ScrapHappy Saturday 2-26-22

Happy last Saturday in February! I’m linking up with Angela at Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022.

 I attended a 2 day sew-in this week. In preparation I brought out some leftover Hollow 9’s. When I put this one together 

I didn’t use the Aqua or brown/ black blocks. So I put them on the design wall. Not quite big enough for anything. 

So I cut white centers and put aqua and brown strips in a shoebox tote. 

 

Now I have this

And need a few more darks, seven to be exact,  then it will be a medium table topper. Fingers crossed.

Because I can’t stay focused, I guess! I also started on this placemat project. I’ll play catch-up till I have 1 in aqua/teals, one in reds and one in whatever the March color is. I picked up this at the give away table at the sew-in. 

And I also started this! So I would have a slow stitching project. It’s not teal, like the pattern. Mine will be dark forest green. 

sorry about the lousy photo

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

Finished or Not Finished Friday

 

I’m happy to finally have a quilty project to share. My Table Scraps challenge. A runner for the top of the short half wall between the entryway and our living room. You’ll see the coat hooks on the entry side. The big plank that has been there since we moved in is worn and need to be run through a planer. That is on Mr Busy’s list of things to get done this summer. He’ll have to hire it done and it’ll cost a “pretty penny” no doubt! Until then it will be covered by this long skinny runner! It’s 10.5” X 51”. I like the way it turned out. If you’re  curious about my process, click this link or scroll down to my previous post. 

I’m linking up with Alycia at Alycia Quilts and  Finished or Not Finished Friday!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy 

Table Scraps for February ~ Improv and Aqua

 

Improv? ? What? ?  That’s terrifying!  I like aqua!  I’m unfamiliar with improv! It’s curved seams and colors that don’t go together, right? 

So I searched Google!      From The Quilt Show!

Improv Piecing is a piecing technique that takes quilt making in a different direction for the Modern Quilter. The Traditional or Contemporary quilter will have a plan with specific blocks and colors in each location pieced with precision 1/4" seams. Quilters using Improv piecing are not bound by those rules.  The approach is to let your imagination and intuition be your guide to choose random pieces of fabric, sew them together and just keep going.  There are no bounderies with this approach to piecing. A variety of fabrics can be pieced or appliqued with many different threads or yarn. Some quilters approach their project with a specific intention, while others just start to see where the quilt takes them.

There were lot of articles! Then I thought! I own my very own copy of Kelly Young’s book, Scrappy Improv Quilting! Why not use her technique? 

 

So I started building crumb/slab blocks.

I had many strips not very many bits and pieces. So I strip pieced and cut them smaller. Switched the directions, you know! Improv! 

I didn’t cut up Jasmine! I’ll keep that large piece for a special backing or ?”

I cut square, 2.5” of a pretty aqua solid. Bought to put in Noah’s quilt, but the color wasn’t quite right! It works here. 

Slabs of crumps ready to cut into 2.5” squares. Some light, some darker! 

I worked on zig zags as I laid out a plus design for a long skinny table runner for the top of a half wall between our foyer and living room.  

There was graph paper involved!  And teeny tiny templates cause my brain felt overwhelmed!

Some pieces beside the machine.        It needs to be 10 X 51! 

I even improv pieced the batting!

Quilted and trimmed! The quilting was a work in progress, I sort of changed horses in the middle of the stream. Imperfect?   NO!  IMPROV!! 

The view to the messy east end of my cutting table.

Now, the view to messy west end of my cutting table!!

Even the backing was improvisationally pieced!!

On the half wall!  I staged the small Christmas cactus because the pot is aqua, but you can't see the pot, my perspective is off. There is a birthday card in front!  

The binding is scrappy too, mostly because I had lots of 2.5" strips left in my Aqua/Teal basket! I am so pleased with how it looks here. Mr Busy hasn't said one word!  Either he hasn't noticed. Or he hates it and can't think of anything nice to say, so says nothing at all!  I think he hasn't noticed!  

I'm linking up with Joy at The Joyful Quilter and her Table Scraps Challenge Link Up, on Friday the last weekend of the month! 2-25-22!  I'm loving this palindromic week!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy!

I LIKE Thursday #84

 

Good Morning! 

I have only a small list to share today! It’s not that I’m not grateful! I am! I just didn’t take photos  this week!

First of all, I’m grateful that I survived another year! Every one is a gift! 🎁 

Second,  I’m thankful for my family and friends! I got calls and well wishes yesterday! My kids and grandkids! Both my brothers reached out to wish me a happy birthday! 🎈 

It’s been bitter cold here. Minus temperatures and then wind chill! A neighbor shoveled our driveway, and front walk and porch on Tuesday!  ❄️ 🥶 

A birthday card from 2 of my great grandkids with their handwriting! 

Thank you LeeAnna for this place to sit and take the time to remember and be grateful! Go to her blog, Not Afraid of Color and check out what others have found to like this week.

 Today I have a chance to spend another day with friends, visiting and 🧵 sewing! And then Mr Busy will come to help me load my machine and all my stuff back in the car and back into the house. Another good thing to LIKE!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy! 

February OMG complete

 

My goal was to finish an age old counted cross stitch UFO. This is where I was on Feb 1st. So close and yet lots to do, to call it done! I carried this one forward from January. My January post is here!

It is finished. Laundered, pressed and framed. Ready for Christmas 2022! ⤵️

I’m sharing at Elm Street Quilts.  Thanks Patty for continuing to provide this place to set a goal and try to achieve it!

                      Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - February Finish Link-up

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy 

To -Do Tuesday #79

Good Morning! I'm checking in with Linda at Texas Quilt Gal for To-Do-Tuesday. I had moderate success this week.




To-Do for Feb 15th- Feb 21st:

1. Continue on Table Scraps Challenge. Decide on binding. ✅

quilting nearly done, binding is too!

2. Make 2 more string blocks in Aqua. ✅

current two to match last years two

3. Mail CiL blocks to Kat. ✖  The package is ready to go to the post office, but it is too cold to shovel the 1.5" of snow. It's -9, as I write this.  Our schools are on a two hour delay! The wind chill or feels like temp is -32! 

I should have gone Saturday morning. But......I must go out tomorrow, so I will take it then. 

4. Find or  construct a backing for a small donation quilt. ✅ I sorted through my tote of donated pieces and found this !  I think it will be just right. It's flannel. 

And here is my list for the upcoming week. My regular monthly sewing group is meeting for a two day mini retreat, Wed and Thurs.  I have a small plan. 

Next week: 

1. Put together a top for donation  through H2H at Mini Retreat. 

2. Finish posts for TSC and OMG! 

3. Get one more Growing Up Odd block made and decide if 9 blocks plus sashing are ENOUGH! I’m getting tired of this block! 

4. Sew something else at Mini Retreat.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy 

ScrapHappy Saturday! President’s Day Weekend!

 

I didn’t think I had sewed on teal/ aqua this week. Except I finished my Table Scraps Challenge project. But it will be revealed during Joyful’s Linky Party next Friday! 

Then I remembered I did make a couple of string blocks! Did I do it this week or last week?  

Four string blocks! 2 made last year, two made last week. If you look closely, lots of the same fabrics! Not much added to my stash. The top two were last year’s, the bottom two this year! 

I’ve started another cross stitch. A small blue teapot on a bread cloth. My patterns are old, so the colors suggested are very dated! 80’s maybe. Country blue and pink!  But  my hoop is aqua and so is my needle minder!  And my cutting mat!

So, that’s all the aqua/teal sewing at this house! I’m linking up with Angela’s party, ScrapHappy Saturday

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy!   

(Finally) Finished or Not Finished Friday

 

I’m linking up with Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday.  

This counted cross stitch project has been ongoing, set aside, picked up again, stitched on, put away, and so on and sew on for years! Now it is done. 

 

It’s laundered, pressed and mounted in a red lacquer tray frame. It will hang on the dining area wall during the Christmas holidays, 2022. For now it is packed away with other Christmas decor. 

It has a glass in the frame to protect the stitchery, but I won’t use it as a tray. The tray frame was purchased from Sudbury House, when I started the stitching in 2001. It was recommended for the stitching by the magazine the cross stitch chart was published in. They still sell tray frames, but not this style. I am very pleased with the finished product! It took Mr Busy and me, 4 tries to get it centered, square and straight on the backing board. He even go out his micrometer, to measure from the frame inside edge to the red X’s surrounding Santa Baker! Love language comes in lots of different forms! Not always chocolates and roses!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy 

I LIKE Thursday #83

 Good Morning All! Hope you will go check out LeeAnna’s blog, Not Afraid of Color and the other blogs she has listed. You are sure to find a smile or a giggle or maybe a tear to share!

Here are some things I LIKE: 

You know I like words-

This is a variation of words my mama lived by. “You don’t appreciate the mountains(highs) if you don’t experience the valleys(lows)!”

This is true of many makers in our midst! I’m thinking of you LeeAnna and you too, Joy! 

And the very old UFO is finished! Getting it mounted and framed was harder than I had imagined. Bonnie Hunter says fabric is fluid. And 20 years of handling this fabric, putting it in a hoop and taking it out of a hoop, poking a needle with floss in and out a zillion times distorted the design a bit. It took Mr Busy and I several hours to measure and mark, position and reposition to get the design centered. It’s still not perfect. There is a bump or wrinkle in the upper right hand corner and I couldn’t bring myself to ask hubby to take the frame apart again. It’s  past Christmas so I will pack it away and next fall I’ll ask again. He would have done it, but I was feeling a bit “crazy”. Ever time we slid the back board, the mounting board, the stitchery, the red wooden mat, and the glass  into the tray frame it skewed somewhere. This was the best of all the tries! 

This is it hanging on the wall in the dining area. 

I really like pictures like these. My two youngest grand nephews. My brother’s grandsons. The little ones turned 1 on Tuesday!

 

For Fun: 

We finished watching Cobra Kai on Netflix! I give it 3.5 stars. I love that the original actors from the Karate Kid movies, appeared as the grown up Daniel LaRusso, Johnny Lawrence and John Kreese. Even Terry Silver and Ali Mills make a cameo appearance! I hated that there were so many bullies and the solution was karate! I didn’t like that there were few societal consequences for most of the acts of vandalism! But I’m an “old lady” like that! 

We (meaning me, Mr Busy plays Sudoku on his tablet) have been watching season 2 of Sweet Magnolias on Netflix! It’s a “chick flick” for sure. But enjoyable!  Season 2 is done, fingers crossed for a 3rd!  

I finally finished my Christmas read!  It’s a  cozy mystery, one of my favorite genres. I rated it 4 out of 5 stars. 

And now am working on this one. It was on the FREE table at our local quilt show last fall! My friend brought it to me! I didn’t sort through all those books and magazines! 

There are actually 4 short stories! I’ve just started the second one and there is a connection to the first story. I wonder if all 4 have a connection! I think maybe! 

I made brownies for Valentine’s Day.  I’ve had to freeze 1/2 of them. Too much for just the two of us. I meant to take a photo, but didn’t! 

Until next time, 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy