Slow Sunday Stitching

 I finished up the Woven Wreaths quilting earlier this week, and zigzagged around the edges just to hold all the layers together.  I'm still debating how to completely finish this - I could add binding to it just as is, or I could make it into a pillow cover.

I stitched my initials and the year of the project - 2024 - into the bottom small square.

But before I do anything more with Woven Wreaths, I have some binding to stitch!

This will keep me busy for a day or two!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Almost there...

On Thursday, I was able to finish up the last long seams that connected the top and bottom sections of Pieces of My Life - these are sashings on the front and back with a strip of batting in between.   Some curvy lines of quilting hold all the layers together.

I was going back through all the posts I've shared about this project and saw that I originally planned to use the floral inspiration print that's in most of the blocks for these long sashings.  But when I saw how the blue sashing around the blocks stands out, I decided to continue with it to connect all the "pieces of my life" together.   

The final step of sewing the two sections together with their sashings was actually pretty hard work!  Lots of layers and heavy/awkward to muscle through the machine and keep everything straight and lined up.  But - I did it!  Although Melva's design calls for borders, I think I'm ready to stop here.  This weekend's job is to get the binding sewn on.  I plan to have a finish to share by the end of next week!

I bet you can tell in this photo where I got the idea for the blue and pink combination in last week's quarter star blocks!

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.

I Like Thursday #419

Happy 49th Anniversary to us!  Back in 2001 for our 25th anniversary, we celebrated by taking a trip to San Francisco.  A friend recommended the Beringer Winery as a great place for wine tasting, which we had never done before.  So we went there, and really enjoyed it!  We got our photo taken by the fountain at their beautiful property.

Well, guess where we had a picture taken this past September when we visited there on our most recent trip?

We're celebrating this anniversary by going out to breakfast.  Next year's the big one - our 50th!  Where should we celebrate next year?  I'm voting for Hawaii!  (Do you think I can get Mike to go?)  😘

Even though we live in the city, we are close to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and can see a lot of wildlife.  On New Year's Day last week, we went out for a scenic drive and found our local winter elk herd enjoying someone's field on the west side of town.  We've been told there are over 200 of them this year.  This is only a "small" group of them!

We found some wild turkeys, too.  There is a flock of them who hang around back in town - we call them the Downtown turkeys!  

Beautiful in the sun!

I read a really good book this week - one of those unexpected finds.  The Book Swap, by Tessa Bickers.  It's about two people who used to be friends in school, but have had a falling out.  They both love to read and to write in the margins of their books.  A Little Free Library brings them back together!

Goodreads

Happy Thursday!

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

 

Midweek Update

Snow day, sew day!  

View out the back window - it finally feels like winter!

The last few days have given me some time to make good progress on finishing up Pieces of My Life.  The first step was completing the quilting on section four, which I was able to do on Sunday.

The next step was to cut the sashing strips and narrow piece of batting that connect section three and section four.

After re-reading Melva's finishing instructions (thank you, Melva!), I sewed the back sashing first, added the batting, and sewed the front sashing, and voila!

A close-up of how the sashing connects on the front (and a favorite block):

The last step for finishing this part of the quilt is to connect the top and the bottom sections with sashing, just like I did with the side to side sections.  I'm hoping to get that done this week!  Here it is laid out with the blue sashing strip just set in the place where it will go.

Getting closer!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

A finish to share...

This week I finished the January mini heart quilt for my new quilt display holder - added the border, did some machine quilting, and some hand quilting around the heart, and bound it with snowy white!

After that was done, I went back to the quilting on Woven Wreaths!  I have quilted around each of the monthly designs, plus the plaid squares that are in between them.  Now I'm stitching around the outside edge of the whole panel.  

I'm about 3/4 of the way around, so there's definitely 

some left for my Slow Sunday Stitching.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

 

Getting started with Pink!

A pretty pink sunrise - good inspiration!

When the new Rainbow Scrap Challenge year begins, it's hard to resist getting out the scraps for the new color.  This month it's pink!  I think I've got a little of everything from salmon and coral to bright pink.

For a quick and easy block this year I'm making these quarter star blocks, so I whipped up a few in some pinks.

My typical background fabric tends to be whatever I can grab out of the low volume bin - and some work better than others!  That one on the bottom right is kind of dark, on the gray side.  I think I picked the wrong pink to go with it!

Then, while working on quilting Pieces of My Life, I started wondering about choosing a consistent background fabric for this project - and what if it was a dark blue? 

I do have scraps of the blue Grunge that I used for the sashing here

that I could play with.

I like this!

Something to think about.

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.

 

 

I Like Thursday #418

Happy Thursday, friends!  This week between Christmas and New Year's has been pretty quiet at our house, which is perfectly fine with me.  There's been lots of time to read, sew, and relax.  We celebrated the New Year with some of our favorite champagne - at 5:00!!!

We splurged on a couple champagne flutes 

(at the dollar store!) for our new holiday tradition.

We enjoyed the "Call the Midwife" holiday special.  It originally aired on our local PBS station on Christmas Day, but I forgot about it.  It turned out that we could watch it on the PBS app anytime we wanted to.  You have to like that!

This was my last book finish for 2024, and it was a good one.  The main character is the detective Renee Ballard, who runs the Cold Case squad.  Harry Bosch - the longtime main character of many of Michael Connelly's books has a smaller role, but an interesting one. 

I've been keeping track of the books I read every year since 2017, and this year's total is 53.  That's not as many as some years, but still averaging over one book a week.  My highest year total was 74 books in 2020 - I wonder why?!  😜

January 1st is always my day for taking down the Christmas tree and getting all the Christmas decorations put away.  January's decor for the little entryway chest is snowmen, and here's how it looks so far.  The heart mini quilt that will hang here with the snowmen is almost done - hope to share that on Sunday.

Have a great day!

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