To-Do Tuesday #138

 My biggest accomplishment of the week!

The PopStar quilt top is finished!

Just today (Monday), I popped into Joann's and found a backing fabric for it.  White stars on a light blue background.

The finished quilt parade starts on June 15th, 

so that gives me two weeks to get this one all done.

Along the way, I did finish up the green basket blocks I had on my list last week, too.  Unfortunately, I don't have any updated photos of those blocks, but I will include them in my end of the week post.

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

• Get PopStar layered and basted for quilting.
• Start the quilting.
• Get started on blue blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   Blue is the color for June.  That shouldn't be too hard, seeing as how these are the scraps on my cutting board!

I apologize for this terrible photo!  These are the leftover blues from PopStar, 

and the top photo in this post is much truer to their pretty color.

Those are the *have tos* on my list for the week.  But if there's time, I'd like to play with some squirrels that have been knocking on my sewing room door.  These will be projects on my June list, for example:

• a summer mug rug for my mom
• a tabletopper for my son for his living room
• a mini quilt from Kelly Young's book, Scrappy Improv Quilting
• or maybe play with this fun pile for a gingham tablerunner?

I'm joining in with Linda and friends at Texas Quilt Gal for the To-Do Tuesday link-up, sharing what I've been working on and my new list for this coming week.

Hands2Help 2022

This week I sent off three quilts to three different charities for the Hands2Help quilt drive for 2022.  

Quilty Hugs, Little Lambs, and Cool Kids Campaign

These were finished over the last year since the H2H2021 quilt drive.  I'm so happy to be sending off some of my quilts to provide comfort to children dealing with cancer and foster care.

Here they are ready to go to the post office.  Safe travels, quilts!

Big thanks and appreciation go to Mari of The Academic Quilter for organizing this year's Hands2Help quilt drive!

Linking up with the H2H final link party. 

 

More with hexies

I've slowly been stitching together a rainbow of hexie flowers.  Since I last shared these, I've added the purple one and the floral peachy orange.  I'm really liking thread basting these rather than glue basting.  It's so easy to pull out the papers when you need them for another hexie! 

Pink, red, orange

Blue, aqua, purple

It's missing green, but are there green flowers?  We saw these yellow-green ones on a marsh hike on Cape Cod when we were there recently.  I thought these were so unique!  I wish I knew what they are - does anybody know the name of this plant/flower?

So, for today's slow stitching, I've basted some green hexies to stitch together!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Table Scraps for May - mini sized

A year ago, right about now, I was finishing up this project from the 2021 Hand-Pieced QAL.

Of course, when I was hunting around for sage and forest green scraps for this month's RSC blocks, I came across these:

Not a whole lot there, but I could do something with them, right?!

I ended up with a simple design made of 3.5 inch squares and 3.5 inch four patches, like this.

I really like the orange flowers in the darker green up there, so when I was looking around for a scrap for the binding, I chose a strip of dark orange that I had.  And voila!

This little table mat ended up at 9.5 x 12.5.

And it fits perfectly right here:

It turned out there was just enough of the sage green left to sew up a chandelier block and a Bloom basket.  And the other two green Bloom baskets are in progress now, too!

Happy Scrappy Sewing!

Linking up with:

Joy's Table Scraps for May

ScrapHappy Saturday 

and Oh Scrap!

 

 

Thursday

Beachcombing at the Cape Cod Seashore  - I found quite a few that are shaped like hearts. Do you see it, too?

I've been thinking all day about what to write for my usual I Like Thursday post, and nothing seems quite right.  I'm heartbroken for the families of Uvalde, Texas, and for our country, too.  How can we let these horrific violent events continue year after year?  There are more guns than people in our country - there's something wrong with that.  

Many writers have better words than I do, and I have been reading them today:  Anne Lamott and Heather Cox Richardson on Facebook and the Tiny Pricks Project on Instagram.  Like Anne Lamott, I'm just going to try to do the next right thing.  

For me that means sending off some quilts that will hopefully bring comfort to some children in our country.

Have a good Thursday, friends.

Joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color.

To-Do Tuesday #137

Good morning!   I'm joining in with Linda and friends at Texas Quilt Gal for the To-Do Tuesday link-up, sharing what I've been working on and my new list for this coming week.

Because we were away from home for a week recently, I haven't had a to-do list other than the kind you have when you return home: laundry, groceries, yard and house catch up.  In the last few days, though, I've had a chance to get back to my sewing machine and make a little progress on current projects.  Here's what's going on in my sewing room right now:

Popstar is on the design wall!

The center star is made and 3 out of 4 of the star point sections.

The four flying geese around the outside finish up the pop stars 

and will be pieced into the border.

Over on the sewing table, the pieces and parts for the fourth star point section are ready to sew, along with Bloom basket parts in green.

These will come together pretty quickly, I think!

So there you see what's on my list for the week ahead!

• Finish up the Popstar quilt top.  Not too much left to do now.
• Find a backing fabric for Popstar - maybe.
• Sew Bloom baskets in green for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Sounds doable!  Have a great week, friends!

Flowers, fabric souvenirs, and a little green...

One of my favorite places that we visited in Boston was the Public Garden.  As we wandered around, we came across this amazing tulip bed.  Isn't this beautiful color?  I think this would be fun to make in fabric - if I knew how to get started.

Of course , I had to bring home some fabric souvenirs.  We found a fun quilt shop in W. Dennis, on Cape Cod, called Cape Cod Quilts and Cottages, and it had a wonderful selection of prints for the "souvenir" shopper!  Here's what I came home with:

Schools of fish, starfish, seashells, kelp beds, seagulls, mermaids - lots of fun things!

I haven't had much sewing machine time in the last two weeks, but I did manage to finish up my second forest green Masala Box block this afternoon (Friday).  

For travel sewing, I took along pieces to hand piece a couple of plus blocks, and actually did finish one.

Once we got home, and I was looking at the fabric from Cape Cod, I decided to stitch one in "Kelp Forest" green, lol!  So that will be my slow stitching for Sunday.

Linking up in all my favorite places this weekend:

SoScrappy 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework 

Kathy's Quilts 

I Like Thursday #286

Happy Thursday!  It feels like forever since I've been to this space, and that's because we've been gone on a trip to Boston and Cape Cod for the last eight days.  It was a wonderful trip, with time spent in the city with some very special people, and also time out on the Cape for just Mike and me.

We enjoyed riding the subway, the "T," and exploring the city.  The T has some great helpers!  We just looked for their red shirts.

One of my favorite places was the Boston Common and Public Garden.  So pretty there, lots of green and flowers, and we rode the swan boats!

I'm saving the best flower picture for my Saturday post - 

it has some great color that the RSC quilters will love.

This is part of the Navy group and wives who were together the first four days.  We visited the USS Constitution, which was perfect for a bunch of sailors!  The Constitution is the world's oldest ship of any kind still afloat.  She was commissioned by George Washington, and built in the late 1790s.  She is a museum ship now, but still has a crew of 75 Navy sailors, who our guys enjoyed talking to.

After our time in the city with the group, we rented a car and took off for Cape Cod.  I've really enjoyed exploring the Cape Cod National Seashore areas where there are beaches to walk, marshes to hike, and lots of wildflowers.  We even visited a winery, but I just realized I haven't downloaded that photo from Mike's camera yet.

Lilies of the Valley growing wild - a whole grove of them!

Now that we're home, there's lots to do - laundry, groceries, and spend some time with my mom are top of the list.  But I do hope to have a chance to visit and catch up with my "I Like Thursday" friends at Not Afraid of Color.  Have a great day!

Tuesday Update and some likes...

I'm skipping the to-do list this week, and doing an update instead because this is happening:

Yes, we're packing our suitcases and heading out to spend a week with these special people, Mike's Navy group, and wives.  Here we are by the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 2018, the last time we were able to get together.

A bunch of likes here!

We were supposed to do this trip in 2020, but we all know what happened that year.

Unfortunately, two of the guys have passed away in the meantime, and they will be terribly missed, but it will be wonderful to see the rest who are able to attend.  This year we're meeting in Boston, and spending some time on Cape Cod, too!

So, getting ready for the trip has been Job #1 on my to-do list lately, and sewing has taken a back seat.  Here's what I have managed to work on a little bit - the PopStar QAL.  I've made half of step 1 (the outer sections), and have pieces and parts gathered and begun for step 2 (the center star).  You can see it coming together!

And some bits of Rainbow Scrap Challenge green 

used as leaders and enders, too.

Working on parts of each section has me all set up to keep going once we're back home again next week.   See you then!

Joining in with Linda and friends at Texas Quilt Gal for the To-Do Tuesday link-up, and

Not Afraid of Color for "I Like Thursday."

 

A finish and some flowers...

Earlier this week, I finished up the Contentment pillow (design by Jenny of Elefantz) that was a birthday gift for my teaching partner and friend.

She liked it!

Here's a peek at the back, too.  This is a favorite floral from Joann's that I used as the backing for Follow the Garden Path.

Meanwhile for evening slow stitching, I've continued making hexie flowers, and a pretty garden is developing there, too!

For today's slow stitching I'm going to work on a purple flower.

My phone camera sees this as blue, but it's really a very pretty dark purple!

Happy Mother's Day to you!  At my mom's place they are celebrating Mother's and Daughter's Day, because we may not all be mothers, but we are certainly all daughters!  After lunch we're going to pick my mom up and take her out for ice cream.  Yum!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Cutting up the greens

 After my fabric pull of greens earlier in the week...

I started cutting.  So far I've just been focusing on the darker, forest greens.  Sixteen 2.5 inch squares make a Masala Box block.  These are 12.5 inch blocks.

One down, one to go!

Five 2.5 inch squares make a plus block.  These are hand-pieced and turn out to be 6.5 x 8.5.  I've been making six of these blocks every month, but for the greens, I'm thinking I'll stop at three for dark green, and make three more in brighter greens.

So, some progress in green, added to the design wall!

Lots more green sewing to come!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #285

Spring has finally arrived in No. Colorado!  It took its time, but was worth the wait!

After a dry and windy April, we have even had some refreshing rain showers the last few days, and everything is greening up.  My Lilies of the Valley are blooming again - they didn't bloom at all last year.

I've been sewing flowers, too.  EPP hexie flowers - so fun!

Do you watch "Young Sheldon?"  We've never watched "The Big Bang Theory," but somehow got attached to Young Sheldon and watch it whenever we can catch reruns streaming somewhere.    Sheldon and his family make me laugh and think, all at the same time!

Hope you're having a good week!  Whatever you think of the latest news, this is some good advice from the Sweatpants and Coffee ladies.

I'm joining in with LeeAnna and friends 

for "I Like Thursday" at Not Afraid of Color.