To-Do Tuesday #85

Good morning!  I'm checking in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week.  It was a good week for finishing up a few things - the Stay at Home Round Robin quilt, a placemat in blue for the April Table Scraps challenge, and a small pillow using my most recent embroidery finish!

Friday, we took the SAHRR quilt up to give to my MIL, and she loved it and covered up in it right away.    

Unfortunately, she had fallen earlier in the week and cut her arm, and the nurse had just been in to check her out.  Messing with the bandage hurt, and by that time I realized I wasn't going to get a happy photo.  Mike did talk to her again Sunday and she was fine!

Coming up this week, my mom will be moving here and a lot of my time will need to be focused on helping her get settled in her new apartment.  I have just about a week to get my own projects done, so I've been trying to prioritize!

• For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I need to finish up the asterisk blocks for this year's sampler, Full Stop.

• I'd like to prep quite a few projects for hand work, that I can do while my mom is staying here at our house: embroidery, hand-piecing, etc.  Here's the April Kathy Schmitz design that I've just started working on.  I also have more blocks to piece for the Harmony QAL and another blue Scrappy Trips block to work on. 

So, I'm keeping it simple this week, and may not even be able to manage a To-Do Tuesday post next week, with Mom here.  Just playing that by ear!  

Table Scraps in blue and a Slow Stitched Finish

 It's been a week of cleaning up and finishing a few projects, most importantly my Stay at Home Round Robin.  You can read more about it in my Friday post, if you're curious!

Along the way, I also finished a couple of smaller things, including my April Table Scraps placemat in light blues.  Sharing this at Joyful Quilter's April Table Scraps link-up!

It's looking to me like it might need more quilting, 

so I may go back and add some.

A peek at the back:

So now my collection of placemats to donate has four!

I also finished up the Kathy Schmitz design I was embroidering.  Blue borders were added, some machine stitching around the design, and hand quilting in green in the borders.

Then it turned into a pillow cover to gift to a friend!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Stay at Home Round Robin - Finished!

Back in January, when blogging friends introduced the Stay at Home Round Robin, I thought it sounded like a fun QAL to join in with, and it has been!  I began with a half yard bundle called "Matchmade" by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics, and made a sawtooth star block - one of my favorite blocks to make.

Each week, one of our QAL hosts decided on a type of block to make for a border.

Week 1: Piano Keys

Week 2: Plus Blocks

Can you see mine?  They're in the corners, connected by strip sets.

Week 3:  Flying Geese

Week 4: Checkerboards

Week 5: Wonky Stars

Which I combined with Week 6: Log Cabin Blocks

Week 7:  Pinwheels

Almost there!

And my finished Stay at Home Round Robin!

41x43

The pieced backing:

I quilted this with an angled crosshatch that creates

 a sort of slanted diamonds design.  I like it a lot and 

will be using it again!

I did order an additional yard of the aqua with pluses, to use for the binding, and it ended up on the back, too.  But, here are all the scraps that are left after finishing - not much!

This quilt will be a birthday gift for my mother-in-law.  It's just the right size for covering her lap and legs, like a wheelchair quilt.  We'll be delivering it to her today (Friday)- our first in-person visit after the year of Covid.  I'm sure looking forward to seeing her!

Thanks so much to Gail at Quilting Gail for coming up with the 

Stay at Home Round Robin idea!

And to the rest of the hosts who gave us the rounds each week:

Chris @ Chrisknitssews
Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
Anja @ Anja Quilts
Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
Susan @ Quilt Fabrication

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday and at

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #230

 Happy Thursday!  I'm joining in, as I always do, with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for "I Like Thursday," to share some good things from my week!

We're getting ready to move my mom from the Phoenix area up here to Colorado so that she can be closer to my sister and me because she's needing a lot more help as she approaches 90.  I've set up for her to live in an Independent Senior apartment just a few blocks from me.  The other day I stopped in over there to take care of some business, and I loved this sign on her door.  They're ready for her to move in!

Another thing I'm getting ready for is the Follow Your Own Path QAL over at mmmquilts.  I've been pulling from my stash for this new project and here's where I'm at so far.  I want to make a rainbow version like Sandra's original on the pattern cover.  I did purchase the dark gray for the backing and solid colors for the shadow parts of the blocks.

We really enjoyed this movie on Netflix the other night.  It's based on a true story, which are always my favorites.  Philomena is an Irish woman who was forced to give up a baby for adoption when she was a teenager, and has been looking for this child throughout her life.  A journalist hears about her quest and helps her figure out what happened to her child.

Image Source

Last week we brought home the new grill, so this week we've been trying different things on it.  A steak turned out really yummy, but we overcooked a piece of fresh tuna - darn it!  We're having to get used to this grill being more powerful than the old one!  We bought a grill basket for things that would be hard to turn, and tried some asparagus in it last night.  It turned out quite crispy (so I need to experiment with the grill temp and time I leave it on), but the asparagus was actually still quite good.

I've been waiting and waiting for my daffodils to bloom, and they finally are opening up.  I love their pretty yellow, but I'm not sure why they are all face down!  

That's it for this week!  Have a great rest of the week!

To-Do Tuesday #84

 Good morning!  I'm checking in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week.

I had two to-dos on my list last week:

#1 was to finish my Stay at Home Round Robin - and it is very close!  The quilting is complete, binding is machine stitched to the front, and I'm ready to do the hand stitching step.  This is going to be a 93rd birthday gift for my MIL, so I'm going to finish it up this week and we'll take it to her on Friday.

Here's a peek at the back with binding ready to sew.

#2 on my list was to hand-piece the four corner blocks for the Harmony QAL and I did complete that!

On to the next blocks!

So what's on this week's list?

• Sew the binding on the SAHRR, give it a wash and dry, and write up a finished post for Friday.
• Make a pillow cover for a friend using my recent embroidery finish.

• Finish up my April Table Scraps placemat.

I think those things are doable!

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Happy Easter!  Spring has finally arrived at our house.  We're having lovely high temperatures and spent most of Saturday outdoors working in the yard.  I love this time of year!

Spring Sing is complete.  I'm going to make it into 

a pillow cover for a friend.

I gave her a fall-themed embroidered pillow cover last October, and I

think she needs a Spring-themed one to change it out!

I finished up the four corner blocks for the Harmony hand-pieced QAL.  Next up are the 4.5 x 12.5 sections that connect these with the center square in a square.  Making good progress on this one.

Also, this month I'm adding a light blue hand-pieced scrappy trips block to my collection.  This block will be my slow Sunday stitching project for today!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Getting Started with Blue

 Most of my sewing machine time this week has been spent working on the quilting of my Stay at Home Round Robin, and I'm slowly making progress on that!

But when I'm just quilting along with straight lines, I have to admit that my mind wanders and I start thinking about what else I might like to be sewing.  The new Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for April is light and bright blue, so of course, I'm ready to sew with blue!  

One project I thought about was my Table Scraps project for the month, a placemat in light/bright blue.   I happen to have a charm pack of Kaffe Fassett that I've been trying to find a purpose for.  Lots of pretty blue in this one, among other colors.

I picked out several squares that I really liked, paired them with a blue solid fabric, and made some 4.5 inch HSTs out of them.

Right now, I'm just playing with the layout for the placemat.  Maybe this?

A couple chandelier bead blocks were quick to sew up, too.

When I saw that Angela had posted the Full Stop April block, which is an asterisk, I had to make one of those, too!  Even though I've seen many quilts using this block, I've never made one myself.   I think it turned out pretty good!

Well, now that I've distracted myself with a few scraps of blue, I'd better get back to my quilting!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!