A Little More with Yellow

I must have needed flowers and sunshine this week, or maybe that was just an excuse to play with more yellow scraps, because that's what I did!  It all started with an orphan Dresden sunflower that I originally made for my Scrappy Sprouts quilt, but didn't end up using.  And then a need to play with string blocks was thrown into the mix!

I appliqued a brown center onto the flower with a variegated brown embroidery floss, and the string blocks turned borders on either side of it.

 15 x 25

Everything in this project comes from leftovers, including a scrap of batting and a piece of backing left from the Rainbow Zigzag quilt.

I had to remind myself how to change the presser foot on my little Janome over to the walking foot, but that wasn't too hard to do, and now quilting is in progress.  It won't be long before I can be using this happy tablerunner!

Sharing at SoScrappy for the last yellow Saturday of February.

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

But wait, there's more!  My slow stitching this week has been to hand quilt these happy tulips.  

I've enjoyed stitching along on this project each evening - just using a white quilting thread.  

Not too much more to finish up on this little wall-hanging either.  

It's going to get some purple binding that will match the purple tulip.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.

I Like Thursday #224 - Friends

I am a lucky woman, blessed, you might say.  I have some special friends, women I worked with during my teaching career, who have become lifelong friends.  Even though we don't work together anymore, we enjoy meeting for coffee and meals, going for walks, talking about books, and keeping up with each other's lives.

The reason I'm telling you this is because I lost one of these women this week.  This is a picture of the seven of us from a few years back.  We used to celebrate the end of the school year with a dinner out at our favorite restaurant.   I'm back there on the right by the window, and Holly is right next to me.  Holly lost her battle with brain cancer this week.

Even though I am old enough to have been Holly's mom, that didn't matter.  We (all of us) have enjoyed a lot of fun things together.  Holly loved Broadway musicals, as I do, so every now and then a group of us would get tickets and go together.  "Mamma Mia" was, and still is, a favorite!

We participated in different kinds of walks for charity and just for fun.  This one was on a very cold December day.   I think it was called the Kris Kringle 5k.

When Holly was diagnosed with glioblastoma and began this journey, we all got these t-shirts to wear to support her.  

"Embrace the journey" was her favorite saying.

I'm not sure what to do with this t-shirt now.  Maybe I can make a small wall-hanging out of it.  Just not sure yet.

We've shared teaching methods, students, life events, ups and downs, books, meals, adult beverages, you name it.  On Tuesday this week, Trish (front left in my first photo) sent us this photo with the caption, "Holly painted the sky for us this morning!" 

I'm sharing this as my "I Like Thursday" post, because I was and am so blessed with these friends.  And I feel the same about all of you whom I've met as a blogger.  Friends are precious!  Thanks for visiting today!

Find more good Thursday posts at Not Afraid of Color!

To-Do Tuesday #78

Happy Tuesday!   I'm checking in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week.  Considering I had to take my sewing machine in for repair last Tuesday, and I'm taking it back today for the actual repair to take place, it hasn't been too bad of a week!  (wink!)

So what did I get done?

• The quilt I'm working on for the Salt and Sand blog hop in March is spray basted and ready to quilt.   I'll wait and see if my Pfaff actually does get fixed before I start the quilting.

• I worked on Round 5 of the Stay at Home Round Robin project and made wonky stars.  I shared what I thought this round would look like in yesterday's post.  Here's a look at one corner:

The next round is to be log cabin blocks, and inspired by Roseanne's quarter log cabin idea, I took those pink squares and turned them into the same type of quarter log cabin block.  Just two so far.  Now here's what the corner could look like:

This could work...  

 

Also on the list last week was giving myself the possibility of working on some other kind of project, and I did get a bit caught up in a squirrel.

A leftover Dresden sunflower, some yellow string blocks - 

not sure where this is going, but it could be fun!

So, this week's to-do list will continue with more of the same.

• Work on the Stay at Home Round Robin project - star round and log cabin round.
• Quilt the blog hop project - hopefully!
• Continue with the squirrel project. 

Have a productive week, everyone!

Stay at Home Round Robin Update

 Making wonky stars this week for Round 5:

These are so great for using up little bits of the different fabrics!

They remind me of a star burst.

Meanwhile, I've been mulling over what to do with my stars.  These strips and squares aren't sewn together yet, just a possible layout for this round.

Now that it's time for Round 6 to be introduced, I'll have some more mulling to do.   This is like a giant puzzle in fabric!

Update to my update!  Round 6 is log cabins and I've worked them in with Round 5's stars.  Can you see them?  

Linking up with Quilt Fabrication for the Stay at Home Round Robin party!

All Over the Place!

 It's been a little bit of this and a little bit of that all week long at my house.  You can tell by looking at my design wall!

Maybe it was the sewing machine drama on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It made me really glad that I enjoy hand-piecing!  So I finished up another hand-pieced scrappy trips block in yellow.

But then I set up my backup sewing machine and while I was getting used to it again, I played with these Chandelier Bead blocks.  These have been on my "want to try" list for a long time.  I found a tutorial for them at a blog called Stitchin Therapy, but they are really very simple.  

I played with a few tiny wonky stars for the next border of the Stay at Home Round Robin.  These are fun, but I still have a long way to go!

Sharing all these scrappy bits at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Finally, I sashed and bordered the four tulips I appliqued a few weeks ago.  I think that sashing fabric is my new favorite floral print!  Pink, purple, yellow, and tulips - perfect!

On the other side of this folded piece it says it's by Patrick Lose Studios for RJR Fabrics.

 

I'll spend some time this afternoon layering and prepping this mini quilt for hand quilting.  It measures just about 20 inches square.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

P.S.  My sewing machine drama will hopefully be over by next week at this time!  The quilt shop owner (where I bought the machine) will be fixing my two year old Pfaff for me as soon as the parts come in.  Yippee!

I Like Thursday #223

 Sunrise on a frigid Monday morning this week - minus 10 degrees!  

Chilly, but beautiful!

I got some bad news about my two year old Pfaff today - it will cost almost as much to fix it as I paid for it, so guess what I decided.  🙄  I brought it home, and got out my older (and tiny!) Janome.  I'm a lucky girl to have a backup machine!

I'm also a lucky girl to have a husband who says, "We'll find you another one!" 💕

I guess maybe it's also a good thing I enjoy different kinds of hand stitching these days!

Did you know it's National Embroidery Month?  Crabapple Hill Studios celebrates this month with a free stitch-along that you can find here at their website.  I downloaded the pattern and instructions, and I just got started working on a few of the small designs.  I'm thinking of trying to make these into bookmarks for friends.

This measures about 1.75 x 2.25 inches.

Hope you're having a good week, staying warm and safe!

Join me at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday!

To-Do Tuesday #77

Happy Tuesday!  Hope you're staying warm!  I'm checking in with my weekly to-do list to share what I've accomplished and what's coming up next.

This past week I was able to get all caught up on my Stay at Home Round Robin project, rounds 3 and 4!  But I'm looking for some advice.  Should I leave the dark blue/green cornerstones as is, or should I replace them with the lighter green to keep that green going around the corners?

I like the circular look that's appearing with the borders as I've made them, but the dark cornerstones in the last border seem to interrupt that.

I also finished up a yellow placemat for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month, which you can read about in this post!

Some progress was made on my project for the Salt and Sand blog hop, coming up in March.  The quilt top is finished, and it just needs to be quilted.  Here's a peek at the backing.  Doesn't it look perfect for the "salt and sand" theme?

This fabric has a great selvage, too.  Not sure if you can tell, but those are sailing ships in all the colors on the selvage!

So what's on this week's list?

• Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon, my sewing machine started acting up and I have to take it in to the shop today.  Hopefully it will be a quick fix!
• Once the sewing machine is back, I'll be working on the border of my SAHRR.  This week it's wonky stars!  That ought to be fun!
• Quilting the blog hop project is the other big thing on the list.
• Other miscellaneous sewing will probably happen - depending on the sewing machine! 

 I'll be linking up with the To-Do Tuesday linky party, as soon as I find out where it's happening!  At ChrisKnits!  See you there.

Stay at Home Round Robin Update

 A week ago, I was not quite done with Round 3 - flying geese.  So, of course, my first job this week was to finish sewing that border.

Round 4's prompt was to make a checkerboard border, so that's what I've been working on the last few days.   It's been a good brain teaser for me each week to figure out measurements and placement for the various kinds of borders, and I like what's developing here!  The other challenge has been to use a balance of the five different fabrics from the original bundle, and I think that's working out, too.

28.5 x 28.5

Last week, Libby pointed out the partial stars that formed in the corners where the flying geese came together, and I like them even more now.  They're reminding me of a flower block - maybe a tulip?

On to Round 5!  Linking up with Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts of my Quilting Life. 

Slow stitching this week...

I'm getting ready for the newest Hand-Pieced QAL called Harmony, which starts up on February 22nd.  It's designed again by Patty of Elm Street Quilts and Kristin of Simple.Handmade.Everyday.  I've bought the pattern and chosen a fat quarter bundle called "Camping" that I bought from Bernie's shop, Needle and Foot.

The top three (rusty red, dark green, and light green floral) will be my main fabrics.  Hoping I can work the other two in as well.

To keep up my hand-piecing skills, I've been working on another scrappy trips block in the RSC color for February, yellow.

Here are the three I've already stitched.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Table Scraps in Yellow

 I'm on a quest this year to use up some of these charm squares I've accumulated in the last few years.  Some are full charm packs and others are left from a partially used charm pack.

To accomplish that quest, I've decided to make a placemat every month in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  For February that's yellow.   I happened to have a charm pack that is all in gray, white, and yellow that I won in a giveaway from mmmquilts a few years ago when I participated in one of Sandra's QALs.  Choosing a few favorite prints from that charm pack, I also added in a couple more yellow squares and some white ones and made two fourteen inch 9 patches.  Thinking I would use a Disappearing 9 Patch design, I cut them like this.

Recently, I flipped my reversible cutting mat over to the clean (but very pink!) side.  It's a wonderful new surface for cutting, but I'm not liking the pink...

Not quite inspired yet, I cut each square again on the diagonal.

Sewing these blocks back together gave me a 12 inch square with a neat design, plus two extra rectangles.

Using both of those rectangles was going to give a piece that was too big for my placemat size of 12 x 16.  So what to do?

Cut those rectangular pieces again!  I took off a 2.5 inch strip from each and added that to either side of the center square.

Some simple quilting and a yellow binding and all finished!

Maybe you're wondering what happened to the leftover pieces from the blocks on the front?  I pieced them into the back, so this placemat is actually reversible!

So now there are two:

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

And Joyful Quilter's Table Scraps link-up at the end of the month.

I Like Thursday #222

 Wow!  My 222nd week of sharing all the things I've found to like with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for "I Like Thursday."  That's over four years!  It's been a fun way to share things on my quilting blog that aren't always about quilting, plus make some new blogging friends.  Thanks for sticking with me all this time!

I like Girl Scout cookie time, because...

So, I found a way to get a couple boxes of my favorite variety.

Unfortunately, this happened...

All gone.  

We needed to get out of the house yesterday, so we went for a little drive and ended up at a favorite natural area with a picnic lunch to eat in the car.  It was cold outside, but the sun warmed the car up and the view was pretty!

We didn't have the good camera, but we did have the good binoculars, and we saw geese, several kinds of ducks, gulls, and even some eagles!

We watched two interesting movies on Netflix this last week, both based on true stories. 

"The Dig"      "On the eve of World War II, a British widow hires a self-taught archaeologist to dig up mysterious formations on her land, leading to a staggering find."  (Netflix)

And "Penguin Bloom"       "Samantha Bloom breaks her back in an accident and is paralysed from the chest down. A year later, her children bring home an injured magpie they have found. She cautiously approaches the magpie and begins to get acquainted with the new family member." (Wikipedia)

Penguin isn't a penguin, but she is a bird! 

I like getting out my quilty February things, especially this one.  I have to share it because Judy's been making one of these little runners, too, and it's one of my favorite designs!

Happy Valentine's Day!