I Like Thursday #227

 Happy Thursday, friends!  It's been a snowy week here, but the sun is out and the snow is melting, so it's starting to feel like Spring is coming.

We've spent a lot of time outside clearing the snow from our driveway, and making sure we could get out of the cul de sac in time for Mike's doctor appointment this afternoon.

I like sun on snow and kind, helpful neighbors.

Several neighbors came down the street and helped us clear the extra area we have in our small cul de sac to get to the actual road.   I think we spent more time talking with neighbors up and down the street on Monday and Tuesday than we have in a very long time!  Everybody was out doing the same thing!

It was perfect timing for some baking, so I made muffins using the recipe LeeAnna shared a few weeks ago.  Pumpkin Banana Muffins

LeeAnna is right - these are delicious!

The snowy days were good for completing a chore I've had on my list for a long time - cleaning out the kitchen drawers.  I found all kinds of buried treasure!  And now all three drawers are neat and clean - yay!

I've been reading an interesting book this week - I'm about halfway through.  It's historical fiction with two time periods - 1913 and 2013.  And the setting is the New York Public Library!  One main character lives there and the other works there.  There's a bit of a mystery involved and lots of story about the early women's movement, too.

I celebrated St. Patrick's Day yesterday by making sure I sewed something in green!  I had fun with this wonky star, using a leftover bit of jungle fabric.

Hello, Mr. Tiger!

A friend sent this fun greeting yesterday and this seemed like the perfect place to share it!

"There are good ships and there are wood ships,
the ships that sail the sea.
But the best ships are friendships,
and may they always be."

Joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color for I like Thursday.

Giveaway Winner

 The random number generator chose Linda from Texas Quilt Gal as the winner of my little giveaway.  Congratulations, Linda!  I'll be sending a package to you by the end of the week.  Thank you, everyone who entered!

To-Do Tuesday #81

28 inches of snow in 24 hours adds a few extra to-dos to the list!  Specifically, shoveling out so we can get out of the house.  Here was our view Monday morning:

We were out twice on Sunday working on the snow, but more fell, so we started over again!  Monday we got the sidewalks done.  Today (Tuesday) maybe out to  the street?  We live on a cul de sac, so we have to be able to get from our driveway to the main section of the street! 

Meanwhile back in the sewing room, there's been progress on several projects!  

• My Stay at Home Round Robin needed a little fixing before I could move it forward.  It only took looking at a photograph and about a week's time to notice the problem.  See down in the bottom right hand corner?

Oops!

Once I got that section fixed, I finished the pinwheels, hooked them together with spacer strips, and experimented with something for the sides.

I'll start building out to each corner next!

• The blog hop quilt is quilted and binding ready to sew on!

• My March Table Scraps project in green was finished up.  You can read more about that HERE.  I'm giving away all the leftover jelly roll strips from that project in case you're interested.

On this week's list:

• Keep going on that SAHRR!
• Bind the blog hop quilt and write up my post.  Check out Carol's post at Just Let Me Quilt with a list of all the bloggers who are participating.  My day is March 26th.
• More with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month - green!

I'm checking in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week.  How's your week been?

More Hand-piecing

 This past week I finished up the third step of the Harmony QAL, called Fancy HSTs.  Here are all my parts so far: the center Square in a Square, regular HSTs and fancy HSTs (with an extra triangle in the corner).  I laid them out in a fun design, but this isn't where they'll go in the actual project!

Today's job is to get the pieces prepped for the next step

After those blocks were stitched, I prepped another scrappy trips block in green.  The first one I did in more of the brighter Spring greens - this one is in kind of mellow blue-greens.

Here are all the blocks, plus the half finished one I'm currently working on:

I'll finish this block up in the next couple days, too!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Table Scraps in Green and a Giveaway!

This week I finished up the March placemat for the Table Scraps Challenge I'm participating in over at The Joyful Quilter.  I'm following the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month (green for March) and plan to have a collection of colorful placemats to donate to my local Meals on Wheels later this year.

Instead of charm squares this month, I decided to use some jelly roll strips in coordinating colors to make the design.  I paired them up, sewed lengthwise, and cut in 2.5 inch widths.

This was a fun and quick design to stitch together, and before long I had a 12.5 x 16.5 inch placemat.

A close-up of the design and quilting:

Kind of a surprise backing - something I had in my stash.  A 70s look!  I used a darker green strip from the jelly roll for the binding.

So now there are three:

And the Giveaway!  The giveaway is closed.  Thanks go to Linda at Texas Quilt Gal for taking my leftovers and putting them to good use!

I'm ready to pass the rest of this fabric on, and maybe it's something you could use.  There are 20 jelly roll strips from this line in greens, purples, and even a bit of tan/brown.  There are gold threads throughout so the fabric sparkles!  I made 11 Two x Four blocks (not sure why 11 and not 12, probably a cutting error!), and I'll pass those on, too, if you're interested.  They are 8.25 inches square.

Would you like a half jelly roll and some orphan blocks?  Let me know in the comments and I'll pick a lucky winner on Wednesday, March 17th!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #226

 Happy Thursday to you!  It's "I Like Thursday" at Not Afraid of Color, a good day to share the positive things of our week.  

You guys!  Look who's back!  And my shop was true to their word and didn't charge for fixing the problem.  So thankful for that!

She's just purring along!

Here's something interesting, though, and I wonder if any of you have experience with this.  When I originally took it in, the shop people told me that the problem was likely caused by my sewing machine getting too cold because my sewing room is in the basement.   Our basement is finished and heated.  We've been checking the temp down there and it's generally around 65-66 degrees.  Has anyone else found temperature to affect their sewing machine?

Meanwhile I've been trying an experiment.  I wanted to make my own cold brew coffee.  I found the directions for making it at Simply Recipes. 

Cold brew coffee, vanilla flavoring, milk, and a cup with ice.

Hey, it worked!  You have to tweak the amount of coffee, milk, and vanilla to taste, but once I did it was good.  I will say, making the cold brew was a lot messier than the video at the link shows!  Hopefully I'll get better at it!  😉

This week I really enjoyed a book that Wendy recommended a couple weeks ago.  It's a good story about a young woman who's at loose ends after graduating from college and ends up finding out where she belongs.  And it takes place in Leadville, Colorado, so I connected with the setting as well!

Thanks for the recommendation, Wendy!

I'm so excited to see that the tulips and daffodils that I planted last fall are coming up in my garden!  Looking forward to seeing them bloom.  (After the 2 feet of snow they're predicting for us this weekend!)

Of course, the weather forecast depends on what model they're looking at.  😉  It could be 4 feet of snow, lol!  Looks like a wild Spring storm ahead.  I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out!

To-Do Tuesday #80

Happy Tuesday!   I'm checking in with Chris and friends at Chrisknits to share my to-do list for the week.  It's been a week of some progress on a few different things!

On last week's list:

• Continue working on the Stay at Home Round Robin project - some progress

Round 5/6 is completely sewn on, and

I've made 3 pinwheels so far, have HSTs in progress for 3 more.

Those strip sets along the sides are leftover from Round 2 - the plus blocks.

I'm auditioning them for the sides there - will they work?

• Also on the list - sew a few green blocks for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks - some progress
• Possibly quilt the blog hop quilt - some progress!

So, hopefully, I can make some progress again this week!

• I'm continuing on with the round robin quilt top.  
• More with green - I'm working on my Table Scraps placemat for March.

• Time to get the blog hop quilt finished.  My day is March 26th - it will be here before I know it!

Looking forward to seeing what's on your list!