I Like Thursday #444

Happy Thursday!  I'm liking this pot of marigolds that is starting to bloom right now.  I didn't even plant these this year - they just re-seeded themselves from last year!  In the background you can see the corner of my raised bed garden.  It's overgrown right now with green beans, cucumbers, and pumpkins.  We have been eating cucumbers and green beans - yum!  And a couple pumpkins are growing,too.

A squirrel jumped into my sewing room this week!  Looking for something to do with the leftover jelly roll strips from Glowing Hearts and inspired by Vicki's post, here, I decided to make a braided tablerunner.  Easy and fun!

Growing!

I found a tutorial on Pinterest that helped me get started.  I'm cutting the strips at 10.5 inches, and 26 of them should give me a runner that is 12 x 32.  Just a few more strips!

I finished a book from a favorite series yesterday.  It's always enjoyable to get back into the world of some favorite characters.

LeeAnna's question of the week is about shopping at garage sales and thrift shops.  I don't do a lot of that, but I do admire the finds that some bloggers share from their thrifting.  We have recently been using big dishes that we find at the local Goodwill store for our bird bath, though.  It was Mike's idea to try this and it works great!  Plus, you can find fun and colorful dishes for not very much $$!

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

Midweek Update - a finish!

I've shared a lot about the process and progress of this quilt since I started it in April, and it is finally finished.  Time to celebrate!   Glowing Hearts was Sandra's Spring quilt-along at mmmquilts.  I've been sewing along with Sandra every Spring since Beothuk Star in 2019, so this is my 7th mmmquilts QAL.  I've enjoyed each and every one!  Here is this year's finish.

From the first few hearts - 

Love the dark to light and then reverse, light to dark order.

To the finished top - 

And now the quilted and bound finish - 

Hooray!

I have an idea of who this might go to, but still thinking about that.  Meanwhile there are the leftover jelly roll strips to do something with.  Vicki gave me an idea...  More about that in tomorrow's post!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

 

Slow stitching for a Sunday...

Over a couple evenings this past week, I worked on stitching down the binding on Glowing Hearts, and it is close to being finished.  Then we had a 104 degree day and it was just too hot to sit with a quilt anywhere near me!  There's about 1 and 1/2 sides left to go on this, so that's my first slow stitching job of the day.  Fingers crossed it doesn't heat up too much again today!

I hope to have a finished quilt to share by mid-week!

Meanwhile, I couldn't resist starting something new, and that is the sweet "Hello Summer" cross-stitch design from Primrose Cottage.  It is a free stitch for newsletter subscribers and looks like it will be a fun one!  The chart says not to share or duplicate in any form, so I can't show it to you here, but will say it has fun, summer-y colors, and motifs like cherries, watermelon, letters, and flowers.  You can get it by subscribing to their newsletter.

Just a start...

Hope you enjoy some slow stitching time today!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

More with purple!

My stash enhancement purchase of purple last week was really helpful when it came to cutting squares for the 16 patch stars I wanted to make this week.  I tried to roughly sort them into the more lavender shades and the darker purple shades, although there are definitely some that could go in either block!

Once you sew the corner triangles to make the stars, it doesn't take long to sew up the whole block.  

I'd say these two have a pretty good lighter/darker contrast.

I'm not sure what kind of final layout I'll end up with for these yet, but it's fun to just see them all together.  

As leaders and enders, while sewing these blocks together, some tiny four patches were made.  These are organized by red-purples and blue-purples.  They will eventually become gameboard blocks.

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 #443

Good morning and happy Thursday!   LeeAnna's question of the week is about summer activities - would we rather dig in the garden or relax in the hammock with a good book?

And my answer is - both!  I garden on a very small scale - I enjoy trying to grow flowers and a few vegetables.  Just enough to add some color to the yard and to get some veggies to eat up right away.  It's always exciting when things grow!

First harvest!

I found this petunia in my flower garden the other day.  It came from the same batch as the red and white ones in the blue pot that I shared in my Sunday post, but it looks so different!

And, of course, I'm always reading!  A good summer day has a little of everything - some gardening, some reading, and some sewing.  (We won't mention that there are also usually chores that need to be done, lol!)  Here's a favorite recent finish.

We don't have a hammock here, but I do have a favorite comfy chair!  This is also where I do all my hand stitching in the evenings.

Another fun find at my LQS.  Cool fabric for hot days!

Hope you're having a great week - and staying cool!

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

Midweek Update

The July heart mini quilt I was working on last week is (finally!) fully finished and hanging on the entryway chest with other July items.  I should probably start working on the August mini so that I don't get behind like I did this last month!

After finishing that up and getting started on my purple projects for July in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I was able to focus on getting the quilting done on Glowing Hearts.  And it is done!

I really like the blue-green batik I used for the backing, and the trimmings from the extra backing fabric that I cut off after quilting were sitting on my cutting table, so I decided they could turn into the binding.

So on Monday the binding was made and on Tuesday it was sewn onto the quilt, which means this will become an evening hand-stitching project for the next few nights to finish sewing the binding down.

And that means I can get back to sewing up these purple squares into some more RSC blocks for July!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday. 

Happy July!

 

I stitched up this sweet little stamp design 

from Melisa at PinkernPunkin this week.

Summertime U.S.A.

I love the watermelon, and the tiny flag, and the stars!

This was fun!

And, not quite finished, but close, is the July heart mini quilt for the entryway chest.  Last year, about this time, Melisa posted two hearts, and I stitched both of them.

For finishing (and to display) this month, I chose the red and white flowers in the watering can because they remind me of my own flowers and watering can!

There's one more step to finish up before I can hang this up, and

that is to quilt around the heart in the center, so that will be today's slow stitching.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Getting started with purple...

I shared my pitiful pile of purples in my Wednesday post.

It was enough to get four quarter star blocks out of, plus a few 3.5 inch squares for the 16 patch stars.

So, then I went shopping at my LQS, and stocked up with some purple fat quarters.  Maybe that is cheating, but it is also fun to add to the fabric stash!

Then it was simple to sew up four more purple blocks.  

Plus it will be a lot easier to find the right variety of squares for the 16 patch stars.  More on that in next Saturday's post.  But meanwhile, I had to look at all the blocks with the purple ones added in.  The purples are in each corner now.

60 blocks!

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 #442

Happy (almost) 4th of July!  The gals at my mom's house never disappoint with their cute decorations.

There have been a bunch of baby bunnies in our yard the last couple weeks.  They are so cute!  (Even if they are naughty!) 

I said I would report back on my reusable zip-lock bags, so here we are after having them for a week!

I like them!  The zipper part is well-made and stays tight.

Food stays fresh, too.

The "downside" is you do have to wash them.  But a little warm, soapy water, and then rinse and let drip dry does the trick!  I hang them on a wine bottle.  

Cheers!  🍷 😜

I got an unexpected package in the mail yesterday, from Libby at Life on the Hill.  She's keeping me in penguins.  Look, they have boots - love it!  Thank you, Libby!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about picnics.  I always love a picnic!  When we travel, we take a cooler with picnic food and look for places we can have our lunch.  Lunch with a view is always a favorite!

And then there's a picnic at a winery.  Also a favorite!

In fact, we haven't had a picnic lunch in a few weeks - time to take care of that!

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

Midweek Update

Lots of things on my list this week...

Quilting on Glowing Hearts is going well.  I have about 2/3 of it completed - just need to finish the upper right and lower left corners.

Before I get back to that, though, there are some other things I want to work on - especially since it's the first of July!  It's time to finish up my monthly mini for the quilt stand.  Here's the one I'm going to display for July - it needs some simple quilting and binding.

Also for the new month - the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color is purple.  I dug out what purple I could find in my scraps and stash, and it's pretty pitiful.  But I'll start by seeing how many block parts I can cut from what I have here.

Speaking of purple (because some of these have purple in them!) - I got the orange peel project sandwiched and spray basted so that I could start hand quilting it.   I'm quilting closely around the outside edge of each orange peel, and then inside each one 1/4 inch from the edge.  

I got started and quilted around a few peels

Monday evening.

Plenty to work on this week!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday 

  

                         

A finish and a new start...

I promised myself I would finish one of my slow stitching projects this week, so it was just a matter of deciding which one!  I ended up choosing the blue and white project because the quilting was pretty close to being done.

Binding it didn't take long either, so now it is all finished!

Flower Basket in Blue and White

I'm not sure what I'll do with this one yet.  It would probably make a nice dresser topper for my mom, and she loves blue, so I may take it to her this week.

Meanwhile, the new start is PinkernPunkin's Summertime USA Stamp.  It's perfect for this first week of July coming up, and will be fun to stitch these next few days.

Yum - watermelon!

The perfect summer treat.

I've just gotten as far as the outer border, but have pulled the floss colors that I'll need to stitch it all up.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.