Seeing RED!

We are getting to the end of January which has been designated "RED" with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and for Tiny Tuesday. I did complete my Bow Tie block for Tiny Tuesday and it came out super cute. I also kept it scrappy -- the knot is a different red fabric than the bow.

So far my background fabric is working out just fine with the first four blocks. Pshew!

I also managed to use up a bunch of red scraps for Scrap Happy Saturday. I've been working on my first String-X block for this as well as stringing along with Lori of Humble Quilts and with Moda Strings. Of course, I still have red scraps, which is a good thing since there are five Tuesdays in January. This means there will definitely be another Tiny Tuesday red block.

Back to String-X ... This block is a FREE Bonnie Hunter pattern which I'm hoping works out with RSC19. It was really fun putting together all these reds and I liked the way Leena used alternating colors to create hourglass setting blocks. I'm using a light gray and dark gray as my neutrals. Here's a picture of my big completed block. I believe it's 14" or so. Can't remember exactly right now and I don't want to get up to measure it.

I think the hourglass blocks will be subtle but enough to notice ... or at least that's what I'm hoping for. I did edge-stitch around this block since this is a year-long project and I wanted to protect the integrity of the seams. What do you think? Red enough (hahaha!)? Too busy for your taste (which is the impression I got from my sister)?

Here's a quick update on my cross-stitch project. Coming right along but oh! so slowly.

Surely I'll have this done by Easter!!! Lol!

Linking up with Em at Scrap Happy Saturday, Movin' It Forward,Tiny Tuesday, and String-a-Long with Lori @ Humble Quilts.

Retreat Happiness

Short post because I'm at quilt retreat. YAY!!!

Tiny Tuesday was the most adorable little kitty block that finished at 4". I added my background border and here she is.

Adorable!!!

This is also the first meeting for the Bloom SAL. Check out the other Bloomers HERE. Looks like we're off to a good start. I prepped the pieces for the first three blocks. After all, I was off to retreat and figured I'd be able to work on them there. I got the pieces "basted" down and have started the applique. Here's a picture of the three prepped & basted blocks.

Since then, I've already appliqued the first block completely and started the second. I'm hand appliqueing them and really enjoying the process.

Before leaving, I did manage to finish up this little wool applique pillow.

Linking up with Angela with Scrap Happy for Tiny Tuesday and Cheryl at Gone Stitching for Bloomers SAL and Wendy at Sugarlane Quilting for FNSI

Happy Scrappy (and Snowy) Saturday

Started to write up a post yesterday but decided to sew instead. I feel like that was a good choice. With the snow storm due to arrive yesterday, I told Mom to come up a day early rather than get stuck at home. Another good reason to sew as much as I can while I had some time.

 Tiny Tuesday #1 finished.

Tiny Tuesday #2 done too!

This morning while everyone was still sleeping and more snow was falling, I sat at the sewing machine and got these beautiful 1-1/2" HSTs sewn & trimmed. I also cut the inner borders and cornerstones.

 They will be getting sewn on my embroidery project.

I also prepped and sewed the pincushion that was included with my Primitive Gatherings kit. I think it turned out lovely!

And just because I don't have enough irons in the fire, I started an April cross-stitch project.

While Sarah was visiting over Christmas, she and I decided that I should start the April one so maybe it'd be done on time. Plus I seem to do better when pushed with a deadline. The principal at the school I used to work at in Hawaii gave me a mug that said, "I work better under stress." I remember asking her why she gave me that and she said she noticed I could really get my act together quickly if I had a time limit. I think I like the angel ornament she gave me one year for Christmas better which she said she gave me because she thought of me as her angel. Hung that ornament again this year and thought of her.

That's enough winding down Memory Lane for today. I'll leave you with a picture of my back deck ruler this morning.

And now you know what Fred is up to this morning. UGH!

Linking up with

• Angela at Super Scrappy
• Em at Em's Scrap Bag (Movin' It Forward Monday)
• 
  

A New Year Means New Projects

2019 has arrived and I'm trying not to jump onto too many sew-a-longs. We all say that and then something happens -- we get sucked in! Ugh!

This year's sewing trend seems to me to be string quilts. Bonnie Hunter adores string quilts and recently came out with a new book called "String Frenzy". Tons of string quilts. Her  blog includes several free patterns for different string quilts as well. Then Moda Fabrics announced that a group of their designers were starting their own string quilts and that it would be a loose group with no real deadlines. I was thinking I'd join in and scoured Bonnie's patterns -- yes, I would make a String-X quilt and give a string quilt a go. I'm currently hooked in with Lori at Humble Quilts and others. Care to join us?

Earlier last year I saw quilters joining a group called RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) where a color is nominated for the month and everyone digs into their scraps to make blocks and at the end of the year you have a beautiful quilt. Sounds like a good plan to me since Heaven knows I have scraps. January's color is red. I figured I could tie the two groups together -- a String-X quilt that has blocks made in the colors chosen by RSC. Perfect! So far I have two of the four string strips done.

The only problem is: I thought RSC merely chose the colors and it was up to us to decide on what block(s) we wanted to make. Wrong! There's actually a quilt that we can make together. This year's RSC Sampler Quilt is composed of small, 4 1/2" blocks, one per week. Half the blocks are set straight and the other half are set diagonally. It's a really cute lap quilt. Tempting .... And wouldn't you know the very first block is a string block!!! Yes, I jumped on this one too and here's my block for the week.

The dotty fabric is going to be my background fabric. We need 3 1/2 yards so I dove into my stash and came up with this. Great! No trip to the fabric store for background fabric.

Gone Stitchin', another blogger, put out that she would like to start a Lori Holt's Bloom QAL and was anyone else interested. I like Lori's quilts and I've been wanting to try one of her quilts using her applique technique. Yup, jumped on this one too! My templates arrived in the mail today. I dug into my stash and came up with these fabrics. I think it'll be a good start. I love these feedsack fabrics!

Getting back to last year's projects, I did have a productive (for me) week regarding the Dresden Quilt Workshop quilt. I completed three churn dash blocks. I need to get going on some flying geese and obviously more dresden plates. Hey! I'm getting there! Here are my blocks.

Suzn Quilts (designer of the Dresden Quilt Workshop quilt) recently posted a picture of a new quilt. It's a Christmas quilt that has these Dresdent blocks again in but also words and embroidery. It's beautiful! She's considering making this a workshop quilt and you KNOW I'll be joining in. I hope it's not until later in the year. I seem to have enough projects going again and this is after I was trying to be strong and not start anything more.

I did finish the embroidery on Kathy Schmidtz's Spring. I'll need to press it and sew on the borders. There's also a little mini quilt that hangs in the middle that I need to sew. Will probably work on this during an upcoming retreat if I can find some coordinating fabric.

The background fabric is actually white. We've been very cloudy lately so the picture is muddied.

Linking up with:

• Gone Stitchin' today
• Humble Quilts
• So Scrappy
• Movin' It Monday

Table Runner Club meets Tuesday morning. Better get that project wrapped up today!

The End of 2018

Just about time to let go of 2018 and welcome in 2019. Here's a peek at my past week.

Gracie went to the groomer and got all pretty for our holiday guests. Here she is with my 19-year-old niece. Jennifer is relaxing after getting through her first semester at UNC-Wilmington. Thankfully Jenn was safe through the hurricane but school was closed for almost a month -- then it was catch-up time. Talk about a hard way to start college! (But isn't Gracie pretty???)

Christmas Eve dinner was at our house. Here's a picture of me and Jennifer's twin sister, Kelli. Kelli is going to NC State on a softball scholarship. She's relieved to be done with her first semester too but is looking forward to Spring Semester which translates to SOFTBALL SEASON!!! In April she'll be playing at Notre Dame, South Bend, IN and I plan on being there to root her on! Guess I'm looking forward to her spring semester too!

The three amigos! Mom, Kelli, and me. Check out my haircut! It's off my shoulders again which is WAY shorter than usual.

Meanwhile, the party has begun for these beauties -- Karen, my sister-in-law, and Sarah, my daughter. Guess I forgot to get pictures of the guys! Fred, my brother John, and his son Johnny were here too. Honest!!! Hahaha!

Christmas morning -- doesn't matter what day it is, the dog still needs to go for a walk .... and so do I for that matter! The sun was just coming up in my neighborhood. Thought I'd take a picture of the sun coming up and show how peaceful the day was starting out.

I did manage to finish up this little 3/6-month-old sweater. I knitted it up for my dental hygienist's new baby. It also satisfies the final project for Loopy Academy. Yay! I'm finally a graduate!!!!

Not a very good picture but I finished another block for Dresden Quilt Workshop. I can't remember what week this was for but I'm currently finishing up some churn dash blocks now. The week for those has also been forgotten. Hey! At least I'm catching up, right?

On the cooking front, I decided to try my hand at caramelized onions in the crock pot. This pot was 3/4 full when I started it. This picture is after a couple of hours. It ended up making about 2 cups. 

Here's a picture of it now. Mom & I smothered our Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork sandwiches with it -- so goooooooooood!

I don't know what to expect in 2019 but I hope it's as good as 2018. I wish the same for you too! Happy New Year!

Linking up with Movin' It Forward .

FNSI

Managed a little more progress on my Spring stitchery.

Daughter is in and my brother & his family arrive tonight. Will be busy, busy around here in such a good way. When the opportunity presents, I'll put in a few more stitches. See you next year!

Tank you, Wendy, for another fabulous (much-needed) FNSI at Sugarlane Quilts!

Movin' It Forward Monday and Holiday Prep

Today's post is for Movin' It Forward Monday, which I am so grateful for as it holds me accountable for my hobby PLUS it keeps me on my toes for blogging. Please join all of us at the above link -- you will be amazed at what everyone is managing to get done!

As for me, I was mostly keeping the knitting needles flying on this adorable, little sweater for my dental hygenist's baby boy. Here's a couple of pictures. You can see that I need to still weave in my ends, sew on the little buttons, and get it blocked. Except for that, it's finished and will complete Loopy Academy. I will be an official graduate! Hats off to me!!!!

Before: Remember I told
you the color was off

As of today

I love the gradation of the blue yarn. Gradation is the new cool I hear!

My embroidery is coming along.

Here are a few new Christmas things I made. The first is a little wall hanging.

Santa Hat Wall Hanging

These next couple of things I made with my TAS (The Applique Society) group. Both are made of wool and both were taught to us by the amazing Dana.

Little Woolly Tree

The little tree will get lights put on it and it will sit on my sewing table in the living room window. Polly will LOVE it!

Wool Poinsettia Pin

Obviously the pin needs to be finished since you can see it is still in the hoop.

I might as well continue talking about Christmas. Huubby went out and bought us a new tree this year. Last year, we discovered that somehow we lost the plug for the pre-lighted tree so we used an earlier tree. This is our new one.

We'll put the tree skirt on and add the ornaments when our daughter arrives for the holidays Wednesday evening. So looking forward to her arrival. 

While we were in the spirit and the weather was a balmy 60 degrees, hubby and I hung our lights, put the garland on the posts, and hung the bells by the door. So festive!

Today Gracie went to the groomer for a bath, blow dry, and a mani/pedi. She's ready for company with her beautiful poinsettia bandana!

Enjoy your day!