Slow stitching with the Frosties

 Most evenings this week, I've been adding some hand quilting around each snowman on the Frosty quilt.  I think there are only three left to finish. 

The fun part about this slow stitching is revisiting each fun embroidery block as I go.  Each one is so cute in a different way!  

Working on those last few blocks will be my Slow Sunday Stitching for today.  Joining in with everyone at Kathy's Quilts!

This and that...

It has definitely been a week of working on this and that.  After last week's post where I shared my little mini quilt made of leftover cut off triangles from Snow Goose, I was sure I was done with those tiny triangles!  But evidently not because for this week's Stay at Home Round Robin border, Wendy called for stars.  I love Friendship Stars and those little HSTs in blue and white made from the cut off triangles were perfect for a few stars.

But that's as far as I got!  How these stars will become part of the next border is still to be determined.  Maybe I will combine them with this coming week's border - looking forward to Monday to see what comes next!

Meanwhile I pulled out a project that has slowly evolved over the last two RSC years - the chandelier blocks.  Who knows why I have moved so slowly on this one, but these blocks are finally ready to sew up into a quilt top! 

Sewing up the top right corner with blocks and setting triangles.

And I got started on pink for February by making a few Split Nines and Zipper blocks as leader/enders.  Some pieces and parts are ready to go when I get back to work, this afternoon, hopefully!

Sharing at Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life for SAHRR Border #2

Soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #321

 It's been cold and snowy here...

Well, maybe not this cold, lol!  

Mike was checking Weather Bug the other night, and this is what popped up.

It made for a good laugh!

With the cold and snowy weather, and my half and half vision after the first cataract surgery, nothing much exciting has been going on.  I did make it over to my mom's place to go to a concert with her.  They have performers come in about once a week, and she always enjoys that.

This was a trombone quartet, the Hipbones!

They were a lot of fun to listen to!  I'm fascinated with how different instruments work, so I enjoyed hearing them talk about the different kinds of trombones, too.  Did you know there are tenor trombones all the way to bass trombones?

That was new to me!

I have been able to sew, and even decided I am comfortable with the rotary cutter, so when LeeAnna's question of the week about the Pantone Color of the Year came up, I went off on a search to see if I had any.  

Viva Magenta!  Read more about it there on Pantone's website.  My question: is magenta red or pink?  Maybe somewhere in between?  I found magenta on this chart of the shades of pink.

Image Source

In my fabric stash I found these two that I think might be magenta:

But I couldn't just stop there - I had to sew something with them - but what?  My first thought was, "What goes with magenta?"  A little more hunting through the stash pulled up a couple things, and then I remembered a block I've been wanting to try - the Zipper block.  I've seen them on several Rainbow Scrap Challenge blogs, but I think the original comes from here, Klein Meisje Quilts.  Here are my first two - in magenta!

Does this mean I've started a new project?

Probably... :)

Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday!"

I'm joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color.  

Slow Stitching on a Sunday

The Frosties were a slow stitching project for a long time last winter, and this winter they are finally sewn together, and sandwiched for quilting.  This week I've had some time to actually work on the quilting! 

So far I've just done some basic quilting along all the seams, and now I have to decide on something for inside the blocks.  Maybe some hand quilting to outline the snowmen?

Meanwhile, for some evening slow stitching, I traced Kathy Schmitz's January One Stitch at a Time Club's design, "Cozy Up."  I decided to stitch it mostly in a variegated brown/tan, DMC 105.  My comfy chair where I read/hand stitch/ have tea and coffee is brown, so I decided to shade in the chair with a brown colored pencil, too.

We're predicted to have a high of 11 degrees today, so I think it will be a good day for some stitching!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

January Table Scraps and the rest of the blues...

Last week I shared "Snow Goose," the Villa Rosa Designs project that I chose for the blog hop, which is all in dark blues and white.   My full post about it is HERE.

Technically, this tablerunner is my entry into the January Table Scraps Challenge, but...

I couldn't stop there!

Snow Goose is constructed with rectangles and squares, but leaves you with lots of cut off triangles, so in a Drop Everything and Make It moment, last weekend I made a little mini quilt out of them.  16 HSTs that finish at one inch make something that fits in the palm of your hand!  (Check out Sandra's DReAMi post at the link.)

Perfect for that morning mug of hot coffee!

Joy added an extra challenge this year of letters that we might use to inspire or describe our challenge entry.  For January, they are C, R, and/or J.   How did I use those letters?  This is a Just because I Can pRoject!   😊

Meanwhile the design wall is full of blue, too - I made 12 Blueberry Taffy blocks this month in lots of shades of blue.  Also some tiny hand-pieced bowties and four split 9s - some in darker blues, some in brighter.

And one more start in blue and white - the center of my Stay at Home Round Robin, plus the first border.  The first border prompt, from Roseanne at Home Sewn By Us,  is to make spool blocks.  I decided to make one large spool of my favorite thread in variegated blue!

This now measures about 15.5 inches square.

I'm ready for the next border, coming up Monday!

I've had lots of fun with blue this month, but I'm ready for a new color!  Linking up with 

The Joyful Quilter's January Table Scraps Challenge 

Soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

I Like Thursday #320

 It's been an interesting week at my house - bright and early on Monday morning I had my first cataract surgery!   I really liked and appreciated the staff at the surgery center that's connected to my eye doctor's office.  They were upbeat and efficient and very friendly!  Everything seems to have gone just as it should.

Now I'm actually looking forward to the next one on Feb. 6th, 

so that I will have two eyes that work the same!

I'm thankful for Roseanne's post at Home Sewn By Us about Sue's experience with cataract surgery.  I read it more than once!  My experience seems to be almost exactly like Sue described.  Thanks, Roseanne!

Also thankful for friends who have checked in by phone, text, and email.  Thanks for the card, Judy!

Really thankful for ebooks where you can make the font as big as you want!  I've been reading A World of Curiosities, the latest Louise Penny novel about Inspector Gamache.  It's a good one!

Goodreads

I was needing some fabric therapy yesterday, but not too sure I should be operating the rotary cutter yet, so I decided to pull out a scrap bin and sew a crumb block.  If you ask me my favorite color, I will most likely say Green, and that's the scrap bin I pulled out.  Even just sorting the bits by their shade of green was soothing.

I did make two crumb blocks - a bright green and a darker one.

However, since I started sewing along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, my favorite color truly is whatever color we're sewing with in any given month!  I definitely enjoy making quilts with all the colors of the rainbow.   I think my most favorite RSC quilt I've ever made is Rainbow Rails, finished sometime in 2020.

Thanks for visiting on "I Like Thursday!"

I'm joining in with LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color.  

Family Portrait

 ***If you're visiting from the Villa Rosa Designs blog hop, click HERE for that post!***

Besides making sure my project and post for the blog hop were ready to go, this week I also finished up the Flake Family Portrait, an embroidery design by Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting.  Melisa is so generous with sharing her embroidery and cross-stitch designs and I have a hard time resisting them!

Aren't they cute?!  I stitched this all in black floss which is a first for me, 

but I really like the look of it.

I decided to border it with black and white in a churn dash design.  You can't tell in the photo, but the black is not a solid - it has a very light gray flower design all through it.  Very pretty in person!

Because the front is so monochromatic, I chose a backing that is very colorful!  

(And appropriate, too, right?!)

And some Buffalo plaid for the binding.

This little mini is just the right size to hang on the side of my refrigerator for a seasonal decoration.

Now that the Family Portrait is finished, I'll be getting back to hand quilting the Dancing Pluses.   No new pictures this week, but I have made good progress on it.  That will be my Sunday Slow Stitching as I join in over at Kathy's Quilts.