Midweek Update

I was the lucky winner of a prize from the Villa Rosa blog hop - just for commenting on the different bloggers who participated.  My prize arrived this week, and it is this beautiful set of 12 fat quarters from Hoffman Batiks.

Thank you to Villa Rosa Designs, Hoffman Fabrics, and

Rose of Something Rosemade for choosing me for a prize!

No plans for these yet, but I will add them to the stash and they'll probably work their way into various projects.

Meanwhile, this week I also got started on my Luminous Layers project, the QAL at mmmquilts.   I decided to draw mine out on graph paper and color in the sections.  I had to do the smallest star section twice because at first I hadn't made space for my Fabric E!  Now I think it will end up as the background for the very center small star.  

Here, again, are the actual fabrics - the dark pink is much darker than my drawing!

This week's task was to make the giant star points.  Please excuse my terrible photo - taken on Saturday afternoon when it was a dark and rainy day.  You can see above that the light green is a little more of a mint shade.

Today Sandra will post the next step of the QAL - I'm guessing it will be the next size of star points - mine are blue and yellow in my drawing.

Linking up with Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

Slow stitching an April heart...

While we were away on our trip, Melisa posted her April heart called "Early Birds."  As soon as I could get to it, after we got home, I traced and prepped it for stitching, and Friday night I stitched the heart outline.

This will be way more fun when there's a little more color in it!

There - that's better! (After some coloring and stitching last night.)

Can you tell this is an evening photo?  

Such a difference in the white background color!

I think it's too early for baby birds here, but we did learn about a neat bird identification app the other day, and it works really well.   We've used it to identify birds by their sound, and it's remarkably accurate!  

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

Table Scraps for April

Earlier this month, I shared that I tried playing with a string block to create an umbrella with my yellow scraps, and it worked pretty well!  This is where I left off on April 9th, thinking that I might possibly make a few more of these.

It turned out that I only had time to make this one, what with moving my mom to a new place and going on our trip to Nashville, so when we got home earlier this week, I decided to finish it up into a little mug rug.   One change I made to the original block was to redo the very top tiny triangle with a white background piece instead of yellow to give a little bit more rounded look.

The original block is 6.5 inches square, 

so I added some Fairy Dust for borders to make it a rectangle.

The Fairy Dust plus another yellow scrap made a good backing, too.  

You know what they say about April showers bringing May flowers...

These aren't May flowers quite yet, but it is our 

Spring Snow Crabapple tree in full bloom - so pretty!

Sharing at:

the Joyful Quilter for the April Table Scraps link-up,

and at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #384 - Nashville!

We spent Monday - Friday of last week in Nashville with our group of friends who Mike served in the Navy with over 50 years ago!  They sure enjoy being together, and we wives and significant others enjoy it, too.

Every even year, we all meet in a city to explore and spend time together.  Nashville was a new one for Mike and me, and we had a lot of fun.  There was a tiny bit of bar-hopping on Broadway - my favorite part was the open rooftop places where you could look out at the street.  Every single place has live music - young musicians hoping to make it big, I imagine.  The only problem is that they play SO DARN LOUD that we old people can't stand it for too long. 😬

We went on a great bus ride around the city with the driver narrating all the interesting places to see.   The Country Music Hall of Fame is a fascinating place - lots of history and cool artifacts like famous guitars and gold and platinum records.  

Probably my favorite activity was the dinner cruise we took on the Cumberland River, on the General Jackson Showboat!  We had a delicious meal, fun entertainment (and not so loud, lol!), and beautiful scenery, too.

At the end of the week, everyone went their separate ways.  It's always hard to say goodbye after spending time with these good friends.  Mike and I enjoyed a scenic drive up to Paducah, Kentucky, and I got to spend time at the National Quilt Museum and Hancock's of Paducah.  (See yesterday's post.)  

LeeAnna's question of the week is Bed & Breakfast or Luxury Hotel?  We tend to stay in middle of the road hotels, so I can't say that I've ever experienced a luxury hotel, but we have stayed in Bed & Breakfast places and it turned out to be fun!  In 2008, we took a trip to Alaska that was planned by a travel agent who encouraged us to stay in B & Bs, saying that was the best way to experience Alaska.  We were a little leary of it at the time, but it turned out to be great fun, and I would do it again!  Good memories!

Hope you're having a great week!  Joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.

Midweek Update

The last week or so we've been traveling, and part of the trip was a pilgrimage to Paducah, Kentucky, where I got to visit the National Quilt Museum and Hancock's of Paducah.  Our trip was a lot of fun (including several days spent in Nashville which I will share in my Thursday I Like post) and went by way too fast.   

The National Quilt Museum has a wonderful range of displays and I really enjoyed visiting it.  

I, of course, took a ton of pictures, but decided to choose just one to share that really blew me away.  This was a completely hand stitched quilt - all applique and hand quilting - made by a Japanese quilter named Keiko Miyauchi.  It must have taken years to complete!

Here's a close-up of a section of the blue fence:

I also was able to do some shopping at Hancock's of Paducah - a quilter's candy shop if I ever saw one!

It turned out to be a good idea to have a specific quilt project that I wanted to shop for there, otherwise I think I would have had a hard time making a decision with so many choices!   I decided to pick out everything I'll need for the Spring QAL at mmmquilts, called Luminous Layers.  I have two rules for the fabric for this project - I want to make it without any white or cream background fabric, and I want a solid-ish look - and I think I found just the right fabric line.

These are tonal solids with a hand-dyed look 

from a line called "Palette" by Marcia Derse.

Looks like it needs some pressing!  

I hope to be getting started on cutting the first pieces 

for the QAL in the next few days.

Sharing at mmmquilts for the first QAL link-up,

and at Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

Pieces of My Life QAL, Block 3

Edited for Saturday, April 20th:  We're visiting Paducah, Kentucky, today, and will be visiting the National Quilt Museum and doing a little shopping at Hancock's of Paducah!  Before we left on our trip, I sewed up the next block for the Pieces of My Life QAL, hosted by Melva of Melva Loves Scraps.  I wasn't sure I'd get it done before we left on our trip, but I did!  

This block is called Bachelor's Puzzle, and it is kind of a puzzle!  Definitely a good one to take a photo of and compare what you're doing with the photo - often!

Four fabrics were needed for this block - so I used my cream Grunge, and the rainbow floral inspiration print, plus two yellows - a solid and a batik.

Did I sew it together correctly without flipping any pieces on the first try?  Yes!

Here are the first three blocks that I've made for the QAL.

Melva's theme for this block is life in high school, and what we were involved in.  Check out her fun post about being a gymnast here.  I was not an athlete - instead I was involved in music.  I sang in the choir and was involved in the musicals, as were all my friends.  My most fun memory was how we got so obsessed with the music and dialogue from the shows that we could answer any question with a line from the show.  We sang just about all day long.  I wish I had a photo to share from that time, but ran out of time to dig one out!

So happy to have the block done, though, and I'm sharing it over at Melva's link-ups - the Block 3 link-up and Sew and Tell Monday.

Also linking up with:

ScrapHappy Saturday at SoScrappy, and

Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Travel Stitching

DH and I are getting ready to go out of town for a week, and I wanted a project to take along in case I have some time for a little slow stitching.  It seemed like the easiest thing to plan for would be a simple cross-stitch design, like one of Melisa's mini samplers.  So I hunted around on PinkernPunkin Quilting and found this one that I haven't stitched yet.

This is the Bunny Mini Sampler - found here.

I picked out the flosses I'll need, cut a piece of Aida cloth to size, and got out the bigger hoop to take along, too.

Last year, a friend gave me this adorable needle book that she made for me, so I'm taking it along to hold the floss, scissors, needle-threader and needles.  Isn't it sweet?

I love this little label that is on the inside.

Now I'm excited to get working on this little sampler!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

More with yellow

We had a nervous little visitor at our house yesterday.  He (or she?) found a good place to hide after leaving the nest, behind that big blue pot, and then I scared him when I came out with my camera.  

Stay safe little guy!

Back in the sewing room, I made the four patches that were needed for the alternate block that I'm using with the patchwork hearts.

They are quick to sew together into the chain block.

And all the blocks so far... It's fun to see what's developing here!

I'm thinking I'll shoot for a 5 x 5 layout, 

so that there will be a heart block in every corner.

For that I'll need 13 hearts and 12 alternate blocks.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!

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

I Like Thursday #383

 Here's our eclipse photo!  😊  Can you see all the little crescent shapes?

Older son got this one with his work camera which had a special filter on it. 

Our younger son enjoys cooking, and likes to figure out copycat recipes that sound good.  These were something he made last weekend - Copycat Crazy Puffs from Little Caesars Pizza.  They're made with pizza dough, pepperoni, sauce, and mozzarella cheese in a muffin tin.

We discovered that Trader Joe's has pizza dough that is very tasty and easy to work with.  We'll buy this again and try it for an actual pizza, too.

LeeAnna's question of the week is: Morning Person or Night Owl?  I'm definitely a morning person.  Never have been able to stay up very late.  I start fading about 9:00!  But I love those early morning hours when the house is quiet and I can read and sip my coffee when I am up all by myself.  Even in college when everyone else was pulling all-nighters, I would go bed at my regular time and get up early - 4 am?! - and study more then.

Good morning!

We will be out of town next week, so I won't have a Thursday post, so I'll answer next week's question here, too.  Crunchy or Chewy?  Oh, crunchy, for sure!  In fact, the joke in my family is that I might burn a pan of cookies, just so I can have them all to myself! 

Yum! 

Hope you're having a great week!  

I'll probably post as usual on Saturday and Sunday, 

and then be back here in a couple weeks.

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

  

 

 

Midweek Update

Every month I combine the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (April is yellow) and the challenge of the month for the Table Scraps Challenge (April is umbrellas) and see what kind of little quilted item I can come up with.   I'm not sure I've ever made an umbrella block before!  So the last few days I've been playing with an idea for an umbrella block.

My idea was to make a string block into an umbrella, so I started with a square of phone book paper and some strips of yellow.

This is looking umbrella-ish!

But it needed a handle...so I took a triangle of a background white, cut it in half, and added a black strip in the middle.  This could work!

Sewn and trimmed...what do you think?

I thought maybe I'd like those pointy corners to be smoothed off a bit, so I added stitch and flip corners, and might change the top point to a white background piece, too.  

I'm not sure how I'll finish this up, but I think I will turn it into a new mug rug for my mom.  I'll share the finish at the end of the month.

Linking up with Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

Beatrice Bunny and Friends

The other day I finished up Beatrice Bunny, a sweet design from Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting.  I love her carrots, held up like lightning bolts!  Carrot power!

And her chick friends - so cute! 

Now I'm working on the April section of Kathy Schmitz's Woven Wreaths panel.  It's a little blue bunny!   Each month it's been fun to watch Kathy's video for the section and then get stitching.  She loves the stem stitch and uses it a lot, but I'm kind of clumsy with it, so for this bunny I've been doing a lot of back stitch.

Today I have a little bit more of the bunny to stitch, 

and then the branches, leaves, and flowers to work on.

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's Quilts!