Slow Stitching this week

 I've been continuing to work on some needle turn applique with these tulip blocks designed by Audrey at Quilty Folk.  I've stitched up three so far!

Yellow, pink, and peachy orange

I decided a purple tulip was needed, so all the pieces and parts are ready for slow stitching today.  I've been ironing the freezer paper templates to the right side of the fabric and that works really well for me to get the shapes cut and traced correctly.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

The End of January

I used my pink sewing time this week to pull out a UFO and move it forward.  I started making these Bright Hopes blocks in 2019, and then stored them away in a project box and barely touched them in 2020.  It was time to use them for something!

These are made using scraps of low volume prints with a white background, plus pink and aqua.   They make a sweet combination!  I had previously made 48 of these 6.5 inch blocks, and decided that if I made one more, there would be 49 for a 7 x 7 layout.

This was an easy group of blocks to use the webbing technique on for sewing the blocks and then rows together, so I took one afternoon to do that.

I spy a penguin in pink!

It didn't take long to have the quilt top completely sewn together.

This measures 42 inches square, which is the size that Little Lambs of Utah are looking for in this year's Hands2Help quilt drive, so I'll finish it up for a donation to that group.

And in other scrappy pink sewing this month, I finished up a placemat, quilted the Rainbow Zigzags, hand-pieced two scrappy trips blocks, got started on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2021 Sampler with some hashtag blocks, and made some Easy Breezy and Wonky Star blocks in pink.

It's been a fun month in the sewing room.

On to February!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.

Stay at Home Round Robin - round two!

Mondays are an exciting day if, like me, you're participating in the Stay at Home Round Robin QAL.   That's the day the guest hosts share the next border idea that we'll be working on for the week.  You can see the latest round robin designs that participants have been working on over at The Darling Dogwood.

So this week's border idea prompt was Plus Sign blocks.   I started with four 3 inch finished blocks.

Then, what next?  More plus signs?  Strips to connect them?

I had to go look through the bloggers who had linked up already and see what they had done.

You know how that goes - each one I looked at was my favorite!  So I would go look at my block and fabric and do some figuring and try to work out how I might do "this one" or "that one."  Then I saw what Pat at Life in the Scrapatch had done for her plus sign border, and knew that was THE one!  

I made two strip pieces and laid them up on the design wall - yes, I think this will work!

And here's how my round robin project looks now!  It is 18.5 inches square.

I like the way this round frames the center and 

blends with the busier piano key border.  

Now I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next!

Linking up with The Darling Dogwood.

I Like Thursday #220

 

This card would be perfect for many occasions, wouldn't it?!

(Especially for we squirrel-chasing quilters, yes?)

Speaking of squirrels,  I'm happy to have finished my version of Stitches from the Heart, a pattern from Fat Quarter Shop.  I say my "version" because I didn't quite follow the directions to the letter, and ended up adding the appliqued Love at the top.   Today it is all finished!

I decided to hang it on the side of the fridge with pictures of all my special people surrounding it.

This was the perfect DrEAMi for January!

Linking up with Sandra at mmmquilts for the January DrEAMi show!

One day last week, I had some blueberries to use up, so I found this recipe from Desserts for Two and made just four blueberry muffins.  Just the right amount for a family of two!  They have a little lemon zest in them, which adds a nice flavor.

And what I've been reading this week... The Chain by Adrian McKinty, recommended by Susie from Knitty Quilter.

Let me just say that this is a thriller, a page-turner, and a "What would you do if you found yourself in this kind of situation?" kind of book.  It's not a cozy mystery.  But I can't put it down - so, thanks, Susie!

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

To-Do Tuesday #74: A finish and a funny

 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. 

It's been a good week of getting things done for me.  I did finish the Rainbow Zigzag quilt, and you can read my finished post and see photos HERE.  There was one more to-do to be done with that quilt, and that was to package it up and take to my friend, Holly.  Here it is, just about ready to go for a little ride!

So that's the finish.  The funny is what happened with my Stitches from the Heart project.  I stitched up all those tiny HSTs, made the heart, and added the corner triangles.  Then I got it all quilted and was trimming it up for the binding when I looked at it and thought it looked lopsided.  Way more space at the top than at the bottom of the heart.

Of course, I'm saying to myself, "Did I trim it wrong?  Did I miss something?"  Then I went and looked at the directions...  Oops!  I left off a step - I forgot to read where you added a strip to the bottom under the heart, and then trimmed the top to make the whole piece 12 inches square.

So, what to do?

How about this?  Add a raw edge appliqued word to the top!

The binding is on and ready to be hand stitched down, 

so that will be my to-do for tonight!

I also sewed on the first border for the Stay at Home Round Robin project - piano keys!

Time to add the next round - this week it is plus blocks.

My brain has been thinking about these all day today, but no sewing happening yet.

The final thing on last week's list was to work on a few more things in pink, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month, which I did do.  Read about that in this post!

So, on this week's list:

• Work on the plus blocks/round two of the SAHRR project - I have an idea for it, just need to work out the quilty math!
• Choose a UFO to move forward - probably a set of blocks that will be sewn into a quilt top.
• I just signed up for a blog hop in March.  I know what I want to do for it, so it's time to get started on that!

Have a great week, everyone, and good luck with your To-Do list!

Playing with Pink

It's always a great feeling to finish up a quilt, which I did this week, because then it frees me up to play with other projects.  See the finished Rainbow Zigzags in my Friday post.  After I got it to the binding stage,  I was able to spend some sewing machine time playing with pink scraps.

Although this isn't a scrappy project yet, it does have some pink in it - my Stay at Home Round Robin center block and the first round - a piano key border.   My quilty math for the piano keys was a little bit off, but I'm going with it because I actually like the look of a few of the strips being a bit narrower.  This now measures 12.5 inches square.

Then, this strip of colorful cats was laying on my cutting table...

so it became part of these two blocks.  

Those cats always make me smile!

For slow stitching this week, I'm practicing needle turn applique.  Although this isn't a brand new skill for me, it's not one I've ever used much, so I'm working on getting back into it.  Audrey of Quilty Folk generously offered to send out her pattern design for "Autumnal Tulips," which I loved, so I took her up on it.  Click on the link to see Audrey's quilt.

I stitched a pink tulip!

Special thanks to Karen of Quilts, etc, for giving me tips and hints!

For this weekend's slow stitching, I've prepped another tulip.  This time it's a yellow one!

These will be 8 inch finished blocks.

Lots of fun on my design wall this week!

Sharing at:

SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday 

and

Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching 

A Friday Finish - Finally!

I'm excited to share that I finished Rainbow Zigzags up this week.  I started on this quilt in February of 2020 as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project with a few orange and green 4.5 inch half square triangles.

I kept going throughout the year until I had 9 rows in every color of the rainbow (including two blue rows - dark and light).

From there it wasn't too hard to sew the rows together, get this quilt layered and basted and work on quilting it.   Today it is finished!

49 x 72

And a peek at the backing:

Rainbow Zigzags needs a trip through the washer and dryer, and the label finished up.  I'll do the label when I know for sure where this quilt will live.  Meanwhile, I'm so very happy to have a finished quilt before January is through!

Sharing at Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and at

SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

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

I Like Thursday #219

Good morning, friends!  Technically it's "I Like Thursday," but this week I'm changing it to "I Like Wednesday!"  I liked Wednesday because I liked watching and experiencing the inauguration of President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.  I'm ready for our country to turn over to a new chapter, one of hope and healing.

I especially liked the poem written and recited by the young poet, Amanda Gorman, "The Hill We Climb."

Image source: marieclaire.com

You can read the whole poem HERE, but I especially loved these lines.

"We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the West. We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the Lake Rim cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked South. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful."

Other things I liked on Wednesday include this bulletin board at our local Starbucks.  It's photos of their "pupstomers" in the drive through!

They're all pretty cute, but the one that makes me laugh is third from the right in the last full row.  He's a bird named Willie!

And I'm happy with how my Stitches from the Heart project is coming along.  It's lots of tiny red and white HSTs to sew together, but it's starting to take shape!  The section in the top right will actually go in the left corner to form the heart.  

I hope you had a good Wednesday, too, and I wish you a wonderful Thursday!  Joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

To-Do Tuesday #73

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. 

I've made really good progress on last week's list, especially with my Rainbow Zigzag quilt.  In fact, it's almost done - just a little farther to go on the binding and I'll have a finish!

I also made all the 1.5 inch HSTs I need for the Valentine project I got started on.  I've laid out the first section and started sewing them together.

I'm working on "Stitches from the Heart," a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop.

Check out Wendy's version to see what inspired me!

I also got started on the center block for my Stay at Home Round Robin project.  See more about that in yesterday's post here.

So for this coming week:

• Finish that last bit of binding on the Zigzags and write up a finished post.
• Keep working on Stitches from the Heart.
• Work on the first round of the Stay at Home Round Robin - it's piano keys!  See Chrisknitssews' post about that here.
• And one more thing on the list - add some blocks to one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects - Easy Breezy/Wonky Stars

Have a great week, everyone!

Stay at Home Round Robin

The Stay at Home Round Robin captured my attention when I started to see that several bloggers who I follow were going to be co-hosts.  The main information page for this QAL can be found here at QuiltingGail.  It sounded like a fun and different project to work on and I decided to join in!

I ordered this pretty half yard bundle from Bernie's shop, Needle and Foot, right after Christmas.  It's called Matchmade in Jewel Tones by Art Gallery Fabric.  It finally arrived last week!

I decided to start small and simple for my center block, so I made a 6 inch finished sawtooth star using three fabrics from the bundle.  At some point I may add a neutral "background" fabric to the mix, but I'm going to wait and see on that.

Today, the first round will be introduced by Chris at Chrisknitssews.  It will be fun to see what we will be working on this week!

Weekend Plans

I've been a good girl this week and stuck with my plan to get Rainbow Zigzags quilted.   Lots of scraps were used in the construction of this quilt!

I quilted along all the peaks and valleys - the low volume rows were done with an off-white Gutermann thread and I used a Sulky rainbow variegated thread for the rainbow rows. 

The pink row was one of the last to be completed, so of course I have to feature it for the RSC January color of the month!

Friday afternoon I trimmed the quilt and made the binding using leftovers from the backing.   It's a pretty light blue wide backing from Connecting Threads called Cobblestones.  Today's job (Saturday) will be to get the machine sewing of the binding completed.

Woo hoo!  Almost a finish!

Stitching the final step of the binding by hand will be my Sunday job. 

This Little Penguin is pretty happy to be finishing up a quilt!

Sharing at my favorite weekend parties:

SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap 

Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching 

I Like Thursday #218

 Last Saturday Mike and I celebrated our 45th anniversary!  It's always hard to believe another year has gone by - and hasn't this been quite the year?!  It's a good thing we like spending a lot of time together... 😉

Here we are on January 9, 1976.

We celebrated with takeout from a nearby Chinese restaurant.  It was yummy and we had enough for three meals!  Our meal filled this box!

We enjoyed the new Masterpiece show on PBS - "All Creatures Great and Small."  It's on Sunday nights.  I read a lot of those books many years ago, and watched the original series as well.  It looks like this version will be just as good!

You know it's going to be a good day when you *finally* get this note from the USPS.

This was the fabric I ordered from Bernie's shop on December 28th that she shipped the same day I ordered it.  It got as far as Denver (50 miles away) on Dec 31st and has sat in their distribution center ever since!  Last week I submitted a complaint form and actually got a phone call from someone at my local post office who was investigating my claim.  (A real person called me - that was really surprising!)

And this afternoon (Wednesday) my package arrived!  Whoop, whoop!

There are two bundles of fabric - one is half yards and the other is fat quarters.  I have plans for the half yard bundle, so now I can get going on that project.  More about that later!

Over the weekend I roasted a pork tenderloin, and had lots of leftover meat to do something with.  So I googled a soup recipe and found this one:  Pork and Potato Soup.  I made this recipe last night and it is very tasty!  

It's a pretty basic vegetable soup with a few added spices and the pork itself giving it a unique flavor.  We enjoyed trying something new and different!

Hope you've had a good week.  I'm joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for "I Like Thursday!"

To-Do Tuesday #72

Good morning, friends!  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. 

Last week, I made it my one and only goal for the week to get Rainbow Zigzags prepped and ready for quilting, and I did it!  Layering and basting is always a big mountain to climb for me, so it makes me happy to get that step of quilt construction completed.  I have quilted 4 of the 9 rows so far this week, so not quite half finished.

Just following along the peaks and valleys of each row, both the background sections and the rainbow sections.

It makes a neat design on the back, too!

Finishing up the quilting here, plus trimming and sewing on the binding remains #1 on my to-do list for the coming week.

But I'm adding two other things as well:

• I'm making a bunch of tiny HSTs for a Valentine project.  I've made 24 so far, and need something like 55 total.   So I'll keep working on those.

• I've been planning to join in with the "Stay at Home Round Robin" QAL and need to make my center block.  I'm just waiting on a fabric package delivery which the post office has been very slow on.  Hopefully that will show up this week!

Plenty to keep busy with this week!  What are you working on?