I Like Thursdays: September 26, 2019

It's Like Thursday, a day to post positive things on the internet and hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.  Visit her here for other happy news from our members!

Today is my brother Jim's birthday!

Jim with Scout when she was a baby.  

Jim is only 11 months younger than me (we've been often referred to as Irish twins).  We are very close.  He and his wife even live down the street from us so we see each other often.  Jim has the best heart and is always helping folks just because it is the right thing to do.  He is an active partner in care-giving for our mother these days and I couldn't ask for a better bro!  A lot of my friends have had crushes on him through the year because he is so handsome but he only has eyes for his wife Janet (sorry girls).  Happy Birthday Jim!

We had a brief rain one day last week and overnight, I had buds on my climber roses.  Now that they are getting bigger, I walk by the arbor and can smell the wonderful scent of roses!

No rain since then.  My son Nik was coming by and working on landscaping with me and we both agreed this week that we are done.  I'm just concentrating on keeping things alive with constant watering.  

Because I've been keeping the garden watered and the bird baths full, we had a few visitors this past week.  We don't tend to see Monarch butterflies this late but it was fun to see the occasional one stop by for a respite as they journeyed south.

I've been injured by squirrels that have been leaving all kinds of nut debris on our sidewalks :(

Today I'm grateful that my husband flew home last night.  I was walking Scout yesterday and didn't see a black walnut on the path and twisted my ankle.  Got a nice chip in my ankle bone and a golf ball swelling along the side of my foot.  Thankfully, Brad will be able to walk Scout the next two weeks (hopefully he will be staying home that long). 

I like this quilt I saw in an antique store recently.  I didn't buy it but I love the juxtaposition of the old style redwork with the 1930s applique animals.  Is it is cool?  


Today is the last day to compete for the giveaway over at the Pennsylvania Piecemaker blog!

Hope you are having a great week!  Happy Thursday!

Thread question

This is how I feel today.  And obviously so does Scout :)

But I have a thread question.  I'm looking for a regular sewing thread that is low lint.  I recently had my sewing machine cleaned and the repairman said there was a lot of thread lint in it.  Do you have a recommendation?

In other news, we have a giveaway over at the Pennsylvania Piecemaker blog.  Leave a comment before Thursday to compete for the Michael Miller Fairy Frost charm pack fabric!

Have a good day and thanks for your comments!

I like Thursdays: September 19, 2019

Good Morning!  How is your week going?  I am happy to report that we finally got some rain here in town.  Overnight, we had new buds on the roses which are now blooming!

There's just no substitute for a good rain!

Unfortunately, there is no more rain forecasted for the next week so I'm back to watering a bit.  But at least the temperatures have been wonderful.  I've had all the windows open in the house!

I'm enjoying Ken Burns new series on Country Music.  Have you been watching it?

I haven't been gardening because I'm not supposed to be in direct sunlight with the new medication I'm on.  Instead I've been reveling in the fact that I could work in the attic and have been sewing a lot.  Yesterday was a cutting day.

Three more baby  quilts ready to assemble!

Not sure who this lap quilt is for but I wanted to use up some fabric.

I need to start some scrap quilts soon too.  My scrap drawers are a bulging!

What have you been up to?

Have a wonderful week and be sure to visit more positive posts at LeeAnna's here.

"I like Thursdays": September 12, 2019

So sorry to have missed last week's posting.  I was under the weather!  Scout commiserated with me in bed.  How are you today?  It's hazy and hot and humid here in eastern Pennsylvania.  Today is Thursday and time for Leeanna's "I like Thursday" positive posts.  You can visit more blogs by visiting Leeanna's blog Not Afraid of Color.

In the garden, we are in desperate need of rain.  The butterflies are gone now but we have a number of small moths hitting the flowers, especially this kind:

I tried to find the name of this kind of moth.  It might be a Silver-Spotted Skipper (don't you love that name?).  They are constantly dancing around the garden and bumping each other off the flowers.

We are in desperate need of rain (storms keep circling our area but very little falls here).  I spend most of my time outside watering.  Blooming now:

Caryopteris.  

A great bush, even the leaves are fragrant and the bees adore it this time of year.

Turtlehead.

This flower is native to Pennsylvania and I planted it years ago to amuse the grandkids :)

On Sunday I was well enough to go on a brief tour of some of the historic houses in our neighborhood.  Our favorites were the first and the last house we went to that featured arts and crafts architecture:

 Moravian tiles on the front porch of our friend's house!

Have a wonderful day!