Thinking ahead...

Cathy at Crazy by Design and Kat at Scrapbox Quilts are hosting a QAL in the new year that involves making a whole neighborhood of houses, and I'm planning to join in.

Over the years, I've made several quilts that involved houses, and here are a few.  This first one is from the mmmquilts QAL in 2023 - Rainbow Neighborhood - and it's really a favorite quilt of mine.

The houses in this wall-hanging were all made improv style.  

And this mini quilt below was from another QAL back in 2017. 

  Jen and Jan's Mini QAL and blog hop.

And, finally,  these little house blocks are from Twiggy and Opal.  I don't think her blog is active anymore, but you can still see the patterns in her Etsy shop.  These are paper-pieced.  I enjoyed making this little piece in 2020 when Covid was going on and we couldn't get together with our kids at Christmas.

I decided to test an 8 inch size block of one of these to see if a paper-pieced block would work for the QAL in the new year.  Since I purchased the pattern back in 2020, I have it downloaded and can print out the pages whenever I need them.

I haven't done any foundation paper piecing in quite awhile, so I am a bit rusty.  I only needed to rip out the first two seams, lol!  But I eventually got the hang of it - here is the center heart section for the house.  I fussy cut some words out of my Christmas text fabric since it was out for some previous projects.

Fussy cutting for this kind of piecing can be tricky, but I managed it for these particular words.  Maybe I can use up a few scraps in these blocks.  We'll see!

On to the next sections!  I'll share my result later in the month.

Linking up with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

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

I like Thursday #462

Our house is looking festive this year, I think!  We bought a new one of those lights that projects green and red dots on the house, and I love it.  It makes me think of little fireflies flitting around.

We came up with a yummy meal the other day.  We like Panda Express and the guys especially like their chow mein noodle dish.  So, younger son wondered if he could find a copycat recipe of it, and of course he did.  He stir-fried it in his wok.  I sautéed shrimp to go with it.   Here's a link to the recipe.

Yum!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about holiday stress and how do we handle it?  I don't typically feel too much stress around the holidays unless I get too scheduled up with too many events and activities - which happens to be how this week is going for me!  

After today, though, things will settle down.  What I crave when life gets busy, at any time of year, is a good book to read and some sewing time.  Fortunately, I do have a good book in progress right now!  I've enjoyed other books by this author - she writes historical fiction that centers on Cuba, and they're always interesting!

Goodreads

This afternoon is my quilt group's Christmas get together, which is always a blast.  We're all bringing a gift and then will play a dice game to pass the gifts around.  Should be fun!

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

 

Midweek Update

I made enough scrappy Christmas four patches last week to sew up three quilted items.  Small, smaller, smallest!

Placemat - 12 X 16 inches, 

mug rug - 8 X 10, 

and a tiny pincushion - about 3 inches square

All the backings came from the Christmas scrap drawer, too.  Aren't these snowpeople cute?!  And snow cats and dogs - love them!

The placemat is already in use on our table between the recliners.  This spot gets lots of use with coffee, wine, snacks, etc., so these placemats are washed and dried frequently.  It's always fun to have fresh new one!

The mug rug will probably be a gift for a friend, with a mug and some hot cocoa mix added in.  The pincushion will become part of the gift for my quilt group Christmas gift exchange that is happening tomorrow.   I made the pillow way back in July during Melva's Christmas in July blog hop!

Are the Christmas scraps all used up?  Of course not!  I wonder what else I can make with them - I'll have to dig in and do some more thinking about that.

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Slow stitching this week...

Little Penguin has a Christmas tree now.  He's hanging out with Santa And Mrs. Claus!

Meanwhile, all of the redwork doodles that I traced last week are now stitched.  

And two more have been finished into hexies.  I bet you can tell what I'll be doing for my Slow Sunday Stitching - working on finishing up the last three that will make a little tabletopper when all sewn together.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts!

16 Patch Stars is a flimsy!

It's been nice to have some solid blocks of time to sew this week.  That has enabled me to finish up the 16 patch stars top.  I'm not sure what it is about sewing blocks into a quilt top, but it changes the whole look of things.  I love this one!

Sewing blocks into rows gives you a chance to look at your favorite scraps all over again.  I've been enjoying the Christmas greens and reds this week.

But this sandy, beachy block has some favorites in it, too.

These Christmas-y four patches made great leaders and enders for the star blocks.

16 Patch Stars is going to be sent to Many Hands and Many Hearts to finish because those are the blocks from the previous block drive.  I could have sent them as separate blocks, but decided to just sew them into a top since I had made 20 of them.  Cynthia announced the next block drive earlier this week.  Read about it here.  I think I'll make some of those blocks this coming week!

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 #461

Snow day!

They were predicting 2 inches, but we definitely are getting more than that.  

This was taken at about 8 am Wednesday morning, but it's supposed to keep snowing 

through about noon.

That makes things feel a bit more Christmas-y around here!

🎅🤶🎄❄️❄️

Before the snow happened, younger son and I went for a walk at our favorite trail area and found the bald eagles.  I always love seeing them!

Here at home we've had some visits from the goldfinches in their winter colors.  Another favorite bird!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about games to play when the family gathers, or even just for two people.  Here are our favorites:  

Top: Cribbage

Bottom: Phase 10 and Skipbo

All can be played by two or more people.  When all four of us are together, we always have a Cribbage tournament - parents against kids!  😊

We got a new board game a couple years ago, and all enjoyed it, too.  

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

Midweek Update

My favorite activity after Thanksgiving is to change out all my fall decorations for Christmas.   The first things to come out are the quilted items I've made and the mugs for morning coffee.

Sunday afternoon, I also changed out everything on the little chest of drawers after finishing the December heart.  

All of this got me in the mood to play with the Christmas scraps!  I keep them in the bottom drawer of this little storage unit.  There's plenty to play with!

I ended up cutting a bunch of 2.5 inch squares.  It was fun to fussy cut a chunk of text fabric that was in there.

Believe, merry, jingle, peace!

I sewed the reds and greens to the white prints and started laying them out to see what kind of pattern I could make.

And the bonus is - these make some festive leaders and enders for sewing up the 16 patch stars into a quilt top this week!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.