A blue and orange house...

To finish out the month of January, I made another house for my "Year in the Neighborhood" project.  I mostly worked on this last Sunday afternoon, when the Denver Broncos were playing in the AFC Championship game for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.  (Unfortunately,  the Broncos lost the game, but I still had fun making this house!) 

My husband has been a fan of the Denver Broncos since before I met him, so I cheer them on, too, and so does our older son.  Some people might say we "bleed" orange and blue! 

💙🧡💙🧡💙 

When I decided to make this house, I wondered how I could show this is where Broncos' fans live with fabric from my stash.  I don't have much novelty fabric, and definitely nothing with footballs or horses.  But I did have an old t-shirt!

I made the center section (what I consider the front door) out of a Bronco logo cut from the old t-shirt and backed by some fusible interfacing as you would do if you were making a whole quilt out of t-shirts.  There are blue curtains in the windows and orange shutters.

Once that decision was made, the rest of the block was pretty simple.  

Even though it was snowing like crazy that day, football is usually played on a grassy green field, so I gave it that for the yard.  

This house needed a tree, so it got one with snow on the ground.

And here is the neighborhood so far!

In other sewing-related news, I was sorting through my thread yesterday and was surprised to see how many partials spools of thread I have collected.  These are the spools that don't have enough left to fill a bobbin with, so originally I began saving them for sewing bindings.  

It's too embarrassing to show a picture of the whole bunch, so I'll just share what I'm planning.  I'm starting with all the partial spools of Gutermann Sew-All #22 (Eggshell).  I can't fill up a bobbin with these, but I can put them in the top thread holder and use them up that way.

I bet I can get a few blocks sewn up with 

these scraps of thread in the next few weeks!

Sharing at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday

and at Melva Loves Scraps for TGIFF

SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Also at Quilting and Learning Combo for the Quilter's Cove QAL link-up

I Like Thursday #468

View out our window on Sunday afternoon:

Winter came back!

In case you wondered what our local wild turkeys do when it's snowing - 

So it's been good sewing and reading weather!  I decided on this border for the Valentine bunnies.  It's quilted now and binding on, ready to sew down.  I'll share the finish on Sunday.

This brightens up the cold gray days!

I recently finished this book.  It's the most recent in the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny.  At the end of the previous book, The Grey Wolf, she had left us on a cliff hanger, so I'd been anxious to see what happened.  I have to admit it wasn't my favorite of the series, but I enjoyed being back into that world anyway.  Isn't that why we read book series?

LeeAnna's question of the week is about what games we like to play.  I am a fan of word games and play quite a few.  In fact, as I was trying to list them for this post, I was surprised at how many there actually are!  😆  Words with Friends, Word Chums (very similar to WWF), Wordle, Quordle (instead of one word to guess like Wordle, there are four words and nine chances), Crossword Master, and our latest favorite is Waffle.

In this game you swap letters to move them to where the words are made correctly.  

All these are available as apps, and except for Words with Friends and Word Chums which are played with partners, you can play one time each day.  These are what I do when the news comes on at 5:00 before making dinner!

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

Stay at Home Round Robin - Round 1

For the last four or five years in January, I have been excited to begin the new Stay at Home Round Robin, and this year hasn't been any different.  Every Wednesday, a new border prompt comes from one of the hosts, and this past week it was from Brenda, at Songbird Quilts.   Brenda called for hourglass blocks and linked to some tutorials, which were really helpful.  Thank you, Brenda!

I started off my week by adding a straight border all the way around the center embroidered block.  I'm working with a bundle of pretty fall-themed batiks that I won in last year's SAHRR.  

Then, using the tutorial from Julie Cefalu, the Crafty Quilter, I started making hourglass blocks.  I ended up with eight of them and left a few HSTs, too, and you'll see why a couple photos down!

I laid them out in the corners, and used the HSTs to create a sort of frame around the center.

Now that looks a little weird because I use the back of an old quilt to lay things out when I'm working on something like this, and it makes it look like there are green sections separating the hourglasses.  But no - so I added some neutral strips to get more of the look I hope to achieve.

This looks better!

Nothing is sewn together yet because I reserve the right to change my mind at any time during this process, lol!  That's a big part of the fun of this QAL!

Now I'm looking forward to the next border prompt, coming Wednesday!

Linking up with Songbird Quilts for the SAHRR Wk 1

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss 

Slow stitching this week...

I fully finished little Mr. Frosty into a bowl filler pillow earlier in the week, and he is now hanging out with his other snow friends.

Frosty got his wish and we got some snow this week!  Nothing like other parts of the country got, but enough to make us realize it really is still winter!

Let it snow!

Of course, I figured that meant I could start something new.  This is the very beginning of "Sweetly Sayin" from Primrose Cottage, a Valentine design.  I'm going to enjoy stitching with these pretty colors!

I'm also still stitching on the winter embroidery.  You can probably tell that I've been moving the hoop around.  Just a little bit more to do now.  

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

Two Scrappy Placemats

I have a finish to share this week - two of them in fact!  This month I've been having fun sewing little bits of blue (both darks and lights) together to make some new placemats for our table.

From this:

To these!

Something I enjoy doing is playing with the quilting design on small pieces like these.  I quilt with a walking foot, and have learned a lot from Jaquie Gering's Walk book.  I'm calling this design a variation of her Echoed Curves.  

Some of these dark blue scraps had pops of other colors

here and there - I like how they catch your eye!

The light blue scraps are calm and soothing.

I did include a few mediums here and there - it needed

a little bit of contrast.

It's always fun to have a small, but satisfying, finish or two!  These are perfect for January!

Linking up with Quilting Learning Combo for I Quilted This!

and at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! 

I Like Thursday #467

 Good morning and Happy Thursday!

Lol!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about calendars.  And, yes, I still keep a paper calendar - it's nothing exciting, actually just a free one from our credit union.  I keep it on a counter top area in our kitchen.  Sometimes I remember to write things on it, and sometimes I don't, which can be a problem!  The January calendar isn't very full, which is the joy of being retired!

Can you guess where we might be going this year? 😊

We have been fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy since college when we first read it, and passed the love of it on to our kids, too.  When the movies first came out, starting in 2001, we went to them, and have watched them on DVD since then as well.  Younger son discovered that a local movie theater was having a special event over two weekends for the 25th anniversary of the movies, and showing them on the big screen again.  So we went to see "Fellowship of the Ring" last Friday.   That was fun!

Image Source

But the really fun thing we discovered is that he still had his original ticket from 2001 on a bulletin board that we have never taken down in his childhood bedroom (now hubby's office)!  

Probably should clean off that bulletin board now 

and see what other ancient artifacts we might discover!

This is my sister's dog, Rico.  He is such a good, smart boy!  He came along and entertained us when we visited our mom yesterday.  I always enjoy some dog petting time because we don't have one anymore.

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

  

Midweek Update

Most of my time in the sewing room this last week has been focused on machine quilting.  When I had Patchwork Hearts out to work on last week, I went ahead and basted the two blue crumb placemats for quilting, too.

They are now quilted, and I've been hand finishing the binding the last couple evenings.

I got back to the Patchwork Hearts yesterday and worked on this pretty purple heart.  

I spy some penguins!

While I'm quilting - especially when it's just straight lines - my mind wanders to what else I could make.  Does that happen to you?  Yesterday it was heart projects for Valentines Day.  I've been seeing some cute ones around the Internet.  Connie Kresin at Freemotion by the River has a post with 10 Free Valentine Quilt Tutorials that is calling to me.

Then I thought, why not use one of my embroidered pieces to make a little heart-themed wall-hanging?  So I pulled these adorable bunnies out of the unfinished bin, and found some fabrics for borders.   I've got an idea for the borders, so more about that soon!

But before I get going on that, the first border prompt for the Stay at Home Round Robin QAL is coming today - Wednesday - and I'm excited to get going on that!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

 

Snow?

No!  In fact it was nice enough one day this week for us to get out and play golf.  That's a little strange for January, but we're taking advantage of it while we can.

But there have been some snowflakes stitched this week, and little Mr. Frosty is finished.  I like his bright red cardinal companions, too!

I have a hard time getting the white floss to show up, even on this oatmeal colored cloth, so I outlined Frosty in a pale blue, and also stitched the snowflakes in that blue.

Frosty isn't fully finished just yet, but he's still enjoying hanging out with his snowman friends.

Some stitching was done on the winter embroidery piece that I've shared the last couple weeks, but before I get back to that I need to do some hand quilting on this finished quilt.  I made this one back in about 2020 or so, when I was doing a lot of hand-piecing, so the whole thing is hand stitched, and it has been hanging on the wall in our bedroom since then.  We took it down to do some work in there the other day, and I realized that I missed quilting the right corner half of the farthest right star.  So, there's a little make-up quilting work to do!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching!

Patchwork Hearts Progress

 I have been determined to spend a little more time on the finish of Patchwork Hearts this year, and this was the week to do that.  These blocks were made in 2024.

Last year, I got them sewn into rows and started quilting them, one row at a time.  I'm up to the third row, and right in the middle of the quilt where the multi-colored heart is.

Lots of favorite scraps here!

The last two rows needed to be layered with batting and backing, so I spent some time doing that this week, and now they're ready to be quilted, too!  Early on, I decided to finish this as a quilt-as-you-go project, and still have to make the final decision about how to  connect the rows.  At some point last year, I decided a narrow neutral border between each row is going to work the best.  I still have to find that neutral fabric.

I may be slow as molasses on this one, but it's still progress!

A close-up of the dark blue heart since it's blue month in the RSC.  I always enjoy looking at what scraps I was using back when I sewed these 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 #466

Good morning!

We're having an elk invasion here.  These two guys have been seen all over the place!

Because it was our anniversary last week, a friend sent us this sweet card.  It was definitely perfect for us because we are in no way "perfect!"

I really enjoyed this book recently.  It's written entirely in letters from the main character to many people.  I was amazed at how you can tell a story that way!

Image Source

LeeAnna's question of the week is "have we ever lived anywhere else?"  I grew up in Rochester, New York.  My dad worked for Kodak - everyone's dad worked for Kodak! - and Rochester is their corporate headquarters.  We actually lived in Greece, a suburb of Rochester, which is right along Lake Ontario.  This is the house that my parents built in 1956, when I was two, and I lived there until I graduated from high school.  This is a current screen grab of the house from Google Maps - doesn't it look like a nice place?

When I graduated from high school, Kodak was building their Colorado plant and my dad transferred out here.  I went to college, met Mike, and here we have been for the last 50-some years!  Nowadays I don't want to live anywhere else!

Blogging friends, have you ever gotten a nasty comment on a blog post, and what did you do about it?  I get spam comments sometimes and I just delete those, but this was specific to something I shared on an I Like Thursday post from a couple weeks ago and it was very nasty.  And I Like Thursday posts are, by definition, happy and upbeat!  Why would someone leave a nasty comment?  It was not a regular reader or anyone I know - just turned up out of the blue.  Although I was so tempted to reply, I did just delete it and not engage with the nastiness, but I wonder if any of you have experienced this.  It certainly gives you a bad feeling!  Not a feeling I care for much.

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

 

Midweek Update

It's just about time for the 2026 Stay at Home Round Robin to start, and I've been getting ready for it.  During the SAHRR for the last three years, I've used embroidered blocks as my center block and created a seasonal wall-hanging to display at different times of the year.  So far I've made winter, spring, and summer.

Welcome Winter

Bunny in the Garden 

When Life Gives You Lemons

So, of course, this year I need to make a fall-themed wall-hanging to complete the series.  Last fall I specifically stitched this block with the 2026 SAHRR in mind.  I've been thinking about fabrics to pair with it, and pulled out a bunch of Batik fat quarters that I won in the prize drawing from last year's QAL.  Now I'm getting excited to get started!

Meanwhile, I've continued to work with my blue scraps to piece together a light blue placemat sized piece.  The light blues that I pulled out of the bin had some triangles in them, so that became a theme in this one.

And now it has progressed to two crumb slabs that are wide enough and when sewn together will be the perfect size for a scrappy placemat!

I had a couple bigger pieces of the seagull print, 

and I love them so much I just decided to leave them a bit bigger.

My next step will be to quilt these two placements and work on finishing them up before the end of the month!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Quilting Gail for the SAHRR center block link-up.

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Blue all week...

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month for January is blue, and I have definitely been sewing with blue this week...

but I've also been stitching in blue this week - on two projects!  The snowman has seen some progress, including a cup of hot cocoa and some flowers.  Do you think those are meant to be snowdrops?   I've never seen them in real life, but the pictures look like this design.

And then I started something new.  This is Melisa at PinkernPunkin's Frosty Stamp.  I started with the blue, but the rest of it needs red, white, and black.  Can you tell I've been inspired by the prospect of snow around here?  We did get a little bit on Thursday, but nothing that accumulated.

The table by my stitching chair is all set up with plenty to work on today for Slow Sunday Stitching!

Linking up at Kathy's Quilts.