Slow Stitching Update

Sometimes the summer days get busy and I run out of time to get down into my sewing room.   That's when I'm so glad I've got some hand-stitching projects to work on in the evening when I'm relaxing with my husband in front of one of our favorite TV shows.

I've been continuing to hand-piece these blocks in dark blue and a floral blue and white.

Four small blocks turned just right make that really neat star!

Looks like it's time to cut some more pieces so I can finish up that fourth star.

I'm going to keep stitching these until I run out of these scraps!

Meanwhile, I also pulled all of the hexie papers out of this tablerunner-sized piece that I've been working on for a long time, and got the layers basted so I could begin quilting it.

This is made from a mini charm pack of Persimmon by Basic Grey, a light blue Kona solid, which I can't remember the name of, and a cream Grunge Dot.  It's been one of those "make it up as you go" projects, and I'm happy to be finishing it up!

I'm always working on making tiny and consistent stitches as I hand quilt!

My camera makes the oranges in this fabric look practically florescent!  They are not that bright in real life  - more of a rusty/tan/orange.

I'll be stitching on these projects for awhile yet, and enjoying that slow-stitching time I have every day!

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

and at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

The End of June?

How is it the last Saturday of June already?  The weeks and months always seem to fly by, but this one has been especially speedy!

This week, while quilting along on this blue star -

I remembered that there was a chunk of that pretty blue with green flowers left, and decided it would work for my Tiny Tuesday Monkey Wrench block.

And here it is!

But what's that Tiny gray kitten doing in the picture?

I guess he wanted to join the blue Tiny blocks, so he climbed into a bright blue basket!  To really be a part of the crowd, he still needs his gray sashing, but I'm sure that will come along very soon.

For more info about kittens in baskets, check out Sally's post HERE.

June has been the month of dark blue for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Glad there's time to sew with more blue scraps in July!

Check out all the blue scrappy goodness at Soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!

I Like Thursday #140 - Progress and a few Random Things

I've been focused all week on finishing up my Beothuk Star quilt, which I call Flowers for Shanawdithit.  Making progress on it is such a good feeling, even if this stage always seems to take longer than I think it should!

Love this purple star!

I really like using these gardening gloves that I got at Lowe's for quilting gloves.

I think they came in a package of 5, so I keep two pair outside for actual gardening and three in a basket on my sewing table for when I'm quilting.

I found a new place to display mini quilts in my sewing room!

This is hanging on the side of the old entertainment center 

that I turned into storage for scraps and projects.

We've been enjoying this show on Acorn TV in the evenings recently,  "Hamish MacBeth."  It's an older one, probably from the mid-1990s.  

We love the Scottish scenery (and their accents!), 

the quirky characters and story lines, and the adorable dog, too!

I've had a craving for this lemon yogurt lately.  Makes breakfast taste like dessert!

Yum!

And I spied this little guy outside in our backyard the other day - just hangin' out!

Happy Thursday!  Hope you're having a great week!  

Joining in with the other Thursday bloggers at Not Afraid of Color.

A Simple Rail Fence Tablerunner

I was in the mood  to make something Red, White, and Blue out of scraps, and loved the rail fence tablerunner I had seen on the blog, Run 'n Stitch, earlier this month, so decided to give that a try.  Check out Kathi's runner HERE.

These are the scraps that came out to play!

I had enough of the red text fabric, Kona white, and the robins on blue to make eight 6.5 inch blocks.

The navy blue with white dots and the red, white, and blue stripes became the backing and binding.

A quick and simple project - it measures about 12 x 24.

Now I'm all set for the season!

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

And Sandra's June DrEAMi link-up, too.  

Strings and Things

I pulled out my blue strings and some phone book pages this week to get some dark blue string blocks made.

I think of this as sort of Zen sewing - mindless, almost meditative, simple and satisfying, and these blocks finish up quickly!

Except if there's an "Oops!"

I wondered where that other piece went!

And a bright rainbow of 6!

This week's Tiny Tuesday block was a fun new one to try - an appliqued basket.  Thanks, Angela, for the directions and template!

I can see myself making more of these in the future - I have really been enjoying hand stitching lately.

All the blue Tiny Tuesdays for June - 

Just for fun, each month I've been making some crumb "slabs" with the bits and pieces that are left over from the other projects.  There aren't enough to make something with yet, but they do create a fun rainbow!

Sharing at Soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!  

I Like Thursday #139 - This and That

Happy Thursday, friends!  Thanks for visiting this week's I Like Thursday post - and be sure to check out the other bloggers who participate every week over at Not Afraid of Color!

Have you tried butternut squash noodles? I just did the other day, and they are yummy!  I was able to buy them already "spiralized" from the grocery store, and that made them really easy to fix.

I roasted them in the oven using THIS recipe.

They were very tasty with some meatballs and spaghetti sauce.

Recently we were visiting my MIL in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she now lives, and there is a Menards there.  Do you ever visit Menards?  It is like a quilt shop for the do-it-yourselfer!  This one is the closest to us at about an hour away, so it's a "must go there" when we have a chance.  I enjoy shopping there, too - probably as much as Mike does.

While we there, I decided I had to have a couple of new solar garden lights that rotate with different colors - green, blue, purple, red.  They're fun!

Wendy, at Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life, 

will know just what I'm talking about!  :)

I love this picture of my dad, taken in about 1985, with my younger son.  I got it out on Father's Day this last Sunday.

My dad passed away in 1992, so old photos are always enjoyed!

Carole, at From My Carolina Home, released the last clue of her Scrap Dance Minuet mystery QAL last Friday, so I sewed up all the pieces I had made into four blocks for a tabletopper size.

This is made from the August Blogger Bundle that I purchased from Bernie at Needle and Foot - fabrics for the bundle were chosen by Carole, so it seemed like the perfect project for them.

I like this star that emerged when you sewed up the flying geese and four patch units!

I have enough fabric left to make a pieced backing and for the binding, and then this will become my August tabletopper for the dining room table!

I've also enjoyed working on my Tiny Tuesday block this week - a little appliqued basket.

This is the first one I've ever made, so a good learning experience for me! 

 I like learning new things!

And a good book I enjoyed reading earlier this week - 

The quote at the top on the cover calls the book, "the gold standard of summertime escapism!"  That made me laugh!   It was a very good story, though - more to it than what I expected from a book on a list of the best beach reads!

Have a great day, everyone!  

Flowers for Shanawdithit

Shanawdithit was a Native Canadian woman, the last of the Beothuk people, who inspired Sandra at mmmquilts to design the Beothuk Star quilt.  Thank you, Sandra, for inviting all of us to quilt along and make our own versions of Beothuk Star.

Mine is called "Flowers for Shanawdithit" because of these pretty florals that I used in both a purple and coral version to make 3 of the 4 stars for this quilt.

That blue with green flowers is the 4th star.

It has been a delightful experience to go from this -

my careful plan and diagram drawn out on graph paper!

To this - 

With lots of this along the way!

Yes, that block on the right had to be unpicked and redone!

I've chosen a lovely purple fabric for the backing and binding, so all that is left to do is to baste and quilt my Beothuk Star, Flowers for Shanawdithit. 

Only a few scraps left!

I'm still thinking about how to quilt this one, so I'll share again when it's all finished.

Thanks, again, Sandra, for sponsoring this QAL!  I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Sharing at the Beothuk Star final link-up, HERE, and at

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.

Bits of Blue and Birds

Loving birds as I do, you know they have to make an appearance in my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks once in awhile, right?!

After hunting around in my blues for this week's Tiny Tuesday block, I chose these three fabrics to make Cynthia's design.

Chickadees!

I liked the striped rectangles in the block Cynthia made, so I decided to borrow that idea for mine!

Now there are two June blocks!

That fan block makes me laugh every time I see it...

It may have to be redone!  :)

These robins are another favorite bird fabric - they found their way into a red, white, and blue tablerunner I'm working on.

And, of course, the leftover 2.5 inch squares fit right into my latest RSC squirrel! (Because you know when you invite birds into your yard sewing room, the squirrels will come, too, lol!)

This beautiful Great-Horned Owl has been hanging out in our backyard this week.  I think he's saying, "What are you doing out here?  Why don't you go sew?" I think I will!

Sharing at Soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!

I Like Thursday #138 - a new camera!

Mike surprised me with a new camera last week, and we've been having fun playing with it!  Although still a fairly simple point and shoot type camera, it's quite a bit fancier than my old one and, so far, I like it!

Besides trying to figure out all of its "features" we've just been taking lots of different pictures in different light and locations to see what it does, so for I Like Thursday, I decided to share my favorites of the week.

In my basement sewing room -

Diann, unpicking a seam on Beothuk Star - oops!  :)

Outdoors - happy red and white petunias!

We liked the color in this one!

Late in the day - the sunset - 

A mountain photo - Long's Peak - 

Zooming in on flowers by the river - 

My old camera does not do close-up shots well, 

so this is something I'll keep playing with!

Yarn-bombed trees in Estes Park - these just make me smile!

And a photo of my completed Beothuk Star quilt top - I've had a hard time getting the colors in this one to come out right with the old camera, but this looks just about right to me!

The background fabric is Kona Butter, but it was looking an awful lot like Lemon in my older photos, and there's a big difference in the two.

This morning, I'm off to finding backing and binding fabric for Beothuk Star, so I can get it basted and quilted.  I'm ready for a finish!

Happy Thursday, friends!  I hope you're having a great week!  I'm joining in with LeeAnna and the other I Like Thursday bloggers at Not Afraid of Color.