Finished or Not Finished Friday! 3-4-22

 

I wish I had a quilt finish to show! I hoped to have two small donation quilts at least basted and quilted! 

But it was not to be. My usual method is to spray baste outside. On the porch or in the garage. I couldn’t get the legs of my small collapsible table to extend. The strength in my hands is not what it used to be. So I forged ahead bent over the low table! Ugh! 

I unrolled the smaller quilt and started to spray! I knew the can was almost gone. Curses! I ran out of basting spray! So I put everything away, intending to get a new can while I was out on Thursday! My senior brain let me forget! I will stop at JOANN'S today, when I go pick up my groceries! 

So the only finish I can report (in the quilting category) is that I FINISHED OFF the can of basting spray! Next week, I’ll return. The cold weather is coming back, but I’ll try to get it done even so. Fingers Crossed! 

I did get the stitching done on this little gem and picked a backing fabric.

My Shamrock banner is hung on the wall. 

 And I finished reading this book! 

I’ll link up with Alycia Quilts and Finished or Not Finished Friday. You can click her Linky party and check out some other quilter’s “real finishes”!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy!

I LIKE Thursday #85

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 Good Morning Positive Thinkers!  Thanks LeeAnna, who posts at Not Afraid of Color for this opportunity to share the positive good things in our lives. Join us, won't you?

I have a few "Likes" to share today!

Words of course!

I've been playing WORDLE:  Have you tried it?       Here is a link:

This is my board from yesterday!

Wordle 256 4/6

⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜

🟨🟨⬜⬜🟩

⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Entertainment.  Mr Busy is working his puzzle.  The blue trays are sorter trays. He added a set of 4 more, the white ones, that he made out of Dollar Store foam board. 

It's a tough one, but cute. Dogs, dogs, dogs and a football!

We have been watching 1883 on Paramount +.    It is awesome!     Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Isabel May!   Great story, great cast!

If you don't know, it's the story of the settlers who travel across our country and some are the Duttons from the Yellowstone series!  

Misc:

I picked up my regular Friday grocery order at WalMart. Some of my groceries were in Home Depot bags!!  How funny is that?  Several friends told me that they( Walmart) had run out of regular plastic bags, which I hate anyway. So they purchased some from  our local Home Depot. Way to be a good neighbor, HD!   But I wish they had just asked me to bring my own fabric bags and loaded them from the totes into my bags in the back of the car.  That's how they do it in California!

I learned how to make a collage photo for my Google profile!   Fun! 

Food:  I made quiche for supper one night!  Yup, that's a Christmas coffee cup but I like the shape so I use it occasionally! 

It's a recipe from my mom that I tweaked a bit. I used bacon, left-over broccoli, onion and peppers. 

Today I will sew with friends at the library. We call ourselves the Thursday Stitchers. We don't carry our machines, just embroidery, or stitching on binding. We have some that work with wool or felt, one is working on a Kawandi of sorts. I have an embroidery project that it ongoing. And there is always Show and Tell. And we visit and,visit and visit.are 

Today the weather is good. A high of 66 today!  That is unseasonalby warm for out area. Then back to more winter like 46 on Friday, then a high of 28 on Saturday. Typical March!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

March OMG Link Up 2022

 

I'm linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilt to set my goal for March!

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal March Link-up

I’ve been sewing 2” square into 9 patches (3x3), 21 patches (3x7) and 49 patches (7x7). Then sashing them . Following a pattern from Wedding Dress Blues called Growing Up Odd. The link to her blog is here!

There are 9 big blocks on my back up design wall. It’s located in the downstairs hallway. The lighting is poor! 

I don’t think this is as big as I want it, so I’m increasing it to 4x4. I need 7 more blocks! There are 91 ~2" squares in each big block, plus internal sashing.There will be sashing between the blocks also. 

So my OMG for March 2022 is to complete 7 more blocks! It seems like it takes forever! I’m using them as Leaders and Enders, but at some point I have to stop and put the rows together! So now I have a goal! 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy 

To-Do Tuesday #80

 

I'm linking up with Linda at Texas Quilt Gal to keep track of my goals and in-progress projects. Heaven knows I need all the help I can get.  I seem to be "stirring my chaos" as my sister used to say!

Last week I hoped to:

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

Ninja Friends, from this book! ↓ The pattern is called  Simple Gifts. It's a great book, recommended to me by Nancy at Grace and Peace Quilting. 

2. Finish posts for TSC (Table Scraps Challenge) and OMG(One Monthly Goal)  ✅ done…see here and here

3. Get one more Growing Up Odd block made and decide if 9 blocks plus sashing are ENOUGH! ✅

I completed the block on the lower left and decided that 9 blocks is not enough. Even though they are large, it would be a short square lap quilt and I'd like a more rectangular one. So I will make it one block bigger all around and then add an extra border top and bottom to get to a rectangle. I have lots of 2" square cut and bought enough fabric for sashing to make the original quilt size.  It's 90x90 or 5X5 blocks.

 But I'm getting tired of doing this block so 7 more it is!

4. Sew something else at Mini Retreat.✅ 

Odd pieces of flannel, pieced to make a backing for Ninja Friends.  Yes, it needs to be trimmed up!

Upcoming week~ March 1 - March 7

1. Cut batting for Ninja Friends and Chunky Churn Dash! 

2. Continue blocks for placemats in aqua and March color!

3. Use 2" squares as leader and enders to make the 9 patches for  Growing Up Odd ( I need 7 more blocks)

4. Watch for new color announcement from Angela at RSC2022 and technique/idea prompt announcement from Joyful at Table Scraps Challenge. edited: RSC2022 color for March is Yellow and Table Scrap’s prompt is Flowers! 

That should keep me out of trouble and maybe elevate my mood!  

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy!

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!