Lots of Little Projects this week

I tried to get into my sewing room every day this week and managed to get lots done.  First up, I finished the rest of my green blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I have to look and see if there are enough darker green scraps to make a 5x5 HST block.  I don't have a lot of dark green fabric in my stash.  

Next up-- I shortened a pair of jeans for my husband.  He received them as a Christmas gift and, now, he can wear them.  I also added a hanging sleeve to my little sashiko wall hanging and it is now on display.  I have two open wide zipper pouches to make as gifts and got one done.  I picked the fabrics for the other one but did not have the right colour of zipper for it.  I will pick up a zipper this week and get that one done.  The sharp eyed among you might notice I have the fabrics in the wrong spots on this bag...the patterned material should have been on the top...oh well...  I still like it!

The Funky Rooster stitching is down to three colours.  I try to do a bit of work on this every day. 

The colour of the month for our guild's colour challenge is pink.  Here is my block. The bicycle fabric is fun. 

A friend has a new baby girl so I made a cloth book from a panel for her. 

Happy Valentine's Day!  My husband and I went to see "Song Sung Blue" this afternoon for our Valentine date.  Excellent movie...We went to a Neil Diamond concert several years ago.  It was "so good, so good, so good..."  The cookie came from the farmer's market this morning. 

The backyard squirrel was up to his/her usual antics this week...

We had ice fog one morning this week which gave me opportunities for interesting pictures when I was out walking one morning. 

Finn has decided to take up skiing... I'm not sure he will win any olympic medals though!

If snuggling was an olympic sport, he would win all the medals!

I will link up with Kathy, Frederique and the RSC group.  Have a good week!

Sewing Day with Friends

This has been a busy week in the sewing department!  I have decided to rejoin the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again this year after a 1 year hiatus.  My scraps are in bad need of being tamed!  January's colour is pink so here are my two projects so far.  I may add one more but I'm not sure yet.  I have a pile of  white 2.5" squares with small scale prints on them.  I have had them for a few years and decided to use them for the centres of these hollow nine patch blocks each month.  I am also going to make some triangle in a square blocks.  I made my first one today.  I may do two each month...

Six friends came over for the day today for some slow stitching.  Three people were knitting, three did counted cross stitch, one did embroidery, one did some hand stitching on some placemats and one did rug hooking.  Two of us also did some machine sewing.  (I know--the numbers don't add up to seven--some people worked on more than one project. ) I made a quilt top from a set of 12 scrappy 6.5" squares I made in 2023.  This is the third quilt top I have made with these squares--only one set left to make into a quilt top. 

I decided on a shadowbox setting for this one. 

Karen started knitting herself a new scarf with some yarn she had in her stash.   

Frances is making a shawl. 

Pat worked on some striped two at a time children's mittens.  The stripes are red.  I didn't get a picture of her second knitting project--a blanket that she is making from leftover yarns. 

Frances is making a beautiful hooked rug with feathers on it.  

Christine worked on the Fall section of her four seasons cross stitch. 

Elaine has started to embroider a stamped cross stitch baby quilt.  

I finished off the quadrant with the owl in it earlier this week and started on the border for the last section of my Winter cross stitch.  Progress was made today on the border. 

The border is not very exciting but it must be done before I can start into the exciting part!

We had turkey vegetable soup, buns, fruit and cookies for lunch. 

My daughter has been working on her Christmas blanket--the gingerbread border is coming along.  Finn is a big help, holding the blanket down while she crochets. 

She finished listening to three audiobooks this week and made three granny squares for her book blanket.  

My book club discussion about The Secret Garden went well and I am going to start reading next month's book this week.  During Black history month, we read a book by a Black author. 

I am reading this short novella first.  This one may make it onto the list for book club next year. 

A friend and I took a walk along a hiking trail this week and this was our view 

My husband and I went for a walk on the day it snowed.  It was very fluffy. 

Finn got a new toy for Christmas. It comes with molds to make frozen yoghurt balls that fit into the green part.  It slows him down a bit when he has his frozen yoghurt treat.  My daughter made the balls with plain greek yoghurt, some strawberries and a bit of peanut butter.  

I gathered some fabrics for a new project this week. I bought the four prints when we were in Arizona this past Fall. The solids were in my stash. I may get started on this project soon...I just have to sketch out the design idea.

A friend has a new grandson so I made him a cloth book. I have made many of these over the years. 

 

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitching crew at Kathy's blog, the rainbow scrap challenge folks and with Frederique.  Have a good week. 

A Variety of Projects

Somehow, I managed to do some sewing almost every day this past week. Two sunflowers are almost done in this quadrant of my sunflower cross stitch.  I also added a bee and some leaves. 

I'm going to a wedding shower tomorrow for my cousin's daughter.  If you know her, please don't spill the beans.  I am quite sure that the bride to be does not read my blog!  I made her these pillowcases--they like to go camping so the canoe fabric was chosen with this in mind. 

I also made her two coiled rope hot pads.  The fabric scraps in these are dark green.  They are about 9" in diameter. 

Today, I met another cousin's new grand baby (this cousin is on the other side of the family!).  I gave him a flannel vortex quilt that I made a few years ago using scraps from PJ's I had made for my daughter and my nieces as well as other scraps accumulated over the years. We talked about how the quilt can be used to play I spy or a matching game when he gets older and is learning to talk.  It has a flannel back and will be quite cozy for story time too.  

I found a fabric pumpkin pattern online (just google it and you will find several patterns) and decided to try making one this week.  I have lots of orange pumpkins to decorate with and decided to make a lighter coloured one.  I have a stick to cut up to make a stem as well as a piece of green felted wool for a leaf.  I will finish it off this week.  I wanted to show my friends at the Slow Sunday Stitchers the slightly gathered running stitch I added to give the pumpkin a more interesting shape. I used pearl cotton thread for this. 

I also found an easy free pattern for a leaf quilt online and decided to just make a small wall hanging instead.  The background is Essex Linen.  I still need to add an outer border in the same background colour and quilt it.  This will be a gift for someone special.  

I started quilting my Shweshwe quilt ages ago and finally got back to working on it again this week.  I hope to do some quilting on it most days.  Of course, I have decided to quilt it rather densely so this will take a while.  I do like how it looks though so will continue to persevere.  

It has been quite cool some mornings this past week but my fuchsia plants are still blooming happily on the front porch.  

Finn certainly enjoys his naps, especially when he can touch my daughter at the same time. 

He likes to be comfortable and use all of the pillows. 

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