To-Do Tuesday #191

Goodbye, July, and Hello, August!  I had a few different things on my to-do list to finish out the month of July.  Did I get them done?

Quilting on Rainbow Neighbourhood is completed and the binding is almost finished.  In fact, I bet it will be done by the time I hit publish on this post.  Just about 20 inches or so left to stitch!

I'll plan to write up a finished post for Rainbow Neighbourhood 

towards the end of the week.

The tea cup embroidery mini quilt is also finished.   This was a fun little project!

I also finished up the borders on my mini version of Scrap Dance Quadrille, designed by Carole at From My Carolina Home.   I'm not particularly happy with this picture of it - I have pressed it several times and yet it still looks like it needs more!   Hopefully after quilting it will look better.  Next step is to figure out a backing for this one.

This is about 34 inches square.

On this week's to-do list:

• Photograph and write up a post about Rainbow Neighbourhood.
• Get started on some yellow blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month for August.
• Work on a backing for Scrap Dance Quadrille.  Maybe! 

I'm sure I'll have plenty to keep busy with!  Joining in with Carol and friends at Quilt Schmilt for To-DoTuesday!

Scrappy July

It's hard to believe that this is the last Saturday of July already!  The month has flown by, and when I was thinking about it earlier this week, I realized that I actually got quite a bit accomplished.

Scrappy blocks:

Zipper blocks, split 9 patches, hand-pieced bowties,  a strawberry themed placemat, 

and even a little cross-stitched red pickup truck!

Rainbow Neighbourhood is quilted, the binding is machine stitched to the front, and I'm ready to hand-stitch it down for a finish.

Hoping for a finish to share by the end of the week!

And just because I wasn't quite done with red, I pulled out the little teapot design by Kathy Schmitz that I stitched up back in June and decided to add some patchwork borders and a little quilting to finish it up. 

The fabric that looks pink is actually a red pin dot on a cream background.

Much more fun in person than in the photo!

It's not really hot tea time of year around here right now, so I'm more likely to be sipping on some iced tea while I finish up the quilting this weekend.

I think there will be plenty of stitching to work on this weekend!

Linking up to my favorite weekend parties:

SoScrappy 

Quilting is more Fun than Housework

Kathy's Quilts 

I Like Thursday #346

Happy Thursday, friends!  Hope you're having a great week!  I'm joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.  

My tiny gardening efforts are going pretty well this year!  This pot is looking really pretty right now.  It started with the white petunias in the Spring.   Then all these volunteer marigolds came up.  

Right around the corner is the mini vegetable garden.  I've been harvesting green beans like crazy, and there are cucumbers growing on the right side.  On the left are Jack Be Little pumpkins, and a few are growing there, too!

I've been enjoying Kate Morton's latest book this week, Homecoming.  It takes place in Australia, which is a different and interest setting for me.  It's historical fiction, set in the 1950s and today.

Goodreads

We did some rearranging yesterday and I have a new (mostly temporary) sewing nook in the corner of our master bedroom.  Younger son is staying with us for awhile and has just started a new job.  It is fully remote, which requires a fancy computer set-up and we decided the big sewing table in our basement family room worked best for him.  

I think this will work for me until he decides where he wants to live next.

And this afternoon I was able to finish quilting the Rainbow Neighborhood!

Whoop, whoop!  Binding tomorrow.  I'm ready to finish this one up!

Have a great day, everyone!

To-Do Tuesday #190

Slowly, but surely, I'm making progress on the items that were on last week's To-Do Tuesday list!  

The Scrap Dance Quadrille blocks are sewn together and the first borders are ready to sew on.

Looking at this photo, I realize that the top and bottom borders need to be reversed when I get to sewing them on so that I don't have two of the exact same green HSTs together.  

Quilting on Rainbow Neighbourhood is ongoing, and getting so close.  I did stock up on thread so that I could get back to it this week.  I divided it up into six sections - three horizontal and three vertical - and there is only one horizontal section left.  It's 83.3333% finished!  No new photo because it just looks the same...

So, my main goal this week is to get the quilting on RN finished and get the binding on.  I'll need to make a decision about the binding - should I use the same sashing/border fabric for the binding - navy blue with light blue stars - or should I look for a light blue solid for the binding that matches the stars?

This is an older picture from when the sashing was being sewn on,

just to show the navy blue with light blue stars that I need to make the decision about.

I decided I wanted to finish one more small project in red for July, so I started working on bordering this little embroidery design, "Tweety Tea Birds," with some red patchwork.  These are easy to hand-piece, so I'll be working on this for my evening slow stitching project.

Joining in with Carol and friends at Quilt Schmilt for To-DoTuesday!

Slow stitching this week...

 switched back and forth between two projects.  I continued on with "Needle Love," a design by Kathy Schmitz.  This has been so enjoyable in the variegated blue.  I used the wagon wheel stitch for the large round flowers instead of pieces of felted wool that are called for in the directions.

I also started the Sunflower Sampler from Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting.  You know, I couldn't resist!  I've just started on the alphabet section, but what drew me to it is the sunflowers!  See Melisa's post about it here.

So for my Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy and friends at Kathy's Quilts today, I have choices, and that's always good!

ABC Table Scraps for July

Now that it's getting toward the end of July, I thought I would share my Table Scraps project for the month today.  You can see more about this fun challenge over at the Joyful Quilter's blog, right here.  Joy has added the additional challenge of incorporating a couple letters of the alphabet into our project - for July: A and G.

Since the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for July is red, I AGain (see what I did there?!) dug into my orphan block pile, and pulled out this one, left over from the 2020 Color Challenge.  

I decided to make another placemat out of this one, and to enlarge it to 12 x 16, I added a piece of the strawberry print I originally bought for this little project earlier in the year.  Other placemats I've made this year have had a strip added to each side of the main block - this time I added a larger strip to only one side to offset the center block.

Thinking back, I was working on this around the 4th of July,

and must have been in flag mode!  

Some more strawberries for the backing and the red gingham check print for binding made this one a quick finish!

Of course, this put me in the mood for some strawberries!

This summery, strawberry placemat has been a fun one to use!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

ABC Table Scraps July Link-up at The Joyful Quilter

I Like Thursday #345

Good Thursday morning to all of you, friends!  Hope you're staying cool during these hot summer days.  In Colorado it hasn't been as hot as many places, and our low humidity helps the temps be bearable, but 100 degrees two days in a row is pretty hot!

It has been good reading weather, especially if I sit with the fan blowing right on me!  I finished these two books in just a few days.  They have interesting titles - the "ends" book has to be read before the "starts" book!  

And a small "warning:" spousal abuse is a storyline in these books, but the stories are about so much more than that.  I could handle that because there is a lot of good happening in the books as well.

Experimenting with son's Ninji Foodi again this week - we made banana bread using the air fryer function!  It was yummy!  (And didn't heat the kitchen up, either. 👍)

I have another banana left to use up, so I guess we'd better make another loaf!

Recipe here.

A family of red-tailed hawks has taken over our neighborhood this week.  Apparently it was time for the young ones to leave the nest, but judging by all the whiney noise they've been making (starting very early in the morning!) they haven't been too happy about it.

Mike got some great photos of one of them!

I ordered a new embroidery hoop the other day.  The brand is Nurge, and it was recommended by Jo of Jo's Country Junction. I ordered mine from Amazon, here.  There are several different sizes, and it's hard to tell from the Amazon listing what the actual dimensions of the hoops are - I ordered a small, but kind of wish it was still a bit smaller, especially for smaller scraps of cross-stitch cloth.  I'll probably go back and order the extra small size.

The small hoop measures about 6 1/4 x 5 5/8 inches.

I do like the rectangular shape, and this one is working pretty well for a piece of Aida cloth I wanted to use that is about 8 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches.

Hope you're having a great week!

Joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.  

To-Do Tuesday #189

It was a good idea to keep my to-do list simple last week because I didn't end up having a ton of sewing time, but I did get the two things on the list accomplished!

Quilting on Rainbow Neighbourhood is progressing.  All of the vertical lines of quilting are finished and I've also done the horizontal lines through the center.  A finish is getting closer!

Unfortunately I ran out of thread, 

so I'll need to stock up before I can go any further!

I did take an afternoon off from quilting and sewed up some red zipper blocks for one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.

Keeping things on the simple side again this week, I'm planning to keep quilting!  So I'll need to go to Joann's and stock up on thread.

I also hope to spend some time with my Scrap Dance Quadrille project.  I have one more block to sew together and then it's time to add borders.  This will end up as a tabletopper, I think measuring about 34 - 36 inches square depending on how many borders I add. 

See Carole's post here for the final steps of the QAL. 

I'll be happy if I can make more progress on both of these!  Hopefully, that's doable.

Joining in with Carol and friends at Quilt Schmilt for To-DoTuesday.

 

Some slow stitching for Sunday...

This week, I finished up the stitching on Pop Go the Fireworks, and then fully finished both of these little designs into pillows for my wooden bowl.

Aren't they cute?!

So here's how my little table by the front door is looking now.

I think my bowl now needs something in it that's a different size - taller - or maybe a rectangle shape?  I'll have to look for something like that to stitch up.

Meanwhile, I decided to go back to some embroidery for my slow stitching and trace a new Kathy Schmitz design to work on next.  This is "Needle Love," the April 2023 design from the One Stitch at a Time Club.  Kathy shows it stitched all in red floss or in multiple colors, but I decided to do it in a cool variegated blue.  This is DMC 4230 - Crystal Water.

Maybe this stitching will keep me cool on these hot summer days!

That's my Slow Sunday Stitching - what are you working on?

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts!

Zipper blocks in red...

I took an afternoon off from quilting the Rainbow Neighbourhood this week, and sewed up some red zipper blocks.  These are fast and satisfying, if you just feel like piecing something!

I was inspired to get these out and work on them after seeing Cathy's beautiful Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah quilt top made out of zipper blocks.  It's so fun!  The zipper block instructions come from Klein Meisje Quilts.  She has a great quilt made from these blocks, too.

My collection of zipper blocks is small, but I enjoy making a few each month.  To make a small lap quilt, I'm probably going to need at least triple this amount - so I'll just keep making them!

Now back to the previously scheduled quilting plans.  I'm ready to start on the section that includes the red bird house, so that's good timing, right?!

I'm quilting this in a 2 inch grid with the serpentine stitch, so all it needs for marking is a few dots with the Frixion pen every so often and I can stitch right along!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #344

Good morning, friends!  Hope you're having a good week!  I picked my very first cherry tomatoes this week.  Yum!

Now, though, there are a bunch of green ones on the plant, and none are acting like they want to ripen.  Any ideas why that is?

One of the perks of having our son come home to stay for awhile is that he likes to cook, and will make things on request, like his tasty pasta salad.  I requested it yesterday, got all the ingredients, and voila!

It is as good as it looks and lots of leftovers, too.

I really enjoyed this book this week.  I think I read it in about 24 hours!  Catherine Ryan Hyde is becoming a favorite author of mine - I'm going to have get some more of her books.

This little cross-stitch design from PinkernPunkin Quilting is finished.  Isn't it fun?  It was meant to be my 4th of July stitching, but took longer than I expected.  The straight line stitches that form USA were surprisingly challenging to get right.  And the A really doesn't look right still - should I re-do it?

Our question of the week is about local festivals we've attended, and the one here in Loveland that is actually pretty well-known is called Sculpture in the Park.  It's coming up in August.

Website

I've shared pictures of the sculpture park on the blog many times - it's one of my favorite places in town to wander, look at the sculptures, watch birds, and walk with a friend.  Coming up pretty soon, we'll start to see it being transformed with huge tents where sculptors from all over the country have been invited to bring their work to show for a weekend show.  It's pretty amazing!  We don't go every year, but have gone several times - it's an almost overwhelming amount of art to take in.

One last photo taken at the sculpture park - it's a great place to photograph quilts!

Sharing at I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.

To-Do Tuesday #188

Good morning, and happy Tuesday!  I'm joining in with Carol and friends at Quilt Schmilt for To-DoTuesday.

My sewing machine time this week has been dedicated to quilting my Rainbow Neighbourhood, and I'm feeling pretty good about the progress.  2/3 of the vertical lines of quilting are done at this point.

Also on last week's list were to make more Positivity leaf blocks and finish another block for Scrap Dance Quadrille, but there was no progress on either of those.  They'll stay on the list!

I did hand-piece some bowtie blocks, just so I could say I worked with my red scraps during the week!

This week I am back to sharing my sewing space with our son who is living with us for awhile, so it's hard telling what I'll get done.   I did make myself a portable cutting station so that I could carry my supplies up to the dining room table and get some blocks ready to sew together when I get a chance.  These are pieces for the zipper blocks I've been making each month.

So, on this week's list:

• Sew up these zipper blocks.
• I'm also planning to get some more quilting done on the Rainbow Neighbourhood.  
• If I work on those two things, I'll be happy!

Have a great week, everyone!

  

Summer Stitching

I've continued to work on the summer-themed cross-stitch projects that I had shared about last week during my slow stitching evenings this week.  Here's the Summer Stamp, all done.  I love the happy sunflowers! 

The stitching is just 2.5 inches square!

And working away on Pop Go the Fireworks.  Just getting started on the red truck full of fireworks!

These sweet little designs are shared so generously by Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting, and are perfect for someone like me who is a little rusty at the craft of cross-stitching! (Plus I like small and simple!)  Eventually I'll finish these into little pillows to add to my bowl full of small handwork pieces.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Moving along with red...

This week, my sewing machine time has been dedicated to quilting the Rainbow Neighbourhood, and it is moving along!   I've quilted the whole center section vertically, which is three of the house blocks, using the serpentine stitch every two inches.  

This was early in the week when I was just getting started.

I'll continue with the vertical lines, and then do the same thing horizontally.

So, my scrappy sewing this week has been to hand-piece four more bowtie blocks to add to the collection.  These make a really nice evening slow stitching project.  

I got all the pieces cut and stitched these up in a couple hours.

This little group is getting more and more colorful!

And one last fun thing to share.  Because I finished my Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt top in time to share for the final link-up, I won a prize - my choice of two PDF patterns from Devoted Quilter's Etsy shop.   I decided to choose two that would work for Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, and here are the ones I got!

Pinwheel Garden

and Scrappy Playground.

Thank you Sandra at mmmquilts and Leanne at Devoted Quilter!  These will go on my list for 2024, since I have plenty of projects already in place for 2023.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!