Slow Sunday Stitching and a Couple of Blocks

I finally got back to working on my Modern Sampler BOM blocks this week.  I was four blocks behind before this week and now I just have three more to do to catch up!  I have a bin with my fabrics and block patterns in it so it is out on the sewing table now so I can get them done! My focus fabric has glasses on it and then I am using orange and blue stripes and dots for the other fabrics with the gray hash dots for the background. 

I put another blue colour block together as a leader/ender project this week as well.  I have 9 blocks made now and I am aiming for 16 or 20. These will be used for the April scrappy Colour Blocks project. 

Christine and I got together on FaceTime earlier in the week to sew some more logs onto our pineapple blocks.  The three blocks that I started in class are just about done.  I just need to add a few more orange and green logs to make them square. 

You may remember from last week that I had started the remaining 9 blocks that I needed for this project.  I sewed logs on them this week during FaceTime but, after sewing for over an hour, noticed that the middles did not look the same as the blocks above. 

The centre white square should have points and not be cut off by the next white logs.  After consulting with the teacher of the class and doing some measuring of the correct and incorrect versions, I figured out that I had made a trimming error on 7/9 of the blocks.  UGH!  These are small blocks but very time consuming to make.  After sleeping on it, I decided to take the outer white and coloured logs off so that all of the blocks will be the same. 

The top pile is garbage.  The white strips can be used again.  I will try to get back to these this week and make some progress without mistakes!

Love Birds is coming along slowly. The green parts that I am currently stitching are some leaves and then there is another large blue flower. 

My daughter added more stitches to the Munich cityscape.  It is really coming to life as she adds the orange and yellow parts. 

I was doing some sewing by machine earlier today and Finn decided to assist. He is so very helpful!

We were outside reading quite a bit this week. He loves to sit outside in the sunshine on my lap. 

My cable knitting is getting bigger.  This will just be a dish cloth--I wanted to practice doing cables before starting the bigger pattern that I have.  I think I have the hang of it!

We took Finn for a long walk this afternoon at a local walking trail.  There was a pond beside the path with sunbathing turtles. I remember seeing them in the same spot last year. 

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.  

Table Runner Finish and Pineapples

I remember saying last week that I thought the project using the leftovers from my recent quilt top finish would be made into a finished project before the quilt...I was right.  These HST blocks called my name early last week.  I tried several different ways of laying them out for the runner, but this one was the one I liked the best.

 I hand sewed the binding on in the car on Wednesday while we were on our way to pick up Finn for his annual stay at our house while our daughter is busy at work.  The backing was just fabric in my stash that I want to use up. 

It is a long drive to where our daughter lives so I usually bring multiple projects in the car to keep me busy and awake.  I added some more stitches to Love Birds. 

Earlier in the week, I watched a YouTube video about how to knit simple cables.  I started a small project to practice on.  So far, so good!

I always have a book in my bag as well.  I'm reading the 11th book in the 44 Scotland Street Series, The Bertie Project" by Alexander McCall Smith as well as the next book for book club "Five Little Indians" by Michelle Good.  

My daughter made me a beautiful flower embroidery picture for my birthday in February and gave it to me when we were there to get Finn.  This is another Barmy Fox project. 

I brought her the last few colours she needed to finish her coffee pot picture and it is done now too. 

I finally guessed that the cityscape is Munich, Germany!  A few more stitches were added to it this week too. 

For International Quilting Day, I added another  round to my pineapple blocks...

I started 7 more pineapple blocks .  I think I will need at least another two for a total of 12 all together. 

These blocks take a long time to make as there is lots of pressing and trimming for each round. I will not run out of scraps before they are done...

My next colour block quilt will be blue.  I made two more blocks as leaders/enders while making the pineapple blocks.  I have 7 blocks made now. I am not sure how many I will need for the next quilt. 

I have a couple of crocuses in bloom this week. There was even a bee buzzing around.

Finn was very happy to see us but not so happy when we drove away with him in the back seat, leaving his "Mom" behind. He is fine now.  We took a long walk at the park today and he is tired out tonight. 

Happy International Quilting Day, everyone!  I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. 

Stitching on Multiple Projects

The rainbow scrap challenge colour for February was yellow so I made lots of yellow and gray 16 patches which I used this week to make my version of the Colour Block March quilt Pattern.  I may or may not add borders to this quilt...it is currently about 45" square.  I will pick out some backing fabric soon and quilt this one myself.  I have several quilts in line to be quilted on my DSM.  Sometimes, the quilting mood hits and I get a bunch done all at once.  I am hoping this happens soon!

There are some leftover HST's from this quilt which I will use to make a table runner. It might get done before the quilt!

A few more logs were added to the pineapple log cabin blocks this week, using up more green and orange scraps.  I also started the centres for 7 more blocks so I will have enough for a table runner.  These blocks are now about 6.5" square. 

There was a lot of chain piecing this week --I made a 5th blue 16 patch block for this collection. I still have lots of blue squares cut for more blocks. 

The Elgin Piecemakers colours for our April Comfort Quilt are light blue, yellow and gray.  I had just enough of the print fabric for the squares in this block. 

In the knitting department, I finished a baby facecloth with a little bird on it.  I'm going to try making a facecloth with some cables in it next so I can start a bigger cable project next. 

Love Birds had some attention this week too.  I'm a little over 1/2 done this picture. 

My daughter managed to find a little bit of time for some cross stitch this week too.  This one is bigger than some of the other city scapes she has stitched. 

Finn got his hair cut this week.  He loves lying in a sunbeam in the mornings while my daughter works.  He likes to arrange the gray blanket "just so". 

My mother-in-law has snowdrops blooming in her garden! She thinks the squirrels planted them there because she does not remember ever buying snowdrop bulbs. This is a sure sign of spring in her garden. 

In our garden, our earliest bloomer is the witch-hazel bush.  Our snow all melted this past week so the daffodils are starting to come up now.  I love seeing everything come to life after the cold winter. 

I think I saw a reference to this book on someone's blog last weekend so I took it out of the library this week, electronically.  It is a series of essays about yarn stashing--substituting the word "fabric" for "yarn" makes it applicable for all of my sewing friends as well. I would recommend this book to anyone who collects fabric or yarn!

I will be linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge as well as Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy.

Pineapple Log Cabin Class

This morning, I took a pineapple log cabin class through the Oxford Quilt Guild with Barb V. at Fun With Barb.  She was our Zoom speaker back in November and several members of the guild admired her pineapple log cabin quilt made with 1/2" logs. Someone on the executive suggested a class and so we invited Barb to return today for a Zoom class.  I contemplated fabric options for the quilt all week and, finally, just before class this morning, decided on orange and bright green scraps with a white solid background. Soon, I had enough scraps pressed and cut into strips to at least start my project.  Barb taught us how to make these blocks without paper piecing...it's a bit tricky to get them started properly, but we were all soon on our way. 

The darkest orange centre square is a scrap from a friendship star quilt which I made for my daughter over 20 years ago.  So many memories attached to our scraps!

I had to be careful to make sure I put the green and orange scraps in the right spots...there may have been some un-sewing a couple of times during the class.

By the end of the class, I had a couple of rounds of each colour on my three blocks.  I think I will be making a table runner with my blocks.  I will figure out the size for each block as well as how many I need as I go along.  It would be nice to have this done sooner than later so I can put the runner out this Spring/Summer. I would highly recommend Barb Vedder as a speaker and workshop leader for your guild.   Thanks, Barb, for a great class!

I also made my green block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week.  

I now have three blocks--yellow, pink and green.  I fussy cut the little chick in the middle of the block. 

I needed 4 more yellow and gray blocks for my next Colour Block Challenge quilt. I would love to get this top put together this coming week.

These three blocks are for an Elgin Piecemakers Comfort quilt...More scraps used up!

I have been reading Emma Donoghue's "The Pull of the Stars" this week for the Library book club which meets this coming Tuesday on Zoom.  I am just about done--I like the book but if you are the least bit squeamish about medical descriptions, this might not be the book for you.  It is set during the Spanish Flu Pandemic during WW1 and gives the reader insight into some of the difficulties during that time.  

My daughter has not had as much stitching time as usual this week but she did finish off the purple cone flower. 

Love Birds is about 1/2 finished now.  I purchased more blue thread this week so I don't have to worry about running out before the picture is done. 

I have been sending a picture to the newlyweds each week so they can see my progress. 

The snowmen have been put into storage and we are now channeling Spring at our house.  We have even started working on a Spring themed puzzle this week. 

Fluffy Finn will be getting a haircut this coming week.  My daughter says he has been "fluffing" all over her apartment.  From this chair, he has a good vantage point to watch my daughter as she works at her desk. 

I will link up with the RSC folks as well as the Slow Sunday Stitching Gang.