I Like Thursday #303

Happy Thursday, friends!  Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday," hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.  It's also my birthday - so thanks for the gift of your friendship!  I so  enjoy all my blogging friends and our interaction through the quilting world.

I was surprised and touched by this sweet card from a local friend.  That is actual cross-stitching in there - how do you suppose she did that?  

While in Oregon, we did a little wine tasting, and I brought home a bottle in my suitcase.  This was quite tasty, and I loved the name and label.

Can you tell the bottle is empty?  😎

I've been getting caught up on these books in Anne Hillerman's Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito mystery series.  Her books continue the series started by her dad, Tony, in the 70s.  If you like the Louise Penny Gamache series or William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor, you would probably like these.  There's always a mystery, of course, but so much more added with the culture of the Navajo people.

LeeAnna was asking about a favorite product of ours, and, truthfully, I have just one: Chapstick!  It has to be that brand, and this variety of it, too.  It even has a little SPF in it, which I figure is a good thing.                           ⬇️

To be honest, I might even be a bit addicted to it, lol!

There is always one in my purse, and in my pocket.

I used to tell my 5th grade students that I had a whip in my pocket, and that I was going to get it out if they didn't get right to work.  They would just laugh and say they knew what I really had in my pocket, "Chapstick!"

One last photo to share from our Oregon trip.  I took this with Mike's camera on our last night there when we were out watching the sunset.  It's a very favorite photo now!

Magic!

To-Do Tuesday #154

 It's been a couple weeks since my last To-Do Tuesday post!  We took off on a week's vacation to the Oregon Coast and had a wonderful time.  You can see some photos of our adventure here and here.  It was so great to be able to go, and also feels good to be home again.  Consequently, I haven't had a to-do list in awhile!

But first, I have to share - I've been a lucky winner recently!  This sweet package was in my mailbox when I arrived back home last week, from our friend, Cheree, at The Morning Latte.  This was a giveaway from Cheree's post during the Get On Board With Sewing blog hop.

Cute pineapple scissors and a pretty fat quarter - thanks, Cheree!

And from Sew Preeti Quilts' blog hop to introduce her Topsy Turvy pattern (by way of the blog, Den Syende Himmel), I won a copy of the pattern.  I'm  excited to make this one!  This year, I've been working on Preeti's pattern, Masala Box, and loving how it's going, so I know she writes great patterns.

Thanks, Preeti and Turid!

So, what have I been working on?  Well, there's the Great Blue Scrap Bin Crumb Block Project... doesn't that sound official?   I can't believe how much was stuffed in that shoebox sized bin.  I've been sorting the scraps by shade onto paper plates, and trying to sew one paper plate's-worth of blocks at a time.

I've sewn up 10 crumb blocks since we got home from our trip, 

but it doesn't even look like I've made a dent in the scrap bin. 

The paper plates stack up when I'm ready to be done for awhile, which is helpful!

And using the crumb blocks as leaders and enders, I've gotten a start on sewing together the diagonal rows of the Bloom Baskets.  I'm going slowly and carefully on this in an effort to keep the seam ripper away!  

The Frosty the Snowman blocks - adding sashing and cornerstones - has gotten no attention since my last post two weeks ago.

On this week's to-do list:

• Keep with the program on the blue scrap bin project!
• Get the Bloom blocks sewn into a top
• Anything else if there's time! 

Linking up withTo-Do Tuesday at Texas Quilt Gal - thanks, Linda for hosting this fun link-up each week!

 

A little slow stitching...

Last week at this time, my view was something like this:

Or this:

But now I'm back to this:

Lol, can you tell what we were watching?

I actually finished this little design Friday night.  It's going to be finished into a Christmas gift for a local friend, so I'm ahead on that task, which is a good feeling!

I traced another Kathy Schmitz design so that there would something new to stitch.  It was time to go back to a fall theme!  This is another fun teacup design, like the Spring/Summer one I finished awhile back.  There's a winter one to work on sometime soon, too - they make a fun series!

Autumn Brew

I'm listening to The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett, read by Tom Hanks, so that will be good for some slow stitching time today.  Thanks so much to commenters on my Thursday post for recommending it!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Table Scraps and more scraps...

Earlier this month, I shared these blocks, made from Bonnie Hunter's String X pattern. 

I enjoyed the process of making them, but could never get them to measure consistently 7.5 inches square.  That, of course, made me not want to continue making them, so what's a quilter to do but turn them into a tablerunner?!  And it fit right in with our Table Scraps Challenge for September - light blues for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and pumpkins, too!  Zoom in and you'll see them.

Measures 14 x 28

I used leftovers from the front to piece the backing, and had fun with the quilting design, too.

I'm enjoying this tablerunner with some fall decorations on it already.  I grew that one little pumpkin in my garden this year.

A few weeks back, I dumped out the blue scrap bin and started making crumb blocks out of different shades of blue.  There were some larger chunks of a gray-blue print, so I turned it into a pumpkin mini quilt!  The pumpkin is made from the same fabric that I used recently to border an embroidery finish.

I decided to keep it small, added a little quilting, and bound it in the same mustard print that makes the pumpkin stem.  

Just a fun little project!

Along the way I turned one of my light blue crumb blocks into a candy block, which I'm auditioning for a 2023 RSC project.  I believe I've seen these on Maggie's Making a Lather and Cathy's Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting blogs.  I used a 6.5 inch center, with 2.5 inch borders and cornerstones.  This makes a 10.5 inch block.  (Looking at Maggie's blocks just now, I think I missed a step, though.  I need to go back and snowball the two opposite corners from the "wrapper" ends, which I will do this week!)

Edited: Saturday afternoon - this looks better!

These blocks make me think of the salt water taffy you see all over the place in touristy areas like Estes Park near us and the little towns we visited on the Oregon Coast this last week!

My goal is to keep making the crumb blocks as leader/enders - hopefully the piles of scraps won't drive me too crazy!  (Okay, they already are!)  Maybe I can come up with a better organizational strategy for these piles...

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap and at

Joyful Quilter for the September Table Scraps Challenge

Mmmquilts for the September DrEAMi link-up.

I Like Thursday #302

 Happy Thursday, friends!  How's everything?  We've just returned home from a lovely week-long getaway to the Oregon coast, and there was so much to like there!  It's definitely one of my favorite places.  Both Mike and I enjoy just wandering and exploring along the coast and we pretty much did that from dawn...

(View out our hotel room window)

until the sun went down.

(A short walk from our hotel out to the sunset view point nearby.)

And every minute in between!

One of the reasons we enjoy the small town of Depoe Bay is because there are gray whales that live in the waters off the bay there for several months every year, and you can see them right from the walkways along the bayfront.  This year we decided to take a whale watching trip out into the bay, and it was everything we had hoped for!  Mike got many great pictures of the whales and I did not get seasick!  😎

There was lots of clam chowder...

Yum!

and beach combing, too.

I even splurged on this pretty fat quarter bundle from one of my favorite quilt shops, Boersma's Sewing Center in McMinnville, Oregon.

It was great to get away, and, of course, it feels good to be home again, too.  I am itching to get to my sewing machine, but there are lots of after-travel chores to do - piles of laundry, figuring out meals, getting groceries (I got so spoiled not having to cook!) - but first I had to join in with "I Like Thursday" at Not Afraid of Color!

LeeAnna was asking if we have a favorite movie that we'll always stop to watch if you come across it while channel surfing.  For me it is just about anything with Tom Hanks in it: Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Forrest Gump, Castaway.  I can't even think of all of his movies that I've liked.  I have a big crush on Tom Hanks, lol!  💖

I think Mike might agree with me - he was just watching this one 

on the plane ride home yesterday!

Thanks for visiting on I Like Thursday -  

have a great day!

To-Do Tuesday #153

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

It's been a busy week here, but a few quilty things were accomplished!  I had wanted to make my mom a fall mug rug for the table in her apartment, and I did do that.

This was made from some 3 inch squares of fall themed fabric that I've had for a long time.   I won these in a giveaway quite a few years ago, and there were a lot!  I'm still trying to use them up.  For this mug rug I chose pieces that had leaves in them.

I shared in my post last Thursday that I found a different cornerstone fabric for the Frosty project.  I got all the sashings and cornerstones cut and laid out for the Frosties,  and now it's time to sew!

I also got the last blue Bloom block finished up - read about it HERE.  Of course you know what happens when you start digging in the scrap bin.  It explodes!  Here's what my sewing table looked like the other day. 

There are a lot of bits and pieces in there! All shapes and sizes.

I started sorting through them, and hesitate to stuff them back in the bin again.

I think there are lots of blue crumb blocks in my future!

I'm ending this post without a to-do list for the coming week, because I'm going to be away from my sewing machine (and the blog) for awhile.   See you in a few!
 

A little finish...

The other day I found this pretty print at my LQS and knew I had to bring it home.  The selvage says it is chrysanthemums, but it still reminds me of the marigolds that grow in my garden.  

I had been looking for some sunflower fabric to finish off "Summer Sun," but those prints all seemed to be big flowers and I needed something smaller for a narrow border.  This turned out to be perfect!

The weather did a big change overnight from Thursday into Friday - upper 90s and bright sun to 50s and drizzle.  It definitely feels more like fall.  We were wrapped up in our quilts all Saturday afternoon!  Needing a new embroidery design for slow stitching, I completely changed seasons and went with this one.

"Noel" by Kathy Schmitz

I'm not quite ready for snow yet (and I think we're supposed to be back up in the 80s this coming week), but I'll enjoy working on this one all in variegated blue.  Meanwhile the marigolds are still blooming!

Have a great Sunday!  I'll be watching the NFL games with Mike

and doing some slow stitching.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Bits and Pieces of Blue

 A little bit of progress this week, all heading in the right direction, even if slowly.  I had figured out that I only needed one more Bloom basket for a 25 block layout, so I sewed that up.  

I'm going for the cover layout there, and have gotten as far as calculating how many setting triangles I need, plus purchased the fabric for them.  No cutting or sewing yet!

So here's where I am with the layout of baskets.  I'll probably move a few here and there before I'm ready to sew them up.  It's definitely going to be a quilt full of scrappy color, isn't it?!

During one evening of hand-stitching I sewed up one more plus block in light blue.

That actually gives me seven blue blocks, and this quilt will just need three more green blocks to be ready for sewing all the blocks together!

Along the way I sewed some crumb blocks out of the blue scrap bin for leaders and enders.  I was trying to organize them by dark, medium, and light and it *kind of* worked, lol!  But it doesn't look like I even made a dent in the blue scraps, does it?  Guess I'll just keep making more of these!

There are a lot of blue-greens in that bin- 

I'll have to pull them out for their own category of crumb blocks!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #301 - Bows and Flows of Angel Hair

 You know that song, right?  "Both Sides Now" by Judy Collins.  LeeAnna suggested that we share favorite cloud photos in this week's post, so I've been singing that song all week long. 

Beautiful cloud formations can be seen in one of my very most favorite places to visit - the Oregon coast.  Because it is by the ocean, it often seems to be a combination of clouds and fog.  Last year we spent several days in Bandon, Oregon, and it probably has the most spectacular coastal area I have ever seen.  Here are a few favorite photos from our trip there.

Beautiful sunsets!

And then there'll be a day with not a cloud in the sky!

An amazing place!  And we are going there again soon - 

I am so looking forward to being there again!

What else has been going on this week?  Well, a little stash enhancement, for one thing!  Needing a better choice for the cornerstones on the Frosty quilt, I took a little trip to my LQS, and came home with these.

Some w-o-w yardage,

three choices for the Frosty quilt,

and a pretty fall piece that reminds me of marigolds.

I think I'll use the snowflake fabric for the Frosties.

The snowman print would make a good backing, wouldn't it?

I should go back and see if there is yardage of that one.

Speaking of marigolds, this week I've been doing some garden cleanup, and here's how the volunteer marigold in the tomato pot is doing.  The tomato was done, so I pulled it out, but left the marigold.  These are all from one stem!

I finished the next book interview Ruth Galloway series, by Elly Griffiths, another good one.  I've gotten attached to the characters in this series, and really like that the main character is not a police detective, but instead is an archeologist.  That always adds some interesting storylines to the book!

Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday," hostedby LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color!