Color Gradient Quilt Finish

It's always fun to share a finish that's full of color and has been so fun to work on!  I finished up these color gradient blocks in March, earlier this year.

After choosing Kona Aloha for the sashing and getting the quilt top sewn together:

This week the quilting was completed, and I have a finish!  I used the same rainbow striped fabric for binding that was used for my last quilt finish, here. 

Before washing and drying.

After washing and drying, this quilt measures 40x40.

I would love to donate this to a children's charity - does anyone have a recommendation for a group that would take a quilt this size?  Until I decide where this quilt should go, I threw it on the footstool of my red Ikea chair.   And isn't that fun?!

I think a quilter lives here!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

 

October Color Challenge Block

 I'm popping in with a quick post to share my October Color Challenge block, designed by Jen of Patterns by Jen.  This month's block is inspired by the Ruby Crowned Kinglet, who is actually an olive green color.

And here are all ten of my color challenge blocks on the design wall.

Sharing at the October link-up at Patterns by Jen!

I Like Thursday #208 - Things to Laugh About and a DrEAMi

Sometimes the contrasts from one day to the next around here make me laugh!  Here I was on Saturday, working on some yard cleanup with the lawn mower.

And then this was Sunday:

And then this reading on the thermometer a few days later:

I don't know if you can see it, but in the top left corner it says -1 degree!  Brrr!

That's pretty cold for October around here!  You have to love Colorado! :)

Here's how that left me feeling!

I think fall is back for awhile, because we got up to 60 degrees today, and the snow is melting.  We didn't even need coats for our afternoon walk today!

Meanwhile I had a true "Drop Everything and Make It" moment the other day.  

Cribbage is a favorite card game in our family, and Mike and I play a game every night while we are eating dinner.  I decided our board needed its own placemat!

Using a leftover strip set and some border fabric to make it the right size.

Some simple quilting and a red binding fabric:

Perfect!

Linking this one up with Sandra at mmmquilts for the October DrEAMi party!

Hard to believe, but it's the last week of October.  Happy Halloween!

Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday!"  Check out all the other positive Thursday posts at Not Afraid of Color.

To-Do Tuesday #61

 Happy Tuesday!  I'm checking in today with my weekly to-do list and linking up with Roseanne and friends for the To-Do Tuesday linky party at Home Sewn By Us. 

It's been a great week for making progress on my to-do list, and that's always a good feeling!  

The Rainbow Zigzags are all sewn together into a quilt top!

Also, the Double 4 Patch blocks are all completed, and I've pulled them off the design wall to start sewing them together.

The pieces and parts I had cut for my October Color Challenge Block are about halfway sewn together.  It won't take long to finish up this block!

Best of all, the last bit of quilting is finished on my Color Gradient Quilt, binding is made, and I'm ready for a finish on this one!

I really love this yellow block!

For the coming week, I'm going to keep things simple!

1. Sew the binding on to the above quilt and finish it up, plus write a post for sharing by Saturday.
2. Finish up the October Color Challenge block and write a post about that project, too! 

How have you done with your to-do list this week?  Looking forward to checking in with all my quilty friends over at Home Sewn by Us. 

Slow Stitching this Week

I'm back into embroidery this week and enjoying every stitch!  The stitching on Bee Kind is complete - now I just have to decide how I want to finish this one.  Most likely it will be combined with some patchwork to make a little wall-hanging and sent off to my college friend who is an entomologist!

Then I traced and started stitching this design from Gail Pan's Patchwork Loves Embroidery, Too.  I would love to turn it into a pillow for a friend who has a birthday in a couple weeks, if I can finish it in time!

I'm using DMC 4140, "Driftwood," to stitch this and I love it!

It's a reddish/brown variegated floss, and really pretty.

When do you do most of your hand stitching?  My time is in the evening when the dishes are done, and we settle in for an evening in front of the TV.  We've gotten into the habit of streaming various TV shows or watching a movie.  This week we watched a movie on Netflix called "The Trial of the Chicago Seven."  It was pretty interesting!

Image Source

I always enjoy movies that are based on true events because then I feel like I'm learning something at the same time.  While watching (and stitching!) I also looked up the real people who were involved in these events that took place back in 1968.    

Have a great Sunday!  

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

Zigging and Zagging

I was so excited about finishing up the very last row of HSTs for my zigzag quilt project this week that I just kept sewing on them until the quilt top was all done!

Whoop whoop!

The quilt top measures 48 x 72, kind of tall and narrow, but I have in mind to gift this to a friend who is also tall and narrow, so hopefully it will be just right!  😉

I don't have a backing for this quilt yet, so while I'm looking for that, I'll move on to some other projects.

Along the way, I finished up the yellow double 4 patch blocks I needed for that project as well.

So here they all are!  Now I can take these blocks off the design wall and work on sewing this quilt top together, too.

It's been a pretty productive week here!  Hope you've gotten a lot done, too.   For more scrappy rainbow goodness, check out the posts at SoScrappy on ScrapHappy Saturday, where I'll be linking up!

Also sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

 

I Like Thursday #207

 Good morning!

Hope your week is going well!

Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday," hosted by

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.

I like my geranium which has not really bloomed all summer, but must have decided the end of October needed a little pink in it!

We went for a walk at our local natural area the other day and Mike got this great picture of the cattails at the edge of the pond.

The largest fire in Colorado history is burning just a few miles from here and you can see it from town!  That's not a like, but certainly something that has shaped my week.

I'm sure the foothill and mountain wildlife is being displaced by the fire, and we happened to see several beautiful Steller's Jays in our yard the other day.  Normally they are not backyard birds at all, but stay in the mountains.

I think this is a good example of ugly gardening, that our friend, Jocelyn at Canadian Needle Nana, has posted about.  We've been working on leaf pick-up the last couple weeks, but it is really fun to see the birds and squirrels hunting around under the leaves that remain, looking for tasty morsels!

I have loved this book this week, and really recommend it!  (And not just because there are penguins in it, lol!)

And just to have something quilting-related to share - in my Tuesday post I showed the yellow HSTs that were ready to be sewn into the zigzag row - and here they are with all their colorful buddies!

Rows are ready to be sewn together now!

That's it from here for this week!  Don't forget to visit the other I Like Thursday bloggers over at Not Afraid of Color!

To-Do Tuesday #60: Progress and Prepping

 It's been a good week for making progress on some of the things on last week's to-do list!

1.  My Humble Quilt is finished!

2.  HSTs made for yellow zigzag row.  This photo is from last Friday, but as of Sunday afternoon, I have made all 24 and they're ready to sew together!

3.  Progress has been made on quilting the Color Gradient Quilt - it's about 80% complete.  I just stopped because I had to refill the bobbin!  

4.  And I did keep playing with my squirrel project blocks  - From My Carolina Home's Autumn Jubilee QAL.  I'm just making a block or two a week, and I'll see where it goes later!

So... I spent some time yesterday prepping pieces and parts for what I'd like to make sure I work on this week.

Tree blocks grouped to sew into 4 patches.

Yellow HSTs for the zigzag row.

The last few 4 patches to make for the double 4 patch quilt.

And - the parts for my October Color Challenge block at Patterns by Jen.

Here's what's left for the Double 4 patch blocks:

I'm filling in the top right corner with a few more yellows and then

some turquoise.  Then these blocks will be ready to sew together, too.

And, of course, also on my list, will be to finish that last 20% of the quilting on the Color Gradient quilt!  There could be a finish in my future!  👍

Sharing my to-do list at Home Sewn by Us for To-Do Tuesday.

A finish and some embroidery

 Lots of stitching on my Humble Quilts QAL project this week resulted in a finish!

I backed and bound it in this brown that has a sort of swirly effect when you see it in person.  It's called Shadow Play, by Maywood Studios.

After finishing that little quilt, I picked my Kathy Schmitz embroidery back up, and have made good progress on it after a couple evenings.

The pattern calls for lots of spaces - like the clover leaves - to be filled in with satin stitch, and I haven't done any of that yet.  I may just leave them the way they are right now.

So that's what I'll be working on for Slow Sunday Stitching, joining in with all the stitchers at Kathy's Quilts!  

Cheddar and HSTs

 I needed something simple and fun to work on in my sewing room this week, so I chose the yellow half-square triangles for the final zigzag row.

Just 4 more needed and I'll be able to sew this row together!

Isn't this one cute?

I've also been playing along with the Autumn Jubilee QAL at From My Carolina Home, just making one or two blocks from each week's instructions.  I've been wanting to sew with cheddar and dark blue, so decided this quilt along was a way to do that.  I also mixed in some other fall themed scraps that I have had from previous years' Autumn Jubilee projects.

I've made two star blocks, a funky patchwork pine tree (!), and a maple leaf.  Not sure if the pine tree will make the cut yet!  (Maybe I should remake it using more of my cheddar and dark blue?  That would really make a funky tree!)

The cheddar looks florescent and the dark blue looks like black, 

but I promise you they look pretty fun together in person!

Check out the QAL posts here:

Star blocks

Tree

Maple leaves

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #206

It's Thursday, and time to share our likes for the week!  You can find lots more fun, positive posts at LeeAnna's place, Not Afraid of Color.

While this is not necessarily something to like this week, it is something I had to share because it is the talk of our town and region.  Due to high winds, the Cameron Peak Fire kind of blew up yesterday, and here's how the sky looked about noon as we were going into the grocery store.

Earlier in the week, Mike caught this great shot of a chickadee at our feeder!

We've had tons of birds flitting around the yard and at the feeders in recent days.

Lots of robins, nuthatches, chickadees, even juncos which we normally only see in the winter.

I am seeing my favorite birds better these days because I have new glasses, and the prescription is correct this time!  I lived with the wrong prescription for longer than I should have, and then went to a new eye doctor who did an excellent job.  And I can see again!

I bought the glasses from Costco Optical, 

and I really like their service also.

On a beautiful day last week, my quilt group was able to meet, with social distancing, at a park.  We had not met in person since early March.  

I loved this book this week!  I'm pretty sure Colette recommended it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Thanks, Colette!

And, finally, I saw this and had to share it.  It is speaking to me as we continue to navigate my mom's situation.

Have a great rest of the week, everyone!

To-Do Tuesday #59

Good morning! I'm checking in today with my weekly to-do list and linking up with Roseanne and friends for the To-Do Tuesday linky party at Home Sewn By Us. 

Again this week, I've had a lot of things to research and find out about for my mom, in case she needs a different place to live or some kind of extra help.  Lots of time spent on the phone talking to senior living places, home health care companies, and medical alert systems.  We have slowly figured things out, and I think life will smooth out here soon, but this week I didn't get much time in the sewing room again.

I did finish up the yellow trees for my Rainbow Jungle project, and here is my collection of blocks for this quilt.

And I have continued to work on the Humble Quilts QAL project.  Quilting is almost finished and then all that will be left is the binding.

And (oops!), I got distracted by a squirrel... I've been wanting to play with cheddar and dark blue (indigo?), and Carole's Autumn Jubilee QAL at From My Carolina Home came along, so I played!  

I'll play with these blocks a little bit, and probably make something small.   

Sometimes you just have to play, with no goal in mind!

It's hard to say what I'll be able to get done this week.  I know what I'd like to work on, so I'll put that list here, and just see what happens!

1.  Finish the Humble Quilt.

2.  Start on yellow HSTs for the Rainbow Zigzag quilt.

3.  Get back to work on the Color Gradient quilting.

4.  Get back to work on the Mini Magic Star panels for a tote bag. 

5.  Keep playing with the squirrel blocks.

Surely something will get done!  😉