February OMG Goal has been met!

My February OMG goal was to make 4 bowl cozies. I gifted some at Christmas and had a request for more. So I scrounged through my larger scraps! Tried to find something fitting for each recipient and made sure I had 100% cotton batting and thread. Assembly line sewing sometimes makes you think of a faster method. There are 8 angles to cut and sew in each bowl. Times 4, which turned into 5, that is 40 angles!  I after the first 8, I decided to make a template.

 Not pretty, it's part of a facial tissue box, but it worked great!

 Angles marked, stitched and trimmed!

More angles being stitched.

 First one done, 4 others on deck to do the final joining of the lining to the outside!

Here are all five. Four outsides and one inside. Both white ones have turquoise outsides.

I mailed them off for Valentine's Day. One to my daughter, one to my sister, 3 to my granddaughter
and her fiance! (Because the fabric was so cute and I had enough!)


I will link to Patty's
 Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - February Finish Link-up


Now to decide what I will do for March???


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

The Last RSC So Scrappy Saturday in February!

Wow!  Even though February is a short month, I am ready for it to be over. Record cold and snow in my area and today is my birthday.....! 🎂  Just FYI....there would be a lot more candles on my cake than this emoji shows!!!!!!

I finished my Yellow Bow tie blocks and Yellow Sprout blocks  and decided to join the Tiny Tuesday group. The blocks are 5" and then they are framed to become 7.5".  I showed some of my others in this post but here is the tiny flower block I made this week.

I am not particularly fond of tiny little squares and HST. I mean I like them, I am just not good at making them.  But the directions from Academic Quilter made it fairly easy. Especially when I remembered to read every line and trim the blocks as directed.

 These little leaf parts were  to trimmed to 1-1/4 inches and then sewn to make a 2 inch square!

 Not much trimmed off, but some tiny little triangles and some slivers!

That's a nickel to give some size comparison. I worried when I selected the pink fabric. It had some flowers that were kind of yellowish....they did not show at all, by the time I trimmed to size. Just a lovely dusty pink!
I lost one little point when I put the diagonal setting triangles on, but I am happy with this lovely block, so outside my comfort zone!

I'll be linking up to So Scrappy Saturday for RSC 19.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

TGIFF and Finished or Not Friday Comfort Quilt

I finished the comfort quilt for my sister. The label is on it, though to protect her privacy I won't show it to you. You'll have to trust me that it is done!

I am going to be with her for her second round of Chemotherapy in early March. I will give it to her then.

Sorry about the corners being cut off in the photo. Indoor pictures are hard sometimes.  It is snowing again outside...so no photos are possible. Next year I really hope to have a "clothesline" set up so I can do outdoor photos no matter the weather.

This is the backing I chose. It is flannel. Her husband was a cabinet maker and I hope the wood like fabric will fell like his arms around her when she uses this quilt.
The quilting, though hard to see is called Wandering Daisy done by my friend Lynn Grassel. If you look closely in the light background you can see the leaves look like wandering hearts. I love that! It's done in a variegated thread that picks up the colors in the rectangles.

I'm off to finish some laundry and check out the other Finished or Not Friday link ups at Myra's blog, Busy Hands Quilts.
And I'm linking up with Alycia and TGIFF at Alycia Quilts.




Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Red and Yellow Tiny Blocks

Last week was hard. Long story, short. I needed something to do!  Something small and quick, something I could complete but would keep me occupied for short sections of time. I was skipping around reading blogs and logged on to So Scrappy. I participate in Angela's Rainbow Scrappy Challenge and I was checking to see if I could link to other blogs from last week, to read about their progress. It was Tuesday!

Now, I had decided not to participate with Tiny Tuesday when Angela started it. But there it was a yellow Ohio Star block. Happy and fun!  A link to a great tutorial and I was hooked. So here is what kept me busy last week as I waited on daily reports from my Sis. The links to the posts and the individual PDFs posted under the RSC19 Sampler tab on Angela's blog made it easy for this late comer!  Thanks for all your hard work, Angela!  

Here are the red blocks from January, some I made twice....I got carried away. On the design wall with the yellow blocks they are already favorites. I am looking forward to making the tiny blossom block today. And I prepped a second red circle block, that just needs to be appliqued to the tiny square. 

I'm linking up to Tiny Tuesday at So Scrappy! 


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Tiny Bits of Yellow

Last week was a difficult one for me. Emotionally. My sister, recently widowed, started her treatment for lung cancer. Being a cancer survivor myself, I was concerned, worried, anxious. The quilt I made for her, was at the long armer. I wanted to drive to our LQS, to buy fabric for the binding. It is 20 miles away, but she was closed due to illness. Luckily, I checked her facebook page before driving out!  Normally I would use something in my stash, but this quilt needed fabric to coordinate with the front and the backing.

Long story, short. I needed something to do!  Something small and quick, something I could complete but would keep me occupied for short sections of time. I was skipping around reading blogs and logged on to So Scrappy. I participate in Angela's Rainbow Scrappy Challenge and I was checking to see if I could link to other blogs from last week, to read about their progress. It was Tuesday!

Now, I had decided not to participate with Tiny Tuesday when Angela started it. But there it was a yellow Ohio Star block. Happy and fun!  A link to a great tutorial and I was hooked. So here is what kept me busy last week as I waited on daily reports from my Sis.

I did the Ohio Star, the Friendship Star then went back one week and did the 9-patch and the Shoo Fly block. I am happy to report that the block making went well and my sister is doing well also.

It is snowy and blowy here in NE Wyoming. Messy roads, no travel advised outside the city limits
and driveways that need attention  but these block are making me smile.

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

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

ps: Lynnie's Longarming called and my quilt is off the machine, so I will have it tomorrow. I did get out to the LQS for binding fabric, and last night I got it cut and joined and pressed. So I am ready to finish that this week. And there needs to be a label made also!

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