TO-DO Tuesday #55

 To-Do Tuesday is being hosted at Texas Quilt Girl beginning September 1st. Be sure to go check out everyone’s list and see their accomplishments!  Thanks Linda for keeping this linky party going!

Last week August 31st - September 6th.

1.  Keeping working on getting the binding attached to Rainbow Geese. Check!

Stitching is happening!

2. Check out the new block drive for Covered  in Love…Kat should post it this week! Check!

One block is made!  Pieces are cut for seven more!

3. Decide on what to take to Loose Threads’s Sleep at Home Fall Retreat!  No Idea!

4. Check out the Banned Book Reading Challenge at the library!  Check!  I talked to the librarians. They are knee deep in some local challenges of 22 books on our youth and children's library shelves. So they are running behind on getting the Adult Reading Challenge up and going. They advised me to check back today. I will do that. In the mean time I made a list of the books I have already read that are on the Top 100 Books Banned List of the past decade.  Like To Kill A Mockingbird!  I have only read Ten!  Wow, I have my work cut out for me!

Next Week  September 7th to September 13th. 

1. Finish the binding on Rainbow Geese!

2. Sew more CiL blocks.

3. Work on getting the sashings on the Hollow 9-patch blocks.

4. Start on Table Scraps Challenge in Orange!

5. Read a Banned Book!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

To Do Tuesday #54

 

I'm joining friends at *  ChrisKnits * to share my To-Do list and applaud the others who accomplished or at least made progress on theirs. **after writing this post and logging on to ChrisKnits, I learned that To-Do Tuesday will now be hosted by Texas Quilt Gal. So this  is the last Linky Party at Chris's blog. Understandably, too!  She has had a "crummy" couple of weeks or maybe months. Keep her in your prayers and send good thoughts her way!**

Next week August 24th to August 30th

1. Finish and post One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts. DONE! See my post here. 

 

2. Finish and write post for Table Scraps Challenge and post at The Joyful Quilter. Done!  Here is that post!

3. Start adding sashings to Hollow Nines. Done!  (I started at least!)

*I have photos, but Blogger doesn't seem to be able to find them this morning. I'll edit at a later time. *

Next week August 31st - September 6th.

1.  Keeping working on getting the binding attached to Rainbow Geese. 

2. Check out the new block drive for Covered  in Love…Kat should post it this week!

3. Decide on what to take to Loose Threads’s Sleep at Home Fall Retreat! 

4. Check out the Banned Book Reading Challenge at the library!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy!

Finished or Not Finished Friday! #61 No Finishes!!

 

 

Not much to share this week! 

I’m doing the machine appliqué on border #2 of my Spool Quilt UFO.

I have my Table Scraps project for July to finish. 

The painter finished our house!  We are completely satisfied. A rare thing these days.

He even painted the utility boxes. This house has been in existence since 1977 and we’ve lived here since 1988. They were looking pretty tacky. I didn’t know if you were allowed to paint them or not. Apparently, it's ok.  All except the natural gas meter. That belongs to the gas company and was actually  upgraded and  replaced last fall. 

And I am still working on finishing these two book! One in print, 

Although I am enjoying reading this book, it is not one read for fun. It is read for enlightenment and knowledge. She and her co-writers, write almost above my pay grade. Sometimes, I have to go back and re read a sentence or even the whole paragraph. That's not a bad thing!  Just different!

The other on my Kindle:

I've had this book on my Goodreads dashboard and my Kindle for years. I finally opened my Kindle and decided to read it. I just learned it is a banned book..or was. I'll research further. But this one, I am enjoying a lot. These are tortured teens. But they are finding each other. I hope it ends well! 

I'm linking up with Alycia at her regular Friday Linky Party: Finished or Not Finished Friday.!  Go see her fabulous finish this week!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

I LIKE THURSDAY #18

I'm joining I LIKE THURSDAY at Not Afraid of Color again this week.  Several good things to like this week. The weather has been mild. Mr Busy and I are walking every day. Earlier now, that it gets dark at 4:45!! But right after lunch the sun is usually shining and the infamous Wyoming wind isn't blowing. 

 Beside my chair:

It's a bad photo. But there is my embroidery project. Free of the hoop!  Do you take your stitching off the hoop when you are not stitching? It's a habit I developed a long time ago when I did a lot of counted cross stitch. 

A basket of stitching supplies. Floss and needles. A scissors on a lanyard and magnifying glasses that fit over my regular glasses. The small spiral notebook is a hand written reminder of which floss color I had decided to stitch where. 

Also my phone, because you can't be too far from your peeps! And a cute tiny tin with a Turkey on it!

Some Thanksgiving wall decor. 

This turkey was fun to do!

I'm especially fond of this one. 

And on my buffet :  Table runner plus some  ceramic figurines I painted many years ago, when ceramics was a passion.  

Entertainment:

THIS IS US   is  back....

How can  you not love Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia?

 it’s still a favorite .

Season 5     Sterling K. Brown and Susan Kelechi Watson - Randall and Beth

                    Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore - Jack and Rebecca

                    Justin Hartley - Kevin

                    Chrissy Metz and Chris Sullivan - Kate and Toby

   

No movies to review or point you to this week.  WE( Mr Busy, mostly) have been glued to the news stations. We are pleased with the election turnout mostly. But wanting the nation to get on with the business at hand....transitioning to a new administration. This is hurting us all!

We do break  to watch JEOPARDY. It's been a favorite for many years. Our supper hour is planned around a local Denver News magazine called NEXT and JEOPARDY.  We were so saddened to learn of the passing of Alex Trebek. He fought a brave fight!

I’m reading a book on my tablet! I downloaded Libby that links to my local library. I checked out Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. So far it very interesting! I have it for 14 days. 

And I have started reading On Borrowed Time  by Jenn McKinlay, in paperback. When I entered it to my Goodreads page, I realized it was Library Lovers Mystery #5. I usually will not read a series out of order. But I have started and I don't have the others in the series. So  I will finish this one. And it is kind of good, so far..  I probably will go back and look up the others. A typical Cozy Mystery, but I like that genre. 

I apologize for the fuzzy photos. I saved them from Goodreads.  Usually that works for me, but not this time. 

I hope you will go check out all the other posts on the I Like Thursday post at Not Afraid of Color. LeeAnna does a great job posting her likes and giving us all a place to post ours. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

I LIKE THURSDAY #16

It took some introspection to come up with some likes this week. I  had to DECIDE to look for the little stuff.  There was snow and bitter cold...that meant we didn’t go anywhere. So I sewed!  That's a Like!

I finished a book! Mary Higgins Clark..... it wasn’t the best I’ve read but pretty good. If I don’t have the mystery figured out by the middle...then it’s a good one!   That's a Like!

And I started number 9 in my Goodreads goal to read 10 books this year. It’s a sad goal, but my reading mojo disappeared the last couple of years. It’s Nora Roberts- Temptation.   That's a Like!

It's an old one. A paperback given to me in a bag of books from a friend's  MIL. 

I joined WW one month ago and this first month lost 10 lbs.   That's a Like!

 Monday, I received my 5 lb charm. 

This is not my first time using Weight Watchers, now WW. It’s always worked for me when I could attend meetings. But no meetings in my area now, so I’m on my own. It seems to be working. I’m cooking differently and Mr Busy is very supportive!    That's a Like!

And one last Halloween decoration hanging by our front door. 

I made it many years ago. I like Happy Ghosts!   It's a Patchabilities pattern.   I have more than one or two!  That's a Like!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy!

If you live in the US.  I hope you voted! But if you didn't, please remember to do so on Tuesday!

We voted!

Finish It Up Friday and Finished Or Not Friday 11-2018

I am always glad to have a plan.  I was hoping to have lots of photos to show on this first Friday of the month post.  You know what they say about best laid plans.

We traveled the first part of October and visited our son and daughter. Our son had a milestone birthday and is by himself. So of course I made him a quilt. He lives in Phoenix, a may not really need a quilt.  But now he has one!

We were home for one week and I was planning lots of projects for a 4 day retreat in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming (it's my home state and only 60 miles from home). We always have lots of fun and usually accomplish a great deal. But the Friday before the Monday of our first day, they had a water well or water line problem and had to cancel. Because they also host hunters and hunting season is in full swing in this area, we could not reschedule right away.  Now we are looking at a couple of option in the coming 3 months..but driving is "iffy" in Dec and January.  It could be lovely, but it could also be treacherous. I am not sure what we will decide. We meet on Wed the 7th for our regular monthly get-together.

One of my project to do at the retreat was to have 8 blocks complete for CiL Block Drive.

These are Grown Up  I Spy blocks. You can read more about this project here and  here. They have been sent off to Kat.   The new block drive is in full swing and I am gathering fabric for it.

The last Friday of October, my sister lost her husband of 31 years. He had been failing for a while, but boy is it hard!  I want to "hover" and "be there", but she is 2 hours away and hates to be "hovered over"  So I will be available to talk, to text, to support her in any way I can.

And now it is November and there are lots of new challenges to keep me busy. My new One Monthly Goal is to get HALF of Rick Rack Nines put together.  You can see my post about that one HERE. 

I have a local challenge due to be revealed on the 18th of this month at our Quilt Chicks gathering.
It is this quilt and it is done.

The stripe binding is laying on the top in this photo but it is quilted and bound. I know I have a photo of it complete, but I can't find it this morning. I will take a picture at the reveal day and then I will have one.

binding the Magnolia Quilt

My project #4 for the All People Quilt UFO challenge is to make a heart shaped large pincushion. It is ready to go.  I have had this fabric for maybe 15 years, it's time to use it!

Sew it's time to get busy and finish up some projects. And Christmas is only 7 Fridays away.!!



Stay Busy and Stay Happy

I'm linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday and 

Myra at Busy Hands Quilts, Finished or  Not Friday

OH, and I finished reading the Storyteller by Jodi Picoult and The Dry by Jane Harper.  Both really good. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's really summer here in the high plains desert!  All last week the temperature reached 90 and above. This week looks like a repeat. That is hot for our part of the country!  Thank goodness it cools off some at night. I am writing this post at 6:23 am local time and it is 61 degrees. We have central air but it is an old system and we hate the noise. So we turn off the compressor as soon as the sun goes down and it starts to cool.

I am keeping up with my goal of reading 24  books this year. I realize that is doable and a not a lofty goal. Most of you bookies read many many more. But I do what I can do.

I'm almost finished with:

One True Thing by Anna Quindlen.  This book is amazing. I mean the story is wonderful, about the relationship between a daughter and her mother and father. But Ms Quindlen says things that most of us only think and would not likely utter out loud. A few pages back, a passage touched me deeply. It has been a long while since a book felt so personal and brought me to tears. Not sobbing, inconsolable tears, but the "OMG, how did she know this about me" kind. 

Upcoming this weekend, is our state quilt guild convention. I will be there Friday, Saturday and some of Sunday. This year it is in our own town, so I will sleep in my own bed. But of course, meals will be shared, friendships renewed and hopefully new techniques will be learned. If I get One True Thing finished early on, next up is: 

I know I will enjoy this one too, but in a totally different way. 

That's what I'm reading, what are you reading this week?  I'm linking up with Kathryn at Book Date. Come by and check what other book bloggers are into. 

Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Finish It Up Friday ! Pinnies and a SB baby gift

Last week was a kind of slow week as far as finishes go.  I did do two pincushions, inspired by Amanda Jean.  But I cheated.  The first one was a re-do. Years ago I made a pincushion to match my family room colors, using Doreen Speckmann's Norwegian Chicken Pincushion pattern. The pattern is dated 1997, but I think I made it around 2001 or 2002. Shortly after my breast cancer treatments and my learning to quilt. I developed a seam malfunctions ( due to improper construction I am sure) and so I then un stuffed it and fixed the open seam. There is sat all floppy and un stuffed. Until Amanda Jean asked if we had a pincushion collection and I gathered all mine together. There she sat, forlorn and unloved. I decided to fix that!  Here she is, stuffed and sitting up proudly.

The little pincushion beside her is really a cheat!  I backed a baby quilt with this chevron fabric. When I sent it to the quilter, she had used the edges to practice and check her tension....so there was this scrap of cute fabric already "quilted to batting" and I just put a backing on it, stitched it into a rectangle, filled it with walnut shells and Voila!!  , a tiny pincushion for my couch side sewing basket.  Here is the other side of both pinnies.

Also this week, I got busy and put together a self-binding receiving blanket for the sister of my daughter-in-law.  I had the yellow surfboard flannel in my stash and found the robot blue flannel at JoAnn's.  The new baby is a boy and his big brother  and parents are all tech types. I thought the robot fabric was too cute to pass up. It turned out really well, I think.

And a better look at the backing fabric and the stitching that holds it all together. Have you ever done one of these?  Super easy and fun.

It's a Missouri Star tutorial...they even have a snuggle ( minky) version.

Anyway, those are my Friday Finishes.

I'll be linking up with Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts.


Til next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

ps: I also finished reading,

both really good.