To-Do Tuesday #66

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.  I hope you've all had a wonderful week!

One benefit of not going away for the long Thanksgiving weekend is that there is lots of sewing time!  That helps with checking things off the to-do list.

1.  I finished up the first Covered in Love block and have all the pieces and parts cut, made, and ready to make another.  

2.  Finish sewing the rainbow jungle trees together and work on the borders.  The tree center is completed, and border fabric purchased, but not cut into yet.  That part will stay on the list for the coming week.

3.  Work on sewing the embroidered snowmen and snowflakes into a little tablerunner.   The top is now together, and I just need to get it quilted!

So it's been a productive week!  Things on the list for the coming week include:

1.  Finish the snowmen tablerunner.  This is a gift for a friend, so I want to get it to her to use this month!

2.  Finish the CiL blocks and get them sent.

3.  Borders for the Rainbow Jungle - hopefully!  They should be easy - I just need to be in the right mood for that kind of cutting and sewing.  😉

4.  I'm playing around with another Christmas project - so giving myself time to play!

Plenty to keep busy with this week!  Have a great week!

Slow Stitching this week

 I finished up this pretty blue design - 

I also pulled out the redwork snowmen and snowflakes that I worked on earlier this year so that I could put them together into a little tablerunner.  I started by adding Christmas-y fabric to both so that they would turn into 6.5 inch squares.

When all put together, they look like this.  Facing in different directions so it doesn't matter which side of the table you're sitting on!

Now I'm thinking about what to do next.  It feels like it needs another border, and here's what I have to choose from.

I love the green with snowflakes, but the cute print I've already used has more of a lime green in it.  My greens are really lacking right now, so maybe some stash enhancement will be in order for this project! 

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Moving Along

This week, I wanted to finish sewing the Rainbow Jungle trees into 4 patches, and then into rows, and then into a quilt top.  

By Friday afternoon, the rows were coming together.

Needing some leaders and enders, I pulled out some scrappy bits and worked on a wonky star block.

It didn't take long to have a star block...

(That bottom right corner is a little skimpy!  

Maybe it will work anyway, with a smaller seam allowance.)

and the center of a quilt top, too!

This measures 48.5 x 54.5, so it's going to get a 6 inch forest green border all the way around.  More on that next week, hopefully!  :)

The wonky stars are going to mix in with the Easy Breezy blocks I'm making, like this - 

These blocks will continue on into 2021.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

 

I Like Thursday #211 - Thankful!

 Happy Thanksgiving, friends!  

In spite of this strange and often stressful year, I have many things to be thankful for.

I'm thankful for my family, especially my guys.  I've probably shared this picture before - it was taken on a trip we took together to San Francisco a few years back.

Mike, Kevin, Andrew,

and me!  (behind the camera)

I'm thankful that Mike's cancer treatments are progressing as expected with few side effects,  and that my kids are employed in jobs they enjoy, and that we are able to be in touch in lots of ways.

I'm thankful for my comfortable little house and plenty of food to eat, including a turkey dinner.  Yum!

Hello!

I'm thankful for beautiful outdoor spaces to enjoy, not too far from my home - places to have a picnic lunch, go for a walk, watch birds, see what's going on beyond my neighborhood.

I'm so very thankful for good books to read!  I'm reading the most recent book in the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny.  It takes place in Paris, so I'm traveling by book!

I'm thankful for creative things to keep busy with - quilting, sewing, embroidery.  Here's a view of my design wall this week - lots of this and that going on!

And I can't end my Thanksgiving post without saying how thankful I am for friends - both my local friends and all of you, my blogging friends - thanks for coming here to read my ramblings, for inspiring me with your creations, and for the friendship you've extended to me in so many ways.  

Hope you're having a good day, however you're spending it!  I'm joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

To-Do Tuesday #65

Happy Thanksgiving week and To-Do 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 has been a week of working on little odds and ends of things.  I finished up the fall pillow I was making for my friend, Betty, and delivered it yesterday.  I don't know if you can tell, but she was dressed to match it, and she didn't even know what I was bringing her!  

 

I also got the November Color Challenge block sewn together.

Sharing this at the November link-up at Patterns by Jen.

Along the way, more four patches of tree blocks were sewn together, too!  Progress!

Only a few more of these to do, and then I'll move on to

sewing up the rows.

And I *almost* have a completed Covered in Love block!  I've gone slowly with this one to make sure I had everything in the right place, and now I think I can do more chain piecing for the rest of the blocks that I'm going to make.

Don't these colors go perfectly with my tiny Pilgrim people?!

So what's on this week's list?

1.  Finish the CiL block, and make another.

2.  Keep working on the Rainbow Jungle quilt top.  I did find a border fabric for the Jungle, so I might try to get the borders cut, too. 

3.  I've been working on a setting for these embroidered snowflakes and snowmen that I finished while back.  I'd like to move along with this project, too.

4.  Most important job of the week: Be thankful!  Have a great week everyone!

These hexagons are a geometry project...

 Seven hexagons - 

Thirteen hexagons - 

Sixteen hexagons - 

I like this layout!  I think I'll start sewing these together.

And the fall pillow cover is finished and ready to give to my friend.  It will be a belated birthday gift, but just in time for Thanksgiving!  

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating this week!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

A little of this and a little of that...

 Yes, that's how my week has gone.  And here's the evidence on my sewing table!

Pieces and parts for a Covered in Love block,

Tree blocks for the Rainbow Jungle,

and my November Color Challenge block in finished form.

The Rainbow Jungle 4 patches/rows are coming together - I push them through a few at a time in between other things.

I've been spending some time sorting crumb scraps, and I have a lot of them!  Time to start sewing crumb blocks again!

This is just a tiny bit of them!  

I especially seem to have a lot of reds and blues.

So, what to do with them?  I was flipping through Kelly Young's book, Stash Statement, and found this quilt.

Perfect idea!  She calls it "Precarious!"

The directions say to make 8 panels, one of each each color, that measure 14 x 18 inches.  I started in on blue first, and here's what I have so far.  

The big one here measures about 10x12.  

This is the perfect sewing for when you just need something mindless.

Sew a bunch of scrappy pairs - match them up for groups of four - trim a little and keep going until you have a big enough panel!  

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #210

Good morning!  We had a beautiful sunrise yesterday.  I'm always thankful to catch a sunrise at just the right moment.

I'm on another pumpkin kick this week - I love pumpkin yogurt!

I used the last of my roasted pumpkin to make us some pumpkin pancakes the other day, and they were delicious, too.

Here's the recipe I used:

Pumpkin Pancakes

I'm pretty sure this squirrel was enjoying the last of the pumpkin we put out in the garden for them to eat.  He had hauled it up to the top of the fence post!

I loved stitching this sweet sewing machine earlier this week.   The variegated blue DMC floss is one of my favorites to sew with and I haven't used it in awhile - nice to get back to it.

I've been reading...

Quiltfolk!

A generous local friend shares her copies with me.  Each issue is about a state - this one is Minnesota, where two of my favorite quilters live.  (Wink!)  I enjoy reading about quilters around the country, and seeing what they're making.

Season 4 of The Crown is out, so we've been binge-watching that show this week.  It's fascinating historically, but also sad to know the story of Diana and her life as a royal.

I hope you're having a good week!  I'm joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday!

To-Do Tuesday #64

Good morning and happy To-Do 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 good week for getting things done in my sewing room, and I have some successes to share!

On last week's list:

1.  The Cheddar and Blue wall-hanging is done!  You can see my post about it here.

2.  Work on sewing the Rainbow Jungle tree blocks into 4 patches - progress was made, more on that below.

3.  Work on the border blocks for the Diamond String project.  These are all done!  I've been sewing string blocks like a crazy woman this week!

These blocks are ready to sew together into a quilt top!

So, what's on the list for this week?

1.  It's time to work on my November Color Challenge block from Patterns by Jen.  I chose the fabrics for this one, and got the cutting finished and the sub-parts made.  This is a block that can use leaders and enders while I'm working on it, so I pulled out the Rainbow Jungle trees to use for that purpose.

It doesn't take long to sew four trees together, and so far I've made two more four patches, with a third under the needle in this photo.

2.  I'm in the midst of making an embroidered pillow cover for a birthday gift for a friend, and I need to get that done because her birthday was last week (oops)!  😳  I needed a pillow form to go inside it, and got that at Joann's yesterday, and now need to layer and quilt the top and sew the envelope backing pieces.  

3.  I haven't made any blocks dor Covered in Love since July, so I'd like to get some done this week, too.  The Nov/Dec blocks are sunflowers and look interesting to construct.  Find the tutorial here.

That will give me plenty to focus on this week!

Slow Stitching this Week

This week, I focused on finishing up the fall embroidery design from Patchwork Loves Embroidery, Too, by Gail Pan, and here it is!

To bring this piece up to a 12.5 block, I added a border out of some scrappy fall-themed squares in reds and browns.  Of course, it had to include pumpkins and sunflowers!

This is going to become a pillow cover for a birthday gift for another friend here.

I made a few more QAYG hexagons, and keep playing with different layout ideas.

Still more are needed!

After all that, I needed another embroidery project to work on, so traced this one from my book yesterday afternoon.  I'll be using a DMC variegated blue floss, 4237, called Laguna Blue to stitch this one.  

I'll be working on this today for my Slow Sunday Stitching

(and probably all week, too)!  And making a few more hexies along the way. :)

Linking up with Kathy and all the other Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's Quilts.

A Rainbow UFO

When does a WiP become a UFO?  I'm not sure which category this project belongs in, but I do know that most of the blocks were made in 2019, and I've not made much progress on it since then.   But this week I've been sewing string blocks like there's no tomorrow!

Lots of blocks like these - 6.5 inch squares and 6.5 x 9.5 inch rectangles in my light(ish) neutral scraps!

String blocks sure make a big mess!

Here's where this collection of blocks is, after lots of string sewing this week:

Just 4 border blocks left!

I'm thinking about making a change in these blocks, though.  When I first started this project, I made a dark red set of blocks and a light red set.  

For a long time I thought I liked the light red block better, 

but I think I changed my mind!

What do you think?

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!