To-Do Tuesday #55

Good morning!   I'm checking in today with my weekly to-do list and linking up with Roseanne and friends for the To-Do Tuesday linky party at Home Sewn By Us. 

It was a different week than I expected!  I made progress on some of the things on last week's list, but not on others.  I did finish a small quilt that had been on my to-do list earlier in the year, but not recently.  Here's my finish!

I even had time to hang it today in a little nook in our master bedroom!

You can read more about this project in my Sunday post HERE.

So what was on last week's list?

1.  Continue working on the red HSTs for my zigzag quilt.  Yes, a few more were made.  24 are needed for a row, so only 6 left to make.

2.  Layer and spray baste a quilt so that it can be finished.  No progress here because I ended up finishing the blue and white quilt instead!

3.  Finish up the X's and O's mini quilt.  Progress made.  Quilting is almost finished and it will need binding.

So, for this week's list:

1.  Finish the red zigzag row.

2.  Spray baste that quilt!

3.  Finish the X's and O's mini quilt.

4.  One thing I'd *like to* work on, if there's time, are the mini Magic Star blocks I started a few weeks ago.  I have in mind to turn them into a tote bag, so I'll need to do some figuring about how many more I need and what I want to use for other parts of the bag.

Maybe I'll get to this!

Have a great week, everyone!

Almost finished!

 I have shared this project on the blog many times since I started it, and it's the true definition of a slowly stitched quilt!  After I learned how to hand-piece in early 2019 and finished my very first Hand-Pieced QAL project, I wanted to keep going and chose a block from the QAL to work on.

Four of those made this really neat star!

By January of this year there were five 12 inch stars, 

made of 20 of the original blocks!

Along the way, I had also been doing a lot of Gail Pan embroidery designs in a variegated blue.

So, I decided to combine the two types of blocks and ended up with this little quilt top

Over the summer, I got it layered and basted and started hand quilting.  Eventually it was just too hot to have a quilt in your lap and stitch on it, so I set it aside.  But this week, with our big chill (100 degrees last Sunday, down to 31 on Tuesday), I picked it back up again and finished the quilting!

Trimmed and ready for binding.

I love the five stars that appear if you follow along each diagonal!

Yesterday, I sewed the binding on by machine and got started on the hand-stitching.  That will be my slow stitching for this lovely Sunday, while football is on TV!

The binding is actually a swirly navy blue although it appears black in the photo.

It won't be long before this little quilt is completely finished!  Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Goals and Distractions

 My main goal for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge sewing this week was to keep working on the HSTs for this month's zigzag row in red.  Here's where I am with that - 

18 made, 6 more needed

But, you know me - it's easy to get distracted by pretty things out there in blogland and find things I just "have to try!"  For example, I'd been wanting to make a postage stamp block.  Wondering if I would catch the PSP 2020 bug.  Lol!  So, I did!

Will I make more?  Not sure yet!  Making this block felt a bit like experiencing labor and delivery... As I was working on it, I was saying to myself, "Never again!"  But now that I am a few days past it, I've been thinking it wasn't so bad!  All those little squares are pretty cute!

And then there are Preeti's Petite Sisters blocks to play with!  Now there are three.

In other red news, I've made some Easy Breezy blocks in red scraps - 

And have firmed up the layout for my Double 4 Patch quilt!

The scrap pieces that are pinned up there represent the blocks that are left to make - yellow and turquoise in the top right corner, and then red, orange, blue, and pink on the left side to make a 7 x 8 layout.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

 

I Like Thursday #201

 It's been a wild week in our neck of the woods in more ways than one!  First, there's been wildlife.

Our friend, the praying mantis had a gentleman caller!

He was brown and much smaller than she is.  

And I think there may be some babies hatching next Spring!  😉

Another day last week, we went up to Estes Park to walk by the lake, and we saw two elk, possibly a mother and baby, on one side of the path...

And a bear up in a tree on the other side of the path!

It was a gorgeous day up there!  Sometimes we encountered other humans, but in other places, the view up ahead was like this - 

Then there was the wild weather Monday night and most of Tuesday.  The temperature fell about 60 degrees and it did snow.  Not very much, but enough to bring down a big tree branch.  Darn it!  Clean up work is on the to-do list today!

I can't complain about the needed moisture - it will help the huge wildfire in our county that had grown to 100,000 acres as of Monday.

Of course, there is always wildlife in my sewing room, in the form of squirrel projects that distract me from what I should really be working on!  This week it is all Preeti's (of Sew Preeti Quilts) fault, due to her post the other day that included the dimensions for making Petite Sisters.   Well, you know me, I just had to make some, and they are fun!

These Little Sisters measure 8 inches square,

and I'm sure there will be more!

Hope you've had a good week, with nothing too wild going on!  I'm joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.  

Find more fun posts there!

  

To-Do Tuesday #54

Happy Tuesday!  I'm checking in today with my weekly to-do list and linking up with Roseanne and friends for the To-Do Tuesday linky party at Home Sewn By Us.   Hope you had an enjoyable Labor Day holiday and are ready for the week ahead!

I've had fun playing with my red scraps this week and have made progress on everything I had on my to-do list.

Trees for the Rainbow Jungle project:

A start on the HSTs for my red zigzag row:

6 made, 18 more are needed

A backing pieced for this quilt top:

And I put together this small, placemat sized mini quilt, spray basted it to batting and backing, and have it ready to quilt and bind.

This measures about 12 x 16 inches.

So, for the coming week, I'll be continuing on with those same projects!

1.  Make more HSTs for the red zigzag row.

2.  Spray baste the quilt that I made the backing for.

3.  Finish up the quilted placemat.

Sounds doable!  

Slowly Stitching

I first shared these little hand-pieced blocks a couple weeks ago, and this week finished up turning the 4 patches into diamonds in a square by adding the corner triangles.  I made the eight outside squares first, and then decided how to make the center square so that each of the "connecting" diamonds that are formed where the blocks touch would have one each of the solid colors in it.

Once the center blocks are stitched together, I'm planning to add a solid border and use those leftover mini charms for cornerstones.  The whole piece will be about 20 inches square when completed.

The last few evenings I worked on sewing the blocks together into rows.

You can see what I'll be working on today!

Sometimes you just have to laugh at the weather forecast!

The news guy on our Saturday news just called it, "Weather Whiplash!"

Sharing my Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts!

Rainbow Jungle in Red

The beginning of each new month in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is always fun because I get to hunt around in my scraps and stash to see what I'll be playing with this month.  For the Rainbow Jungle trees, I need about an 8 inch square of two coordinating fabrics to make two trees, and here's what I came up with.

 

So, eight trees in red were made this week.  

Bright and happy - 

Fall colors - 

Snowflakes - 

We're supposed to get some of those snowflakes 

at the beginning of next week... brrr!

And my favorite of all - we have some jungle explorers!

Up, up, and away!

Here are all the red trees together:

This week I've also spent a little time arranging the double four patch blocks I've made so far this year, to see how the colors balance out.  There are 42 blocks so far, and in a 6 x 7 layout, this quilt would be about 36 x 42 - not big enough yet!  

You can see I'm already adding more reds!

Hope you've been having some scrappy fun this week!  Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!