To-Do Tuesday #68

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. 

In last week's Tuesday post, I listed five Works in Progress that I was going to choose from to work on this week, and I got to two of them.

#3 was the Diamond String blocks, and they are now a quilt top!  Whoop whoop!

I finally got a picture of this one somewhere else 

besides on my sewing room floor!  I'm loving all those hidden diamonds (and some kite shapes) that have appeared now that all the blocks are all sewn together.

#5 was the December Color Challenge block.  Pieces and parts have been cut, sewn, and trimmed, with a little more to do.

Jen released her 2020 Color Challenge layout idea here, and, oh my, is it gorgeous!

I have to think about that one for awhile.  It would be a lot of work, but very worth it, I think.  That's why I'm thinking about it!  :)

I also worked on a little (or maybe it's another!) Christmas squirrel, which I'll just share a peek of!

My plan is to finish this up by the end of the week, and share more then!

So, on this week's list:

• Finish the Color Challenge block.
• Finish the Christmas project
• Choose another WiP to work on - which one it will be is yet is to be determined!

Have a great week, everyone!

A hand-pieced finish

 I finished up the quilting on my little doll quilt earlier this week.

The backing is a piece of a 30s repro fabric that a friend gave me a few years ago, and I was happy to use it up.  The binding is a blue floral print leftover from one of the pillow covers I finished recently.

Raggedy Andy and his little brother, Raggedy Kevin, are happily sharing the new quilt in their favorite chair!

And now I'm thinking about what hand-piecing project I want to work on next!  Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

This week in scraps...

brought to you by the color yellow!  

I had the yellow scrap bin out to find strips for the Covered in Love blocks I was making, so I just kept going and made a couple of wonky stars and some crumb blocks, too.

The crumb blocks will go into the project box for my 2021 RSC project, "Precarious."

The wonky stars are up on the design wall with the Easy Breezy blocks I've made this year.

Meanwhile I've also been sewing string blocks together into rows for the Diamond Strings quilt that I've been working on forever, it seems!  A little pressing is needed, and then these rows will become a quilt top.

One last bit of yellow to share - one of my favorite ornaments on the Christmas tree, which was decorated yesterday.

This came from the M&M store in Las Vegas, 

a fun to place to go when you're visiting there!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #213

Happy Thursday, friends!  Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday," and be sure to check out the other positive posts at Not Afraid of Color.

I sure like all the blogging friends I have met over the years I've had this blog.  You all add a lot to my life, in so many ways!   Just this week, I watched a movie on Netflix recommended by Carole at From My Carolina Home.   "My Octopus Teacher" is about a diver/filmmaker in S. Africa who finds and befriends an octopus, and it is really amazing how they interact!

Thanks, Carole!

I like "Aha!" moments, and Wendy from Pieceful Thoughts of my Quilting Life is responsible for one of those this week, after I commented on her Instagram post showing a paper-pieced house block she made from Twiggy and Opal's pattern.  I commented that I had purchased the same pattern, but I didn't know where I had put it.  Because of Wendy's suggestion on how to find where I had saved it, now I can make more of those adorable houses.  

See, Wendy, here it is!  😉

Here's the first of these that I made.  It's the 6 inch size.  The above pieces are for a 4 inch size!

I like making funny little things I find on the Internet, sometimes on the spur of the moment, like this angel (made from two masks)!  

I like the amazing weather we've been having in Colorado this week.  A friend and I went for a walk by the lake, and enjoyed this beautiful view!  Snow is supposed to be coming this afternoon, so I'm glad we could take advantage of the good weather while it lasted.

Pickles is one of my favorite comics, and I read it every morning.  I loved this one from the other day!  Earl's sense of humor reminds me of my husband, Mike.

Do you send out Christmas cards?  We usually do photo cards that have a picture from somewhere we've traveled during the year.  Here's this year's photo...

Merry Christmas 2020

from our dining room!

Have a great day, everyone!

To-Do Tuesday #67

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. 

I managed to finish up some small things on my list this week, and finishes always feel good!

The snowman tablerunner is all done and ready to give to a friend.

My little improv tree runner (squirrel-chasing!) is finished, too!  Read more about it in my Saturday post here.

I completed two Covered in Love blocks and they are ready to go in the mail.

It may be hard to tell from the photo, but these aren't really my best effort.  I had a hard time getting all those 1.5 inch strips and squares to match up at the seam intersections.  Somehow, amazingly, the blocks measure correctly and are square, so I'm sending them along to Kat anyway.  Hopefully one of her wonderful quilters will make them look good when mixed in with other blocks and quilted!  😉

I have several other larger quilt projects to work on - blocks to sew together, borders to put on, but no progress on any of those this week. 

Here's my list of Works in Progress:

1.  Rainbow Zigzag:  backing fabric is supposed to be delivered today, and I have batting, so it's next in line to be basted and quilted.

2.  Rainbow Jungle: still needs borders

3.  Diamond Strings: sew blocks into quilt top

4.  Double 4 Patch: sew blocks into quilt top

5.  2020 Color Challenge:  make December block, and think about final setting

I know I'll work on at least one of these in the next week, and who knows what else I might come up with!  

Slow Stitching on a Sunday

 Last week's project, the Snowmen Tablerunner, has progressed to a finished top and is in the process of being machine quilted.  Here's a peek!

So that meant I needed something new to work on each evening during my hand stitching time.  I decided to pull out a hand-pieced doll quilt I was working on earlier this year.  Maybe you remember it?  A 30s Playtime mini charm pack and some Kona solids.

I got it layered and basted and have been quilting a diagonal grid using white DMC perle cotton #12.  

The perle cotton is giving lots of nice texture to this little quilt!  It measures about 21 inches square.   A little more quilting and I'll need to figure out something for the binding!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Just playing

I haven't touched any of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects this week, but I have been playing in the scraps.   I ended my Thursday post with this photo - a bunch of bits and pieces from my solids drawer and my Christmas scraps used to make an improv-ish tree.

It all started with Wendy's post at Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life for the Virtual Cookie Exchange blog hop.  I loved her tree runner so much that I had to try making some myself.  After making some little slabs with the scraps I pulled, I decided my Tri-Recs rulers would work to make the tree shapes.

Pretty soon there were three trees!

After adding a little more of the dark gray for sashing and borders, this little runner will finish up at about 22.5 x 9.5.  The backing is all ready, and it just needs a little quilting and binding to be finished up.  

Sometimes you just have to play!

Updated: Saturday afternoon - I was able to get this little runner quilted and chose some red binding for it on - I'll hand stitch the binding down this evening.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!