Thursday, June 8, 2023

I Like Thursday # 353 more ice cream please!

 

welcome to this week's list of likes... come on in... have a cup of coffee

I like painting or drawing morning pages... more on Saturday's creative post

Artsy fartsy

the index card a day challenge is back, and I make sure to do one a day, to get my creativity started, and it's fun to see what the prompt is. On the day above it was espresso, and I tried to really see my coffee cup, with it's shadows, highlights, colors, etc which trains my abilities as an artist. Then I add in something of myself.

I liked that this week, when my engineer/musician husband saw my treble clef piece, he asked to have it framed in his office.

sewing

finished this last Friday and did the post with close ups here

 

Listening to books on audio

I almost returned this right away, and I'm glad I did NOT as it was very good. I enjoyed the reader, the plot a family story, mixed with a mystery and some slightly mystical happenings in a small town. Lovely and full of love throughtout


I don't know what asmr means but supposedly it's to help calm you...I enjoyed these so much one day I watched three meals being prepared

if you enjoy no talking and how to make food as country people did in 1820? this is for you and me

Prompt

continuing our summer ice cream chat our prompt is 

"tell us about a favorite memory from childhood of eating ice cream. Did your family go to Dairy Queen like mine did? Did you have a birthday ritual where you got anything you wanted at the restaurant?  Has your taste changed from tutti-fruitti with sprinkles or does it still make your hear sing?"

I remember trips to Dairy Queen, the outside window so we could perch on those metal tables to eat... it was always hot so one had to plan on meltage. I used to get a soft vanilla cone, dipped in butterscotch that cracked! when you bit into that curl at the top. 

Why does the curl taste best? On big occasions I got a banana split but I didn't like all the flavors running into each other, and pineapple was ick to me as a little girl. I also loved a dilly bar. 

at home, at big family dinners we often made ice cream, with fresh peaches, all taking turns turning the crank. I can't imagine a more Heavenly taste! 

My mother often had a half gallon in the freezer, and often it was neopolitan, with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. I would cull out the chocolate, leaving the other two for less discerning tastes....

Once we splurged on the new fangled ice cream cakes... but it melted usually before served. 

As I got older I preferred sundaes. Chocolate not fudge, with a cherry of course. 

Things were pretty simple back then... getting a sugar cone was a BIG deal at home! 

Milo's Moments

does this shadow make me look fat? what about the gray hairs?
Milo here, (finally) to chat with you all...

all this rain has really curled my hair! The yard is always flooded now but it beats smoke all over! We have had so much smoke here in Colorado since moving here, and Mama told me the USA east coast is now getting perspective on how hard that is. I say it's very important for officials to figure out how to avoid these in future,. Humans can be smart, right? Critters of all kinds are getting hurt!

I've been having to play inside, other than walks, and you'll be happy to note, two legs were removed this week

Mama's been saying dirty words this week, like E A R S and T O E N A I L S

she says that, and faster than you can blink I'm on the table of doom for cleaning or pedicures

I love her though... 

please visit these fine folk to see what they liked this week... and tell me of your childhood memory of ice cream!

https://scrapatches.blogspot.com/ 

https://www.sameliasmum.com/

grammajudyb.blogspot.com

friday smiles at a stitch in time  




Saturday, June 3, 2023

my creative week a little inking, a lot of sewing


 On Sunday last, while chatting with my friend Cindy on FT, we had a 2 person stitching session. 

you may remember this is the table scraps challenge piece I finished but for the hand embroidery.. it's now done! On the bedside table and I LOVE how it came out looking like a sketch done with thread!

no marking tools seemed to work to transfer this coloring book page so I ended up cutting it out, and tracing around it onto my finished quilt, with silver colored pencil. 

That gave me the basic outline and propoprtions





I used #8 precensia perle cotton to stitch with, and dove right in without much of a plan. Some outline stitch, some chain stitch, some tiny straight stitches next to each other to look like feathers

bits of sketching lines stitched in for some depth and shadowing
The face was a little challenging, to do without traced lines

remember I appliqued a frayed homespun strip over the others for texture? It made stitching the face just a bit tricky but I love how it came out. I finished the stitching in about 1 1/2 hours too

now I want to do chain stitch everywhere! And the thread was so easy to use. Smooth and strong, just like my husband! (did you read this hon?)

one morning while having my coffee, I colored in my extra coloring book page with new markers given me for my birthday... tombow brush ink called Tropical

use all the colors!

I also worked on the star quilt, to finish the quilting of borders. I thought I'd whip right through it but...

things always take longer than you think they will... I started from here... two borders quilted, attached, seam covered on the back by hand whipping down the extra fabric... voila!

time for the long borders, starting with a new fabric on those

and adding in a bit of the top and bottom border fabric so it looks right on the stripe inner border

piece strips of backing fabric so they are long enough at 70", cut strips of the bamboo batting long enough for each border, doing everything times two to make both long borders. gently sandwiching all these layers leaving extra along the striped inner border to use to cover the final seam after. 

this tool helps me pin baste with safety pins

whew! then quilt both border strips... make sure to go in and out of the stripe now and then for stability


both are about ready to piece to the center sections, just the top fabric/batting on the border folding that extra fabric out of the way to use as a cover for the seam.
and it will look like it was all done the usual way, clean but manageable in my small machine
I love the actual stars, twinkle pattern from SoScrappy blog

when making blocks in the RSC color of the month I forgot I would have to turn them into a big quilt... It's hard to quilt them as I have a back condition and small domestic machine but aren't they lovely. The bamboo batting is heavier than I thought it would be, but very drapey and soft. Hope it isn't too hot. 

next step, attach these to the center, do hand stitch to cover the seam on back, and bind it. I'm actually considering a bold turquoise binding! what do you think? 

I always wonder if using my pretty fabrics is worth it on any quilt I'm making, but like an older woman told me in my quilt-youth... if you use those fabrics on a quilt you're keeping, you actually still have them! 

happy art-ing y'all

the index card a day art prompts have started and are open to everyone. 

ICAD 2023 Index of Prompts & Themes

I'm behind but I loved making an index card sized artwork each day last year. The first prompt was on June 1st... sapling. Gotta go figure out how I want to do a sapling!

find your creative happy place y'all

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

finished or not

https://myblog-lunchbreak.blogspot.com/

Thursday, June 1, 2023

I Like Thursday # 352 we all scream for ice cream

welcome to this week's list of likes, starting with one of my morning sketches, I love ginko leaves

also while making dinner this weekend, I looked closely at the salmon...


 Isn't the skin pretty, silvery, triangles tessellating next to each other... 


 we like it pan sauteed with butter, salt and pepper... our meal completed with mushroom risotto from Amy's and sauteed spinach. Neither of us is comfortable cooking fish so this always feels special.

another love is roasted peppers, here ready to stuff with cheeses

and freshly baked moist banana muffins...

we also love these peppermints from whole foods, made without corn syrup, yea!

leading me to our prompt this week, and for a couple more weeks, that is ice cream related... 

Ice Cream Cone Tennis Match - off the mark cartoons
"what is your favorite flavor of ice cream at the moment? who makes it? do you have more than one favorite?
soft serve or dipped? Do you buy it in the huge box or a pint at a time? "

well, I love ice cream but it's not all equal. Our family made peach ice cream in an old fashioned crank machine in my childhood, it was special occasion and was the absolute best. More prompts of memories in upcoming weeks. 

I love gelato by Talenti, and ice cream by Breyers because they make it without corn syrup I'm allergic to. 

Nowadays when we still get delivery of groceries, we get small quart sized boxes and usually vanilla since we have it in sundaes or on desserts. Other favorite flavors for me are salted caramel, pistachio, coffee, coconut, and of course chocolate is always good.  My father always wanted butter pecan and I NEVER liked it nor do I now.

a fun question for a gathering is would you rather?  we could say would you rather vanilla or chocolate

I think I prefer hard ice cream from the freezer since I can stir it around to make it soft serve if I want, mixing in chocolate syrup or cherry juice. It melts lots faster that way though... 

joke: How does Reese eat her ice cream?
Witherspoon

Reading

 I am loving the book I'm reading at the moment... two aging friends reunite to solve a mystery in a small English village 

 

and listening to an absolutely charming, funny and intelligently written book on audio


both authors I'd read again

speaking of which, my friend Cindy sent me a link to an interview with Margaret Atwood, she is so funny and charming and right on target for today's world... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NceAHrukRbQ&t=3041s

I liked this drawing of an Elephant (see the whole post with pictures here


 

watching on TV

too many season finale's for my likes. We finished this season of Brokenwood, terrific as always and started the current season of Murdoch Mysteries 

 planted wildflower seeds and they are coming up in these pots

Milo: help! my ears are being blown off!

Milo's Moment

Milo: sigh..... not much going on... still working on leg removal

it's getting hot around here, and I'm panting more, which means drinking more water, which means I now wake up every night at 2AM to go out again... the pawrents aren't happy but whatchagonnado? 

It's been raining too, and when I went up to look out my window to see who had the NERVE to walk by my house, and I couldn't see out because ICE coated the whole window! Even Mama made that surprised noise that told me something was up! 

otherwise I am more than happy to eat any kind of ice cream available... just put some in my bowl with a bit of whipped cream and I'm a happy dog! Mama tells a story of her labradaughter Chelsea... they were visiting an ice cream factory and they gave Chelsea a whole scoop of her own. She grabbed the ice cream ball, shocked, looked at mama and spit it out! She did go back and eat it. 

now please visit these friends of Mama's to read what they liked this week too! Let Mama know if you wrote an I Like post and she'll add it in

 

https://scrapatches.blogspot.com/ 

https://www.sameliasmum.com/ 

https://wordweaverart.blogspot.com/

grammajudyb.blogspot.com

friday smiles at a stitch in time