I LIKE Thursday…..last Thursday of February !

 

Can’t identify where I found this meme. But I like it. Not my words, but I wish I had thought them. 🙂

Lots of things to like this week. Sunday was my birthday. As my brother reminded me “ it’s my last year in my 70s”!  Stinker!!  He’s younger than me, so he can tease me, I guess. 

Steve got me a cup warmer for my sewing room. I sew in the basement. My coffee cools off quickly down there in the winter. Now it won’t!

do you compliment your mate/partner and does he compliment you? What kind of compliment feels best to you, and to him?

Stay At Home Round Robin. Round #6

 

This week’s hostess for the last round of SAHRR, is Emily from Darling Dogwood.  Emily suggested the kite block. I perused the internet, You Tube, some books I own. My blocks need to be 3” finished. Most pieced blocks I found were paper pieced. I did find one I could copy for free, but I don’t really like paper piecing. Then I found a tutorial using a square and two rectangles to make a 6 1/2” block. I thought, I should be able to just do 1/2 measurements. Maybe cut a smidge bigger so there is wiggle room for trimming. Then last night while reading emails and blogs, I ran across Diann from Little Penguin Quilts’ post for Midweek Update!  Hooray. She’s doing little kites too!

She used a 4” square and 2 rectangles 2.5” x 5”. So using the tutorial from Scrapdash.com, called Catch That Kite, and Diann’s adjustments, I cut squares and rectangles. I did a test block because it’s a bit fiddly. 

I won’t accidentally use this one in this Christmas themed quilt!

Then I proceeded to sew 4 kite blocks, 3 1/2 “ unfinished. I’m using the same colors, cream, reds and greens. Varied pairs of kites. 

Which way do  you like them? Skinny points touching or fat bottoms ( actually the top of the kite) touching?

I’m linking up at The Darling Dogwood. If I get the rest of the kites done and complete the border, I’ll edit this post. 

Left border, pieces stitched together, not attached. 

bottom border, pieced but not attached.

You will have to wait for the Parade, on March 24th.  I ll construct a backing  and then try to find an available quilter. If not, it will have to wait its turn. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

ScrapHappy Saturday

 

This week I was busy creating  challenge piece for Project Quilting. It was not blue though. The prompt was Birthstone.  That easy as far as colors go, my birthday is in February, tomorrow in fact.  So purples is was/\. 

There were lots of seams. So I used my blue and white 2x3.5” rectangles to make another potato chip block. There was lots of chain piecing as this block came together. So only 1 blue potato chip block resulted. 

As I took this photo…. I noticed the 2 matching fabrics in the upper left corner. And it looks wonky.   Think I’ll be fixing this one!

 

Linking up with Angela for ScrapHappy Saturday. 

Stay Busy and Stay Healthy and Healthy and Hopeful

Stay At Home Round Robin. #5

 

Monday Feb 17. 

Boy, am I jealous of those of you who have EQ8 or other design software. Round five has me scratching my head. My wall hanging/table topper is nearly as big as I want to go. It’s 33.5”X33.5” after round 4. 

Brenda at Songbird Designs is the designer  of Round 5. Her post was stubborn and did not post when she had scheduled it when I looked first thing Monday morning. So I visited the other designers. Wendy used a 3” paper-pieced whole log cabin block. Others used a partial log cabin block. Some 1/2, some 1/4. I had intended to make my next border, the last one, by combining Round 5 & 6.  And to do it at 3.5”.  So for now, I will contemplate color choices and possible placement of a 1/4 log cabin. A 3.5’ quarter log cabin. 

Friday, February 21st

After finishing and posting Project Quilting 16.4 = Birthstone, I started thinking about the 1/4 log cabins for SAHRR. Maybe I’ll make 3three and see how they look on one corner. Well, several chapters of my audiobook later, I have this. Hmmm!

I think I like it. I used fabric that appeared previously. I found another scrap of the lighter leaf print, but only enough to do 12 1.5” squares as the second log. I added the green used in the Sliced Sqaure blocks from Round 4 as block 3, then blocks 4 & 5 were the background cream. I think it works. 

I’m linking up at Songbird Designs. I hope Brenda agrees that the corner quarter cabins will do. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful.

Project Quilting 16.4

Trish (aka QuiltChicken), the challenge mistress at Project Quilting, usually likes the Pantone Color of the Year and builds a challenge inspired by it. This year she was “underwhelmed “. 

Design With Pantone Color of the Year 2025

Learn more about applying the Color of the Year 2025 across various industries, determine color values across our color systems, explore palettes and color harmonies, and more.   Mocha Mousse

So she chose  Birthstone instead. 

Although I’m ok with brown, see my Three Common Block challenge….I really really like purple.   My birthstone is amethyst.  I have lots of purple in my scrap buckets. As I was sitting in my purple chair in my sewing room, contemplating what I should make, I spied a drawer under my cutting table that has unfinished stitchery in it. I opened the drawer and found…

It’s been waiting to be finished for years. Hard to see, but there are tiny lilac buds . Also I was sorting through some possible patterns, and came across this one. 

I knew what I would do. 

It wasn’t without issue!   Ooops!!

Sewing the parts together, correctly this time!

Final. The binding was stitched on at Thursday Stitchers today. 

Lots of purple with a smattering of red on the back.

Linking up for Project Quilting 16.4 at Persimon Dreams. 

This challenge is due February 23, which happens to be my birthday. Cool coincidence !

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful.

I LIKE Thursday. Feb 20

Prompt from Feb 13th , that I forgot to include.

 What is something you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet?

At this age there are few things left undone. I’m afraid of falling but I have wanted to try zip lining. I won’t now, because I’m too old and too scared. 

Our week has been pretty ordinary, except for the frigid temperatures. Several nights it was below zero. Like 21° below zero!

But next week looks promising.

Mr Busy and I have started walking at our county Recreation Center. It’s a lovely facility, with walking tracks, a pool, weight equipment and free weights, handball courts and pickleball too! 

We are walking 3 days a week. Working up to a mile now

I finally got the problem with my SAHRR solved. This week the prompt is 1/4 log cabins. I have only thought about it. There is round 6 coming up and my table topper is almost big enough. So I will wait to see what is suggested for round 6 and try to incorporate both . 

As of now:

Feb 20’s prompt:

do you give yourself the same compassion and understanding that you give to your family and friends? 

Believe me I try, but I’m not always successful. I find myself saying, “I’m sorry!” A lot. 

I’m listening to this on Audible. So good!

I’m also doing Project Quilting 16.4  Birthstone. 

February | Amethyst

Amethyst, the birthstone of February, is a variety of Quartz that carries a spectacular purple color that ranges from a blend of deep violet and red to a lighter lilac hue. Ancient Greeks believed that the stone protected the wearer from drunkenness and enabled them to keep a balanced mindset.

I’ve had fun playing with purple!. Join me and other likeminded bloggers over at Not Afraid of Color

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful. 

Slow Sunday Stitching 2-16-25

 

I’m still slowly stitching Octopuses or octopi, whichever you prefer. Google tells me this:

⚡ Quick summary

Both octopuses and octopi are acceptable plurals for octopus. Of the two, octopuses is the simpler and more commonly used. The proposed plural octopodes is based on the plural of the Ancient Greek word from which octopus ultimately derives. But it’s rarely used outside of the octopuses vs. octopi debate.

Didn’t know you were going to get an English lesson did you? 😉

I don’t stitch for long periods lately. The extreme cold aggravates my arthritis. My hands hurt. 

So today I will continue. Not much different from last week.

But I did finish this seasonal little.

It will be fully finished by the 1st 0f March. ☘️

Linking up with Kathy and other slow stitching friends. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Stay Healthy and Hopeful.

ScrapHappy Saturday

 

I’ve used up my blue 2” strips, so now I’m digging into slightly bigger scraps. I don’t save and sort 3.5” scraps. But I have some chunks and cut into FQs . So I’ll be good. I’ve been using my potato chip blocks as Leaders and Enders as I sew on the SAHRR and the current Project Quilting.  

If you have been following the saga of my SAHRR, then you will know that there has more unsewing than there was actual sewing. So I got 2 more potato chip blocks made this week. The middle one is from last week. 

And the SAHRR looked like this .

The “wrong” ones have been picked apart and the correcting strips inserted. Today I will sew the other borders. Phew! I need to be free on Sunday to do Slow Stitching, while contemplating the PQ prompt. 

It’s cold and not nice here, so I will sew interspersed with laundry and meal preparing. 

Happy Weekend All!  I linking up with Angela and other scrap-user-uppers today. 

Stay Busy and Happy and Healthy and Hopeful. 

My America is different today than it was last week. 

I LIKE Thursday

 

 

Today I’m thinking that it will be fun to spend several hours with good friends, stitching, sharing, enjoying. 

I was right. I have  stitching/quilting friends who are so creative. Today they gifted all of us Galentine’s Day gifts. 

A pencil and a big paper clip, clipped to a card that says, “you're a real gem” from Linette. And a double sided packet that had raspberry tea in one side….

And a Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Raspberry square on the other side from Aggie. 

Mr. Busy had a prescription to pick up yesterday, and came back home with a pot of tulips. A dark raspberry color. There could be a theme happening here. 

Mr. Busy and I made potato soup yesterday following a Pioneer Woman recipe I found on the web. 

Pioneer Woman

I thought, earlier in the week, that I should stitch something Valentine-y. But I knew I’d never finish it in time. So I started on  Shamrock Sampler from Melissa at Pinker n Punkin Quilting

Today I finished the stitching and will fully finish it soon, as a small bowl filler.

I used a scrap of Aida that was in my stash. Don’t mind the notch out of the rectangle. It will be fine. Melisa uses Aida 14ct mostly. This scrap was 18ct. It’s just a bit smaller. I used DMC 368 for the alphabet and DMC 367 for the shamrocks. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful.