Stay at Home Round Robin - round 3

This week's host is Emily at the Darling Dogwood.  Emily suggested that we get our inspiration for this week's border blocks from the animal kingdom.  Since my project this year is fall-themed, I ended up deciding to make Birds in the Air blocks.  What is more a sign of fall than flocks of geese flying through the air?!

I wanted a simple Birds in the Air block that could be made in the 3.5 inch range, so I googled it and found this article from Quilting Daily that had directions for multiple methods of making Birds in the Air blocks.  I ended up using the most traditional method (which was simple!) to sew up these blocks.

Along the way, I also added a narrow solid brown border to the existing center.

I'm picturing these blocks in the corners, with the Double Slice blocks from last week's prompt acting as bare tree branches, maybe?  You can see that the two types of blocks are different sizes, so I'll have to do something about that that, too, plus make some more.  But - it's an idea!

Since the verse in the center talks about pumpkins and sunflowers, I've been thinking about how I could bring those into the pieced design.  I have some ideas, but waiting to see what the next border prompts are.    

Linking up with The Darling Dogwood for the SAHRR, Round 3

and at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

Stitching some Love

You can't really live in a city named Loveland and not expect to see a lot of reminders of Valentine's Day, especially in the month of February!  

This week I stitched the letters of love for the Primrose Cottage Sweetly Saying design.  I love how they used a strawberry for the O!

Here's the whole design so far  -

There's lots more to do and since Valentine's Day is just next Saturday,

I'd better hustle!

Meanwhile, the winter embroidery is almost finished.  Just a bit more in the top left corner to stitch.

I definitely have plenty to do for today's Slow Sunday Stitching! 

Linking up at Kathy's Quilts. 

Getting started with Green

This week I had a chance to get out my greens and do some sorting...

These are the smallest pieces - hopefully there will be enough to make a crumb placemat.

I think this month I'll combine the dark greens and the bright greens.

Some of the others will be used when we have a light/pastel green month.

I also had some time to make one Jacob's Ladder block and pick out the colors for a second.

And then I got distracted by a "Drop Everything and Make It" project!  Older son requested some soup bowl cozies for himself and his girlfriend.  I can never turn down a request from family, so I ordered some Wrap and Zap batting, and as soon as it arrived, I got to work.  I decided to make three because I realized we could use a new one, too.

In keeping with February being green month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I found a piece of this Baby Yoda/Mandalorian print on green and used it for two of the cozies.

I made some of these several years ago, but it's been awhile, so I thought I'd better find a tutorial to remind me how to do them.  I found this one at All People Quilt, and it worked.  

It took me about three sewing sessions to get these made this week, but they turned out nicely, and I sent two of them off to older son this morning.  I'm so used to sewing things for guys, and rarely things for women, but he has told us that his girlfriend loves pink, so...  

I made one in pink!

I know they'll get a lot of use out of them, because we certainly do!

And that was my sewing week.  How was yours?  

Sharing at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday and at 

SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #469

Good morning, and Happy Thursday!  We like Dad jokes at our house...

😊

I went to a concert the other night!  A friend had an extra ticket and invited me along.  These gals are a BeeGees tribute group.  It was fun!  

I have been reading (and enjoying very much) Miss Morgan's Book Brigade.  It is historical fiction set in France in WWI, about Anne Morgan (daughter of J. P. Morgan) and a group of women who go to war torn France in 1918 to help the people whose villages were destroyed by the Germans as they retreated.

Goodreads.  

LeeAnna's question of the week is about Valentines.  Do you remember the tiny little cards and envelopes from elementary school?  I sure do, because I also did them with my own kids (it was great practice for writing your letters!), with the preschoolers I taught, and all the way up into 5th grade.  And, yes, the rule was not to leave anyone out!  Shopping for Valentines was very important - my boys always liked the box sets that had robots or something space-aged on them.  Something like this, probably!

Those were the days! 😊

Hope you're having a great week!

Joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

Stay at Home Round Robin - Round 2

Our host for this week, Kathleen McMusing, suggested double blocks for the next round of the project.  Her post includes lots of ideas, and I thought a long time about trying for some kind of double star design.  But I couldn't come up with one that would be doable within my (self-imposed) 3 inch size - the pieces would just be too small and fiddly.  So - on to the next idea - something I'm calling "Double Slice."  I played with these blocks once before, and made a small piece with them.

As you can probably imagine - you start with a square, slice it once diagonally and add a narrow strip, then slice it again through the opposite corners, and add a second narrow strip.

You can square them up straight - 

Or wonky - 

Which I thought was a fun look!

I haven't decided yet where these blocks will end up, but I did do the measuring and sewing needed to finish the first border from last week.

This measures 15.5 x 16.5 right now.

I might add a very narrow solid border first, and then see what border #3 brings before making any more decisions!

Linking up with Kathleen McMusing for the SAHRR Round 2,

and at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

                            

Hello, February!

The Valentine bunnies are finished and ready to be on display for February.  Pink and green make me think Spring could be on its way.   We all need to think that in February, right?!

I think this green is prettier in person than in the photograph - 

not sure why, but I can't seem to get a good photograph of it.

It does go nicely with the variegated green I used to embroider the bunnies.

I got out all the heart decorations and changed out the chest top display for February too.  

And I've been stitching on Sweetly Saying from Primrose Cottage.  It has such sweet little motifs in it.  Flowers, hearts, strawberries - very fun to stitch!

And lots more to do for Slow Sunday Stitching- 

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

A blue and orange house...

To finish out the month of January, I made another house for my "Year in the Neighborhood" project.  I mostly worked on this last Sunday afternoon, when the Denver Broncos were playing in the AFC Championship game for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.  (Unfortunately,  the Broncos lost the game, but I still had fun making this house!) 

My husband has been a fan of the Denver Broncos since before I met him, so I cheer them on, too, and so does our older son.  Some people might say we "bleed" orange and blue! 

💙🧡💙🧡💙 

When I decided to make this house, I wondered how I could show this is where Broncos' fans live with fabric from my stash.  I don't have much novelty fabric, and definitely nothing with footballs or horses.  But I did have an old t-shirt!

I made the center section (what I consider the front door) out of a Bronco logo cut from the old t-shirt and backed by some fusible interfacing as you would do if you were making a whole quilt out of t-shirts.  There are blue curtains in the windows and orange shutters.

Once that decision was made, the rest of the block was pretty simple.  

Even though it was snowing like crazy that day, football is usually played on a grassy green field, so I gave it that for the yard.  

This house needed a tree, so it got one with snow on the ground.

And here is the neighborhood so far!

In other sewing-related news, I was sorting through my thread yesterday and was surprised to see how many partials spools of thread I have collected.  These are the spools that don't have enough left to fill a bobbin with, so originally I began saving them for sewing bindings.  

It's too embarrassing to show a picture of the whole bunch, so I'll just share what I'm planning.  I'm starting with all the partial spools of Gutermann Sew-All #22 (Eggshell).  I can't fill up a bobbin with these, but I can put them in the top thread holder and use them up that way.

I bet I can get a few blocks sewn up with 

these scraps of thread in the next few weeks!

Sharing at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday

and at Melva Loves Scraps for TGIFF

SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Also at Quilting and Learning Combo for the Quilter's Cove QAL link-up

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!