A stitch here, a stitch there!

With my 15 minutes a day sewing plan for this week, I've been able to get a little bit done!  It reminds me of back before I retired from teaching, and that's all the time I had to sew, but still things were accomplished.  Not a lot at one time, but something!

This week I played with all the colors!

Three arrows for the Follow Your Own Path QAL going on at mmmquilts:

And pieces and parts for a green one ready to sew the next time I have 15 minutes.   These are quick to sew together!

I also sewed up one wonky star in light blue as a leader/ender in between arrows to finish up May.

I'm going to continue my 15 minutes a day sewing goal for the coming week, and hope I can make four more arrows.  Maybe I'll even get some red scraps out for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in May!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

mmmquilts' first link-up for the quilt along.

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

And since I was able to grab at least 15 minutes of sewing time 6 out of 7 days this past week, I'm linking up with Kate at Life in Pieces today, too.

 

I Like Thursday #233

Happy Thursday, friends!  Hope you're having a good week.  I was so happy to see my tulips blooming the other day.   After really cold weather and snow the week before, I was afraid they were frozen.

Speaking of pink, I love my mom's pink bedroom in her new apartment!  The quilt on the end of the bed is one I made a few years ago and haven't used much, so I gave it to Mom.  I think it's perfect for her colors there!

Here's my mom in the living room of her apartment.  My brother-in-law made those beautiful stained glass windows for my mom and dad years ago, and they've hung in every house Mom has lived in since then.  So, that was almost the first thing he hung up for her when we were moving her in.

I love my reading friends, both those here in town and all of you in blogland because I always get the best book recommendations from all of you!  I just finished this one, recommended by Carole of From My Carolina Home.

I enjoyed this story of three women who have decided to buy and restore an old farmhouse in Virginia, and all their ups and downs.  This is the second in the series,  and I wasn't able to find the first book, but that didn't matter.   This has been the perfect relaxing read for the busy days of the last week or so.  I'll definitely look for the next book!

Joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for I like Thursday.

To-Do Tuesday #86

I missed last week's To-Do Tuesday because my mom was arriving in town, but after a very busy week, things are starting to settle in.  I still don't have as much sewing time as I would like, but there's been a little bit the last couple days.

First of all, what was on my last to-do list?

• Finish up the asterisk row for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2021 sampler. ✔  Yes, I did get that done!

• And I wanted to make sure I had plenty of hand stitching work prepped for while my mom was staying at our house, and I did do that as well.  I worked on the Harmony QAL hand-piecing project.  You can read about my progress on that quilt in my Sunday post HERE. 

So, for this week, and my new normal - needing to spend time with my mom and help her with lots of things - here's what I'm thinking:

• My goal is to sew 15 minutes a day.  I used to do this when I was still working, and I got a lot done that way.  Plus it helps my mental health!   😉  I started this Sunday and have achieved my 15 minutes for two days in a row already.  Whoop whoop!

I'm working on blocks for Sandra's QAL at mmmquilts, Follow Your Own Path.  15 minutes is just enough to cut pieces for one block, or sew one block together.

My dark orange is looking florescent, but I promise you, it isn't!

Once you've made the first block, it's pretty easy to make more,

so I'll just keep going from here! 

Joining in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week. 

Slow Stitching Progress

I haven't touched my sewing machine all week, but it's been a great week for hand stitching.  My mom has been at my house and we've spent most of the week working on moving her into her new apartment.  Evenings have been spent relaxing with a TV show on, so that's when I got out needle and thread.

I was able to get all the main parts made for the Harmony wall-hanging.

I think this is my favorite fabric in the bundle.  Marshmallows on sticks - so cute!

This week I'll be working on sewing these bigger sections together into the quilt top!    Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Also sharing at Elm Street Quilts for the Rectangle Unit Link-up.

I Like...

Um, what day is it anyway?  Lol!

My mom arrived on Monday and we've been busy getting going on things for her move - well, busy at a 90 year old's speed, anyway.  Visiting the apartment complex, getting insurance changed, getting my mom a Covid test (even though she is fully vaccinated!), and that kind of thing. 

After three snows, I decided to rescue one of my daffodils and bring them inside, and they've been very happy!  Our warm beginning of April has been cold and damp for a couple of weeks now.

Fortunately there has been down time for hand-stitching.  I've worked on the flying geese for the Harmony hand-pieced project, and they're ready to sew together in pairs.

And the April "One Stitch at a Time" design from Kathy Schmitz has gotten some attention, too.

1976 is the year Mike and I were married.

There are lots of odds and ends of things to do in the next couple days - shopping for supplies, changing addresses, making sure we're there when the cable people come to hook up the TV.   My sister and BIL are driving Mom's furniture up here, and we should be ready to move her in Friday or Saturday.  Progress!  Maybe next week I can share a picture of Mom in her apartment.

Hope you're having a great week!  I'll join in with my friends at Not Afraid of Color for I like Thursday!

This week in blue...

My main sewing goal for this week was to get the asterisk blocks made for the April row of Full Stop, the 2021 Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler.  I ended up with five of them.

Here are my four rows for the year.  I'm thinking the asterisk row could use one more in it, so that might happen this weekend.

Along the way, I had some time to make two blue crumb hearts.  I'm sewing together the bonus triangles, too.  The hearts are 6.5 inches, the HSTs are trimmed to 2.5 inches.

In my evening slow-stitching time, I finished up the two light/bright blue scrappy trips blocks that are hand-pieced. 

Here are all the blocks so far!

Sharing my blue progress at my favorite weekend link-ups!

SoScrappy

Quilting is More fun than Housework and at

Kathy's Quilts 

This weekend, I'm hoping to do some cutting for the Follow Your Own Path QAL  at mmmquilts and also prep the last pieces for the Harmony Hand-pieced QAL blocks.  If there's time I'll trace another embroidery design, too.  

My mom is arriving Monday for her big move and I want to have lots of projects ready to go for when there's a little time to sew.  We have lots of appointments to go to, as well as moving her into her apartment, so I will probably be away from the blog this week.   I'll be back soon, though!

I Like Thursday #231

Happy Thursday!  Someone was having fun with their sidewalk chalk at my neighborhood park the other day!

Good advice, although not always easy to follow.

I've been so blessed to see some of my favorite people in person this week!  Of course, I was too busy visiting to take any pictures.  I got together for a socially distanced breakfast with my teacher friends and we spent a lot of time sharing memories of our friend who passed away in February.  We toasted her with our orange juice!  

Cheers!

We also met up with our oldest son for a picnic lunch to celebrate his birthday.  He lives about 250 miles from us, so we met halfway in between.  Even though we Facetime with him regularly, it was so good to actually see him!

Back at home, we've been enjoying the newest season of The Brokenwood Mysteries on Acorn.  I think it's Season 7, and we have loved them all.  These shows take place in New Zealand, and I love their accents!

I'm really enjoying this book, recommended by Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life.  It's WWII historical fiction, one of my favorite genres.

Five young Americans go to Paris to become spies during the war.

I 'm about halfway through and I really can't tell how this is going to turn out!

I've been enjoying some hand-piecing this week.  The center section of my Harmony hand-pieced project is taking shape.  I've made the four corner blocks, and now need four more triangles in a square, and some flying geese to finish everything off.  Then I can piece all the parts together!  

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 #85

Good morning!  I'm checking in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week.  It was a good week for finishing up a few things - the Stay at Home Round Robin quilt, a placemat in blue for the April Table Scraps challenge, and a small pillow using my most recent embroidery finish!

Friday, we took the SAHRR quilt up to give to my MIL, and she loved it and covered up in it right away.    

Unfortunately, she had fallen earlier in the week and cut her arm, and the nurse had just been in to check her out.  Messing with the bandage hurt, and by that time I realized I wasn't going to get a happy photo.  Mike did talk to her again Sunday and she was fine!

Coming up this week, my mom will be moving here and a lot of my time will need to be focused on helping her get settled in her new apartment.  I have just about a week to get my own projects done, so I've been trying to prioritize!

• For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I need to finish up the asterisk blocks for this year's sampler, Full Stop.

• I'd like to prep quite a few projects for hand work, that I can do while my mom is staying here at our house: embroidery, hand-piecing, etc.  Here's the April Kathy Schmitz design that I've just started working on.  I also have more blocks to piece for the Harmony QAL and another blue Scrappy Trips block to work on. 

So, I'm keeping it simple this week, and may not even be able to manage a To-Do Tuesday post next week, with Mom here.  Just playing that by ear!  

Table Scraps in blue and a Slow Stitched Finish

 It's been a week of cleaning up and finishing a few projects, most importantly my Stay at Home Round Robin.  You can read more about it in my Friday post, if you're curious!

Along the way, I also finished a couple of smaller things, including my April Table Scraps placemat in light blues.  Sharing this at Joyful Quilter's April Table Scraps link-up!

It's looking to me like it might need more quilting, 

so I may go back and add some.

A peek at the back:

So now my collection of placemats to donate has four!

I also finished up the Kathy Schmitz design I was embroidering.  Blue borders were added, some machine stitching around the design, and hand quilting in green in the borders.

Then it turned into a pillow cover to gift to a friend!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Stay at Home Round Robin - Finished!

Back in January, when blogging friends introduced the Stay at Home Round Robin, I thought it sounded like a fun QAL to join in with, and it has been!  I began with a half yard bundle called "Matchmade" by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics, and made a sawtooth star block - one of my favorite blocks to make.

Each week, one of our QAL hosts decided on a type of block to make for a border.

Week 1: Piano Keys

Week 2: Plus Blocks

Can you see mine?  They're in the corners, connected by strip sets.

Week 3:  Flying Geese

Week 4: Checkerboards

Week 5: Wonky Stars

Which I combined with Week 6: Log Cabin Blocks

Week 7:  Pinwheels

Almost there!

And my finished Stay at Home Round Robin!

41x43

The pieced backing:

I quilted this with an angled crosshatch that creates

 a sort of slanted diamonds design.  I like it a lot and 

will be using it again!

I did order an additional yard of the aqua with pluses, to use for the binding, and it ended up on the back, too.  But, here are all the scraps that are left after finishing - not much!

This quilt will be a birthday gift for my mother-in-law.  It's just the right size for covering her lap and legs, like a wheelchair quilt.  We'll be delivering it to her today (Friday)- our first in-person visit after the year of Covid.  I'm sure looking forward to seeing her!

Thanks so much to Gail at Quilting Gail for coming up with the 

Stay at Home Round Robin idea!

And to the rest of the hosts who gave us the rounds each week:

Chris @ Chrisknitssews
Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
Anja @ Anja Quilts
Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
Susan @ Quilt Fabrication

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

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #230

 Happy Thursday!  I'm joining in, as I always do, with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for "I Like Thursday," to share some good things from my week!

We're getting ready to move my mom from the Phoenix area up here to Colorado so that she can be closer to my sister and me because she's needing a lot more help as she approaches 90.  I've set up for her to live in an Independent Senior apartment just a few blocks from me.  The other day I stopped in over there to take care of some business, and I loved this sign on her door.  They're ready for her to move in!

Another thing I'm getting ready for is the Follow Your Own Path QAL over at mmmquilts.  I've been pulling from my stash for this new project and here's where I'm at so far.  I want to make a rainbow version like Sandra's original on the pattern cover.  I did purchase the dark gray for the backing and solid colors for the shadow parts of the blocks.

We really enjoyed this movie on Netflix the other night.  It's based on a true story, which are always my favorites.  Philomena is an Irish woman who was forced to give up a baby for adoption when she was a teenager, and has been looking for this child throughout her life.  A journalist hears about her quest and helps her figure out what happened to her child.

Image Source

Last week we brought home the new grill, so this week we've been trying different things on it.  A steak turned out really yummy, but we overcooked a piece of fresh tuna - darn it!  We're having to get used to this grill being more powerful than the old one!  We bought a grill basket for things that would be hard to turn, and tried some asparagus in it last night.  It turned out quite crispy (so I need to experiment with the grill temp and time I leave it on), but the asparagus was actually still quite good.

I've been waiting and waiting for my daffodils to bloom, and they finally are opening up.  I love their pretty yellow, but I'm not sure why they are all face down!  

That's it for this week!  Have a great rest of the week!