Progress in Pink

I've gotten a couple sets of my 2022 Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks caught up for pink month.  First there are the plus blocks.  These are hand-pieced and I've been making six of them every month.

So now there are 24 of them!

I also finished up three Bloom blocks with pink baskets.

For a total of 12 of these!

On point

Or set straight...

These are starting to look like something!  It's nice to get to that time in the year - when there are enough blocks to give you an idea of the quilt design.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #281

Good morning -  it's Thursday again!  These weeks sure seem to zoom by!  I'm joining in with "I Like Thursday," hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.

I love daffodils, and the ones planted in my garden have not come up this year.  So when I found bunches of them for sale at the grocery store, I knew I needed some.  These are making me smile!

Even though I don't have any daffodils blooming, there are lots of grape hyacinths out there.  It was a fun surprise to see these pop up the other day - I love them, too!

Making me smile in my sewing room is this find - watermelons!  I originally bought a yard or so of this to use as the lining for a tote bag, and these scraps have been waiting a long time to be used.  I finally have an idea for them - the watermelons will be paired with some text fabric for my April Table Scraps project.

We enjoyed watching the Ken Burns documentary about Benjamin Franklin on PBS on Monday and Tuesday nights.  I knew Ben Franklin was a printer, scientist, inventor, and diplomat, but there was a lot I didn't know about him.  It was pretty interesting!

Hope you've been having a great week!  Be sure to check out the positive posts over at Not Afraid of Color!

 

 

To-Do Tuesday #132

Good morning!   I'm joining in with Linda and friends at Texas Quilt Gal for the To-Do Tuesday link-up, sharing what I've been working on and my new list for this coming week.

This week I stayed the course and got lots done, both on my original list from two weeks ago, and on the extra projects I had gotten distracted by!  

• The zigzag tablerunner is finished and on my table!  

• And the charm pack blocks are sewn into a small quilt top. 

I just love this little quilt, and I'm excited to finish it up!  

I have some backing picked out for it, and 

it should be pretty easy to get it quilted and bound.

But first I needed to get caught up on a few other things that I don't want to turn into UFOs!

• Full Stop - making progress!  The top is about half together.  Everything below the hyphen blocks is sewn together, and measures about 50 inches wide.  When I add the top section, it will be about 50 x 60.  I might add a small border to top and bottom to make the quilt a bit longer.

• I also got started on two of the embroidered pieces that I want to finish into pillow covers.  Both blocks are trimmed and borders are in the process of being added to bring them up to 12.5 inches square.  I worked on Mrs. March Hare first because I'm keeping her and wanted to make sure I got it right!  The contentment design is going to be a birthday gift for a friend.

I'm keeping all of the above on my list for the coming week.

• Quilt the charm pack quilt
• Continue work on Full Stop
• Continue work on the pillow covers
• Pink blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Plenty to keep busy with!

Slow Stitching on a Sunday

I'm not sure I ever shared that I finished all 12 of the Frosty designs from Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting, but here they are, hanging out with some daffodils.   They need a really good pressing and then I'll trim them to a consistent size.  They'll be put away until later in the year, when I'm back in the mood to work on a Christmas/winter project!

The last Frosty I stitched was the bottom right one ⬆️ here.

He's waving goodbye for the spring and summer!

I was ready to work on something more seasonal, so I traced this design from Kathy Schmitz, "March Hare."  Mrs. Hare is still needing some hot tea, but also ready for gardening, just like we are here in Colorado at the end of March, beginning of April!

Today I'll be adding the blooms on the flowers, finishing up the tea cup, and adding some details to Mrs. Hare's blouse.  She's going to be finished up in plenty of time for Easter, I think!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

A little finish and getting started with pink

I finished up the Spiny Peaks tablerunner this week, and here's how it turned out!  You might remember that a friend gave me a grocery sack full of these Dutch prints, and I first used them for my Stay at Home Round Robin Quilt, and then for this project.

I quilted along the zigzags and bound it in another of the prints in a blue shade.  These are such amazing colors and prints - nothing goes together, but it makes a fun design anyway!

The back was pieced from more chunks of the Dutch fabric.  There was a big piece of the mustard yellow so I used all of that and filled in with others.  Look at all the pink flowers on that yellow!

Another favorite pink print was this one - 

There's still a bit of this pink left, so I know will show up in more scrappy projects!

All finished and on the table!   The grocery store had bouquets of daffodils this morning, so a couple of them came home with me!

12 x 35

I've also been cutting and organizing my pink fabrics for my current Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  Lots of 2.5 inch squares to start - for plus blocks and Masala Boxes.

There's that dark pink from the Dutch fabric - 

I'll be stitching it into a plus block this weekend!

And lots of HSTs for Bloom baskets, too.  Ready to sew together.

A good start, but lots more to do for pink month!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #280

Good morning and happy Thursday!  I'm joining in with "I Like Thursday," hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.

It was my turn to get some happy mail this week!  I was a lucky winner in Roseanne and Sue's Home Sewn by Us blog anniversary giveaway a couple weeks ago.  They sent me these sweet wooden buttons and tiny scissors, plus a lovely note.  Thank you, Roseanne and Sue!

The buttons say "handmade for you!" I'm going to enjoy sewing them on some of my quilted gifts.  The scissors will be a great addition to my hand stitching pouch.

Also in the mail recently, I ordered a magnetic seam guide that Jo of Jo's Country Junction reviewed and liked.  Click the link to read her review (and I think you can see it better in her photos) - I ordered a different brand than she did, but it looks and works exactly the same.  I've struggled with a consistent 1/4 inch seam allowance forever,  and this really does help.

In the "simple things can be a boost" category, I treated myself to a new cutting board yesterday.  With a cleaned off (and dusted!) cutting table,  plus the new board, things are looking good!

I think my inner squirrel must have taken over yesterday, because I had a sudden desire to sew a carrot...  So I googled that, and came across this fun link: 10 Carrot Quilt Patterns and Projects.  In that list, I found a post from Sally at The Objects of Design (who always has creative ideas for quilt blocks!) for a carrot block that I decided to make.  Sally's tutorial has you piece the top traditionally, and paper piece the carrot.  I drew out the paper pattern on some graph paper first, then made the carrot top.

And here's my carrot!

The whole thing took me about an hour.  This could become my mom's Easter mug rug - not sure about that yet - but it was a fun squirrel!

And finally, a really good book this week that I haven't been able to put down.  It's the first book in a new-to-me series, and it really caught me!  As soon as I finished it, I went to the library website to download book 2.  Unfortunately, I had to put it on hold, so I'll have to wait a bit for it to be available!  Thanks, Colette, for recommending it!

Hope you're having a great week!

To-Do Tuesday #131: or not!

Some weeks you follow the plan and some weeks you don't!  This past week I didn't really work on anything on last week's list...  But I got obsessed with a couple projects and sewed on them every day, so it's all good, right?!

A few weeks ago, I shared this photo of some blocks I had started making using a charm pack I had in my stash.  These are from Carole's pattern at From My Carolina Home that was published recently in Fave Quilts.

This week I made all the rest of the blocks that were needed for a small quilt and decided to lay them out this way.

The other thing I've been working on are the Spiny Peaks blocks that create this fun zigzag design.  I made just enough blocks to play with the design idea and see how it went together.  Here's how it looks before trimming.

After trimming, and ready for quilting - quite a bit of length and width gets cut off which is somewhat discouraging, but this is still 12 x 35, and I already have an idea for where it will go.  It's been fun, just making these simple blocks and seeing what happens!

What was really on last week's list?  

• Work on Full Stop, the 2021 Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler - nope!
• Finish two small embroidery pieces to give as gifts - not this one either, lol!

So... I'll keep these on the list for the coming week, and add one more:

• Begin working on Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for April - the new color of the month is pink!

Joining in with Linda and friends at Texas Quilt Gal for the To-Do Tuesday link-up.  Maybe you stayed more focused than I did!