Little House Sew-along Block 4

Just popping in with a quick post to share my next block for the Little House Sew-along, hosted by Melva at Melva Loves Scraps.  This is the Shoofly block.  I decided to make this one with the turquoise plaid fabric that Melva sent me as a prize for a previous block.  I like how it turned out!

Next step was to add the surrounding log cabin strips - I'm getting more efficient with this now that I've sewn four of them!

And here are the four.

Thank you, Melva, for a fun sew-along!

Sharing at the block 4 link-up.

Spring?

 Actually I think we skipped right into summer...

And maybe we just skipped winter altogether!

But I'm still stitching Spring themes and colors.

After I finish the binding on my Fall-themed Stay at Home Round Robin project!  I'll be sharing the finish of this project in my Wednesday post.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

Tiny 4 patches and crumb blocks...

I've mostly been focused on finishing my Stay at Home Round Robin quilt this week, but I did take a couple hours of sewing time just to play in the red scraps.  Some crumb blocks are developing into this month's scrappy placemat.

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And red and white strip sets turned into tiny four patches!  It has been awhile since I looked at the Gameboard blocks, but the last time I did, I think I decided I need 30 blocks total, so at least three in each color of the month.  It turns out that I had only made one in red so far.

So these 2.5 inch red four patches 

will turn into the center 4.5 inch 16 patches.

And then I finished one more red Gameboard block, to give me a total of sixteen now. More than halfway!

I can definitely use more of those colors in the bottom row, so a few more little 16 patches are waiting for their turn to be made into more Gameboard blocks!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

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

I Like Thursday #475

Some local quilty friends and I went on a little field trip on Monday.  Where do you suppose we went with a load like this?

No, not a retreat.

We went to Greeley, a city that is about 30 miles to the east of our city, Loveland, Colorado.  We went to visit these ladies - 

They are a group of about 50 quilters who make donation quilts from donated supplies.

The gal who showed us around said they make about 300 quilts a year for about 5 different charities.

This group is connected to the Trinity Lutheran Church in Greeley, and have the second floor of the church's school building for their space.  Here's their beautifully organized storeroom full of donated fabric.

And next door we saw the big room full of quilters working away at sewing machines, design walls, a long arm, and a hand quilting frame.

We left all of our unwanted fabric and quilting supplies in good hands, I think!  And I feel good to have cleaned out a section of my closet, too.

LeeAnna's question of the week is about our least favorite food as a child, and do we eat it now as adults?  Mine was lima beans!  Yuck!  And I don't think I have ever bought them or served them to my family since being out on my own.  My parents sure loved them, though.  Maybe that's an Iowa/Midwestern thing?  That's where they grew up.  

Image Source

I like many kinds of beans - green beans, wax beans, pinto beans, black beans, but there's something about the texture of lima beans that does not appeal, and never has!  😬

What about you?  Have you got a least favorite food from when you were growing up?  Share in the comments!

I'm joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

 

Midweek Update

I got another envelope of happy mail this past week - this time from Melva.  She had chosen my name for a fat quarter prize from the Little House Sew-along.  Thank you, Melva!

I don't think my photo shows the color quite right, but in real life it is a pretty turquoise that I think I can use in my Little House blocks.   The next block will be at Melva Loves Scraps tomorrow (Thursday - 3/19) - looking forward to it!

Meanwhile I've been working on getting my Stay at Home Round Robin quilt finished up for the parade coming up next Wednesday.  I pieced a backing out of three of the leftover fat quarters from the bundle.

                                                        Here it is a little closer in.

The next job was quilting - 

Wednesday afternoon's job was making the binding and getting it sewn on.  Not long until a finish now!

Friday update:  hand-finishing the binding is happening.  I think I'll make it to the finished parade by next Wednesday!  

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Spring Colors

Earlier this week, I discovered the grape hyacinths blooming in my garden!  Trees are coming out early this year, too - Colorado has had a very mild winter.

I still need to do the Spring garden clean-up!

So I've been stitching in Spring colors this week, too.  

This pretty purple is DMC 209 - dark lavender.  The Blessings stitch is a start on the "Spring Blessings" free design for March.  You can get it if you sign up for their newsletter.

A few more stitches have been added to the Spring embroidery design from Gail Pan, too.  Lots more to do on this one!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Moving along with red...

This week I got out my bin of the smallest pieces of red and started sorting them to see what would work for this month's scrappy placemat.  The next step is to sew pairs and trios and then start puzzling them together into a 12 x 16 slab.

A friend gave me quite a big pile of her unwanted leftover reds last fall, and they were good for making another Jacob's Ladder block.  It takes some bigger pieces than what I keep in the above bin.

I had made one last December in brighter reds, so this time I used some darker pieces. 

It's always fun to add more to the block collection!  The lone brown block at the top was the first block I made, sometime last fall.  It needs a friend, but that can wait until we sew the dark neutrals this year.

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.