A Quilt for Hands2Help

Checking in today with my progress on a quilt for this year's Hands2Help comfort quilt drive.

I started making these blocks awhile ago using a layer cake of Hello Darling from Bonnie and Camille and a free block tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew called Easy Stack, Cut, and Sew Blocks.  Because I had pulled a few of the squares out of the layer cake here and there for various other projects, I ended up with enough squares to make 25 blocks that measure 8.75 inches square.

I decided that I wanted to make a small quilt for Jack's Basket, so I chose 16 of the blocks to use, and added a narrow green outer border to make the quilt about 36 inches square.

I love the lime green, red, and turquoise in these blocks, and the strawberries!

I found this fun polka dot fabric for the backing binding.

The next step is to layer, baste, and quilt this little top, and today would be the perfect day to get going on that, so I guess I'll get to work!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Finished!

Sand, Sea, and Sky - my favorite view.

If only I could have this view daily, but since I can't, why not sew it into a quilt?!  That's what I've done through the Hand-Pieced QAL,  hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts and Kristin at Simple.Handmade.Everyday.  Thanks go to both of those amazing quilters for their excellent block patterns, videos, and tutorials that lead us through from start to finish!

I began in January with these fat quarter bundles: sand, sea, and sky prints and solids.

Pieces and parts of blocks were cut out and sewn together until we had made 9 different designs - 

 Sashing and cornerstones were added - 

After finishing the quilt top with borders, I worked on hand quilting it, and finished up the binding just the other night.

It feels like a big finish, even though this quilt is just 22 inches square!

That's probably because every stitch in this quilt has been a slow one, just me with a needle and thread - no power tools involved!

And I've loved every minute of it!

Seeing as how there's more snow where I live right now than there is sand or sea, I will have to enjoy my quilty version for awhile!

And dream of the next time I get to my favorite view - 

Sand, Sea, and Sky

Sharing at the final Hand-Pieced QAL link-ups HERE and HERE.

Also at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap 

and at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Moving Along

I dug out my turquoise scraps and strings this week so I could sort through and see what I had to work with.

Lots of good choices for some string blocks!

In progress - 

Stitched and trimmed!

I definitely need another Tiny Rails block in turquoise, so when I had leftover string bits, I trimmed them to 1.5 x 2.5 inches and got them moving along, too.

And the strings and little bits worked for my Tiny Tuesday block, too.

I really like the progress of these fun blocks!

Hope you made some progress this week, too - whatever you're working on!  

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!

I Like Thursday #129 - a little of this and a little of that!

Happy Thursday!  Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday," and thanks to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for keeping this little group going.  I always enjoy our weekly online party!

I was so happy to see my daffodils finally blooming earlier this week!

My photo -

And Mike's, with his fancy camera and lens - 

Then, the weather changed, and this was the view of the daffodils and other bulbs that have buds on them yesterday (Wednesday)...covered with buckets to keep them from getting covered in snow!

At the moment when I took this picture, it appeared to be hailing!  ;( But I think it was just pellet-like snowflakes - later it changed to a heavier and wetter snow.   I'm glad I covered everything up - hopefully my happy blooms will survive this Spring storm!

It was such a lovely late afternoon on Monday that I took my glass of wine out on the deck for the first time, and enjoyed sitting out there with it.

The view out there now - 

Sometimes you just have to laugh!  This is Springtime in the Rockies!

You probably already know that I love to read, and visit the public library a lot.  The other day when I was there, this fun display caught my attention!

And then I walked around the other side, and there was this - 

I'm sure librarians get all kinds of funny requests for help finding books!

If you are on Instagram, you might check out @chucklesandmeatloaf!  Two of the cutest little twin boys I've ever seen.  Mom posts lots of fun photos of their adventures.

Last week, I enjoyed this post from Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts.  If you haven't visited Preeti's blog, you should!  She has a fun writing style and, of course, also makes beautiful quilts.  She was inspired by some fabric she found at Joann's, and after reading her post, I wanted some, too.  So I went to our Joann's, and came home with a yard of it.  :)

I haven't decided what I'll do with this yet, but it will be fun to play with!

Those are my likes for this week - hope it's been a good one for you, too!

Uh oh!

This week, I pulled out the project box for my Northern Lights blocks which I started earlier this year, but hadn't worked on in awhile.

These blocks come from this book, and I'm making them in blues, greens, and grays.

I started these blocks in January using my old sewing machine, and then bought the new one in February.   As the weeks have gone by, and I've made other blocks, I've been starting to think that maybe the 1/4 inch stitching mark on the machine is not accurate.  So I decided I'd better do a test block!

I made a 4 patch using 2.5 inch squares, and...

Uh oh!

It was about 1/16 of an inch too small!

Then I lined up a small ruler under the presser foot with the 1/4 inch mark up against the needle.

Yep - it's about 1/16 inch off!  Darn it!

Well, since I want my Northern Lights blocks to accurately finish at 8.5 inches, I decided I'd better adjust my seam allowance.  These blocks are made from two 4 patches and 2 HSTs.   The HSTs came out a little big and just needed a little trimming - no problem there!

The 4 patches are made by matching up a print 5 inch square with a background 5 inch square, and sewing on two opposite sides.  You then cut them in half like this - 

Match up opposite colors - and sew opposite sides again.  (top and bottom in this photo)

Using a "scant" 1/4 inch seam (according to my machine's marking), I ended up with the 4 patches being a smidge big this time, and needing a little trimming.  Better that than too small!

And the new blocks are just right!

Oh, I like this design!

Those two dark looking blocks are actually a dark green and a dark blue.

So, here's my question?  Do I trust myself to remember that scant seam allowance - or should I mark it on my machine in some way?  Have you had to do this on your sewing machine?  How have you done it?  Thanks, quilty friends!

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! 

Ending March and Beginning April

I was excited to find out we'd be sewing with our turquoise scraps this month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  Turquoise has become one of my favorite colors, although, to be honest, I love them all.

I made two Tiny Tuesday blocks this week, one in green and one in turquoise!

When I saw Sally's post last week, I had to try a few microspools.  They are so cute!  Thanks, Sally!  And thanks, also, to Bea, for her tiny Shoo Fly block tutorial.  I love how these both turned out!

So, finishing up March, and starting into April, I have these:

My hand stitching has also involved turquoise this week, for my Hand-Pieced QAL project.  After fiddling with a pieced backing, and deciding I wouldn't be happy with that, I found this marbled light turquoise dot for the backing, and I'm handquilting it with Aurifil Light Turquoise thread.

I've been enjoying this slow stitching and seeing the progress on my hand-pieced project, which I've decided to call Sand, Sea, and Sky.

Hope you've had a wonderful beginning to April!  Linking up to SoScrappy for Scraphappy Saturday and Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

I Like Thursday #128 - Welcome, April!

It's already April - does that mean 2019 is going to fly by?  I think it does!  I like April - but in Colorado it goes something like this -

I love my new Starbucks cup!  Perfect for a quilter, don't you think?!

I'm liking this book this week - it's the April selection for my book club's discussion.

I like to read memoirs, and this one is interesting because Jackie Speier worked for California Congressman Leo Ryan in the late 70s when he went to Guyana to investigate Jim Jones' cult there.   This book should make for a good discussion!   Book club is at my house next Monday - I guess I'd better get started cleaning for it!

I like this quilt that I finished back in 2015.

It came to mind because of Bernie's (Needle and Foot) post this week about sharing your quilting blunders and mistakes.  Even though this is a beautiful quilt, and I love how it turned out, it was not the design I originally set out to make!  You can read my original post about it HERE!

I'm excited to join in the Beothuk Star QAL with Sandra at mmmquilts this month!  She posted the introduction to it yesterday.  I'm excited to quilt along since I haven't done one of Sandra's before.   Here's my fabric pull for it.

I won this bundle of Printology by Benartex in a giveaway last year, and haven't done anything with it.  I bought some yardage of Kona Butter for the background.  It will be fun to see it come together in Sandra's interesting star pattern!

I loved this cartoon I saw the other day!  It's really true - little things can make you ridiculously happy sometimes!

Hope you're having a great week!   I'm joining in with all the "I Like Thursday" bloggers at Not Afraid of Color.