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.

To-Do Tuesday #136

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.

It's been one of those weeks where I got to the end of it and can't really remember what I set out to accomplish seven days ago!  Senior moment, lol!  Good thing I can look back at last week's post.

So...on last week's list:

• Work on PopStar part 1. ✔  Done!  But forgot to take a picture...
• Finish the Charm Pack quilt. ✔  Done!  

• Finish the birthday gift/pillow cover for my friend.  Almost done!  Top is quilted, and pieces for the backing are made.  I just need to sew them together and I'll do that this afternoon.

What do I want to accomplish in the coming week?

• Work on PopStar, part 2.
• Get started on Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for May.  The colors of the month are sage and forest green, which I'm interpreting as anything not bright or lime green.  Here's my fabric pull so far:

That's only two things on the list, but keeping up with Sandra's QAL is important to me, so I'm going to really focus on that these next few days.  I have the whole month to work on the RSC blocks, so I can be more relaxed about that.

Have a great week, friends!

My April DrEAMi

I shared these photos earlier in the month in other posts, but decided it was easier to make a new post for Sandra's DrEAMi link-up.   Each month or holiday season this year, I've been looking for a cute idea to make my mom a festive mug rug.  

In April I just *had to* sew a carrot!

The pattern, partially paper-pieced and partially traditional piecing, came from 

Sally at The Objects of Design.

And that block turned into this little mug rug!

My mom is enjoying these!  What will I make for May?  Sharing at The DrEAMi link-up at mmmquilts!

Slow stitching on a Sunday

I have a finish to share today!  I've been hand quilting this little quilt for the last couple weeks, and it is now done.  

I quilted this with a buttery yellow older Dual Duty "Extra Strong Hand Quilting" thread that has probably been in my stash for a very long time!   It even has the price on it: 99 cents!  It worked great, though - slid through the fabric so smoothly.

It was hard to decide what would make a good binding fabric, but I finally settled on a rusty red/orange Grunge.  Because this quilt was made from a charm pack, there are lots of colors in it: blues, yellow/greens, peach and red, but there is a bit of red/orange in lots of the prints.  I like how this turned out!

This is a small quilt, 32 x 32, and I don't really know who it's going to yet.  Maybe it will cuddle a little one someday, or maybe it will just hang out on the back of my couch.  I definitely enjoyed making it, though!

After I finished up this quilt, I was ready for a new slow stitching project, and decided to try some EPP again.  I've been thread-basting hexies, and have one little flower sewn together.  Today I'll be stitching up this blue one.  I haven't decided how many of these I'll make yet, but I'm definitely enjoying the process!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Watermelon with Friends

aka my April Table Scraps project!

Hunting around for *who knows what?* earlier in the month, I came across this watermelon print that is leftover from a tote bag I made years ago.   Combined with some strips of a text fabric (a wide backing that I've used in multiple projects!) and a fat quarter of a typewriter print, I thought this could turn into something fun.

And it did!

The text fabric was in a strip, too narrow to cut 2.5 inch pieces, so I cut 2 inch x 4.5 inch pieces, and the watermelons at 3 inches.  Sewn together, they ended up as 4.5 inch squares.

There are lots of good words in the text fabric:  hearts, friends, jokes, angels, happy...

There was plenty of the watermelon print left for the backing, too.

You've seen this view before, in between our comfy chairs.  It's been fun making something new for this table every month!

Here are all the utility mats I've made for this space so far this year.  You can tell that the older ones have been washed already - they're well used!

In other scrappy sewing this week, I've been making a rainbow of crumb blocks.

Can you guess what I'm making?  Someone will know!  😊

Sharing at The Joyful Quilter for the April Table Scraps link-up,

 at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, 

and at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #284

It's the last week of April - always amazing how the months fly by, even if some of the days have been slow.  We're starting to get some nicer, and less windy, weather here, finally, and lots more trees are leafing out.  I managed to successfully grow a few pretty tulips (after the daffodils disappeared and a bunch of tulips froze)!

We enjoyed our visit with our son last weekend, and while we were together he introduced us to another word game, a variation of Wordle called Quordle.  In this game you try to guess four words with nine tries.  Yes, it's challenging!  I think I've managed to get3 of the 4 words one time since I started playing it, usually I get two of them.

Find it at quordle.com.

I've continued on my William Kent Krueger mystery obsession.  Finished one to take back to the library, and just starting on the next.  Good stories, and interesting with so much Native American culture woven throughout.

We were looking for another show to watch and decided to try a few episodes of "Shakespeare and Hathaway" on BritBox.  They are private investigators in Stratford-upon-Avon.  Murder mysteries, but a little lighter than some with quirky characters.

I finished up the hand-quilting on this quilt, and need to figure out the binding for it, but meanwhile I've been wanting to try some English Paper-Piecing again.  The last time I worked on an EPP project, I glue basted the fabric to the papers, but I decided to to try thread-basting this time.  Thanks go to my friend, Karen, at Karen's Quilting, for sending me a video link about the process!  

I was a bit all thumbs at first, but I'm sure I'll get better at it!

My niece who has started quilting, shared this on Facebook the other day, and I thought it was pretty cute.   And true, lol!

Hope you're having a great week!  

I'm joining in with LeeAnna and friends 

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