To-Do Tuesday #91

Good morning!  I'm checking in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week. 

 I'm getting close to a finish on Harmony, my hand-pieced quilt project!  Just a few more inches to go on the binding, and it will be done.  I think I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer last night!

This will be quickly finished tonight!

Progress has been made on quilting Rainbow Strings, too.  The top is so busy that you can't even tell any quilting has been done, so I'll show you a peek at the back instead.

Still working on those large diamond shapes!

Among other things that I worked on last week, I did also finish up the last of the 16 arrows needed for Follow Your Own Path!  I was going to put on this week's list to cut the 5.5 x 9.5 background rectangles, but I started working on that this morning (Monday) and it went so quickly that I'm done with that.  Look!

So on this week's list:

• Keep quilting Rainbow Strings!  I'm going to make a goal to finish this quilt by the end of June.
• Make progress on the FYOP quilt top construction.
• Make two more red exclamation marks for Full Stop, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2021 sampler.  I've completed 5, but would like 7.  They also need to be sewn together into a row.
• Make some time to play with my purple scraps.  Purple is the RSC color for June.  I don't have much purple, so I may have to do a bit of stash enhancing.  😉

Oh, and get my Hands2Help quilt donations packed up and mailed off.  That should be doable!

Hands2Help 2021

 It's time for the final check-in for Hands2Help over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and I have two quilts to share.  Both of these were finished in the last several months and will be going to Little Lambs of Utah for children going into foster care.

Last October I finished up this 42 inch square rainbow quilt and have been saving it to donate.

Color Gradient Quilt

And in March, this ocean animal themed quilt was completed and shared during the Salt and Sand blog hop.  I know there's a marine animal loving little person out there who's going to love it!

Can you find Nemo?

Both of these will go off in the mail to Little Lambs this week!  I also am working on a quilt for a Hometown Hero.  Regular readers of this blog have seen this one many times, and know it's in the process of being quilted.  My goal is to have it finished up and given to a special person by the end of June.

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict!

It all started with a red zipper...

Oh, and some penguin fabric! 

Thanks to Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life, who sent me these fun penguins last year sometime!  They've been marinating for awhile, until this week and I decided I had to drop everything and make...

an Open Wide Zipper Pouch!  This tutorial from Noodlehead is the very first zipper pouch I ever made, and I'm sure this won't be the last one.  You can never really have too many of these, right?  I hadn't made one of these in awhile, so I struggled a bit with getting the zipper sewn in correctly, but it all worked out in the end.

This measures about 8.5 inches wide by 7.5 tall.  I made it to my own dimensions, based on the fabric I had and added the contrasting bottom just for fun!

The lining is a fun black on white swirls.

This was a true DrEAMi project - started last Sunday, finished on Monday!

Sharing at mmmquilts for Sandra's May link-up.

To finish out the month of May, this week I completed all of the arrows for the Follow Your Own Path QAL, also at mmmquilts.  Time to get those rows together with the gray background!

In scrappy sewing this week, I added a couple more exclamation marks to the collection for this month's Full Stop row.

And two more crumb hearts, this time in pink!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap 

The Harmony Hand-pieced QAL is coming to an end with the final link-up already up at Elm Street Quilts.  I finished up the quilting on my version this week, and all that's left is to sew the binding.  That will be this weekend's slow-stitching job!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

I Like Thursday #237

 Happy Thursday, friends!  It's a good day to share the good things that have been happening this week!  Check out all the positive posts at Not Afraid of Color.

My biggest like of the week is that my mom's Arizona house sold and everything closed yesterday, so that takes a big concern off my (and my siblings') shoulders.  Now my mom will have the money she needs for this next stage of her life.

Meanwhile... have you been to Crumbl Cookies?

I have!

And oh my goodness!

The baby geese are hanging out with their parents at the golf course these days.  So fun to see!

I was surprised to find this pretty Columbine blooming in one of my gardens the other day.  Not much else grows back there anymore, so this is a treat to see!

Hope you're having a great week!

To-Do Tuesday #90

Good morning!  I'm checking in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week.  

It's been a good week for getting "a little of this and a little of that" done.  The biggest thing - for me - was getting the Rainbow Strings - quilt top, batting, and backing - spray basted.  I even started the quilting!  Whoop whoop!

Front

Back - showing a little quilting.  I'm starting with giant diamonds that follow the red centers going through all the string blocks.  I'll fill in more after I get that much done.

I also made a few more arrows for my Follow Your Own Path quilt, some exclamation marks for Full Stop, and worked on the hand quilting of Harmony.  Then I was distracted by a squirrel!  (More about that later in the week.)

After I get my "Drop Everything and Make It" urge out of the way, this week's list is pretty much the same as last week - finish up the arrows and exclamation marks, and finish up Harmony.  Plus get some more quilting done on the strings.  

I'm close to a finish on this one!

Hand quilting Harmony

 Each evening this past week, I've spent some really enjoyable time slowly quilting on my Harmony wall-hanging.  

For this project, I've been able to switch out threads based on what fabric I'm quilting over.  Red-orange in the red-orange center star, cream/off-white in the background, and now light aqua in the green sections.

And a peek at the back.

Just a little more quilting to go and this one will be ready for binding!  I'm excited to finish it up!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Seeing Red

 in little bits anyway!

Tiny red petunias in the bright morning sun - 

they have lots of growing to do!

It seems that the less time I have to sew, the more I just want to play with a little something and can't stay focused on any one project!  And with only 15 or 20 minutes to sew most days, that's how this week went.

Arrow blocks - 3/4 of the way there.

Three exclamation mark blocks for Full Stop.

And finally I pulled out some red crumb blocks and made crumb hearts with bonus HSTs to go along with them.  These are fun and happy!

The Rainbow Strings are making a lovely ironing board cover at the moment, so no further progress on the basting step.  But there's still time!  😁

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap and at

Also at Life in Pieces where we track our stitching time each week.

I Like Thursday #236

 What a difference a week makes!  Last Thursday's post involved snow, but today it's looking like this here in Colorado.

I liked doing some planting this week, finally!  I garden on a very small scale, and this is my 3 foot x 4 foot raised bed with a couple of pots for the tomatoes.

In the raised bed, I planted green beans, cucumbers, and pumpkins.

The green beans finally poked their heads up today!

This beautiful Western Tanager has been celebrating Spring in our yard this week, too!  I think we're just a rest stop on his way up into the mountains for the summer,  but we've sure enjoyed seeing him.

I've been enjoying this book this week, recommended by Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts.  So many interesting parts to this historical account of two young women who wanted some different experiences from what was typical for women in the 1920s.  

We watched this sweet movie on Netflix the other night.  It's an older one from 2009, but I had never seen it before.  It's a lovely story about a very loyal dog, based on a true story from Japan.

One thing I always enjoy doing is trying something new in my sewing room.  This week I've been planning to make the exclamation mark blocks for the May row of the Full Stop sampler for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Yesterday, I drew out the pattern for paper-piecing the top section, and got one block made.

A row of these will be fun with the other blocks!

Lots more to make...

Hope you're having a great week!

                      Joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color 

                                                         for I like Thursday.

To-Do Tuesday #89

 Good morning!  I'm checking in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week.  

On last week's list, I planned to make more arrows for the Follow Your Own Path QAL, and I have!  I'm up to 10 completed out of the 16 needed, so more than halfway there!

I wanted to finish up my Table Scraps project for May, and I did that, too.  You can read more about that in my Saturday post HERE.

And finally, I wanted to get the backing pieced and hand-quilting started on the Harmony wall-hanging, and that happened, too!

So, some of those same things are on this week's list.

• Continue working on the arrow blocks. 
• Continue working on finishing up Harmony.

But I'm going BIG 🤪 and adding two additional things to my list this week! 

• I'd like to get my Rainbow Strings quilt top basted for quilting.   So far the top and backing are prepped.   I just need to get the batting cut to size and the spray basting done. 

• And I need to work on the exclamation mark blocks for Full Stop, the 2021 Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler project.  

Lots to do this week, but I'm on it!

Slow Stitching this week

 Last Sunday, I shared my plan for the second scrappy trips block for the month of May, made in darker reds , and this week I have it all stitched up.  Here are all 10 blocks made for this project so far.

After finishing that up, I got my Harmony quilt top ready for hand quilting and have been working on that for the last several evenings.  I had the perfect Aurifil 50 weight thread in dark red-orange to match the red-orange fabric of the star, so have been quilting with that so far.

I'm going to continue with lines of quilting radiating out from the center star to the edges of the quilt.  That will be my slow stitching for this week!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Table Scraps in Red

 I had a quick finish for my Table Scraps project this month because I started with an orphan block, and it was even just about the perfect size!  This was a test block for the rectangle strings quilt top I put together earlier this year, and it didn't make the cut.

All this needed was batting, backing, quilting, and binding which took about two of my "15 Minutes to Stitch" sessions!

Finished!

Here's the back.

And now there are five! 

Working on this made me think about the string quilt top that's been patiently waiting its turn in the queue for finishing, so I got it out.  It was fun to photograph it out on the grass underneath our pretty blooming crab apple!

And then I got inspired to work on finishing this one!

I have the backing and batting for it, so no reason not to!

More about this to come.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap and at

The Joyful Quilter later in the month for the Table Scraps Challenge.

Also at Life in Pieces where we track our stitching time each week.

I Like Thursday #235

Happy Thursday, friends!  Hope you're having a good week!  Spring took a few steps backwards in our neck of the woods this week, but even so, I enjoyed my daily walks.

Walking through the neighborhood park.

The green and growing things didn't seem to mind all the moisture, though.

I'm glad I haven't done any planting yet, 

but it's on my to-do list for this weekend.

Fortunately, Spring came back on Wednesday,  prettier than ever!

The yucky days did make for good reading weather, and I finished this book in about a day and a half!  It is a really good story, sort of a psychological mystery that plays with your thinking.  I couldn't put it down!

Thanks to Carole at From My Carolina Home 

for the recommendation!

I also added two more arrows to the design wall - halfway there now.

Today is my quilt group's get together outdoors at a local park.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone!  

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