I Like Thursday #377

Happy Thursday!  Hope you're having a good week!  Today should be a good day here because a little later this morning, I get to spring my mom from rehab and take her home to her apartment.  I think she's looking forward to that, and I really am!

I found a little hint of Spring in my garden the other day.  I love seeing the crocuses - they are so cheerful!

Another hint that Spring is on the way - baby chicks at Murdoch's.  They had all sizes, shapes, and varieties.  You could hear them cheeping from several aisles away!

I've been enjoying this book this week.  The "Thursday Murder Club" is a bunch of older folks who live in a retirement community in England, and they like to solve mysteries.  They worm their way in to the police investigation, and the detectives end up using the information that the seniors come up with.  It's a fun read!  Evidently it's the first in a series. 

It was a big thrill to read Cynthia's post last week at Quilting is More Fun than Housework and see my quilt in it!  I sent her the Split 9 Patch quilt that I finished in January for her Compassion Quilts charity.  

LeeAnna's question of the week is if we came home to a multi-course meal cooked by your husband, what would you like it to be?  And that made me laugh!  🤣  because it is never going to happen!!!  Mike told me when he retired that he would take over the after dinner dishes and clean up, but "please don't make me cook!"  How could I turn that offer down?  So, the best I can expect in terms of dinner from him is... takeout?!  

How about from the Asian restaurant nearby? 

Yum!

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

Midweek Update

I decided over the weekend that I wanted to make myself a new tote bag.  I've made quite a few of these over the years - they're adapted from an older Missouri Star Quilt Co video.  I've changed the size and added some features that I thought were useful, too. 

I wanted to use some of this Charley Harper penguin print as a focus fabric for it.  I can't even remember where I got it, but it's been in my stash for awhile and never quite fit into any other projects.  I'm pretty sure I bought a 1/4 yard of it.

I started by pulling some coordinating scraps from my stash and making this square-in-a-square type block that involved a new technique a local quilty friend shared.

To make this block, I started with a 4.25 inch center, and matched it with a square of the gray the same size.  Place the two squares right sides together, sew all the way around with a 1/4 inch seam, and then mark an X from corner to corner and cut it open with scissors to get the first square corners.  Press open and you get the first square-in-a-square.  You can just keep doing this until you reach the size you want - I did this process three times to get about a 9.5 inch block.

I sewed this block with some more of the penguins, dots, and gray into a big panel that measured 16 X 26.  Next step is to quilt it to some batting and trim down to size.

The lighting in this photo makes the background of the penguins look really brown, 

but it in real life it's definitely gray!

I turned this into a "box" with a flat bottom by boxing the corners.

Follow the same process with a piece of lining fabric, add some pockets for phone and keys, and a magnetic snap...  Handles are sewn in when you layer up the lining and outer part of the bag.

And voila - my finished bag!

The finished tote measures about 15 inches wide X 11 inches tall. 

Next up is to get going on the final border of my Stay at Home Round Robin project.  More about that in my Saturday post!

Linking up Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

 

A small finish and a new start...

The other day I finished "Love Letter" into a little pillow.  There are still a few more days of February left to enjoy it!

Just as I was trying to decide what to stitch on next, Melisa posted about a new mini sampler she designed.  It's the Tulip Mini Sampler, found here.  You know I just had to get started on it!

I'm stitching this with one of my favorite DMC variegated flosses - Laguna Blue. 

It will be fun to have a Spring-themed mini sampler to join this bunch!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

Table Scraps for February

My red scrap bucket had lots of narrow strips in it, so this month I just started sewing strips onto strips onto strips until I had a piece that was about 13 x 17!

A piece of muslin made a good backing and shows off my quilting design, too!  I was inspired to use the Hanging Diamonds quilting design after seeing a project that Melva had used it on.

I trimmed this to 12.5 x 16.5, placemat size.

More strips were sewn together to use for binding.

Our inspiration this month was the color red and hearts - both perfect for February!

Besides hearts, the red scrap bin had stars, stripes, 

snowflakes, flowers - all kinds of fun prints!

It turns out that this mini quilt fits perfectly on the bedside table.   I have the perfect dish to set on it, too - a door prize that I won at our February quilt group get together.

But it also fits the table in between the comfy chairs where we sit to have morning coffee.  So that's where I think it will stay!

Linking up with the Joyful Quilter for the February Table Scraps Challenge,

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday,

Quilting Learning Combo for Free Motion Mavericks

and SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday

I Like Thursday #376

I've spent quite a bit of time again this week coordinating my mom's care after her hospital stay last week, but she is much better now, so that's good.  She is spending some time in a rehab facility to build her strength and independence back up.  I hope it won't be for too long, though - she is anxious to go home!   Thanks, everyone, for all your good wishes for Mom!

We treated ourselves to a box of Thin Mints this week!  Yum!  I can't go a year without a box or two.

I finished up the February heart for Melisa's Year of Hearts project the other night.  This is one of those where I just used every sweet and happy color that fit the design!

We've just started watching "The Good Doctor" for our evening entertainment.  Have you watched this?  I think it's up to Season 7 just starting this week, but we're starting at the beginning.  I love the main character played by Freddie Highmore - a young doctor who is autistic.  The show portrays the other doctors as quite arrogant and dismissive of this character's talents.  I hope they get better about that!

Image Source

LeeAnna's question of the week is who is our favorite TV or movie fictional couple and I knew my answer right away - Rick Castle and Kate Beckett from the show "Castle."  That was a very favorite show that I watched every episode of back when it was running on ABC.  I enjoyed the storyline - Castle is a writer who needs inspiration for his books, so he starts shadowing Beckett, the police detective.  Of course Castle ends up helping to solve the crimes, and eventually they fall in love.  

Image Source

He's funny, and she's the serious detective - together they were very fun to watch!

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

Midweek Progress

 As I have for the last month or so, I spent the first two days of the week working on the next border for my Stay at Home Round Robin project.  This week's border prompt is from Gail at Quilting Gail and she called for anything that has an element of 4 in it.  I opted to go simple and traditional and made four patch blocks.

In fact, I made three groups of four 4 patches!  

In the quilt, they became four groups of three!

The center of the quilt up to the narrow red border measures 18.5 inches,

so there is room to add two more 2.5 inch blocks on each side.   I'll wait to see what Border #6 calls for to decide what I'm going to add.

[I've been bothered by the look of that center section - it has looked wider at the top and the bottom - like it was stretched out of shape.  Measuring showed that the top and bottom borders were 1/4 inch longer than the center - I think I sewed them on wrong!  No wonder those borders were wavy...  So out came Jack the Ripper, and I took off those two borders, trimmed them by 1/4 inch and sewed them back on corectly.  Now that center is a true 18.5 inches square!]

Sharing at QuiltingGail for the SAHRR 2024 week 5 link-up and at

Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

Some Slow Stitching for a Sunday

After I finished the Rainbow Bowties quilt earlier this week, I started thinking about what new block I could work on next for a new hand-piecing project.

Then I remembered that one of the blocks on my list that I want to make is a Hollow Nine Patch, and that would be an easy one to hand-piece.  Eight 2.5 inch red squares and one neutral for the center were cut and are ready to stitch together!

This will be a long term project, and I'll need to get caught up on both red and green, but I'll continue cutting and piecing a few of these blocks as I have time.

I've also been embroidering the February heart from Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting for her Year of Hearts.   This one is called "Country Mail Delivery."  Those bluebirds make me think of the many blue jays we have around here.  They aren't as sweet as these little birds, but they are definitely the neighborhood sentinels, telling all the news!

Both of these projects will get some stitches today.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

A Happy Scrappy Finish!

Earlier this week, I put the last binding stitches into Rainbow Bowties and it is now a finished quilt.  I think this might be one of my favorite quilts ever, but I probably say that with every finish!  The bowties for this quilt were my handpiecing project for 2023.  Here's a photo from July - halfway there, maybe?

I ended up with 80 blocks total, and kept hand-piecing them together into 

larger and larger groups until the whole center was together.

By then, I was ready to get this thing finished, so I machine sewed the borders on!  I did hand quilt this quilt, and used the same green for the binding as I used for the borders.

The backing is the bright Tumbling Blocks wide-backing print that I've used on a couple other quilts already this year.  It goes really nicely with the rainbow theme.

So - here it is, all finished!

This is not a very big quilt, 40 x 48, but I noticed when I was quilting and sewing on the binding that it's a good size for covering up in when I'm sitting in my comfy chair, reading, watching TV, or doing some embroidery or cross-stitch.  I think it will get used that way a lot!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!

And at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.

 

Catching up on Round 4

I'm popping in with a quick post because I finally had some time to sew this afternoon.  Brenda at Songbird Designs called for square-in-a-square blocks for this week's border.  I'm working on a small piece, so I made four 2.5 inch blocks.

I always like how these look as cornerstones, so that's how I'm going to use them.  I was thinking that last week's half square triangles could become flying geese, and they could go on either side of this week's blocks.  Maybe something like this?

Maybe Round 5 will fit in those spaces???

Sharing at Songbird Designs for the SAHRR 2024 Border 4 link-up.

 

I Like Thursday #375

I am writing this on Wednesday, so Happy Valentine's Day!  I finished stitching Love Notes the other night.  Hope you got some Love Notes from your favorite someone this Valentine's Day.

My week turned crazy yesterday (Tuesday) because my mom was admitted to the hospital with a UTI and it has made her very weak.  Fortunately,  she is much better today.  Having to spend lots of time sitting in the ER or a hospital room makes me appreciate that I had downloaded an older trilogy by Nora Roberts to read - one of my favorites to reread - magic, romance - all good!  

I was all excited to work on border 4 of my Stay at Home Round Robin this week, but it hasn't happened so far.  I have the fabrics picked and know what I want to do, but no time yet.  Fingers crossed for a little sewing time, maybe tomorrow?

LeeAnna's question of the week is who was our first crush?  I'm sure I had crushes on boys as early as 5th grade and well into high school when I finally had a boyfriend, lol!  But my longtime crush has always been Tom Hanks!  I would love to meet him, but would probably be completely tongue-tied.  😘  But at least we can watch his movies!  We watched and enjoyed this one the other night, "Finch."

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

Love Notes

Here in Loveland, Colorado, everyone makes a big deal out of Valentine's Day.  There are hearts all over town, a Miss Loveland Valentine, and we have our very own Valentine greeting cards to send out each year, too.  Each year there's a contest for whose design will be on the front, and whose greeting will go inside.

When I saw Melisa's little stamp design - Love Note - I knew it was one I had to stitch!  Not too much left now - a rose and an X and O.

Meanwhile, also still quilting the Rainbow Bowties, but it's very close to being finished!  

I've made the binding for this quilt, and hope to be stitching it down soon.   

Maybe during the Super Bowl tonight?

Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

This week with red...

I've been working on a little of this and a little of that this week.  My next border work for the Stay at Home Round Robin involved some red.  Still playing with layouts for the HSTs I made.

Or maybe I will turn them into flying geese?  Decisions, decisions, lol!

Along the way - for leaders and enders I sewed lots of strips together out of my red scrap bin.  It seems to contain a lot of narrow strips right now!  This *might* turn into something for my February Table Scraps project.

And two more red zipper blocks were sewn for that RSC project.  I made 30 of these blocks last year, and now just planning to add a couple more each month this year.

These are both favorite fabrics of mine!  I especially would love to have more of that floral - I think I bought it from Joann's for the backing of a quilt I gave away.

Here are all five of the red zipper blocks.

I am determined to move an older UFO forward this month - the Rainbow Jungle quilt top, finished way back in 2020!  The first step toward that was piecing a backing for it, so that's done.  I stocked up on some batting, too, so it's time to get the top pressed and get these layers ready for quilting!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!

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