More with yellow

We had a nervous little visitor at our house yesterday.  He (or she?) found a good place to hide after leaving the nest, behind that big blue pot, and then I scared him when I came out with my camera.  

Stay safe little guy!

Back in the sewing room, I made the four patches that were needed for the alternate block that I'm using with the patchwork hearts.

They are quick to sew together into the chain block.

And all the blocks so far... It's fun to see what's developing here!

I'm thinking I'll shoot for a 5 x 5 layout, 

so that there will be a heart block in every corner.

For that I'll need 13 hearts and 12 alternate blocks.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!

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

I Like Thursday #383

 Here's our eclipse photo!  😊  Can you see all the little crescent shapes?

Older son got this one with his work camera which had a special filter on it. 

Our younger son enjoys cooking, and likes to figure out copycat recipes that sound good.  These were something he made last weekend - Copycat Crazy Puffs from Little Caesars Pizza.  They're made with pizza dough, pepperoni, sauce, and mozzarella cheese in a muffin tin.

We discovered that Trader Joe's has pizza dough that is very tasty and easy to work with.  We'll buy this again and try it for an actual pizza, too.

LeeAnna's question of the week is: Morning Person or Night Owl?  I'm definitely a morning person.  Never have been able to stay up very late.  I start fading about 9:00!  But I love those early morning hours when the house is quiet and I can read and sip my coffee when I am up all by myself.  Even in college when everyone else was pulling all-nighters, I would go bed at my regular time and get up early - 4 am?! - and study more then.

Good morning!

We will be out of town next week, so I won't have a Thursday post, so I'll answer next week's question here, too.  Crunchy or Chewy?  Oh, crunchy, for sure!  In fact, the joke in my family is that I might burn a pan of cookies, just so I can have them all to myself! 

Yum! 

Hope you're having a great week!  

I'll probably post as usual on Saturday and Sunday, 

and then be back here in a couple weeks.

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

  

 

 

Midweek Update

Every month I combine the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (April is yellow) and the challenge of the month for the Table Scraps Challenge (April is umbrellas) and see what kind of little quilted item I can come up with.   I'm not sure I've ever made an umbrella block before!  So the last few days I've been playing with an idea for an umbrella block.

My idea was to make a string block into an umbrella, so I started with a square of phone book paper and some strips of yellow.

This is looking umbrella-ish!

But it needed a handle...so I took a triangle of a background white, cut it in half, and added a black strip in the middle.  This could work!

Sewn and trimmed...what do you think?

I thought maybe I'd like those pointy corners to be smoothed off a bit, so I added stitch and flip corners, and might change the top point to a white background piece, too.  

I'm not sure how I'll finish this up, but I think I will turn it into a new mug rug for my mom.  I'll share the finish at the end of the month.

Linking up with Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

Beatrice Bunny and Friends

The other day I finished up Beatrice Bunny, a sweet design from Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting.  I love her carrots, held up like lightning bolts!  Carrot power!

And her chick friends - so cute! 

Now I'm working on the April section of Kathy Schmitz's Woven Wreaths panel.  It's a little blue bunny!   Each month it's been fun to watch Kathy's video for the section and then get stitching.  She loves the stem stitch and uses it a lot, but I'm kind of clumsy with it, so for this bunny I've been doing a lot of back stitch.

Today I have a little bit more of the bunny to stitch, 

and then the branches, leaves, and flowers to work on.

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's Quilts!

Sunny Yellow

It's been kind of a hectic week here because we have been working on moving my mom to a different place, so there hasn't been a ton of sewing time.  But I did manage to play with the yellow scraps and stash a bit.

At one point, I took this photo of my ironing station because it made me smile!  Piles of different things - yellows sorted onto paper plates, rows sewn for a heart block, and some hollow nine patches stitched.

Hollow nine patches for the year so far.  I started these in February, so still need to go back and make some green ones.  I'm hand-piecing these.

Those yellow rows in the first photo turned into a patchwork heart.

There are five of these so far because I started with a dark blue block back in December, plus the alternate four patch chain blocks I'm making.  I still need to make a yellow alternate block - that will be on this week's To Do list!

Hope you've been having some fun with your yellow scraps this week!

Linking up with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #382

I get a daily email from a site called First Sip.  It usually includes a photo or artwork and a poem to lift you up first thing in the morning.  I really liked Wednesday morning's message, so I took a screenshot of it to save it.  

Here's what it says:

"The message to me? Be thankful for what you have. Stop and appreciate at all you've been given. Breathe spring's sweet air and look for her messengers. They're all around you, flying in by night and blossoming by day, singing the song that can't be stopped. Listen to it!"

Just in time for "I Like Thursday," we got a new piece of garden art that I think we'll enjoy.  A sunflower spinner!

This fun tiny painting was displayed at our bank recently - I'd say it was about 2 x 3 inches at the most.  

Which leads right into LeeAnna's question of the week:  Amusement Park or Day at the Beach?  I bet you know how I will answer that!

Ahhhh!  Hoping to get back by the ocean later this year.

And one last thing - I almost forgot that with the new month, there's a new Kathy Schmitz Woven Wreaths design to stitch!  It's a bunny for April.  I watched the video yesterday, and am ready to stitch tonight!

Happy Thursday - thanks for visiting! 

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

Midweek Update

This week I've been working on Block 2 of the Pieces of My Life QAL from Melva Loves Scraps.  We're making Friendship Stars, so our reminiscing is all about friends from our growing up years.

I grew up in Greece, New York, and was lucky to live in one of those suburban neighborhoods where there were lots of kids who all hung out together.  We played games on the front lawn (like Red Light, Green Light?), ran through the sprinklers, hunted for tadpoles in the creek - all those kinds of things.  A few blocks away lived my friend, Debbie, who I met in kindergarten and am still in touch with today.  We graduated from high school together in 1972. 

Debbie, her parents (who I called Aunt Elaine and Uncle Ray), and me!

Block #2 is made up of four 6.5 inch Friendship Stars - I made two with my focus fabric and two with a blue-purple solid.

Forever friends!  Now two gray-haired, almost 70 year olds, but still laughing together!

Debbie, her husband Charlie, and me,

when we met up just this last January.

Sharing at Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

And at Melva Loves Scraps for the Block 2 link-up!