March One Monthly Goal. Finish Link Up

My OMG for March 2024 was to turn the UFO  "30 Blocks in 30 Days" flimsy into a shower curtain. 

I worked on it. In between, RSC blocks, Project Quilting Challenges, Table Scraps Challenge and a baby quilt. 

Some squares and rectangle were added to the sides. 

Then I made a backing out of muslin and measured and remeasured and attached the backing right sides together only on the sides. I do not have 12 grommets or extra large eyelets in my stash. So a shopping trip will have to happen on Monday!  Monday is April!!!!

So I clothespinned the top to some wire hangers, twisted the hooks and hung them from the shower rod. This is the crude look!

It is wide enough, but I need to interface the top to accept the grommets and I think the bottom will need some added length in order to get a decent hem that can be weighted in the corners to help it hang straight. I've made drapes in my past life and will look to see it I can find drapery weights. 

So I did not finish my goal, but I made progress. And that is OK by me.  April OMG will to FINISH. 

I'm linking up with Anne-Marie at Stories from the Sewing Room. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Last Purple ScrapHappy Saturday!

There was not much purple sewing going on in my space this week. I was trying to get my 30 Blocks flimsy wide enough to become a shower curtain. I measured and cut squares and rectangles of several colors. And I measured and sewed muslin for a backing. Not much to look at. I didn’t get it done. 

But there was a bit of purple in the mix! 

I had a couple of days where I wasn’t feeling my best. Achey and out of sorts. So I did some cross stitch, read a book and napped. 

Unstitched the hems in some gifted gingham curtains and sewed the pieces back together for a backing for the Jasmine quilt. 

I posted about my Table Scraps Challenge Thread Catcher.   There were just small projects completed! 

Linking up with Angela at ScrapHappy Saturday. Wishing Happy Easter to all who celebrate and Happy Weekend to others. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Table Scraps Challenge. March ~ Purple and Birds

I made crumb blocks while sewing purple Split Nines and Zipper Blocks.

And I kept stitching together little purple pieces! Wondering what should they become. I thought of a cover for my AccuQuilt cutter. But, that would mean I’d have to cut into fat quarter or chunks of purple to make it big enough. I’m not yet willing to do that, because “ what if I need a 8” square of that!”   

 I finally settled on a thread catcher at the end of my ironing board. 

So it was done by March 19th and that was good because it’s Project Quilting week! 

On Thursday the 21st as I was writing this post, it suddenly hit me that Joyful gave us a prompt to go with purple!   BIRD!   Well, phooey! No bird in any of these fabrics! Now I know, Joyful stated that the theme is not mandatory! But I’ve always used the theme so I’m not gonna quit now! So off I went to my sewing room. Maybe I could appliqué a bird? Probably! Maybe I could embroider a bird or the word BIRD! Definitely, but I’m working on Project Quilting, due on Sunday the 24th. Maybe there is a button!

Voila, a bow ornament with a sort of a shank on the back! A button, it is!! So now there is a bird!🐦 

It waited til after PQ 15.6 was completed and posted. Then the button was attached. 

Here on the front of my ironing board because the light is better. It will be pinned to the wide end of my board with corsage pins! Do you keep those? When was the last time you were given or wore a corsage? 

Linking up with The Joyful Quilter’s Table Scraps Challenge on the last Friday of the month. This month it is the 29th. There still time to join the fun. 

A closer look at the bits button!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

I LIKE Thursday. 3-28

I’ve been pretty busy in the sewing room. We finished up Project Quilting. The last challenge theme was Irish Chain.  I decided on a shelf topper. My space is 10 x 44. 

Scrappy greens , because Trisha announced on St Patrick’s Day, with a nod to the RSC color of the month purple. The centers are purple and the binding is purple. 

I also cut pieces for a baby quilt using some novelty fabric I had. It was a pattern I won from Sara Goer Quilts during PQ15.4. The pattern is called Back and Forth. 

Close up of the Princess Jasmine fabric!

I also finished my Table Scraps Challenge, but you’ll have to check back tomorrow on my blog, or at The Joyful Quilter’s Linky Party. 

I finished Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. 

I gave it 5 Stars. It’s raw, it’s real, it’s hopeful!

My book club is reading Angel Falls by Kristen Hannah. I don’t have a copy and all library copies are checked out. So I’m reading this one from a favorite author. 

Mr Busy and I recreated our Friday Night Date Night with a visit to a local favorite restaurant. It’s the House Special Pepperoni! It was good, but not necessarily awesome. It’s wood fired and we like some of their other flavors better. I also had a beer, called a Sour. It was kind of like a strawberry lemonade!

 For March28, 2024

Baby animals are often born in the Springtime. If you could choose any baby animal to be your pet, what would you pick and why? Don't worry about space or legal restrictions, just imagine having it.

I kinda like all babies born in the Spring!  The ones we see around here are calves, lambs and horses. Also the farm stores have baby duck and chicks. Of all those, maybe I’d like a lamb as a pet. I’ve never been up close and personal to a lamb, but I assume they are wooly and cuddly! Maybe we wouldn’t have to pay the neighbor kid to mow the lawn. We could just let “Lambchop” eat her fill! LOL!    To be transparent, I’m not interested in any pet at this time. We’ve had pets since our oldest was a baby and she’s going to be 60 this year. I’m just  over it for now! 

Joining LeeAnna and friends over at Not Afraid of Color!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Scrappy Happy Saturday ~ some more purple

I thought I made enough Split Nine blocks. And I made 4 zipper blocks. But as I was sorting through the scraps to find crumb block bits I ran across this and made a 5th zipper block! Too pretty not to include!

My crumbs added up to a slab about 18”  by 8”. It turned into a thread catcher.

Whose hands are those? 

And I used some purple in a sweet baby quilt. This is a pattern I won during Project Quilting, from Sarah Goer quilts. It’s called Back and Forth. And now all but an uneven strip of the Princess Jasmine fabric is  gone! 

I have some pieces cut for a different quilt with some HOT Wheels for the focus fabric!  Vroom!

I linking up with ScrapHappy Saturday only on this Sunday afternoon. I was hoping for weather to photograph the Jasmine top but it's snowing and not good photo weather. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Slow Sunday Stitching March 24

Hopefully today there will be some slow stitching. It's snowing a bit today, so the Winter Sampler seems appropriate. The fabric I ordered from Stitchonomy arrived. I ,of course ,had to add to my floss stash. And this is what happened when I got home from stocking up. Our JoAnns is closing, soon. Lots of floss still left but I heard from a local young crochet artist that there was fighting over fat quarters! For Pete’s sake!

I still use these floss bobbins. I have 3 boxes of DMC and a fourth of miscellaneous brands, inherited from my mom and my mother-in-law.


So I got started: Just barely…..

I usually like to start in the middle, but this is a mystery. 

And one row at a time is released. So I found the middle and gridded the vertical and the left leg of the horizontal. The first row is DARK NIGHTS.   The K is barely started. I ordered the.needle minder when I ordered the fabric. The color here isn’t really true. It’s a dark deep teal. I don’t know the name of the color.


I'll link up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching today.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Project Quilting 15.6. Irish Chain.

Trisha announced the last and final challenge on Sunday the 17th, St Patrick’s Day. She chose the traditional Irish Chain block.

 RULE ONE: Your project must be inspired by the traditional Irish Chain design. 

I’ve never made an Irish Chain quilt. So I needed to do some research.  When you Goggle Irish Chain you find lots of beautiful quilts to look at.  As I was on Google I ran across a tutorial from Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter

I’ve used her tutorials before and find them clear and easy to understand. She uses strip piecing which is normally a time saver. I didn’t want to do a whole quilt because I can’t get it quilted in the allotted time. I had been thinking about a  shelf topper for this part of my bookcase/storage area. At the very least it needs a good cleaning/clearing!!

The shelf area is 44 inches long x 10 inches deep.  Perfect for 10” finished blocks! 

I needed 4 blocks, in a table topper you don’t get the full chain effect, but the idea is there. I had green scraps, it was St Patrick’s Day after all, and my sewing room is green with purple accents. Purple is the RSC color for March. Soooo. This is what it looked like Tuesday evening.

Wednesday was a beautiful day here. 62 degrees and no wind ! A perfect day to spray baste the shelf topper. I found a scrap of batting, 55X14. And located a piece of fabric given to me by my ex-DIL after she quit sewing to work on her degree. 

I had to piece it to get it wide enough, but it won’t matter on the back! 

Spray basting on the front deck. Warm and sunny. Lots of shadows! 

Thursday I was at Stitching Group in the AM, but after lunch I made binding and attached it. It’s Purple! A bit was hand stitched to the back Thursday night, but my hands started to hurt so I quit. Then finished it Friday afternoon, while on Aunt Em’s  Scrappy Possibilities Zoom Mini Workshop ,   and then while finishing my audio book. 

It’s on the shelf 

and making my “ stuff and ephemera “ look pretty good!

I have so enjoyed participating in Project Quilting again this year. Thanks Kim and Trish for a great 12 weeks. During the week of PQ 15.4 Hourglass, I won a pattern from Sarah Goer. I’ve been putting those pieces together as Leaders and Enders for PQ 15.6 Irish Chain. I’ll show it sometime next week. 

Linking this post up at Persimon Dreams. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

I Like Thursday! Third Thursday of March

Yesterday was the first day of spring. Technically, the Spring Equinox happened at 9:06 pm on Thursday night. So Wednesday was the first DAY of spring. 

I hung the Easter Egg banner! 

Easter is just around the corner! It’s early this year. 

The biggest thing this week was the awarding of the QOV to my Uncle in Pierre SD! 

The quilt is Long May She Wave, designed by Alycia Carmin of Alycia Quilts. I pieced the quilt and my friend Aggie quilted it! My uncle’s birthday was March 1st. He was 94! He served in the Air Force in Korea, during the Korean Conflict. 

I finished reading 

I gave it 5/5 ⭐️

And I’m almost finished listening to 

I haven’t rated it yet, but it is such a well written story.

Two different stories, both very well written. 

LeeAnna wanted to know what spring creatures we see in our area. 

   I saw the first robin last week and a rabbit that lives two doors down! We’ve had a pretty mild winter, so the squirrels have been out and about since early February. I even saw a wasp a week or so ago. We see deer and antelope all year around. 

Joining LeeAnna and friends at Not Afraid of Color

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!