To-Do Tuesday #159

Good morning, and happy Tuesday!   It's To-Do Tuesday at Texas Quilt Gal - thanks, Linda, for hosting this fun link-up each week!

I'm continuing to make progress on several different projects, just as I'd hoped in last week's to-do post.

• Finish up October Table Scraps project(s) ✅️

A small tabletopper and a zipper pouch!

• Work on quilting Full Stop - good progress!

So far, I'm quilting horizontal lines across about 3 inches apart, 

using the serpentine stitch.

• Work on my Autumn Jubilee tablerunner - good progress!

A two inch inner border has been added, 

and I'm cutting squares for the final pieced border.

What's on this week's list?  Keep going on the above projects!  Plus, if time allows, work on construction of other Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022 quilt tops - Dancing Plus blocks, Masala Box, and Chandelier blocks.

Most evenings, I do some kind of hand stitching.  I rarely put those projects on my To-Do list because they are purely for pleasure and relaxation.  I did join in with the Autumn embroidery mystery at Days Filled with Joy this week, so I'll add to this post that I'm planning to keep up with that!

Weeks 1 and 2 in progress!

Have a great week!

A finish to share...

Earlier this week, I finished up the little hexie flower quilt that I've been working on for several months.  I think I started making the flower blocks toward the end of April, probably when I was anxious to see more Spring flowers blooming!

I ended up making 9 flowers, appliqueing them to w-o-w background squares, and sewing the blocks together with floral sashing and cornerstones in green and pink.  

I hand-quilted this little quilt around all the hexies and the flowers, as well as the white squares and sashing.

About 28 x 28 inches.

It was a beautiful fall day here on Saturday, so I had fun spreading this Spring-like quilt out on the pretty fall leaves in our backyard.  (Then we raked them all up, lol!)

And then here it is, indoors with my Jo doll (from Little Women) made by my mom when I was little.  Jo was always my favorite character in the book.

Here you can see the backing (a floral 30s print), and the pistachio green binding.

A fun little finish! 

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Table Scraps for October

I've been participating in the Table Scraps Challenge, hosted by The Joyful Quilter, all through 2022, and in fact, did it in 2021, too!  Making small things for the tables around the house is always fun, and there are always scraps to use up, too.  

This month's project didn't exactly start out as scraps, but scraps were generated, which I used in a second project, so that counts, right?!

Something that brings me joy as a quilter is to bring home a bundle of fabric from a quilt shop I've visited on vacation.  I did just that last spring when we were on Cape Cod and visited Cape Cod Quilts and Cottages in West Dennis, Massachusetts.   Here's what I brought home:

Fish, seashells, seaweed, starfish, seagulls, mermaids - so fun!

And some bright and lime green, too.

To make this month's table topper, I decided to cut 2.5 and 4.5 inch squares and hand-piece a patchwork square like this:

I hand-quilted this with perle cotton #12 - 

And here's the backing - this is really a fun print!

This little piece measures 12.5 x 12.5.

But I wasn’t quite finished with these favorite prints, so (in a Drop Everything and Make It moment) I cut a few strips, and sewed them onto a piece of batting, quilt-as-you-go style.

After some trimming, and a little finagling with a lining and a zipper, I ended up with a new zipper pouch!

I struggled with the zipper tabs a little bit, 

and they didn't end up quite like I would have liked, 

but I can live with them.

These make a cute pair sitting on the little side table that I use to keep my slow stitching supplies on!

Happy to be sharing these little projects at

SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap and at 

Joyful Quilter for the October Table Scraps Challenge.

I Like Thursday #307

Happy Thursday, friends!  It's getting to be soup weather, and I love soup weather.  Last Saturday I had some soup in the crockpot because I knew I would appreciate not having to do much cooking later after a day of yard work. 

This after two bowls were taken out - vegetable beef.

Considering we're getting to the end of October, I thought this was cute!

We have two boys, so I never made any witch costumes, but I did make lots of Halloween costumes for them.  Simple was always better, so we did lots of things with sweatshirts and sweatpants.  This is a very blurry picture from 1988 that I scanned in - I think they were a pirate and Darth Vader.  Neither boy ever liked masks much.

And this funny one I found is probably from 1989.  Andy (older son) wanted to be a Denver Bronco football player.  Someone had given us a kid's NY Jets helmet, so we painted it with craft paint and added stickers so it would look like a Broncos' helmet.  On Halloween night it snowed!

Brrr!  And the painted helmet was dripping paint, lol!

All the years I was teaching, I dressed up on Halloween and the whole school would make a parade through all the classrooms.  I remember dressing up as Minnie Mouse some years, and once as a hobbit.  But the last few years, this is what I wore.

I always get some laughs with this one!

And one more thing on the sewing theme, I finished this book recently and really enjoyed it!  It's historical fiction and focuses on fashion and clothes rationing in WWII England.  Besides being a good story, I learned a lot from it, too!

Hope you're having a great week!  Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday," hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color. 

P.S.  Do any of you have one of these, a Ninja Pressure Cooker/Air Fryer?  What do you think of it?  All reviews welcome!

 

To-Do Tuesday #158

It has been a week of lots of To-Dos, many of them not in the sewing room!

• Wednesday: Get a new TV for Mom and get it installed ✅️
• Thursday/Friday: Quick road trip up to visit older son ✅️
• Saturday: Yard clean-up and leaf raking ✅️

This was the second pick-up load of leaves, 

and that's just the front yard!

Finally on Sunday I was able to check a big To-Do off my list, and that was to get Full Stop spray basted and ready to quilt! ✅️✅️✅️

I'm always so happy to get that job done!

Of course quilting Full Stop is a major item on this week's to-do list, but there are a few other miscellaneous things that I would really like to get to.

• Finish up my Table Scraps projects for October.
• Work on Autumn Jubilee.  Eight blocks are made - I need to decide on the layout, sew them together, and add borders to make the tablerunner size.  

Linking up with To-Do Tuesday at Texas Quilt Gal!

Slow stitching this week...

I have a dear local friend (my teaching partner of 20 years) who fell and broke her kneecap about a month ago.  She had to have surgery and is now quite laid up for awhile, can't do anything active at all.   

But she can do lots of hand stitching!  So I've been going over to her house to visit and bringing along something to stitch on, too.  One day, a couple other friends joined us and we got a crochet lesson!   I've continued to practice, and I can now do the single crochet and double crochet stitches!

This is purely a practice piece with some rows of single and some of double.  

Can you tell?

It will be long and narrow, so not good for anything, but has been fun to practice on.

I think I will unravel it all eventually, and re-do it as something square - a dishcloth perhaps?

Another afternoon, I just went over to visit by myself, so took my latest embroidery piece.  This Kathy Schmitz's "The Great Pumpkin Haul."  So much fun!

Kathy's design page shows the leaves stitched in green, but I googled "oak leaves in fall colors" and saw variegated red/orange/yellow - so I decided to stitch them in fall colors.

I did finish Autumn Brew, but not sure I shared it for the Sunday link-up here at Kathy's Quilts.  Still need to get it fully finished.

Happy slow stitching today!

 

A little more progress...

 There were a few more baby steps of progress in my sewing room this week.  After deciding on a layout I liked, Masala Box came off the design wall, and is now next to the sewing machine, ready to stitch the top together.

Now up on the design wall are the sections of the Plus quilt as I stitch them together.  I'm hand-piecing these rows in groups of 4 and 6.  I did have the first two rows completely sewn together, but then realized the first section of 4 (top left) was upside down!  So I took it apart from the rest of the row and will need to re-sew.  (sigh...)

Dancing Pluses!

I have spent bits of time making blocks for the Autumn Jubilee QAL over at From My Carolina Home.  Here's where I am so far.  Two more blocks needed for the center of the tablerunner, and then borders.  

If you look back at the pile of Masala Box blocks in the first photo, 

you might be able to tell that I'm using up the last of the background fabric from

that project for the background of Autumn Jubilee.  I think it fits in perfectly 

with this fat quarter bundle!

After two weeks of not much time at my sewing machine, I'm hoping that this coming week is more back to normal.  Fingers crossed!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #306

We've been having freeze warnings so I cut some of my last marigolds and brought them in.  It's fun to have a few cut flowers that I grew myself around the house!

I'm enjoying this view of our backyard neighbor's tree that has turned the most beautiful shade of orange!  I can see it from my comfy chair when I'm reading or watching TV.  At certain times of the day, it just glows!

Notice the apple tree to the left - its leaves never really turn a different color in the fall - they are still green and will stay that way for a long time until closer to winter when they actually start falling off.

I roasted the tiny pumpkin that I grew in the garden this year.

There was just enough pumpkin in it to bake a batch of Carole's Pumpkin Orange Bread.  So tasty!  We've been enjoying a slice every morning with coffee.

LeeAnna asked us about Halloween candy this week, and there are so many fun memories attached to Halloween and trick-or-treating over the years.  I loved dressing up when I was a kid.  My mom made all our costumes, and I specifically remember a witch and a pilgrim.   My two sisters, brother, and I would come home, spread out all the candy, and trade with each other for our favorites.  Of course we did the same with our own boys as they grew up.  

My favorite candy to eat is always something chocolate - back then probably the mini packs of M&Ms or the miniature candy bars.  Nowadays it would have to be these:

But I have to be strategic in buying candy for the trick-or-treaters nowadays.  If it's chocolate I will eat it, so instead we get these.

Hope you're having a great week!  Ours has been busy with needing to get my mom a new TV, and get it set up and installed for her, and then our car broke down.  Ugh!  But this morning we are headed out on a short road trip to see one of our kids, so that will make everything better!

 Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday," hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color. 

To-Do Tuesday #157

Good morning, and happy Tuesday!   It's To-Do Tuesday at Texas Quilt Gal - thanks, Linda, for hosting this fun link-up each week!

I've continued to make slow progress on a couple ongoing projects as well as joining in with the Autumn Jubilee QAL at From My Carolina Home.

• The Frosties are sewn together with their sashing and cornerstones, and I went looking for a border fabric the other day.  The sashing fabric (red with white stars) was a Joann's purchase leftover from the Positivity quilt backing last year.  Unfortunately I couldn't get more of that one, so I ended up with a red with white snowflakes.  Since this is just a little quilt for my wall in the winter, I'm happy with it.

This is what it will look like.

• Full Stop has its backing pieced, and I've been pressing it and cleaning up the stray threads on the back side of the top.  *Not* my favorite job, lol!  Hoping to have a chunk of time this week to get the spray basting done so I can start quilting it.

• I've been making pieces and parts for blocks for the Autumn Jubilee project, too.  The block reveal was in Carole's Friday post - we're making "Road to Oklahoma" blocks which I haven't made before.  Four of them together create a great star design, and Carole has several possibilities for layouts in her post.  I think I'll make a runner (16 x 32 before borders), and hopefully have enough of my fat quarters left to make a couple of placemats to go with it.  Here's my progress so far:

This week's list will be continuing the same path - making any progress I can with the above projects.

• Border for the Frosties.
• Spray basting step completed for Full Stop.
• Finish up to eight blocks for Autumn Jubilee.
• During my evening slow stitching time, continue to sew together the rows of my hand-pieced plus quilt top.

Have a great week, everyone!

Several scrappy projects...

It's been one of those weeks where there hasn't been much sewing machine time, so it's a good thing I enjoy different kinds of hand stitching, and have had some evening time to work on it!  I did get started on stitching the plus blocks into larger blocks of 4 or 6.  These will make the first two rows of that quilt.

I've also been hand quilting the little hexie flower quilt, with the two purple blocks and sashing and border left to do.   The green yardage is for the binding - it is a Moda Bella Solid called Pistachio!  This will most likely be my Sunday Slow Stitching this week because I'd really like to get it finished.  

One task I did get done at the sewing machine was to piece the backing for my Full Stop quilt.  Both pieces need pressing and then I hope to get the layers basted together this afternoon or tomorrow so I can begin quilting it next week.

Little bits of progress add up along the way!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

and at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching

I Like Thursday #305

Happy Thursday, friends!  The fall colors are really showing themselves around here.  We took a drive up in the mountains not too long ago, and saw this view:

But even in my neighborhood it is really pretty!

I always love my across-the-street neighbor's trees that turn red!

After I pulled all the petunias out of their pots around the end of September, these Dianthus were left, and they've been really happy and still blooming.

I finished up the squirrel and tea cup embroidery design the other day.  Thought about trying to get a picture of it outside with a few local squirrels in it, but I knew they wouldn't follow directions as nicely as this guy did!

We changed up the view above the kitchen sink this week.  In all the years we've lived here, we've never hung anything above the sink (I can't tell you why...).  But after Mike got the great whale's tail photo from our boat ride in Depot Bay, we decided to print and frame it.  Turns out this is the perfect place to hang it!

I finished this book this week and really enjoyed it!  It takes place in Scotland, so kind of fun to read about that, and, of course, in a bookshop (who can resist that?), plus there's love and heartbreak and second chances.  All good!

LeeAnna asked about favorite snacks this week, and here is one of ours:  these nuts from Costco and some dark chocolate.  A yummy combination!  It could even be considered a healthy snack?!  😎

The container is 2.5 pounds, but doesn't last long around here!

Hope you're having a great Thursday!

Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday," 

hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.