Be more like a Flamingo

 I know...a flamingo?  Not my first bird of choice to look to as a role model but hear me out.  

I was given the October-November 2020 issue of National Wildlife so I was looking through it and found a short piece on "Birds of a feather...".  The first sentence caught my eye and it really made sense. "For the first time, scientists have documented that flamingos consistently spend time with a handful of their close 'friends" while avoiding birds they don't get along with."  

Doesn't that sound like something we should do too?  I'm sure that most of us don't go out of our way to hang out with people we don't get along with.  In our Covid world that we fid ourselves living in, it makes more sense than ever.  "When unfriendly birds get too close to each other, on the other hand, they joust with their necks and beaks to determine dominance, with the winner most likely to be the individual with the longest neck...flamingos that regularly sat or stood less than one neck away from one another were classified as friends."  

Let's be more like flamingoes and hang out with our friends.  Stay a safe six feet away from our friends (a much longer distance unless you are Pinocchio) but still within talking range.  

Be like a flamingo and keep your friends within a safe but sociable distance and try to talk about pleasant things instead of all the negativity that is in the world today.  Need an ice breaker to start a conversation?  Use this post.  Who knows, after a couple of drinks the new drinking game could be "who can stretch their neck the farthest."  If you do use that for a drinking game, don't forget to add another element.  Perhaps standing on one leg while doing it or when taking your next drink.  Don't forget to have cameras ready when others try this.

Enjoy. 

What I have been up to...besides no good

 Seriously though, I have been busy with reorganizing and trying to figure out what I want to do.  I'm in a rut with my projects.  The good news is that I am making progress on each project but the bad news is that, without thinking about it, most of the projects I'm working on are using the same colors.  I have been stuck working with Black, Green, and Red DMC Floss.  Good thing that I have big cones of the Black and Red so I don't have to worry about getting more.

Ready for some updated pictures?   Here I go...

First up is a block that I am doing from one of my Facebook groups.  This is just the first one.  Not sure how many of the blocks I will do but it is pieced which is outside of my comfort zone.  You know that I love applique more but sometimes I have to work on pieced projects also.

These next two pictures are from the Covid house exchange project from one of my groups.  We exchanged house blocks and this is how I'm putting mine together.  I was feeling pretty good about getting two rows done and then I noticed it....

(insert big sigh here).  Somehow I cut into one of the blocks.  Se that metal sticking out of a slit in this next picture?  Yep, up towards the top.  Now I have to think on how I will repair/cover it up.  Of course I could just redo the block but that is a last resort option.  

I will probably cut out a cloud to put there or maybe a bird.  Then I will have to balance it out in another block in the next row.  At least I think I will need to do that to balance it out.  It would probably bug me if I didn't.

I don't have any updates on my Christmas in Jacksonville embroidered blocks nor in my Simple Yet Elegant blocks.  That is because I am picking back up my Fleur blocks.  Progress pictures will be posted down the road. 

I *did* get my rocking chair put together.  Thank you Dan!  This was my service award for 30 years at NIU.  I actually worked for around 32 years but they only do awards in 5 years increments.  I was lucky to get it and, knowing that I was going to retire, I kept it in the box until the moved occurred.  Now it is time to get/make some cushions for it.  The back certainly needs it since it hurts my back when I sit in it.  The bars/spokes on the back hit my spine so I need some cushion to put a barrier there.

As I was looking through one of my totes to see if it had more hidden fabric in it, I discovered my HIGH SCHOOL graduation present from my dad's only sister, Aunt Rachel.  She would crochet an afghan for everybody in the family and give it to them when they graduated high school.  This was given to me in 1974 when I graduated from high school.  I'll let you do the math on how long ago that was.  :)

I think it is holding up pretty good for all those years. 

That's all to report this time.  Next time you might see some pie pictures.  That is if I ever make up my mind if I want to make an apple pie or a pumpkin pie.  If I don't make an apple pie, I will probably use my apples and make applesauce.  Hmmm. 

Anyway, I hope you all have a great day/night and even better weekend.  See you next time.

Whew! I've been busy

 I'm tired and just remembered that I've been so busy with stitching and prepping for stitching that I hadn't posted here.  This will be somewhat of a long post so grab a cup of your favorite beverage and sit down and relax. ....Ready?

I'll first start with the progress on my sewing room.  I managed to pick up shelving units from Home Depot and am using them now.  Thank you to my friend Dan who took me to get them and then stayed to put them together.  I like that they are sturdy.  Each shelf can hold up to 250 pounds in weight and is high enough that I stack my storage units on them.

With it being a bit more organized, I am able to put individual projects in the bins and find things easier.  That has allowed me to finish another UFO which I'm just calling a braid wall hanging.  I wanted to learn how to do the braid and had a little bit of it left so framed it for a small wall hanging.  The border on this is much lighter than what the pictures shows.  Some colors are hard to get right in pictures.

To add to my joy, some fabric that has been ordered for quite awhile has now been delivered.   I'm sure it is not a surprise that I love it all.  First is 4 pounds of Batiks that were on sale. 

Of course one sale led to another and I HAD to get these.  They are 10" wide strips by 110" long.  I hadn't seen them offered that way before and for $7.99 for each strip it was a bargain.  Oh, did I mention that it is Stonehenge fabric?  Yeah, now you know why I said I HAD to get them

I also love fabric from The Intrepid Thread.  These are their Chambray fabrics which recently came out.

They feel so nice!

Also from them came my pre order for Maple Farm.  I haven't decided what to make with them but one day it will come to me.

I am making progress on my Simple Yet Elegant Block of the month.  I put them together to take a picture.  I have three blocks that are fused but need to stitch them yet.  The top left block (yellow) will be placed one block to the left but it didn't fit well to take a picture so I just moved it to where you see it.  

I think it will be pretty when completed.  My friend Susan is doing this also and I hope one day she will let me post her pictures.

I also have been working on Christmas in Jacksonville embroidery blocks.  I'll take a picture of that for my next post since I am close to finishing another block.  That way you get to see the most updated progress.  I need to pick out colors for the pieced blocks.  Hopefully I will have that figured out by the next post.

If that wasn't enough, I have been cooking too.  Dan took me to Little Piggy's BBQ and I came away with enough BBQ Ribs to eat for a couple of days and also have plenty to put in the freezer.

It even tasted good in my noodle bowl as leftovers.

That's it for this post.  I hope you have enjoyed it.  Everybody stay safe and have a great day.