Midweek Update

I got another envelope of happy mail this past week - this time from Melva.  She had chosen my name for a fat quarter prize from the Little House Sew-along.  Thank you, Melva!

I don't think my photo shows the color quite right, but in real life it is a pretty turquoise that I think I can use in my Little House blocks.   The next block will be at Melva Loves Scraps tomorrow (Thursday - 3/19) - looking forward to it!

Meanwhile I've been working on getting my Stay at Home Round Robin quilt finished up for the parade coming up next Wednesday.  I pieced a backing out of three of the leftover fat quarters from the bundle.

                                                        Here it is a little closer in.

The next job was quilting - 

And this afternoon's job will be getting the binding on!  Not long until a finish now!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Spring Colors

Earlier this week, I discovered the grape hyacinths blooming in my garden!  Trees are coming out early this year, too - Colorado has had a very mild winter.

I still need to do the Spring garden clean-up!

So I've been stitching in Spring colors this week, too.  

This pretty purple is DMC 209 - dark lavender.  The Blessings stitch is a start on the "Spring Blessings" free design for March.  You can get it if you sign up for their newsletter.

A few more stitches have been added to the Spring embroidery design from Gail Pan, too.  Lots more to do on this one!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Moving along with red...

This week I got out my bin of the smallest pieces of red and started sorting them to see what would work for this month's scrappy placemat.  The next step is to sew pairs and trios and then start puzzling them together into a 12 x 16 slab.

A friend gave me quite a big pile of her unwanted leftover reds last fall, and they were good for making another Jacob's Ladder block.  It takes some bigger pieces than what I keep in the above bin.

I had made one last December in brighter reds, so this time I used some darker pieces. 

It's always fun to add more to the block collection!  The lone brown block at the top was the first block I made, sometime last fall.  It needs a friend, but that can wait until we sew the dark neutrals this year.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! 

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #474

It snowed here!  Not much accumulation, but lots of good moisture.  Even my husband, who hates snow, was happy to see this!

A snow day made us feel like baking, and snickerdoodles were the choice of recipe.  They turned out to be yummy!

I got some happy mail last week - thank you, LeeAnna!  I had told her I loved the cute books/reading prints that she used in one of her Project Quilting projects, and she sent me some pieces.  ❤️❤️❤️   I have an idea for how to use these, but need to think it through a bit before starting.

LeeAnna's question of the week is about fashion - if we could bring back any fashion trend, what would it be?  And this one had me just about stumped!  You might call me "fashion-challenged."  I don't follow the trends - just wear what's comfortable.  So I came up with one that I'm glad has NOT come back - shoulder pads in everything!  This came from a Pinterest board titled "1980s Shoulder Pads - the Epitome of Power Dressing!"

Remember Joan Collins of Dynasty fame?

She even wrote a memoir called Behind the Shoulder Pads!

And piggy-backing on last week's topic - something that I'm glad came back into fashion is curly hair!  This is Susie Wargin, a well-known TV and radio personality for probably 30 years here in Colorado.  She is known for her curly hairstyle, and I have always admired it.  It has probably changed and become a little looser in the years since I when I first noticed her, but it is still so pretty!

Have a great Thursday, everyone!

I'm joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

Midweek Update

Often, when I am interested in a new project, my first question is - can I make it from my stash?  I don't always know if what I am envisioning will actually work.   So finally, three blocks into the Little House Sampler sew-along, hosted by Melva Loves Scraps,  I think I know what I am doing with this project!

I started it with a jelly roll I had won last fall - and it has lots of pumpkins, leaves, and bright oranges in it.  Block 3 is called Harvest Basket, and it was perfect for nailing down that my colors for this quilt are orange, turquoise, browns, and creamy neutrals.  

I love basket blocks! 

Focusing on those four colors helps me pick out the strips for the log cabin surrounds.  I've been trying to keep these blocks from being too busy, so adding in some solids and low volume neutrals should help that. 

Here is block 3!

I'm liking how this is coming along!  There are nine blocks total, and Melva is releasing them every week or two, which is a nice pace for me.

Getting closer to a finish is this year's Stay at Home Round Robin.  I have the pieced border finished and strips cut for a final solid border.  Hope to get that sewn on later this week, and then a backing figured out so I can get going on the quilting.  The final quilt parade starts two weeks from today!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss and at 

Melva Loves Scraps for the Little House Sampler Block 3 link-up.

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday 

 

Lucky!

Mr. Lucky the Leprechaun is finished and ready to watch over us for St. Patrick's Day!  He looks a little mischievous, doesn't he?  Melisa's design didn’t have you stitching a mouth for him, but I decided he needed a little smile.  

I set him on the little chest of drawers with all the other March decorations.

A friend and I share the lightbox that I use for tracing embroidery designs.  She called and said she needed it this week, so that gave me just the push I needed to get the Gail Pan "Spring" embroidery prepped and ready to stitch.

I'm using DMC 954 for this - Nile Green.

It looks pretty spring-like to me!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

A March House

I've been spending a lot of time on my Stay at Home Round Robin this week, but I wanted to get started on sewing with the red scraps so I decided to play with a house block. Something's been bugging me about the construction of these paper-pieced houses, and I needed to to figure out what it was.

I first purchased this pattern from Twiggy and Opal's Etsy shop in 2020, and made this little mini quilt at Christmas.  Our kids didn't come home that year because of Covid and I was missing them.  These are the smallest houses in the pattern - 4.5 inches.

There's also a 6.5 inch size - 

Then I didn't use the pattern again until this past December when I made the Little Penguin Christmas house just to try the pattern again.   This time I made the 8.5 inch size.

If you compare this one to the previous blocks, you might notice that in this one, I sewed that long strip to the bottom of the house, rather than below the roof as I had before.

And I proceeded to do that with my January and February houses this year, too.  Each tine, they just looked a bit off to me - which is when I finally dug out the previous ones I had made and realized the difference.

The long strip is really supposed to go between the roof and the house part!

Like this - in red for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month for March.

Does that mean I need to go back and re-do the previous houses in my Neighborhood?   I decided not to because every neighborhood has houses with different designs, right?  So here is the Neighborhood as it looks now!

Most likely, I'll continue making houses in both styles 

and mix them up in the final layout.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! 

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday