I Like Thursday #436

May in my garden is for planting!  Right around Mother's Day is when they always tell us we should be past the last freeze.  So that's what I've been doing this last week.  

Green bean seeds in the raised bed - 

Plus we added a cucumber plant and pumpkins.

A couple tomatoes in pots - 

And flowers, too.  I have good luck with petunias, so I plant a bunch of those every year.

Today (Wednesday) started out as a beautiful day and we played golf with a friend. There are tons of goose families at the golf course, hanging around the ponds especially.  The little ones are so sweet!

Later this afternoon, the sky clouded up, everything got very dark, and we had a huge thunderstorm!  Now the temperature is in the 40s and we have all the plants covered with buckets and sheets.  That's Colorado in the springtime!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about motorcycles.  Have I ridden one?  Yes - three times, I think.  Did I like it?  Ummm, not really.  It went too fast for me, without much protection.  But I did have a good time on a little dirt bike once.  We were camping with family and everyone else had gone fishing, except my sister-in-law and me.  She asked if I wanted to learn how to drive the dirt bike and I thought - why not?!  So she taught me - and that was fun because I could control how I went.  I don't have a picture of that event, but here is where we were camping - a neat place up in Wyoming called Vedauwoo (pronounced Vee-da-voo).

Vedauwoo

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

Midweek Update

This week I have been determined to finish up eight of the nine hearts needed for the Glowing Hearts QAL at mmmquilts.  And I did achieve that goal, but not without some continued frustration with how the bottom section of the heart block is turning out.  Sometimes it looks great, other times I'm way off.  

  Pretty good ⬆️ - I'm happy with that.    ⬆️Not so great...  

I've tried multiple things to correct the problem, including starching and oversizing the triangles.  I ultimately decided that the paper template I was using for cutting was keeping me from having an accurate piece.  So I printed out two brand new ones, taped them together, and figured out what size of square to cut so I don't have to use the template anymore.  

That definitely made cutting the triangle piece easier, but I still ran into trouble getting those bottom points to match up.  So, you know what I decided?  They're good enough!  And eight hearts are finished!

I've saved the center heart for last 

so that I can see what's left of the strips I've used for the others.  

It will be a dark to light design.

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

   

Slow stitching this week...

I finished up the variegated blue embroidered top with some more scrappy strips and today's job is to get it ready for some hand quilting.  

This measures about 23.5 x 13.5

 

Meanwhile, I also finished filling in the background of the Spring Banner, so some decisions need to be made about how to fully finish it.

And the alphabet is stitched on the Rose Garden Mini Sampler, designed by Melisa at PinkernPunkin.  I've just gotten started on the viny border, and I'm looking forward to adding the pretty red and pink roses, too.  

There's plenty to work on for Slow Sunday Stitching,

and I'll be linking up at Kathy's Quilts!

So many greens!

About five years ago, I was playing with my green scraps and made this mini quilt that hangs on our dining room wall.  It was fun to create the background with such a variety of greens from Spring green to very dark, and then add the vine and flowers.

This week I've been hunting through my stash for green scraps for a different purpose.  When making the two blocks for my 16 patch star project, I need 15 3.5 inch squares that read as a similar shade.  For example, these blue blocks made earlier this year:

It seems that my green scraps are making this week's sewing a little more challenging!  First try for a dark green and a light green block:

Some of the dark greens read as almost black - hard to photograph!

The light greens range from bluish/almost grayish green to acid green.  Ugh!

And how about this green?  It could go in either block, right?!

A little adding and a little subtracting and I have a dark green 16 patch star that I'm very happy with.

The light green star block is still to be determined!

So now there are nine of these!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

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

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday 

I Like Thursday #435

My lilies of the valley are blooming!  That is always a treat to see, especially since they are in a part of our yard that I have to specifically go out and check to see what's happening.

They smell so good!

I've shared before that we enjoy playing cribbage at our house.  Mike taught me when we first met, then we taught our kids, and for many years now we've played a daily game of cribbage while we eat dinner.

Lately, we've been playing for money!  😊  The losers put in change equal to the amount of pegging holes that we lose by.  If you are skunked (behind a certain line) you pay double the points.  We've been using that money to treat ourselves to a meal out, or ice cream - something like that.  This last week we had enough to try a new restaurant called Teriyaki Madness.  It's a chain, and just recently opened up here.  We liked it, and will go back!

It's also nice that they sent us some coupons in the mail yesterday!

I love the PBS  show "Call the Midwife" and it is back for Season 14 right now.  It's our "must watch" Sunday night show.

LeeAnna's question of the week is about bicycles because May is National Bicycle Month!  Do I have a bicycle?   Yes!  Do I ride it anymore - not in a long time since I had some trouble with one of my knees a few years back.  Nowadays I get all of my exercise by walking.  We did used to ride our bikes a lot, and Loveland has a great bike path that goes all the way around the city which we really enjoyed.  (It is still a great place for a walk, too!)  Here are our bikes right now - hanging in the garage collecting dust, lol!

Hope you're having a great week!

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

Midweek Update

I've been working on some more Glowing Hearts for the QAL at mmmquilts.  I left off last week with four hearts made - two that are dark to light, and two that are light to dark.

The pattern design calls for five of the first set and four of the other.   Because I'm working with a jelly roll, I'm ending up with four matching dark to light hearts - two more are in progress.

For the light to dark hearts, two will match and two will have a couple of slightly different stripes in the middle - the same colorway, but different prints.  I think this will work just fine in the layout of nine hearts total.

The ninth heart goes in the center and will be different from these eight.  I'm going to let the jelly roll strips tell me what they want to do for that one!

Next step is to add the background triangles to make the heart block shape.  I have to be really careful with the sewing of these because I'm struggling a bit to get them on correctly so that there is a 1/4 inch seam allowance at the bottom.  There has been some ripping and restitching which can be frustrating.  But I'll get through this! 

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Slow stitching for a Sunday...

I finished up a new heart to display on my mini quilt stand!  The only problem is that this is June's heart and May's heart is actually the strawberry one.  But no one at my house minds (or even knows, lol) so I'll just go with this one!

It's finally planting time here, so I bought some seeds for my flower garden.  How about some purple coneflowers, just like in the heart embroidery?!

This week I also finished stitching the two smaller side sections of my Gail Pan basket embroidery design.  They'll need some blue border trim like the main section has, and then I'll stitch it all together!

Moving those two hand stitching projects forward meant I had time to start something new!  I've always loved Melisa's mini samplers, so when I saw that she had shared a new one, I knew that was what I wanted to work on.  This is just the beginning of the Mini Rose Sampler found at PinkernPunkin.

There are plenty more letters to stitch and then a pretty rose garden border, 

so that will keep me busy for Slow Sunday Stitching!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

  

Green for May!

 I love green - especially this time of year, when the world is greening up.

It's greening up in my sewing room, too!

I started with the quarter star blocks this week, and made eight of them.  Plus a few little four patches for leaders and enders.

Then played with all the colors!  Because I'm building this one from the center out, the look changes every time I add a new color.  When we have orange month this will change again and the greens will mix with the blues instead of the reds.  Right now my plan is to use the warm colors closer in and the cool colors around the outside.  

44 blocks.

I'm going to need at least 100!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! 

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #434

We took a walk in the woods the other day.   It's finally greening up around here!  This trail followed the Big Thompson River.  

We heard lots of birds and saw some baby squirrels running around.  They were tiny!  And curious about us, too.  Their mama was making a bunch of noise from another direction, trying to warn them about us, but we told her we weren't going to bother her babies.

What we were actually looking for was a big cottonwood tree that we had read about in the newspaper a few days earlier.  It contains a heron rookery - where many Great Blue Herons are nesting right now.   Unfortunately it was a ways off the trail, and on private property, so we couldn't get very close to it.  Mike got this photo with his big lens.

Back at home, younger son made Madeleines, and they were yummy!  We found the silicone baking trays on Amazon, and they worked great - no sticking!  He also made a chocolate version on another day, and I really liked those!  😊

Speaking of cooking, LeeAnna's question of the week is about salads.  Do we like them?  Do we eat them?  Apparently May is National Salad Month.   I didn't know that, but I'm happy to celebrate it because I do like salads - all different kinds.  Being a lazy cook, a salad for dinner is pretty easy.  Just add some protein to all your veggies and you're good to go!  Last night we had taco salad - a favorite at our house.  But, my true favorite salad is a fruit salad!  This is not my photo, but doesn't it look yummy?  You can find the recipe for Rainbow Fruit Salad by clicking the link.

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

Midweek Update

I've been working on some hearts for the Glowing Hearts QAL at mmmquilts this week.  Sandra posted a great tutorial for getting the bottom corner pieces on correctly to make the heart shape.  Check it out here.

Green scraps being sewn together for Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks make good leaders and enders.

So far I have four hearts made - two dark to light, and two light to dark.   The quilt needs nine hearts total, so there are a few more to be made!

I haven't gotten back to making any more orange peels for the other QAL yet this week because I remembered another quilting job that needed to be taken care of.  It's time to get the next monthly embroidered heart finished up and ready to display - it's almost May!  So I got the May heart out, trimmed it up, and figured out a border for it.  

A backing, some batting, and binding were all found in the stash, so

it shouldn't take long to finish up this little quilt.

 I'll share the finish in my Sunday post!

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at mmmquilts for the first Glowing Hearts link-up!

At Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

All the blues...

Earlier this week, I finished stitching the center section of my Gail Pan project from her book, Tabletop Stitcheries.

6.5 x 9.5

The project in the book is made with matching sized pieces of fabric on either side of this center and then two narrower embroidered pieces on either side of those.  I decided I wanted a scrappier look with variegated blues, to go with my variegated blue floss.  So I dug out a bunch of blues.

And I added strips of these blues all around the embroidered section - kind of log cabin style!

Now 10.5 x 13.5

Meanwhile, I am stitching up the narrower sections to go on either side of this center.  They'll be dressed up with some blue strips, too.

These will be trimmed to be 3.5 x 6.5 after I finish the embroidery.

Here's the book that the project is from - it's even the cover design!  Mine will look a lot different when finished, however.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

Table Scraps for April

It's my favorite week of the month - time to share my little finish for the Table Scraps Challenge, hosted by The Joyful Quilter.   For April's project, the color was red (the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month) and the added challenge was to include raindrops.  

Red and raindrops??? Okay!

But then I lucked out!  Last year at some point, I had sewn together some rail fence blocks out of a scrap bag that a friend had given me.  I picked these particular bits because I liked the red, yellow, black and white combination.  And look - do you see them?  Red raindrops!

Plus, suns, scissors, tulips, and cats on bicycles!

I eventually made enough of the blocks to sew together into this little piece - it measures about 9 x 12 inches.

And then it sat, never finished, until I was digging around for my red scraps earlier in April, and this turned up - so perfect to finish for the April challenge!  I found a great backing for it, continuing the red and yellow theme, and I hand quilted with ecru pearl cotton.

And, voila!  A finish!

This little tabletopper made its way to my desk that sits by the back door of our house where we come in from the garage, and collects the stuff you drop by the door.  (All cleaned up for photo purposes!)

Thank you, Joy, another fun challenge!  I enjoy these every month.

Sharing at all my favorite weekend parties:

The Joyful Quilter for the April Table Scraps Challenge 

 Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday 

SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!