at Project Quilting 15.4 Hourglass 

Many ideas spun around in my head, but I finally settled on a table runner. Using a tutorial from Jenny, MSQC, called Super Easy Hourglass Quilt I went to my charm pack basket! I had a partial one from Lily & Loom, called “ just for the joy of it” !  I added a couple of dark odd charms that I think had the same graphic vibe and started making 4 patches. Then sewed 2 four patches together, right sides facing. Cut through both diagonals! Voila ! 4 hourglass block. Up on the design wall. I settled on two rows of  5 blocks each. Three rows made it too wide, two rows a bit skinny. But I could corral all that scrappiness with a border or two. 

I added a solid dark yellow 1 inch border, then a 2 inch border of Black with white dots.  

The binding ready to be stitched to the back! 

The backing is some fabric given to me  that is lavender and orange abstract print. The salvage says it is Color Theory by Sandra Banava for Robert Kaufman  The binding is 3 strips from a jelly roll in a color I call berry. It’s wild and happy , absolutely joyful! I think I like it. I finished the binding late Friday afternoon! It was my birthday and as Trisha said above, hourglasses represent the passage of time, a reminder of our mortality! This is not grim however, I’m celebrating this year and each upcoming year with happy joyful gratitude! You only turn 78 once!

Now that it is done and posted to Project Quilting, I’ll link up with Alycia at Finished or Not Friday!

Mr. Busy took me out to dinner for my birthday. We shared this Mile High Molten Chocolate ice cream cake! 

 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

OMG Finish link up. En Provence finally done!

My OMG was to get the binding on this long overdue finished quilt.  The long arm quilter had it back to me in record time. 24 hours!! Happy Dance!

Bonnie Hunter's 2016 Mystery. En Provence. Made slightly smaller. 3x3 instead of 4x4 as the pattern is written.

The backing is a Thimbleberries backing from my stash! 

I had this purple fabric slated for the binding since I first finished the quilt top. I still like it!

Next a label and I will have met my One Monthly Goal! 

Label done and revealed at Saturday’s Quilt Chicks’ Gathering!

I’m linking up with Anne Marie at Stories from my Sewing Room. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Table Scraps Challenge Feb 2024 = Hearts and Red!

This month, February, Joy chose Hearts as a theme!   And Angela’s color for February RSC was red! 

I had to do a heart wall hanging or small February table topper. I’ve been wanting to try the scrappy hearts so many loggers are doing this year. The red scraps were on my table, and white too because of the split 9 patches I am doing for RSC. I added a few heart themed scraps, a couple of light red (pink) squares and picked up some orange-y red ones for a little bit of interest. 

The batting is a scrap from under my cutting table. I didn’t even have to piece this one! The backing piece has been in my stash since I did this folded table topper!

Maybe 10 years ago!

 I decided to bring the backing to the front for binding. It will be fun to use this mini quilt and the table topper from years ago, in my February decorating next year! 

I’m linking up with The Joyful Quilter for her Linky Party featuring Hearts❤️ and red fabric. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

I Like Thursday

I started last week to just take some photos of stuff I like!

I like the fabric here⤴️ It’s got glitter too! 

I wanted to try the big heart block, a red was on the cutting table. 

Movies: 

Killers of the Flower Moon with Robert DeNiro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone. Good story but very sad and unforgettable! 

We also watched Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte. I may have already mentioned those. But we liked them both. Mr Busy is watching Masters of the Air without me. I’m sure the story is s good one, but I can’t watch WWII! 

And this week we are enjoying the Prime Time programs on CBS! We can watch CBS live with our Paramount Plus subscription. So NCIS and the FBIs on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesdays and Thursdays we will look to the streaming services for something else. 

Sunday, Mr Busy retuned his book to the library. They were closed, bot they have a drop Bo’s at the building. While he walked up there, I took a photo of one of the statues on the library steps. Not as impressive as the lions at the New York Public Library. But I like our little owl! 

 

We made French toast for breakfast. And opened the bottle of real maple syrup that was a gift from our granddaughter and her fiancé! It was soooooo good! 

LeeAnna’s prompt for today! 

who is your favorite TV or movie fictional couple? Why do you like them? if not a tv/movie fan, what about books?

My first thought was to go back awhile to Rob and Laura from “ The Dick Van Dyke Show”!  But more recently I enjoyed watching Jack and Rebecca Pearson and Randall and Beth on “This Is Us”? I think I like them, because their characters were loving, able to be truthful to each other. I understand the dialogue was written for them, but they were believable to me. I like many couples on movies and on TV. I just finished reading Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. I did not like any of the couples in that story!  It wasn’t a love story about couples! 

Oh, one last like before I go. Shamrock Shakes are back at McDonald’s! Our McDonald’s hasn’t had shakes for months! I was glad to have a chance to have one! 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!