Practice

I'm planning to participate in the Hand-Pieced QAL, sponsored by Patty of Elm Street Quilts and Kristin of Simple Handmade Everyday, coming up in January.   For the last few weeks, both Patty and Kristin have been offering tips and tutorials for hand-piecing on their blogs, and I decided it was time for some practice!

Throughout 2018, while making my Scrappy Sprouts blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I piled up a bunch of 2.5 inch squares in both neutrals and rainbow colors.

They were just thrown into my Little Penguin fabric basket at the side of my cutting table, so I pulled them out and sorted them into two piles.

I gathered up the rest of the supplies I thought I would need - needles, thread, scissors, a pincushion, and a zipper pouch to keep everything in.

And found the tutorial from Patty on marking and hand-piecing a seam.

Here's my first one - a 1/4 inch from the edge, ready to stitch!

Patty says my stitches should be 5 - 6 to an inch!  And I am laughing here, because I got THREE!  Lol!

But, hopefully, practice will make me better (if not perfect) so I will keep going!

Working on my first 4 patch - definitely getting those smaller stitches!

And look at that!  

Hand-piecing will be fun to try, portable, and hopefully, a great new skill!  I have already appreciated Patty's great step-by-step tutorials and Kristin's videos - I can tell I'm going to learn a lot!

Sharing at Soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday 

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap

and Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

I Like Thursday #111 - It's the Holiday Season!

I like Christmas music playing on the radio, and I'm always singing along!  This one gets stuck in my head now and then - 

"Happy holiday
Happy holiday
While the merry bells keep ringing
Happy holiday to you!
It's the holiday season
And Santa Claus is coming back
The Christmas snow is white on the ground
When old Santa gets into town
He'll be coming down the chimney, down
Coming down the chimney, down"


Evidently this song was written by Irving Berlin.  Click here if you want to hear Andy Williams singing it!

I like listening to holiday music sung live, and got to do just exactly that when my friends and I went to our dinner theater evening out last week.  It was a really fun show!

I like this cute Rudolph towel that a friend gave me!  Can you see the dangly legs?!

I found my favorite gingerbread men cookies at the grocery the other day - yum!

And a favorite part of my holiday season is getting out the special mugs - here's one that I really like!

Hope you're having a great week, friends!  

Joining in with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.

Early Christmas Gifts

I'm going to be seeing my mom and one of my sisters this week, so I thought it would be a good idea to bring them a little something Christmas-y!

After finishing up the Gail Pan "Joy to the World" embroidery earlier this week,

I decided to turn it into a little pillow for my mom.

This festive red fabric that I found on our Thanksgiving trip became a border for the embroidery.

This photo makes the red look a lot brighter than it really is.

A little bit of quilting, both by hand and by machine, holds the layers together.

This is more true to the actual color - dark red!

I used the same fabric for an envelope backing.

And voila!

I also made one of the other embroidered pieces that I finished into a mini quilt tor my sister.

Borders, backing, quilting, and binding - it all went together really quickly!

I'm going to have to trace a couple more of these sweet designs to work on - they're kind of addicting, and I might as well keep going on them!

Happy Sunday stitching to all!  

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap and

at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Poking Along

Happy December!  This week I've been focused on getting some Christmas projects finished up (more on them tomorrow) and needed to spend some time working on my quilt group's heart project. 

A friend and I met for a couple hours on Thursday to sew all the heart blocks into a table runner for our quilt group friend who needs a little love.  I'm so happy with how it's coming along!  It's fun to sew with a friend - I don't do it often enough.  It is also a bit challenging to sew up other people's blocks that may not be exactly the size we specified.  (Wink!)  But our quilty math worked out and all is good!

I did finish the gray sashing and 2 inch border around my Squared Away project.  I am really happy with the gray!

Then , while hunting around in my stash, I came across just enough of this marbled blue to use for the next border which will be 4.5 inches.

I'm liking this, too!

I probably won't make much more progress on this or my other Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects until later in the month, but I'll enjoy getting back to them as soon as I can!  

Be sure to check out the RSC quilters over at SoScrappy for the ScrapHappy Saturday link-up.

I Like Thursday #110 - There and Back Again

Happy Thursday!  Hope you're having a great week!  I'm joining in with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for the weekly celebration of things we've recently liked and want to share.

I liked our road trip to see our kids for Thanksgiving.  It was such a nice day on Thanksgiving afternoon that we went out and walked around the Veterans Memorial in our son's town.

There were sculptures and historical information and all kinds of bricks which families had purchased to honor their veterans.  We even found some Bottrells who had fought in WWII who were commemorated there.  My husband says they would be his grandpa's cousins.  

I liked this sight from tiny Goodland, Kansas, which is on the far western end of the state.  No, not the Steak and Shake!  

A Tesla plugged into a charging station - the owner was sitting in it and waved at me when I took this picture!  I wonder where they'd come from and were going.

I liked doing a little Small Business Saturday shopping at the quilt shops along our way.

A charm pack of Grunge Paper White, some red yardage for Christmas projects, and a few  fat quarters to add to my stash.

After we got home, I had fun finishing up a tomte house from my #mossandlotustomtesal2018 pattern bundle.

I fussy cut a cat to sit in the doorway.

I have to decide what to do with these fun little blocks.  A wall-hanging, a table-topper?  I'm not sure yet!

I've also enjoyed finishing up another Gail Pan embroidery, which will become a pillow for my mom for Christmas.

These are so fun and satisfying to work on!  Time to trace another one!

Be sure to check out the other I Like Thursday posts at Not Afraid of Color.  It's always fun to see what everyone has been up to!

This week in scraps and stitches...

Because we've been traveling for Thanksgiving this week, time at my sewing machine has been a bit limited.

I had a little time to work on sewing the gray sashing to connect my Squared Away sampler blocks.  I decided not to include any cornerstones in this project, and then remembered why I usually do add them when I had to rip out a whole row of stitching... My vertical sashing strips weren't matching up from row to row!

After Googling it, I came up with an easy tip for helping them to line up -  a kind of "Why didn't I think of that!" moment!

Use a straight edge to make a mark where each vertical seam needs to match up!

And it's working!  Hooray!

Meanwhile, I needed to make a heart block for a group project that my quilt group is making for one of our members who is struggling with some health issues.

I used Cluck, Cluck Sew's tutorial for making heart blocks in multiple sizes.

We're all making 6.5 inch blocks with cream backgrounds and dark red hearts, so we can show our friend some love!  Once I've collected all of the blocks from everyone, they will turn into a table topper for her.  I'm hoping for four more.

I squeezed in one #tinytomte.  And gave all the little ones some French Knot noses!

The rest of my stitching time has been spent on my Gail Pan redwork embroidery.  Progress is happening!  

Hope you've had a lovely week!  I'm linking up with all my favorite weekend parties!

ScrapHappy Saturday

Oh Scrap!

Slow Sunday Stitching 

I Like Thursday #109 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

We are on our annual turkey road trip to visit our kids over the long weekend.  I am planning to enjoy good food, good conversation, lots of games to play, and possibly even a little football or a movie.

But first, I am thankful for good traveling weather!

That's always important when you're driving across the eastern plains of Colorado at this time of year!

You know we are always on the lookout for wild turkeys when we are out and about, and look what we found!

Wow!  We counted at least 20 of them!

Earlier this week, I enjoyed having the chance to give back in a small way.

It was a beautiful day, and King Soopers was BUSY!  I guess that's what happens during Thanksgiving week.  Our red kettle was full when our shift was over at 11:00. People were so generous!

I like having this sweet embroidery to work on in the evenings, and the fact that it is easy to travel with means I might put a few stitches in it while we are with our kids.

Hope you're enjoying your day, whether it is spent in a small group or large!  I'm thankful for all of you, my friends in real life and my quilty blogger friends.  

Joining in with I Like Thursday over at Not Afraid of Color!