I Like Thursday #129 - a little of this and a little of that!

Happy Thursday!  Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday," and thanks to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for keeping this little group going.  I always enjoy our weekly online party!

I was so happy to see my daffodils finally blooming earlier this week!

My photo -

And Mike's, with his fancy camera and lens - 

Then, the weather changed, and this was the view of the daffodils and other bulbs that have buds on them yesterday (Wednesday)...covered with buckets to keep them from getting covered in snow!

At the moment when I took this picture, it appeared to be hailing!  ;( But I think it was just pellet-like snowflakes - later it changed to a heavier and wetter snow.   I'm glad I covered everything up - hopefully my happy blooms will survive this Spring storm!

It was such a lovely late afternoon on Monday that I took my glass of wine out on the deck for the first time, and enjoyed sitting out there with it.

The view out there now - 

Sometimes you just have to laugh!  This is Springtime in the Rockies!

You probably already know that I love to read, and visit the public library a lot.  The other day when I was there, this fun display caught my attention!

And then I walked around the other side, and there was this - 

I'm sure librarians get all kinds of funny requests for help finding books!

If you are on Instagram, you might check out @chucklesandmeatloaf!  Two of the cutest little twin boys I've ever seen.  Mom posts lots of fun photos of their adventures.

Last week, I enjoyed this post from Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts.  If you haven't visited Preeti's blog, you should!  She has a fun writing style and, of course, also makes beautiful quilts.  She was inspired by some fabric she found at Joann's, and after reading her post, I wanted some, too.  So I went to our Joann's, and came home with a yard of it.  :)

I haven't decided what I'll do with this yet, but it will be fun to play with!

Those are my likes for this week - hope it's been a good one for you, too!

Uh oh!

This week, I pulled out the project box for my Northern Lights blocks which I started earlier this year, but hadn't worked on in awhile.

These blocks come from this book, and I'm making them in blues, greens, and grays.

I started these blocks in January using my old sewing machine, and then bought the new one in February.   As the weeks have gone by, and I've made other blocks, I've been starting to think that maybe the 1/4 inch stitching mark on the machine is not accurate.  So I decided I'd better do a test block!

I made a 4 patch using 2.5 inch squares, and...

Uh oh!

It was about 1/16 of an inch too small!

Then I lined up a small ruler under the presser foot with the 1/4 inch mark up against the needle.

Yep - it's about 1/16 inch off!  Darn it!

Well, since I want my Northern Lights blocks to accurately finish at 8.5 inches, I decided I'd better adjust my seam allowance.  These blocks are made from two 4 patches and 2 HSTs.   The HSTs came out a little big and just needed a little trimming - no problem there!

The 4 patches are made by matching up a print 5 inch square with a background 5 inch square, and sewing on two opposite sides.  You then cut them in half like this - 

Match up opposite colors - and sew opposite sides again.  (top and bottom in this photo)

Using a "scant" 1/4 inch seam (according to my machine's marking), I ended up with the 4 patches being a smidge big this time, and needing a little trimming.  Better that than too small!

And the new blocks are just right!

Oh, I like this design!

Those two dark looking blocks are actually a dark green and a dark blue.

So, here's my question?  Do I trust myself to remember that scant seam allowance - or should I mark it on my machine in some way?  Have you had to do this on your sewing machine?  How have you done it?  Thanks, quilty friends!

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! 

Ending March and Beginning April

I was excited to find out we'd be sewing with our turquoise scraps this month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  Turquoise has become one of my favorite colors, although, to be honest, I love them all.

I made two Tiny Tuesday blocks this week, one in green and one in turquoise!

When I saw Sally's post last week, I had to try a few microspools.  They are so cute!  Thanks, Sally!  And thanks, also, to Bea, for her tiny Shoo Fly block tutorial.  I love how these both turned out!

So, finishing up March, and starting into April, I have these:

My hand stitching has also involved turquoise this week, for my Hand-Pieced QAL project.  After fiddling with a pieced backing, and deciding I wouldn't be happy with that, I found this marbled light turquoise dot for the backing, and I'm handquilting it with Aurifil Light Turquoise thread.

I've been enjoying this slow stitching and seeing the progress on my hand-pieced project, which I've decided to call Sand, Sea, and Sky.

Hope you've had a wonderful beginning to April!  Linking up to SoScrappy for Scraphappy Saturday and Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

I Like Thursday #128 - Welcome, April!

It's already April - does that mean 2019 is going to fly by?  I think it does!  I like April - but in Colorado it goes something like this -

I love my new Starbucks cup!  Perfect for a quilter, don't you think?!

I'm liking this book this week - it's the April selection for my book club's discussion.

I like to read memoirs, and this one is interesting because Jackie Speier worked for California Congressman Leo Ryan in the late 70s when he went to Guyana to investigate Jim Jones' cult there.   This book should make for a good discussion!   Book club is at my house next Monday - I guess I'd better get started cleaning for it!

I like this quilt that I finished back in 2015.

It came to mind because of Bernie's (Needle and Foot) post this week about sharing your quilting blunders and mistakes.  Even though this is a beautiful quilt, and I love how it turned out, it was not the design I originally set out to make!  You can read my original post about it HERE!

I'm excited to join in the Beothuk Star QAL with Sandra at mmmquilts this month!  She posted the introduction to it yesterday.  I'm excited to quilt along since I haven't done one of Sandra's before.   Here's my fabric pull for it.

I won this bundle of Printology by Benartex in a giveaway last year, and haven't done anything with it.  I bought some yardage of Kona Butter for the background.  It will be fun to see it come together in Sandra's interesting star pattern!

I loved this cartoon I saw the other day!  It's really true - little things can make you ridiculously happy sometimes!

Hope you're having a great week!   I'm joining in with all the "I Like Thursday" bloggers at Not Afraid of Color.  

Hand-Pieced QAL Progress and an Idea for the Scraps

Progress has been happening on my hand-pieced project this week!  All nine blocks were finished last week, and it was time to stitch the blocks into rows with sashing.  The sashing fabric I chose is a sandy beach with shells and footprints - I love leaving my footprints on a sandy beach!

I also cut a few squares of the dark turquoise solid for cornerstones, and then I laid everything out on the design wall to see if it would work.  The sashing is 1.5 inches wide.

I stitched sashing to blocks and cornerstones, a block, and then a row at a time.

By Thursday, the center of the quilt was finished!

Considering that I'm a newbie to hand-piecing, I have to say I'm pretty happy with my stitches!

My slow-stitching job today is to finish up the outside borders and figure out how to piece a backing for this top, so that I can get it layered and begin quilting.

There is quite a bit of fabric leftover from the bundle of ocean-themed fat quarters that I started with, so I decided I would start cutting 4.5 inch squares from the scraps, border them with a variety of colorful solids, and make enough for a baby boy donation quilt!

Info about the Hand-Pieced QAL can be found at both Elm Street Quilts and at Simple Handmade Everyday.

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

and at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Strings and Things

The green strings came out to play in my sewing room this week.  First up were these four green string blocks.

I'm making these on rectangular phonebook pages, and trimming them to 9.5 x 6.5 when the sewing is done.  There are four sets so far.

Or maybe I will orient them this way?

I decided it was time to pull off the paper backing and sew the four blocks together into the large rectangle.  I also stay stitched around the outside edge.  This big block measures 12.5 x 18.5.

Some tiny strings made a tiny umbrella!

Aren't these fun?!

And I finished up a Tiny Rails block in Christmas scraps, too!

I'm up to 18 of these 10.5 inch blocks now - not sure where I will stop.  I definitely need at least 20 of them!

March was the perfect month for sewing with green - and now the world outside is greening up, too!  Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #127 -

Good morning, friends!  Spring comes to life slowly in our neck of the woods, but it's starting!  Here's how my daffodils look so far.

I have buds!

This week brought my group's first golf game of the year.  It's not green yet - still what you might call winter golf conditions - but the weather was nice and the company was fun!  (I won't tell you about my golf game just yet...:)

This was what my cellphone camera saw - my eyes saw golf carts across the way and mountains in the distance.  Lots of geese were hanging out on this pond, too.

I liked this view of my design wall Monday morning.

On the left are my hand-pieced blocks with sashing and cornerstones being auditioned.  On the right is a small quilt I'm putting together for the Hands to Help quilt drive.  The blocks are made from Cluck, Cluck Sew's Easy Stack, Cut, and Sew tutorial.

I enjoyed hanging up some of the mini quilts I've made over the last few years in this corner of my sewing room.  It makes it a much more fun corner of the room!

I'm continuing to enjoy hand-piecing!  Along with sewing the QAL blocks into a mini quilt this week, I've been working on another Dresden sunflower.

Here are the pieces and parts, partially sewn together.

I loved this cute display at our local Ace Hardware store, so I had to snap a picture of it!

Hope you're having a great week!  Be sure to visit all the "I Like Thursday" posts over at Not Afraid of Color!