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. 

SAHRR 25.4

 

Stay at Home Round Robin. Round #4

   

Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts brings us Round #4.  She calls it a Sliced Square.  I like the way hers zig zag along the outside edge. I have lots of angles and didn’t trust myself to make the points match. I got an early look at this prompt….I was scrolling on my iPad in bed late on Sunday night and the blog post was up. I read it but was thinking of another way to do the slices. 

Monday morning while enjoying my coffee and a bit of quiet time, I read Kathleen’s post. Hey, that’s what I was thinking and she assured me that there are no quilt police!.

If I could use the Sliced Squares to fill in the spaces between my stars, that would keep my top from getting bigger than I had planned.  But what colors? Cream with green, it was kind of blah! 

I sure didn’t like the big chunks of green. I used the cream background with a green strip. I tried a charm square I had cut (red plaid, I’m fond of plaid). I inserted a 1 1/2’ piece of green print. I like it. I think. I slept on it. 

I decided on the red, when I realized I had only 9 squares in my charm pack collection. I didn’t think I had any more of that fabric, but I searched my reds. Hooray! I found a 1/4 yard. It’s karma. The red it is. I cut, sliced and sewed, til I had 16-

5” squares.  I sewed each pair together, then attached them to the center stars on each side. Can you guess what happened?  

I guess my B in Advanced High School Algebra and Geometry, didn’t help much! 🤪. Too long ago, I guess!

I need added fabric. Top- dark green, Middle - cream background or Bottom-the red plaid? Which would you do? 

Here is a rather wonky photo of the three options. Top left corner= cream. Bottom left corner=dark green, Bottom right corner =red plaid. 

Guess I’m done for now. I’ll pause until round 5 and 6. ‘Cause I’m befuddled.

Linking up with Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful.

Slow Sunday Stitching 2-9-25

 

Sharing with Kathy and friends at Slow Sunday Stitching. 

It will be good to take some time today. Lay some stitches. Drink a cup of tea and try to relax and remember it will be OK.

I’m still working on my Octopus Biscornu from Tiny Modernist. You can finally see the first octopus. 

I think he looks just like I pictured Marcellus in Remarkably Bright Creatures. One of my favorite books from 2024. 

Another book I just finished that I found to be very interesting is The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R. Chambers. About her life before she became the celebrated chef. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

Stay at Home Round Robin. Round #3 Stars

   

Round 3 is hosted this week by Gail at Quilting Gail. She challenges us to add stars. 

I decided on 4.5” finished Friendship Stars for SAHRR. I used a chart I found at Generations Quilt Patterns  I wasn’t looking forward to  cutting and sewing all those small HSTs. I read that some participants used their AccuCutter. I have one, but don’t have a lot of dies. I find them to be very expensive. However, a blogger friend did send me some used ones that she ended up not wanting. I gladly and gratefully accepted them. I have one that cut triangles and squares for 2 1/2 inches pieces making a 6.5” star. I had decided that was too big . But I could cut them, sew the HST and trim them . That seems to work better for me anyway. 

But I took a break to go renew my drivers license and when I returned to my machine I just sewed the pieces I had cut. Egad  Judy!!. I wondered if I could use the correct size little ones in the corners. I’d need 2 more and then use the big one in the middle of the top, bottom and sides. I was planning on rectangles to complete the round. 

Yuk!   Nope!  So back to the drawing board. I printed the chart and grabbed my seam ripper.

The two that were too big were taken apart and the pieces cut to two inches. Then I recut all the accucut pieces. It was a project. But as of 5:30 pm on Saturday, they were all resewn together. I still don’t like the big rectangles of green to complete the round. And it’s just about as big as I want it. So I’m waiting to see what the Round 4 will be. I’m hoping I can use that prompt in this same border. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Helpful