I Like Thursday #29 - A Quick Hello!

Happy Thursday!  We have been out of town this last week, and are just returning home today.  Since Blogger doesn't work very well from my iPad, I have to join in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color with a bit simpler post than usual.

Greetings from South Carolina, and I'll tell you lots more after I get all the way home! :)

Scrap Inspiration

Sometimes I find it funny where my quilty brain takes me, especially where scraps are concerned.  There are times when one thing leads to another, and another, and another... You know what I mean, right?!

A few weeks ago, Cynthia shared a post about her scrap organization process, and I decided it was time to work on my scraps again, too.  Over a year ago, in the winter, I started sorting my scraps by color into plastic bins, and that has worked really well for me.

Except...

this brown basket that I keep under my cutting table was full again.  (Because I'm lazy and throw everything in there when I'm working on a project instead of cleaning up!)

So, I sat for a few hours one afternoon and sorted until my color bins were full again, and the brown basket was empty.

Of course there were a couple of piles that didn't fit in the color bins.  I guess I'm going to have to add a teal/turquoise bin and a multi-color bin.

But then... since I had so many teal and turquoise scraps, I couldn't leave them just sitting there - I "needed" to sew them together :), and ended up with these slabs.

I was about to put them away, when...

************************

I was reading a blog about turning little bits of patchwork into needlebooks!  So... I cut the big turquoise slab in half, found something that matched for the lining, and a little bit of batting...

stitched the layers together and added some wool in the center.  Voila!  A little needlebook!  (It's about 4x5 inches.) There's even an "N" for needles right up there in the corner!

There is still some of the turquoise slab left, so I put it with all the other crumb/slab blocks I've been making this year.  

Hmmm... maybe I have the start of another Scrap Vortex quilt?  Lol!  

Sharing at Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework!

Green for May - Scrap Happy Saturday

I was excited to find out that Angela chose green for our color of the month in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  Green is one of my favorite colors, the color of Spring, and I'm looking forward to sewing with it this month.

A big part of my week involved getting my Scrap Jar Star quilt top (my RSC blocks for 2016) basted, and getting the quilting started. I've gotten quite a bit of the quilting done already, and I'm liking how my plan is working out!

Looking through my stash for more green to sew with, I found that I still have some of those adorable owls, so they will definitely be a part of my 2017 projects!  I found these mini Pearl Bracelets, too - they will be a great addition to my blocks this year.

I did have time to stitch up a maple leaf and a nine patch to add to the collection.  I love them - so fresh and pretty!

And a quick check to see how these blocks are looking, on the design wall - fun!

Looking forward to checking out all the green inspiration from the RSC quilters at the ScrapHappy Saturday link-up!

I Like Thursday #28 - Odds and Ends

Welcome to another I like Thursday - I'm joining in with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color and her brigade of "I like Thursday"-ers, and sharing some things I've come across this week that caught my attention and made me smile.

Like the Colorado weather -

This was the scene outside our house one day last week - it was the funniest day!  We woke to fog, then bright blue sky and sunshine showed up about 11:00, right after lunch it started to rain, and by evening it was snowing!

I liked seeing this little house finch who took shelter on our bird feeder.  He wasn't even eating, just taking cover out of the snow.

I like basting quilts... well, to be honest, not really.  What I do like about that stage of a quilt is that I'm almost there - ready to do the quilting, and the binding (that really is my favorite part!) - close to a finished quilt that I can really enjoy.

I like a brand new pile of fabric.  I want to try to make that sunflower painting I showed a few weeks ago into a quilted wall-hanging.  Here is my first attempt at the fabric for it - some Kona cottons and some Grunge.  The darkest yellow is even called Sunflower, so I decided it was meant to be!

I like this pretty yellow snapdragon and its colorful container.  It was a thank you gift from the people who run the after school homework help program where I volunteer during the school year.  They were so sweet to make these for all of their volunteers!

I like the way the new Kleenex tissue boxes are decorated!  (Isn't that silly, but this one does make me smile!)  All those leaf or "orange peel" shapes appeal to my quilter's heart.

And I like a guilty pleasure now and then!  A treat at Starbucks - yummy chocolate loaf cake and an iced latte, plus my book to read.  Ahhh...

Happy Thursday!  Hope you are enjoying a great week!  

A New Pincushion

Like many of you, I've been enjoying the blog hop over at Crazy Mom Quilts celebrating the release of her new book, No Scrap Left Behind.  Although I don't buy a lot of quilting books, this might be one I need!

I especially like the Mini Nine-Patch quilts that have been shown.  Amanda Jean has a tutorial for a mini nine-patch pincushion that is easy to follow, and before I knew it, I had sewn one up!

A few scraps were all that I needed.  I pulled out some white, a bit of Kona pomegranate leftover from my improv quilt, and a chunk of the stripey Good Neighbors fabric that I'm using for the backing of my Scrap Jar Stars quilt.

That nine patch measures 1.5 inches square!  So cute!  

I did some simple quilting for the top, and used some more pomegranate for the backing.  I use crushed walnut shells for the filling.  (I think I might have a lifetime supply of those things! Lol!)

Fun and fast!

Looking for more scrappy inspiration?  Check out the Oh Scrap link-up over at Quilting is More Fun than Housework today.  See you there!

An RSC Goal for May

Just about a month ago, I finished up the top for my Scrap Jar Stars quilt -

and this week, I decided that it's time to get this one finished up.  The batting and backing have been purchased, cut to size, and are ready to go.

It's snowing here this afternoon, and it's supposed to continue into tomorrow, so I think this weekend will be the perfect time to get the layers basted and the quilting started.  I'm hoping to have this quilt finished by the end of May.  That seems like a reasonable goal!  :)

Also... the monkeys came out this week, and before I could put this little pile of scraps away, they insisted they wanted a polka-dotted friend! 

Have a great weekend, quilty friends!  

Sharing at SoScrappy!

And I'm linking my Scrap Jar Star quilting goal up to the May One Monthly Goal link-up at Elm Street Quilts.

I Like Thursday #27 - Inside and Out

Did you know Tuesday, April 25th, was World Penguin Day?  I didn't, until my friend Vicki at Vicki's Crafts and Quilting sent an email to wish me Happy World Penguin Day!  Thanks, Vicki!  I do like penguins, and the name of my blog came from this little wall-hanging that I made right before I started blogging.  I think it was originally supposed to be a Christmas/Winter decoration, but it has been up on the wall since I made it, about 4 years ago!

April 25th also happens to be the one year anniversary of the day I had surgery to fix up my broken wrist.  I can't believe it has been a whole year since that happened!  I sure like that a year has passed, and I am back to doing everything I enjoy doing!

The other day, I snapped this photo when I was on a walk around my neighborhood.  I love that the lilacs are now in bloom.  They smell so good, and I thought these were so pretty!

Even though the weather is still very changeable around here (we're supposed to get snow this weekend!), I like that we are able to be outdoors more and more and can enjoy our back porch and yard.

After last week's I Like posts, Mickie, at Three Poodles and a Nana, and I were talking about our retreats, and I decided to give you a glimpse of mine!

We enjoy being out on our porch a lot during the spring, summer, and fall.  Green grass, bird feeders, a birdbath and a fountain, along with a few rainbow spinners, give us a lot of pleasure!

I have never done a lot of embroidery, but somehow I seem to have quite a stash of embroidery floss! Maybe it grows while you aren't looking, just like fabric scraps do!

I was looking around for a hand work project to work on while watching TV in the evenings, when I found that I had printed out this pattern awhile ago, and even traced it onto some fabric and gotten it all ready to embroider.  It came from the Splendid Sampler project that lots of people were participating in a few months ago, and is a design of Jenny of Elephantz.  Click the link to check out her beautiful website and patterns.

So, I got started on it, and have really been enjoying re-learning some basic stitches and seeing my progress.

Happy Thursday to everyone!  I hope you are having a great week.  I'm joining in with the I Like Blog Hop over at Not Afraid of Color, and looking forward to enjoying what everyone else has to tell us about.