To-Do Tuesday #12

Good morning, friends!  I'm checking in with Roseanne at Home Sewn by Us for To-Do Tuesday again this week.

In last week's To-Do list:

1.  Finish Almost Amish. ✔  Yes, done!

2/3.  Make some progress on a couple of Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  ✔  Progress is always good, right?!  The Tiny Tuesday blocks are about ready to be sewn into rows, and I'm feeling so much better about Scrappy Sprouts, too.  I decided on a different way to make the sky section, and it involves lots of 2.5 inch squares, something like this:

So, there's lots of cutting to be done this week!

4.  I finished my Book Club book, yay!  We had an enjoyable and interesting discussion, too.  ✔

So, for this week:

1.  More progress on RSC projects! 

• I need to cut 144 2.5 inch squares that vary from low volume white/cream up to light blue.  I'm going to sew them as four 36 patch blocks.
• Since I'll need my design wall to lay those squares out to determine a good mix of colors, I have to get the Tiny Tuesday blocks taken down.  Sewing them together would make a good leader/ender project.

2.  I'm participating in the Virtual Cookie Exchange blog hop for the first time ever in December, so I need to get that project started.  The fabric is ready and waiting!

3.  I need to roast a turkey this week!  This is on my To-Do list because it's actually lots of work... Normally I would do this closer to Thanksgiving, but King Soopers had a really good sale on turkeys that was just good for Monday and Tuesday this week.  :) I'll roast the turkey on Saturday or Sunday, and then freeze a bunch of it to take when we visit our kids in Nebraska and Kansas on Thanksgiving.  Our boys are 30-something single guys, so this way no one has to cook, we just heat it all up and enjoy our time together! 

Hope your week is getting off to a good start, and your To-Do list isn't too long!

Almost Amish Finish

Earlier this week I was able to finish up my version of Almost Amish from the mystery quilt along hosted by Lori at Humble Quilts.

Participating in the mystery, which started in September, intrigued me because it called for solid fabrics, which I hadn't worked with in awhile, and because the result was going to be small, about 22 inches square, which sounded doable.

So, I dove into my drawer of solid scraps, and pulled some colors I thought would work, and followed along! 

I used a leftover piece of a wide backing from my Bowtie quilt for the backing, and the plum colored solid fabric for the binding.

The quilting is simple - straight lines diagonally through the 4 patches, and an octagon shape around each square.  It does make kind of a neat design on the back!

I think this will make a good tabletopper for after Christmas - refreshing, cool New Year's colors!

But for now it will hang with some of my other favorite qal projects in my Quilt Along gallery!

Hand-Pieced.... Crosscut.... and Almost Amish

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

November Thoughts

This week seemed like a good time to do a little mental inventory of where my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects stand at this point in the year.   Putting my thoughts down in words and pictures will give me a record of where I need to go from here.

The Tiny Tuesday blocks are just about ready to be sewn together!  I have 56 blocks, most have their sashing, and the right amount are set straight or on point for the layout I decided on.  I did redo the sashing on a few this week, particularly my black and white blocks, so that they would fit in the right spots, like the bottom left corner below!

And how about some little penguins right in the center?  :)

Meanwhile, I have some other projects in the queue that I'm ready to move forward, especially the Scrappy Sprouts.  I made 20 sprouts blocks throughout 2018, and then have stalled out on what to do with them this year.   The last time I shared a picture, they looked like this:

I've been struggling with how to add a "sky" as background for some Dresden sunflower blocks above the sprouts and have never been able to come up with something that felt just right, that fit my vision.   So, without going into too much detail, I will just tell you I got out my seam ripper!

Instead of 4 rows of 5 sprouts, I've rearranged a bit, with the thought of creating 3 rows of 7 blocks each, and that will leave a much smaller area to become the sky.  The quilt will finish at about 48 x 60 which is a comfortable size to work on, and at this point feels "finishable," which is better than in the time out pile!

I also started making the Tiny Rails blocks in 2018, and now have 23.  I need to make two more of these, but not sure in what colors.  

My 10 inch Color Gradient blocks began as an experiment earlier this year.  This is the most recent picture I have of them, but this week I did finish up a brown block to add to the pile.  I think I'll keep making these in 2020.

And finally, the 12 x 18 string blocks in rainbow colors. 

That orange block looks practically florescent, but it really isn't, I promise!

The big blocks are finished, but I'll now continue to work on more neutral string blocks that will border the rainbow blocks.

Although I need to work on some Christmas projects in the next few weeks, I will definitely plan to make some progress on these projects by the end of 2019 as well.

What's your plan for your rainbow of Works in Progress?  I can't wait to see!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #159 - birds, a book, and a siesta

I decided to look up the definition of the word siesta this morning, and here's what I found:

"An afternoon rest or nap, especially one taken in the hottest hours of the day in a hot climate."

Lol!  If only that were my view!

I don't live in a hot climate,  but I sure do enjoy an afternoon siesta anyway, especially when wrapped in a quilt.  We try to get our housework or yardwork or errands done by about 2:00 in the afternoon so that we can relax, read, chat, maybe even nap a little, and watch the birds in our yard and at the feeders.  It is a lovely benefit of retirement!

Earlier this week, I think we counted at least 7 different kinds of birds in the yard throughout the afternoon - chickadees, finches, blue jays, goldfinches, nuthatches, flickers, downy woodpeckers.  I'm probably even forgetting some at this point.  Watching them gives us great pleasure!

While visiting my mom in Arizona couple weeks ago, we were able to go for a walk at a favorite place in the city of Gilbert called the Riparian Preserve.  Wonderful birdwatching opportunities there!

We saw both snowy egrets and great egrets - beautiful birds!

Back home I am liking sewing the binding on my Almost Amish quilt.  I listed this as a goal on my To-Do Tuesday post, and it's almost done!

I have to say how much I like our blogging community!  Every day I get inspiration for quilting and other crafts, plus meals and books, and who knows what all!

Thank you, Wendy, for the Sheet Pan dinners idea!  Although I ended up making my own combination of ingredients, I did google "sheet pan dinners" and came up with lots of yummy possibilities.  Here's one link:  25 Super Easy Sheet Pan Dinners.

And a few weeks ago, Colette shared a book I was intrigued with, so I checked it out from our library.  Retired elementary school teachers never lose their love for children's books!

Besides being about a thoughtful topic - the loss of nature words from children's vocabularies these days - the book has beautiful artwork and is written in poetry.  

I am reading aloud to a 3rd grade class next week, and I'm going to take this book with me.  Thank you, Colette!

And, of course, a big Thank You! to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for hosting all of us here on Thursdays!  

To - Do Tuesday #11

I realized recently that it's been good for me to join in on To-Do Tuesday for the last couple months, if only to hold myself accountable for getting a few things accomplished each week.

Last Tuesday I wrote that my sewing room, and cutting table especially, needed some cleaning up, and I managed to finally (make myself) do just that on Sunday afternoon.

That felt good!  There are piles of blocks to be sewn next to the sewing machine, but at least they are now organized and ready, and the leftover bits and pieces are put back where they belong.

In other To-Dos for the week, I also finished up my October Tiny Tuesday blocks.

Unfortunately, some of the sashings have to be redone in order to turn a couple blocks on point since I changed my mind about the final layout.  But that's an easy thing to do!

I also got Almost Amish layered and spray basted.

I needed to piece together some batting scraps for this, and used a combination of fusible batting tape and then some fusible interfacing after I ran out of the tape.  It worked great, too!  Here's a helpful tutorial from Debbie at A Quilter's Table for using the interfacing when piecing batting.

Quilting was started, too!

My hand-pieced pumpkin project was aldo finished last week.  You can see more details about it in this post.

This week's list:

1.  Finish Almost Amish - quilting and binding.

2. Continue working on the layout for the Tiny Tuesday quilt.

3.  Make a little progress on an older Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt project that needs to be "re-imagined!"

4.  Finish my book club book for the discussion next Monday afternoon.  This month's choice has been a bit of a challenge for me - The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, by David Brooks.  I'm more of a murder mystery or historical fiction reader, so when something out of my comfort reading zone is chosen by one of our book club members, I have to push myself a little harder.  That's okay, though - it's good for my brain - and I know we'll have an interesting discussion! 

Joining in at Home Sewn by Us for To-Do Tuesday!

Maple Leaves and some Slow Stitching

Way back in September of 2016, I was gifted a whole bunch of 3 inch squares in pretty fall colors -

I've used them for quite a few projects, including this little pillow.

When my quilt group decided to do a fall block swap at our November meeting, I knew those squares would be perfect for making some maple leaf blocks!

I learned this particular block from Carole's tutorial here at From My Carolina Home, and have used it many times.

These blocks are 6.5 inches, and for the swap I need 10.5 inch blocks, so I'm adding some sashing to each block, like this - 

You can see at the top of the picture that I still have lots of those 3 inch squares to use up!

During my evening slow stitching time, I finished up a Gail Pan design that I've been working on recently.  It's called "Little Blue House."

It's stitched with a variegated blue thread, and I'll add a blue border and binding like you see in the picture from the book, Patchwork Loves Embroidery.

Time to decide on another slow stitching project to work on!

Linking up with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

And Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

I said I wasn't going to...

make 5 Tiny Tuesday blocks in October... but I guess I changed my mind!

I just couldn't resist these fun blocks!  

Thanks, Angela, for all the Tuesday fun throughout the year for this rainbow sampler quilt!

I set them all with a straight sashing, thinking I would use four of them as cornerstones for a layout like this - 

This would take 49 blocks, plus something in the borders, like those four patch blocks.

But the other day, I started thinking maybe I would prefer a layout that uses 56 blocks in a 7 x 8 block setting.  Then I would use those black blocks and 4 patches differently, more like this - 

Finished size would be about 49.5 x 56.5.

This setting needs more blocks set on point, so I might have to re-do a couple of the black blocks that way.

And the four patches, trimmed down, fit right in wherever they are needed!

A little more thinking, and rearranging, is still needed, but I like where this going at this point!

Linking up with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!