Yellow, Happy Sunshiny Yellow!

February's color has been selected!  It is YELLOW! 

I have barely started.  One Sprout block done and some scraps sorted. I will be doing Bow Tie Blocks and Sprout blocks. Last year's crumb blocks are still in the project bin!


UPDATE:    I now have 4 sprout blocks done and 4 Bow Tie Blocks.

I did a quick calculation for the Bow Tie quilt I am aiming for...I think I need 4 of each color for ten months. If I need to add one or two extra, I will do that at the time I put the top together.
 I continue to cut background squares and 2.5" strips and green stem strips for the Sprout blocks. I don't have a layout decision for this one yet.  I sew the background squares as leaders and enders. I keep them stacked on a small design board.

I am linking this post at So Scrappy Saturday at Angela's blog.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

A finish and a not quite finished.

Finally a finish!

One of my projects for February was to make 4 bowl cozies. I completed the top for my sister's comfort quilt . It's a pattern from the Oct/Nov 18 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts, called Bonfire by Scott Flanagan. I used my own set of batiks and cut them to 2 1/2" wide. So the colors are my choices, but the design and the original colors instantly made me think of my sister.

While I waited for my long armer to return from her vacation in Florida, I started on the bowl cozies.
I sorted through my larger chunks,  and tried to come up with fabrics that matched the intended recipients. The pattern calls for 10" squares and 2 10" squares of COTTON batting. In the past I have trouble with the bulk of 2 layers of batting and 2 layers of fabric, when it comes to sewing them together and turning them inside out , then top stitching. In fact, last night as I finished them, I broke a needle.  A new needle, UGH!  I made an extra cozy and this time used batting cut at 9.5 inches square. I like that better for putting it together and I hope it works as it is used. We will see.  After I posted about the bowl cozies in my February OMG Link Up , I got a comment from Lori in SD, regarding plate cozies. I have not heard of them before, but I am going to give them a try. 14" squares and shallow, barely there darts!  I'll report back on how they go!

Waiting in line!  I did these in a sort of production line way. I did each step, 4 times. I found it cumbersome to use my ruler to mark the darts on each piece, so I rummaged for a scrap of lightweight cardboard. ( I took apart a "Kleenex" box) and cut a template.

It's not pretty, but it worked great. I just made sure that the original corner was square, then did the 1" and 2" measurement and cut off the triangle.  Much faster.

Stitched, turned, top stitched and ready to mail!

Insides

 Yes, there are 5. The one with the smaller piece of batting matches the two I made for my granddaughter and her fiance, so I'll send them 3.  They have a house mate, so maybe sometimes they all eat together!

Outsides. (the white one here as the same teal outside as the one in the lower right hand corner)

I will be linking this post at Myra's Finished or Not Friday!  ps: I almost forgot to come back and add the link!  
and Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict!




Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Slow Stitching Sunday #2

I start stitching projects often. It seems they are DrEAMI projects for me. Drop Everything and Make It kinds of things. I am always starting a new one and I have a drawer full of stitchery that need to be completed. You know, made into a pillow, or framed and hung on the wall, or turned into a needle case or pincushion! 

This is the latest one, started in October. Hopefully by next Christmas it will be completed! It’s called Hometown Christmas by Sweetwater. A friend in my Thursday Stitchers Group purchased it at a local quilt show. I did not attend ,I was out of town. But I found it online, at Shabby Fabrics. 

  This is the third block, I’ll finish it today. You can see that I mostly use a hoop and magnifiers.  For the blanket stitching around the trees I am not using a hoop. They are stiff and I have better control not using a hoop. 

I had to purchase muslin for the stitching and the applique, but all the other fabrics are from the Christmas bin! I have lots of Nancy Halvorsen fabrics from several years. I love the non-traditional colors. Oh, there is red and green, but also aqua, black, and lime green.


I'm linking this up to Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday!


Stay Busy and Stay Happy! 

Happy Slow Stitching today!

Linking Up February OMG Goal

January has come and gone. Our weather has been rather mild and a bit boring. My temperature quilt is a whole lot of blue!  We did not get caught in the Polar Vortex and we are thankful. We did get wind though, so we have snow drifted, but not snow in other places. 

I have been working on the comfort quilt for my sister. Three blocks to go and then I will make sure I like the arrangement and put the blocks together into a top. That is NOT my Feb goal. 

My February OMG goal is to make 4 bowl cozies!  A bowl cozy looks like this...

this picture from the craftwarehouse.com site. They have a tutorial on their website.  I promised my youngest granddaughter and her fiance some bowl cozies at Christmas. I made them baked potato bags. Also, my daughter requested a second one. I made her one ( she lives alone) and also my sister mentioned that she had seen them at a craft show in her area and thought one would be nice. So that is my goal! 

I will link up with Patty at:
Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal February Link-up. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Slow Stitching Sunday

Hello, this my first time linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday! I’ve been doing lots of hand embroidery lately. This piece is from Jenny of Elefantz from 2018. It's her Year in the Garden BOM. You can see I did not stay caught up, but my philosophy is ...April comes around again!!

It looks like I am just about out of green DMC #989 but have plenty of #988. Not much difference that I can tell.  I am using what I have for this project. Even the fabric to make it into a quilt, eventually,  is from my stash!  Hooray for me!

Several friends meet every Thursday to stitch, visit and share. We are lucky enough to have a well lit room in our local Catholic school, available to use.
This isn’t the only hand stitching project I have in the works! I’ll show another next week.
Thanks for this opportunity to share my slow stitching.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Week #4 - Red Saturday

I love seeing all the red blocks. I am especially drawn to the red Tiny Tuesday blocks. I waffled back and forth about whether to join in with Tiny Tuesday and finally just decided I had "too many irons in the fire" as my Dad used to say!  I will follow along though. They are so cute!

My red blocks have grown to 4  larger Bow Tie blocks, following the diagram and probable layout from Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.  I downloaded this diagram before Craftsy did it's thing.  You can go to her blog site and check out her patterns for sale. And there are lots of options to other bow tie blocks on Pinterest and all over the internet! I have a sort of plan for the bow tie blocks, I'll keep you posted.

Sprout blocks are out there too!  They have been on my radar for the last year of so. Traceyjay Quilts did a fabulous sprout quilt for her friend. Check out her blog too!  She has a link to a graphic on Flicker.     Sprout block mini tutorial here.  Or if you are really clever, you could probably draft one up on your own with graph paper and a photo. My blocks are 2.5" unfinished because I have a ton of those cut already! They end up being,  6.5" by 13.5" unfinished.

So today, my plan is to continue to work on the quilt for my sister. Mr Busy and I are going to an RV show and vendor sale and maybe he'll take me to lunch. A girl can always hope!!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

I'll be linking up with So Scrappy Saturday at soscrappy
and Oh Scrap at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework tomorrow.

January's OMG is done....Plus!

Now the rest of the year will follow!

My goal was to have a decision made on the blocks for my Temperature quilt and to have the 1st 21 days of January constructed and sewn into a row!.  That is done.......

I do have one little problem. I am using Weatherunderground as my information source. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we got some snow and it got really cold. On Thursday I was anxious to get a few more blocks made, so I checked the previous day’s data earlier than normal. I recorded the high as 21 and the low as 6.  When I looked again , Thursday night at 10 pm, when my alert came up on my Ipad the high was 30 and the low 18.  Quite a difference!!  I guess I’ll go back to checking it only at 10pm...staying consistent. Has any one else experienced this?


I have also been working on a comfort quilt for my sister. It is going really well. Some of you may remember that my sister lost her husband in late October of 2018. I knew I wanted to make her a quilt, but the holidays slowed me down. Lots of other things took precedence.  Then Friday, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Can you say"WTHeck!!!".  You would think that the news would have kicked me in the pants to get it done, but the first few days I was just too sad and too depressed to sew. I have made some progress in the last few days. Half of the blocks are done and the other half are cut and laid out on a sheet pan!  :)  I bought 2 pkg of oven liners, due to their larger size. These blocks are 12.5 X 16.5 unfinished.

 Pardon my messy space.  Seems like I just move it from one section of the room to another. My sister calls it "stirring your stuff"!

That is all for now. I am linking up with:

Myra at Busy Hands Quilts, Finished or Not Friday!
and Patty at Elm Street Quilts,  OMG Finish Link Up.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy