Squared Away for January

I got started on my Squared Away blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week by pulling out some leftover Kona White, a bit of some light blue Pearl Bracelets, and this bunch of swirly, dotty squares that I had cut for another project a long time ago and had never used.

Perfect for making two 8 inch (7.5 inches finished) blocks to get me started on this year's sampler quilt!

Along the way, I also finished up my dark blue 10 inch rail fence block - 

and made 25 little 2.5 inch rails for the light/medium blue block. 

These little bits are waiting by the sewing machine for the next step!

Looking forward to seeing what other scrappy quilters have been doing with their blue bits this week at ScrapHappy Saturday over at SoScrappy! 

Throwback Thursday - my Albuquerque Quilt!

I've never shared an older quilt in a throwback post, but I've been wanting to.  When I saw that Sandra of mmm! quilts was starting up a Throwback Thursday linky, I decided to join in!

Several years before I started blogging, I wanted to make a sampler quilt and found a kit I really liked for one at the Kokopelli Quilting Company in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  So, on a quick trip down to Albuquerque one summer, I picked up the kit and here is the result!

I love the southwest colors of this quilt, the interesting quilt blocks, and the on point setting.  It was a pretty challenging quilt to piece!  The scraps from this quilt have found their way into many projects since then.

This is the only quilt I've ever had professionally long-arm quilted, and I've never regretted that decision!  The quilter chose the perfect quilting motifs to go with the style and shape of the blocks.  

Not sure if you can see the quilting very well in these photos, but looking at it sure makes me happy!

Thanks for coming along with me to visit this favorite quilt!  Linking up with Sandra for Throwback Thursday.

I Like Thursday #64

Good Morning, friends!  We've been having some beautiful sunrises recently, and I was able to get this picture on Monday morning.

I liked that my camera captured pretty well what I was actually seeing, and that doesn't always happen!

I like these new wool socks that I bought at Cabela's recently.

They're warm and soft.  What cracks me up, though, are the L and R on them.  Can you see it?  What do you suppose happens if you put them on the "wrong" foot?  (Which I have already done!)  Are there sock police?  :)

Have you had your DNA tested?  Mike and I sent away for the kits from Ancestry.com for Christmas and our results came back this week.  So interesting!

I have to learn lots more about it, but I liked looking at what they've sent me so far.

I liked this book that my book club read for our January get-together.  If you like World War II historical fiction, I would definitely recommend it.  It's based on the life of a man named Pino Lella who was 17 when he got involved in the Italian Resistance during the war.  Italy is evidently often called the Forgotten Front because so few of us know what happened there during WWII.  I definitely didn't!

Have you heard of Project Quilting?  

Learn more about it here at the blog, Persimmon Dreams.  When I read about it, I was intrigued enough to give it a try!  Its beginning was inspired by the show "Project Runway,"  and it works kind of like the show.  A challenge is issued, and you have one week to make a quilt of any size that fits the parameters of the challenge.  The first challenge is called "Hometown Proud."  I've been working on a mini for it that looks like this so far - 

Green grass and fields, sunflowers, mountains, sun, and blue sky - but that is just the background.  The final project has to be posted and linked up by Sunday at noon, so I'll be back with more by then!

And the most important like for this week has to do with this picture!

We celebrated our 42nd anniversary this week!  This picture was,  of course, taken as we got into our little red Datsun pick-up truck to leave for our honeymoon.  Were we a 70s couple or what?!  I'm so thankful to have made it this far, and hope for many more years to come.

Hope you're having a great week!  Thanks, as always, to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color who hosts our weekly parade of likes! 

New for the New Year

Something I've never tried is repurposing an old piece of clothing into something useful, so I decided that I would find a way to do that this year.

I have had this old "teacher" jumper for years.  I got rid of lots of old work clothes after I retired, but for some reason I kept this one.  However, having not worn it once in the 2 1/2 years since I retired, it was time to do something about it!

I decided to try making a tote bag out of it, since that is something I use a lot!  The first step was to cut a large rectangle out of the front of the jumper and quilt it to a piece of batting.  I was able to get a 17 x 28 piece out of it, including the original pocket.

The straps (handles) came out of the back, and I used a piece of fabric leftover from my Stars on Autumn Lane project for the lining.

I added some interior pockets like I always do for my phone, keys, and miscellaneous little stuff.  And a magnetic snap closure, too!  

The lining fabric worked for the inside of the straps as well.

And here it is!

Joining in with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

And also with Kate at Life in Pieces for her 15 Minute Challenge link up, because I did sew every day this week, except one (when we were out of the house all day until late).  I sew at least 15 - 20 minutes every day as often as possible, and started that while I was still teaching to help keep myself sane!  Now that I'm retired, it's definitely different, but still needed!

I love this quote that I just found:

"The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary." ~Mary Kurtz

In Search of Some Blues

A new year is here for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and the color of the month for January is light/medium blue.  Angela, our lovely hostess of the RSC and Mari of The Academic Quilter have collaborated on a sampler quilt for us to play with, and I definitely want to participate!  I’m looking forward to seeing the first block, but while waiting this week, I pulled out my blue scrap bin to see what I have.

Awhile back I had cut some of the smallest dark blue scraps into 1.5 x 2.5 pieces for these blocks –

and they are now sitting by my sewing machine, waiting to be sewed into rows as I need them for leaders and enders.  I also started cutting up the smallest light and medium blue scraps for the light blue set of these little blocks.

Then I found some bigger chunks that are perfect for making some more bowtie blocks.

I know I need to at least double the number of bowtie blocks that I’ve already made in order to have a good sized quilt out of them, so now there are eight blue blocks!

I like the variety in this group of bowties – solid, print, stripes, text, light, and dark!  They will add a lot to my Scrappy Bowtie Quilt!

Linking up with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #63 - a New Year

Happy New Year, friends!  I hope you enjoyed the last night of 2017.  I loved this meme I found on Facebook -

I definitely did some sewing on New Year's Eve, and may have also watched several episodes of our latest favorite British detective show on Netflix, "Broadchurch."

I like having a roast in the crockpot - it smelled so good all day!  I even successfully made my own gravy out of the juices.  Add some roasted veggies and it made a really easy and tasty dinner!

I like starting a new quilt in the new year.

I especially like that my son asked me to make him a new quilt!  The first quilt I made him, when he was in college, is starting to fall apart.  He asked for "earthy" colors, so I put together this pretty bundle of Grunge fat quarters.  I've just started cutting into it this week.

I like trying something new - felted wool dryer balls, made for me by a friend.

Today was the first load of was I used them with - and I think they worked really well!  The only thing that takes some getting used to is the "bumping" sound that the dryer balls make when the dryer is going!  :)

I like the Nook app that I put on my tablet.  (I have a Kindle app, too.)  I can buy and  download  ebooks from both Barnes and Noble and Amazon.  One neat thing about the Barnes and Noble app is something they have called Serial Reads.  They offer a chapter of a book a day for a month - for free!

And speaking of reading, I have really liked keeping a written record of all the books I've read since January 1st of 2017!

I kept it up all year, and was curious if I would read 50 books, but I actually read 61!  I'm planning to keep up my list this year, too.  Too bad I didn't start doing this years ago - wouldn't that be a life list?!

I liked this photo that my husband took of the Super Moon setting early on Tuesday morning.

I also liked this article from earthsky.org that had some really amazing photos of the super moon!

Hope you are having a great first week of 2018!  I'm joining in with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for her I Like Thursday party.

Refreshing

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about playing around with Improv Stripes again, and starting out with blocks that looked like this :

After the Christmas busy-ness subsided, I got back to work on this project, and made several similar blocks of various sizes, and ended up making them into a mini quilt for my table.

I decided to stop at a mini for several reasons, but mostly because there are so many seams in this little piece, and it is stretchy!   I just wasn't interested in struggling with anything much bigger than this (about 16 x 20), although I know other quilters do!

I quilted it with randomly spaced, diagonal straight lines, criss-crossing every which way from top to bottom, using my carefully hoarded spool of Aurifil Jade.  (Thank you, Cyndy!)

A view of the back.  And then out in the snow, just for fun!

And because the 2 inch strips of this fabric were still out, I made a couple new coasters for us that match.  We can always use new quilted coasters!

I really love these colors - they are definitely a refreshing combination that I'll enjoy using going into the new year, and January!

Sharing at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.  Have a fun, safe, and happy New Year, friends!