Let's Do Some Pink!

To begin, I'd be remiss if I let Dark Blue January leave without a final picture. All of a sudden I realized that I hadn't finished the dark blue string zig-zags for the outer border of String-X. The blocks were made but not cut down to make the half square triangles and then assembled. So I set out to do just that ... and I did!

I mentioned last week that I'd started the Twisting Heart Valentine. It has now become a finished top. It's not super large and those squares finish at a mere 1-3/4"! It is just full of pink, isn't it? Let me show you the steps in pictures.

Sew together 3-1/2" squares

Using the Tiny Twister tool, cut out 2-1/4" squares
where the seams meet

Sew squares back together

Add a border and ...
voile! You're done!

Wasn't that fun??!!!

In the meantime I finally finished the January Uptown block. Lots of parts. Thankfully the February  block doesn't look as difficult so I might actually get caught up!

Has anyone seen "The Banshees of Inisherin" yet? It's up for a bunch of Academy Awards including Best Picture. Per Wikipedia, this is what it's about:

"The Banshees of Inisherin is a 2022 black tragicomedy film directed, written, and co-produced by Martin McDonagh.^[6][7][8] Set on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, the film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two lifelong friends who find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them"

"Black tragicomedy" is an excellent way to describe the plot. We found the Irish accents a bit difficult to understand but I enjoyed the movie even if a little disturbing. Of course there's a message within the movie -- hey! It's up for Academy Awards! Need I say more. I'd be curious if anyone out there has seen this movie yet and their thoughts.

Whether or not you watch the SuperBowl this Sunday, I hope you have a good weekend. Enjoy those half-time snacks!

Thank you, Angela, for continuing to inspire us to use our scraps each week on your SoScrappy blog.

FNwF & RSC Purple/Orange

Starting off, I'd like to say that I love purple & orange together. Throw in a little green and that's a winner-winner-chicken-dinner! Looking back at my Star in a Star quilt on the bed! I just love it.

But I digress. Last night was the first Friday of the month so that meant Friday Night with Friends night! I started the day off ditch-stitching Twistie. It was VERY early morning, like 4:30am early. I was hoping I was stitching with my Australian friends in their afternoon/evening! I managed to get quite a bit done, almost half!

Later in the afternoon I downloaded the next block for Uptown. I had to laugh since I thought it was a peculiar looking block. Then I read that Gay (our leader) said it wasn't her favorite block either. I planned on starting it in the evening but plans change, don't they? After dinner I settled in to watch the Cardinals play the Yankees. It was so good to see Matt Carpenter, who used to be a Cardinal and was one of my favorites. Cardinals won in their truly exciting come-back style. First inning looked like this in my lap.

By the end of the 8th, it was looking like a good stopping point and my eyelids were drooping. It was a good FNwF!

Thursday I did get in a little Rainbow Scrap sewing. I realized I hadn't done the purple strings for the zig zag border on the String-X quilt and August meant it was time to dig out some orange. I looked back on String-X and discovered that there's a purple block in the corner, meaning I had not one but two sides to cover. Thankfully the orange block is not in the corner. Here's a visual.

So I pulled out my purple strings, got some old phone book pages cut up, and set to work.

What a creative mess! In the bottom right, my Kai purple scissors are holding open one of the purple string HST blocks for the zig zag border. The paper has yet to be torn off. There is a pile of thirteen more under the half purple-half background block also. That halvsie block is for the corner turn. Off on the left are several more background string blocks waiting for the matching orange string blocks to become HSTs. You can see that I've already gathered a nice pile of orange strings just waiting in the wings. It's all glorious in my book although it looks like a disaster.

And that has been what I've been working on this week! I hope you see lots of orange wherever you wander this week!

Thank you to Cheryll for pulling FNwF together this month and to Angela for gathering us together this week for RSC.

RSC Dark & Bright Blues Wrapping Up

The month of June is coming to a close. Next Friday will be the 1st of July and the new Rainbow Scrap Challenge color will be announced. So how far have I gotten with the blues? First up is my zigzag border. It has joined its other friends in the pile.

I also finished off the two Dresden plates last night while watching "Top Gun" on Prime. Hoping to catch the new one soon.

And with its friends.

I'm also joining in the Positivity 2022 QAL with Preeti @ SewPreetiQuilts. I'll tell you more about that another time. In the meantime, the Positivity 2022 block was revealed. Since I had plenty of dark blue fabrics out this month and it was suggested to have good contrast, I decided to go with them and make scrappy dark blue blocks. As for a background, I decided to keep it consistent and I chose a pale gray paisley I just happened to have in the stash leftover from a backing. Who doesn't love paisley, I ask??!!

I prepped my fabrics and got started. Ten blocks made lickity-split and dark/bright blues used again! There's a pile waiting to be completed for another 14 more blocks! So easy! So fast! So fun!

I managed to get the middle of the Illusions Sampler BOM completed too. There's a hunk of bright blue in there too!

I think that's all the blues for me today. Hope you've got sewing plans this weekend or you'll might end up singing the blues!

Linking up with Angela @ SoScrappy and all my other scrappy friends!

Finishing Up May's Dark/Sage Greens

Recently I haven't focused on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I've had so many other things to catch up on. Before I get to that, I'll show you what I did manage to accomplish for RSC this month.

Two Hexi Flowers in Dark/Sage Green

April's Pink String-X Zigzag Border

May's Green String-X Zigzag Border

In other fun news, I managed to finish both April's and May's blocks for Uptown, which is a quilt-a-long with Sentimental Stitches. Check out those dark green leaves!

April's Uptown block

May's Uptown block

I completed a pair of socks that I had started for our road trip earlier in the month. This pattern by Very Busy Monkey is called Phoenix Rising. You can find the pattern HERE on Ravelry.

I just picked up the kits for May's & June's Illusions Sampler. This is a block-of-the-month program run through my local quilt shop. I'll be working on the May block over the weekend. I've also been very busy quilting a quilt to be gifted. I hope to be able to show it to you REALLY SOON!

Believe it or not, I'm thinking about starting a couple of new QALs. The first one is called Remembering Betsy by Pam Buda. It should be a quick patriotic quilt and it just started. Here's the link for the introductory post and you should be able to proceed from there for Clue #1.

The other quilt-a-long I'm thinking about joining is called Oh Say Can You Sew with Primitive Gatherings. There have already been two clues. The first clue will cost you $5 now but clue #2 is still free until clue #3 is released at the beginning of the month. The details are available on Lisa's blog HERE.

Speaking of Primitive Gatherings, I joined the challenge of sending in a red & white quilt for her retreat center. She asked for her readers to send in a quilt to be received by November 1 so she could have quite the display of R&W quilts over the holidays. I was just about to start embroidering the 12 snowmen stitcheries that Melissa so generously drew up and shared with her blog readers at Pinker n Punkin Quilting and Stitching. Here's a picture of all 12 of my snowmen. I just have to come up with a plan to finish these. My brain has been spinning several designs lately. (Sorry about the crappy pictures but you get the idea, right?)

Of course there's one other QAL I'm very tempted to join in on. It's through Laundry Basket Quilt and my sister will more than likely be jumping on. It's always fun to sew along with a pal! However, sometimes you've just got to say no! Ha!

If you're still reading along here, I think that pretty much catches us up on the hobbies. I'll just add a quick note health-wise now.  On our trip back from NC & MD, Mom starteds feeling really tired & cold. She slept pretty much the whole time on our two-day trip home. Then I started feeling bad with chills, sore throat, an awful pain in the middle of my back, and a sore throat. The next day DH started coming down with the crud too including a bad headache. I'm happy to report, about two weeks later, we are finally coming back to ourselves. We all still have a cough and are not quite as spunky as usual but WAY BETTER. I have one plugged up ear and an awful metallic taste in my mouth. Red wine & coffee don't taste good right now. But I'm happy to report that it seems we have all three of us survived what I suspect was COVID. And that, my friends, makes me happy!

I hope you have a great week! I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy and all the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters.

What's With No Pink???

I think this Rainbow Scrap Challenge needs to give me nudge. This is all I got done as far as pink this week.

They need a little trim, then made into HSTs and they'll be ready for the zigzag border for String-X. I believe I may have forgotten to mention that for some reason I went back and measured my String-X blocks and discovered that I was off by 1/2". That meant that the previous zigzag border pieces were off so I can happily report that they were unsewn, recut, and resewn. Perfect! A little aggravating but I'm glad I thought about it before I had the entire border ready to sew on!

And speaking of pink, Thursday morning at 1:10am I got a new & healthy grandson. Now that's the best pink I've seen all week! Welcome to the world, Jacob Thomas! I'll post a picture when I get permission from his parents. *wink*

I'll be linking up with my friends at SoScrappy for RSC2022!

March Wrap-Up: Retreat, Sprinkle, and Home Again

This month has been a whirlwind of activity with not much quilting to report. Was it a great month nonetheless? You betcha!

My sister drove up from Texas to spend time with all of us. Midway through her visit, we sisters got to spend SPECIAL time because we went to Sprague's Kinderhook Lodge in Illinois. To give you a little better idea of its location, it is about 20 minutes due east of Hannibal MO, home of Mark Twain and two quilt stores with another quilt store about 30 minutes north. Heaven on Earth!

Linda and I had a great time and I sewed a cloth book, The Pokey Little Puppy. I already gave it away without taking a picture. Drat! But I get to count a yard of fabric gone for the Stashbuster Challenge run by Carole at From My Carolina Home.  I also completed the March block for the Illusions Sampler, my LQS's BOM. The drunkard's path blocks were fun!

I also finished the top of this Spring wall hanging by Kathy Schmitz. The embroidery was completed a long time ago but all of the piecing (including the little paper-pieced quilt in the middle) was finished at the retreat. Once I get it quilted up I'll be able to report that fabric in the Stashbuster Challenge too! Need to get a move on this one!

Four days after my sister left, we left for Maryland to attend the "sprinkle" (mini-shower) for my grandson, due April 27th. Here are a few pictures from the "sprinkle" and our visit.

Of course we had to give a St. Louis Cardinals onsie!

Brody loved the Hooters Hider, made & given by Mom's hairdresser Mary.

Jared got a new clock to keep everyone on time.

Sarah & I enjoyed watching the antics from the only seat we could find!

Brody was exhausted from all the excitement.

Another highlight to the sprinkle was my cousin Fran & her husband John drove down from NY. What a surprise! It is always wonderful to see them and my mother was thrilled beyond belief!

The day afterwards, we went to Sarah's condo to relax and enjoy some peace & quiet. Penny made herself at home in Fred's lap.

Gus is pretty sure that the recliner in the nursery is there for him!

We always enjoy seeing Amanda's family
(from L to R: Sharon (mother), Lucy (niece), and Emily (sister)

We got home on March 30, in time for Mom's doctor appointment on the 31st and to get Gracie "out of jail"! Haha!

So you can see that not a lot of time was dedicated to quilting. I did accomplish a little bit for March's RSC Yellow & Gold.

A couple of hexis

I also worked on String-X. The yellow block is in the middle of the quilt so I couldn't do any of the scrappy zigzag border. Instead I grabbed a piece of yellow fabric from my stash and used it up for a narrow inner border.

For my March PHD report, nada. Nothing finished but several in the works! Wish me luck on April progress! I'll be linking up and checking in with my friends after a long absence. Can't wait to get back in the swing again!

Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for RSC, Gail at Quilting Gail for PHD, and reporting stash enhancements & depletions with Carole at From My Carolina Home for the Stashbuster Challenge.

Moving Into Aqua/Teal/Turquoise

I'm going to sound like an "old lady" because this past week has been defined by doctor appointments! Hahaha! It started on Tuesday with my eye appointment. I touched on it in my I Like Thursday post HERE. The gist of it was that my longer-than-a-year of dry eye symptoms have led to scratched corneas. My left eye is scratched more than the right and my eyesight in the left has been blurry since the end of November. The cold air (think morning walks with Gracie!) and bright sunshine causes quite a bit of pain as well. Anyway, the eye doc said this is not terribly unusual with dry eye and I'm now medicating both eyes to repair the corneas. Anyway, not a good situation for a quilter!

So that was Tuesday. Then Wednesday I took Mom to the dermatologist for a lump on her wrist and another look at the bump by her nose, close to her eye. The doc wasn't too thrilled with Mom's wrist and wasn't quite sure what to make of her nose so she scraped off both and was going to send them away for biopsies. We'll hear the results sometime next week.

Today was consultation/physical therapy for Mom. So much documentation which was definitely confusing for Mom, not to mention it was on a tablet. So many of the questions seemed geared for younger folks too ... like how much pain do you experience while using a broom? Um, we have housekeeping, no need to sweep. Man, oh man.

I did manage to get a bit of sewing done in spite of my blurry eyes and doctor appointments. String blocks of aqua/teal/turquoise have commenced. They will be part of the border of the String-X quilt.

I also need some background stings as well Here's what I managed. Such a beautiful collection!

There was also sewing on my "secret project" so no pictures yet. I must admit that it has been my primary focus.

I'll be linking with Angela and other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters. So much teal/aqua/turquoise beauty!

Have a great week! And Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln!

RSC Reds

This week was a cold week here in the Midwest. I walked Gracie with a wind chill of -9! No precipitation though so safe driving around here. That's a good thing since Mom had three places to be this week! Tuesday she had her quarterly podiatrist appointment. Thursday we were off to her hair appointment. That brought us to Friday for a follow-up/annual doctor's appointment. Her back is the same as it's been or possibly a little worse as I've noticed she's watching the clock to take more pills for the pain. The doctor said we are to start incorporating some stretches into her day and get her set up for both back-issue & balance p/t. That'll keep us running around, won't it?!? Thank goodness I'm not at all sad to do handwork! So what have I been up to?

I added block #2 to Gardenhurst. This pattern is by an amazing Australian quilt designer, Irene Blanck.

Block #1 (left) and Block #2 (right)

I finished block #1 of Uptown. I signed up for this BOM through Sentimental Stitches. Gay is reproducing an antique quilt and I was excited to do one with her. Check out the bits of red in here too. Just in time for RSC January - RED!

I also started the first embroidery block of Frosty McChill. There are 12 of these blocks offered from Pinker n Punkin Quilting & Stitching's blog. He's just about finished and it's just about time to trace out block #2. And check it out -- RED! Worked in a little more red for Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Needs a little ironing but he's been a travelin' man!

And last but not least, I actually sewed on the machine a little for RSC Red. Can you believe it? I experimented with an idea for the border of my String-X top. Here's a memory refresher of the top,

I really need to sew this together!

After getting inspired by Bonnie Hunter, I decided to do a zig-zag border with strings. The outside of each block will get the same color zig-zag. Since that leaves out yellow and brown which are located in the center, I've decided I'll probably sew a narrow yellow border around the edge before adding the zig-zag. So here's my first border section.

Won't this add some zing! Do you see that bit of St. Louis Cardinals fabric? How about both of the Valentine fabrics? Just so much FUN! And boldly RED!

That's what's been happening around here. Now I need to zip on over to Angela's blog ( SoScrappy ) to see what everyone else has been up to. Have a great week!

January is for RED!

As usual I'm behind the power curve! Ugh! I saw the hints about what January's RSC color was going to be but I wasn't 100% sure. Several days later it was made clear to me but I still lagged behind on what I planned to work on this year. But FINALLY it all came together and I believe I have a plan. Yes, a plan but no scrappy sewing ... yet.

I will be making scrappy, strippy units for a streak of lightning border. At least that's what I think it's called. This border will go on the RSC2020 String-X top. Here's a picture of String-X laid out and ready to sew together. I think my border plan will set it off nicely. There will be a narrow border in between the blocks and streaky border.

I did manage to make some progress on 2020Twisted and there was plenty of red. Unfortunately it was EXTRA RED because I was seeing RED. The first time I sewed these blocks together, I sewed all (yes, ALL) the corner units upside-down. It took longer to rip it all apart then it did to sew up the first time around. After all apart (again) I stacked these units up and went to bed. These absolutely will get sewn together correctly in the morning!

All sewn up correctly now.

I decided to lay them out with friends to see what I've got going. I didn't have enough room to lay out the right side but I think we can get the idea of what's going on here.

Look at all that RED! These blocks will be laid out on point. I've got most of the pieces cut and ready to sew up to make the setting triangles. Stay tuned!

Have a great weekend. I'll be reading plenty of RSC blogs over at Angela's SuperScrappy link. So much fun happening over there!

And so PHD2022 Begins

Another year, another list of UFOs. Wish me luck! Ha! In  case you don't know what a UFO is in "quilt-ese", it is any quilt that has been started and has yet to be completed. I'll be joining Quilting Gail again with a list of my 12 UFOs which I hope will strive to complete this year. You may notice that a few of them are repeats from 2021. Unfortunately I did not complete my PHD (Projects Half Done) last year so some of them made the list again for 2022.

Each month, Quilting Gail will be hosting a Linky Party for all PHD 2022 Challenge participants to share their progress and root each other on. If you care to join in or have any questions about this challenge, you can find ALL the details at her link HERE. 

Here's a peek at the twelve projects I hope to finish this year.

2020 Twisted Mystery
Lots of blocks made with more to go.
Final assembly as yet to be determined.

Another 12 Days of Christmas
First block almost done with 11 to go!
Offered by Susan @ SuznQuilts

Autumn Jubilee 2021
Top completed; needs to be quilted
Offered by Carole @ My Carolina Home

Cactus Flower
Pattern by Judy Niemeyer

Calla Lily
All blocks & borders completed except pillow top.
My oldest UFO.

Gardenhurst
One block done and the second barely started
Pattern by Irene Blanck

Guild 2021-22 BOM
Six blocks done with three (?) to go.

 

Heartfire
Many blocks done, many more to go?
Pattern by Lynn @ Sew'n Wild Oaks Quilting Blog

Irish CourthouseH
27 blocks completed, many (?) more to go
Pattern by Bonnie Hunter @ Quiltville's Quips & Snips

Maple Leaf
Top completed. Needs to be quilted.
Pattern by Norma Whaley @ Timeless Traditions

String X
Blocks are done. Needs borders & quilting.
Free pattern from Bonnie Hunter @ Quiltville's Quips & Snips

Xmas Placemats
Partially assembled.

And there you have it! Of course I've already got big plans with a couple of SALs (Uptown with Sentimental Stitches and 2022 Twisted Mystery) and playing along with RSC2022. I noticed that I missed RSC Red Month for Heartfire and I want to do a string border for String X.

Thanks for reading along this far and I hope to share progress with you on these UFOs all through 2022. Here's to a new year with a new PHD list! Thanks again to Quilt Gail for organizing us and hosting the Linky parties.