Welcome to Another New Year!

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The holidays have passed, my Christmas decorations are put away and we are almost two weeks into the new year. At this time of year I used to look at what I did in the past year and outline what I hoped to focus on during the new year. My thoughts on both are sort of rumbling around in my head but I am going to try to jot them down.

The biggest event in 2024 was the birth of my third grand daughter. Clearly she has decided to make her parents crazy from the get go. She arrived a full three weeks early. When my son told me she had been born early in the morning on an October day, I was so surprised. No one was expecting her so soon! On her second day in this world, the pediatrician noticed something awry with her heart. It turned out to be pulmonary stenosis. In brief, this condition is a defect in the pulmonary valve to the heart and it restricts the blood flow from the right ventricle to the lungs. It is a big deal and when a 6 pound newborn is sent by ambulance to Children’s Hospital. It is just terrifying. She was in the ICU for the better part of a week. Her parents were afraid as were we. But the pediatric cardiac surgeon did a very successful procedure to enlarge the ventricle and she is just fine. It is likely this procedure will have to be repeated when she is older. She will also have cardiac care forever, to monitor the valve. However they say she is healthy and it should not be a huge issue. Yikes, this little one threw all of us for a loop in those first days.

Of course I did make my grand daughter a little quilt. I had a fun time with it and finished in back in September. I gave it to her parents at a baby shower in late September. For the quilt, I chose a stack of nine fabrics (nine was an instrumental number as I will explain in a bit). Each block is a six inch square that is ’rounded’ to a snowball shape using stitch and flip corners. For the corners, while I didn’t sew them on improv style, they were very free-hand. Each circle is a bit different from the last and I squared them up to make the blocks the same size. However, the triangles between them are all slightly different.

The fun part was this. When I was making blocks, I began to dread the process of laying the pieces out and balancing which fabric was where, making sure no two same fabrics touched, etc. I was thinking about how to do this with some logic and less hassle and thought about Sudoko puzzles.

Because I settled on nine fabrics, I was able to assign a number to each fabric and then just place them as they were on the puzzle. This put one of each in each row and column. I didn’t think about it at all and sewed nine patch blocks to match the puzzle. It was so simple. Of course as I sewed the nine patches together, I flipped one the wrong way and the whole thing now had a kink in it but at that point, it didn’t really matter. For the most part the fabrics were laid out in a balanced fashion. There is a print with a bird on it and the birds are pointing all in one direction but in the photo below, the quilt is sideways. So the birds are lying down and resting. 😉

This Sudoku method was super helpful for me and I will totally use it again.

Below you can see the backing and binding. The ‘I Love You’ fabric is actually a crib sheet. Her bed has these sheets and I thought it would be fun to use one on the back of the quilt. I quilted it free motion with hearts and flowers on the snowballs and a curvy line in the first border.

When I looked at my projects for 2024, I found I had made seven quilts. This is the lowest number in years! The bug to sew and quilt was not nearly as strong as it was. I did make some garments which I shared in this post. I have a couple of quilts I haven’t yet shared and will write a post on them soon-ish.

The fact that I made just seven quilts, seemed to create less of a need to post on the blog. In 2024, I wrote only 17 posts! For someone who enjoys writing and talking about whatever to whomever, that isn’t a whole lot of blogging!

This leads one to wonder what the heck I did do all year. Thinking back, plus looking at my photos on my phone (the best way to look back in time) I see my time was spent with family, our grand daughters, running, working on my crochet skills, volunteering for Friends of the Library and reading.

I worked on improving my time for running 3 mile stretches (5 km races) and did shave off a considerable amount. Over the year I ran 224 miles. In the end of April I pulled a muscle in my calf and had to take the entire month of May off from running. But averaging the miles ran over 11 months means I ran about 20 miles each month. Over the year, if I didn’t run, I tried to make sure to walk. My total for walking was 268 miles.

My volunteer work at the library continues to evolve. It is such a great group of women and I very much enjoy working there. I have taken on a few projects and love being able to contribute my time as there is such a direct correlation to increasing the funds raised for the library.

For 2025 – Hmmm…. I don’t have a huge list of goals for sewing. I have been working on donation quilts using up the stacks of charm squares I have. One quilt top is nearly done and a second is laid out on the floor of the sewing room. Simple quilts that will use fabric from my shelves. I want to continue on with this. Also, I bought the DuoLingo app and have been practicing my Spanish. I have only a tiny bit of Spanish that remains in my brain since taking it in high school in the 1970’s. Time to stretch my brain cells and see what I can re-learn! Running to keep fit is still high on the list. Can I squeeze in more than 20 miles each month? I know there is time to do it, mostly I just have to put on my shoes and get out there!

There is always more to be said but for now, this is enough. Wishing you all the best in 2025 – good health, much joy and lots of time to be creative!

Remember Me??

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Hi everyone! After a long (nearly three month) absence, I decided it is time to write a post. Over the last couple of weeks, I received a number of emails from friends asking if I was ok because I haven’t been writing any posts. Life has been great; busy and full of all the things I like. Somehow, I just was not in the mood for blogging. I haven’t been reading posts, or commenting, or writing. Maybe I just needed a break.

Trying to catch up on the last three months is a challenge – where do I begin?? There has been lots of family time, celebrations, visitors, time with my children and grand children, home projects and – of course – sewing. There were two long weekends at the beach; one with Ray, me and Julia and the other with my parents, Ray and me. We celebrated my parents’ 69th wedding anniversary and Julia’s 23rd birthday. My sisters and I all met up at one sister’s house in Denver, CO for a long weekend. Lots and lots has been happening!

Throughout spring Ray spent hours out in the garden prepping a vegetable garden. It is really starting to produce now and we are enjoying lots of snow peas, rhubarb, a few varieties of lettuce, turnips, and radishes. I wasn’t at all sure about the turnips but we have had fun finding different ways to prepare them. I have roasted them (ok but not fantastic), mashed them with russet potatoes (very good) and made a yummy salad with raw turnips. I was surprised by the salad – we both enjoyed it quite a bit. Some sort of critter is making Ray crazy by eating the carrots as fast as the poor things can grow. The summer veggies are coming in now. As you’d imagine, we cannot wait for the tomatoes!

Sweet peas are doing great this year. I love these – the colors and that amazing fragrance. Sitting on the deck, it smells so wonderful!

We recently received the fantastic news of a new baby joining to our family! My son and his wife are expecting their first child mid-November. I cannot wait!!! When they found out the baby is a girl, I quickly found a small piece of pale pink stretch knit fabric and made these leggings and matching hat. They are so teeny tiny.

I also made three soft, stuffed blocks. They each have a few rattles in them for a noisy sound as well as crinkly paper in one. They might be a tad bit over stuffed but I still love them.

Should we take a quick look at some of the clothing I made recently? Okie doke!

This t-shirt was made with a piece of stretch knit fabric I have had for several years. I am super happy with it, though I would like it to be about two inches longer. However, the size of the fabric determined the length of the shirt. It fits nicely though.

Here is another project I just finished up. A few weeks ago there was a morning class on sewing with knits at a local sewing shop. The actual event was more of a “let’s sell you some knit fabric” session – there wasn’t a whole lot of teaching going on. However I did pick up a great featherweight performance fabric. UV protection and moisture wicking components mean it is be perfect for running. I bought a couple of yards with a plan to make some tops.

First I made this tank top. It was super easy to make using the Kira tank pattern by Sonia Estep Designs. Soon after this successful make, I tried a second one with a different fabric. I don’t like the fit of it – I just went too fast when I cut it out. Anyway, no picture of it because I am going to make it again with the same fabric.

Here is a blouse I made with a piece of voile that was on the shelf. I like the fit of this one quite a bit. The pattern, McCalls 7548, is from 1994 and very dated looking. I had to modify it a lot because it was a size 18 which is too big. But it turned out cute and I plan to wear it a lot.

Another piece of fabric, another project! I picked up this fabric years ago at a garage sale. It is super lightweight, maybe a thin chambray. I saw this pattern and it was perfect! I haven’t taken a picture yet as I just finished them. But they are very cute. Running the stripes in both directions is really clever. (I was too lazy to make the belt loops and belt.)

Last but not least, here is a dress I made. The knit was scored at the Goodwill for $3.00! I have more left after making the dress too! I like this but if I were to make it again, there are a few things I would change. It is slightly tight across the back and the bodice could be lengthened. Just in case you are wondering who I am with in this adorable picture, let me introduce you to my mom and cousin. We all share the same first name – Mom, Bernie and Bernie. My cousin lives in Louisiana so we don’t see her nearly enough. When we do though, it is our tradition to get a picture of the ‘three Bernie’s’.

This weekend there is a quilt show in Sequim, WA. My friend and I plan to attend. My goal is to enjoy the quilts and NOT bring home more fabric. Seriously working on using up the stacks of fabric I have so I do not need to add to it! I will let you know if I can control that impulse to buy fabric. (It is so hard!!)

Nice to be back in touch! Let me know how you are doing, ok?

Sharing at some of my favorites. Check out the links at the top of the page for Brag About Your Beauties and TGIFF. 🙂

The Best Laid Plans

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A few months ago my nephew and his wife bought flights to come up for a visit from Colorado. They were to stay at my parents’ house. We were all so excited because we don’t often see them. In the last 10 years, I may have seen him twice and met his wife only once. Anyway, I was pretty excited. Mom and Dad planned a brunch. My sisters and I planned to take them on the ferry over to Seattle to visit some of the touristy area around Pike’s Market.

Well, none of that was to happen for me. I got sick about 10 days ago and by the time the weekend rolled around, I felt awful. I missed every bit of the weekend. How disappointing! I am sure they had a lovely visit and the brunch seemed to go well. My kids were there and my husband too. I spent the afternoon dog-sitting my grand dog and binge-watching the Apple TV show, Trying. (By the way, if you haven’t seen this show and are an Apple TV subscriber, I think it is really cute).

Just before getting sick, I did manage to finish this little strip quilt for Project Linus. Above you can see the backing which is a green batik my sister gave me. I machine stitched the binding with a zig-zag and it looks great.

This quilt was such a good use of these random strips. Most from a scrap bag donated to Project Linus and some from my bin of strips. I tried to alternate the widths to keep things balanced. Other than straightening up some of the strips, this was a breeze. Unfortunately, the monthly Project Linus meeting was yesterday and I was not feeling up to going. So this quilt will sit and wait until the May meeting for donation.

When I was feeling lousy, I went poking around in the sewing room. I wanted to make something and decided to use some fabric given to me by a friend of mine in California. It is an older line designed by Kim Diehl – so very traditional reproduction fabrics. The main reason I was drawn to these this particular week was included in the fabric Stephanie gave me were stacks of pieces already cut into squares and rectangles. I looked through a book, Homestyle Quilts, and chose a pattern that could be easily modified to use the squares that I had.

Even though I sewed just between naps; a little here and some more there, this sure did come together quickly. This was mainly because I had very little I had to cut. Cutting pieces can be very time consuming!!

At this point, all sashing strips are done and I am on the hunt for some darker green yardage for the setting and corner triangles.

Just in case I get lucky here, the above picture is the fabric I would like to use for the setting triangles. It is the same as what I used for the block centers. I don’t suppose any of you have a piece of this sitting on a shelf, collecting dust? It is an older line so I am unable to find any on-line (though I have tried mightily)! If you do happen to have about a yard or maybe 1 1/2 yards, I would love to buy it from you. Leave a comment!! I’ll cross my fingers. 🙂

Recently finishing up the hand quilted mini I posted about earlier, I wanted another hand work project for the evenings. Changing things up, I have been working on a crochet project. This afghan is so soft – I can’t remember where I picked up the first few skeins of yarn. Having only three skeins, I somehow decided to start an afghan. What was I thinking??? Never having made one before I wasn’t clear as to how much yarn I really needed. Let’s just say it is a whole lot more than three skeins! Luckily I found some on Etsy and a bit more on Ebay. So, I will be able to make this a good size to snuggle under on the couch. But jeez – yarn adds up and a project that takes 10 or so skeins is expensive! Crocheting in the evening feels meditative. Especially now that I have the rhythm of this pattern solidly memorized and don’t have to pay too much attention to it. As with quilting, I am not precise when it comes to crochet. Sure, every now and then there might be four double crochets where there should be three but in this sort of pattern, I don’t think it matters a whole lot. Plus, it’s how I do things…..

Hopefully this virus will end sooner than later. I am bored and want my energy back. Plus, my husband is probably tiring of listening to me cough! Hope you are all healthy and enjoying the spring time. Our skies are blue today after a very rainy night. Hurray!

Big Stitches and Strip Quilts

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Somehow a month passed by and I wasn’t struck with the urge to write. Not for lack of projects to share however. I have found quite a bit of time to be in the sewing room. Let’s take a look at a few projects.

Quite a number of weeks ago, I decided I wanted to make something that I could hand quilt with big stitches. I love the look of hand quilting and have not done a whole lot of it. I wish I could remember where I saw the inspiration for this but I didn’t write it down. It isn’t terribly unique but I did use someone else’s idea.

It took me no time to stitch these strips together. The most time was spent on choosing the fabrics. All came from the scrap bin though!

The first fabric I selected was the red print in the upper left corner (actually, this picture shows the project upside down). Not that anyone would know that but in my mind, this is upside down.

After assembling the top and basting it, I began to quilt it by hand. I didn’t use a hoop and maybe I should have. By the time I was done quilting it, it was somewhat distorted and this made it a challenge to square up for binding.

I love the stitching, even with all of the wobbles and wiggles.

Currently I have it hanging on a wall in my sewing room. I like this little hanger (made by my friend’s husband). I switch quilts here fairly often because it can be done easily. You can see this is crooked on the right side. Well, I should clarify, it is actually cut squarely but the strips are distorted. It is quirky but I like it. The colors are right up my alley. This little quilt provided many evenings of hand sewing which I enjoyed greatly.

In between times, I have been sorting and cutting a bag of fabric scraps for Project Linus. I was able to cut a large stack of charm squares and 3 1/2″ squares for future projects. In the scrap bag there were loads of strips. Rather than sort and cut them, I decided to just trim them up and make a quick quilt top.

I think I will add another strip or two to both the bottom and top to make it a bit larger. Then it will be finished up. The meetings are the last Sunday of each month so I have time to get this done by the next session. It is cute, kind of busy but it has a lot of fun things to look at. I’ll share it again when it is finished.

In between sewing, we have had lots of good family time. We had my son and his wife out from New York for about 5 days which was so nice. I miss them all the time and treasure when I do get to be with them. We also celebrated Easter with lots of family, including my sister and her husband who came up from Colorado.

I have been waiting for the rain to stop and it looks like it has. Time to get some time outdoors! Hope you will leave me a comment and tell me how you are doing. It has been a long time since we’ve chatted!

Villa Rosa Blog Hop

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It is time for the second annual Villa Rosa Designs blog hop! When this got started last year, I was very happy to participate and this year is no different. For a little bit of background, Villa Rosa Designs is located in Grass Valley, CA. This, as you may or may not know, is where I lived for almost 30 years. The owner, Pat Fryer, is a creative force and her shop carries gorgeous fabrics. In addition, she has a HUGE number of postcard size patterns for sale. You may have seen these in your local quilt shops. They are usually patterns that come together quickly, often using pre-cuts. Having produced over 600 patterns in the history of VRD, there are many to choose from. The VRD on-line shop is wonderful! Shoppers will find patterns and fabrics, quilt kits to go with the patterns and often times a fantastic sale section (for the bargain hunters out there).

This year, the bloggers on the hop were given a set of five patterns to choose from. I chose to use the Ebb Tide pattern.

I decided to make a quilt to donate to Project Linus and had some cute fire truck fabric the build around. This pattern allows for the fabric to be seen in large blocks which is perfect for a child’s quilt.

Here is a progress shot. I had the blocks (simple squares and rectangles) cut out as well as most of the sashing. I kept the fire trucks front and center as the focal point. The two squares of yellow add a vibrant pop to the quilt!

The simplicity of this pattern meant it went together extremely fast. This allowed me time to practice some free motion quilting on it!

The loops and circles are free hand. The straight lines and angles were done using a ruler.

The backing probably took more time to piece than the top! It was great to use up lots of pieces from my stash and I really wanted to include as much of the firetruck yardage as I could. I have very little left of that fabric.

This simple pattern was fun to put together. It made a super cute child’s quilt and were it used with a cool large scale fabric it would look wonderful. For collectors of Kaffe Fassett or Anna Maria Horner fabrics, this would be an excellent choice. I could also see this pattern used for chopping up sections of a panel. So many options here!

Thank you to Villa Rosa Designs for inviting me to take part in this fun blog hop. I think VRD patterns are a lot of fun and look forward to seeing the quilts made by the others involved in the hop. Tricia, coordinator of the hop, has lined up an incredible selection of prizes! The generosity of the sponsors of this event is amazing.

To be included for prizes for the event be sure to leave an email address so we know how to contact you if you win. Registration for the prizes closes on Sunday, March 24th.

From the comments on this post, I will select names to win a prize or to be entered into the Grand Prize Drawing. One person will win a set of the blog hop pattern cards (see photo above). The other names will be sent to Villa Rosa Designs to be entered to win one of many prizes. If you would like to be entered in the drawing, please leave a comment telling me if you have ever used a Villa Rosa pattern card. Does your local quilt shop carry them? Have you shopped on their website? I would love to hear of your experience with this company. If you are an international reader, please do let me know. Some of the sponsors are able to ship internationally and some are not.

Again, enjoy the hop. Go check out the other bloggers and see which pattern(s) they have made. I plan to do the same!

Blog Hop Schedule:

Thursday, March 14
https://villarosaquilts.com/

Friday, March 15
1. Kathleen McCormick — https://kathleenmcmusing.com/
2. Cheree H — http://livelylatte.blogspot.com/
3. Roseanne Nelson — https://www.homesewnbyus.com
4. Wendy Tuma — https://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
5. C&T Publisher (Valerie) — https://www.ctpub.com/blog/

Saturday March 16
1. Bernie Kringel — You are here!
2. Sandra Walker — https://www.mmmquilts.com/
3. Linda — https://www.texasquiltgal.com/
4. Debbie Huber – http://time4stitchn.blogspot.com/
5. SIY (Branyn/Jennifer) – https://blog.siysewityourself.com/

Sunday, March 17
1. Carolyn — https://quarterinchcapers.blogspot.com/
2. Emily (Norton House) — https://www.nortonhousequilting.com/blogs/news
3. Gail Shepperd — https://quiltinggail.com/
4. Susan Slaton — http://wazoonewsbits.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 18
1. Nann Hilyard — https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/
2. Jaftex (Jennifer) — https://scottfortunoff.com/
3. Jan Altomare — https://www.cocoaquilts.com/
4. Tricia – http://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, March 19
1. Joy — https://shout4joy-shouting.blogspot.com/
2. Emily Leachman — http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/
3. Vicki S — www.knitbug2.blogspot.com
4. Rose Mikulski — https://somethingrosemade14.blogspot.com/
5. Quilts of Valor (Lexie) — https://www.qovf.org/

Wednesday, March 20th
1. Nancy — https://www.graceandpeacequilting.com/
2. Jocelyn — https://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/
3. Tracie — https://joyfullytracie.com/
4. Daryl Perry — https://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/
5. Electric Quilt (Diane) — https://doyoueq.com/blog/

Thursday, March 21st
Tricia villarosaquilts.com

Villa Rosa has planned for a terrific set of prizes to be given away! You will not want to miss out on these opportunities! Check out the list of sponsors:

Hoffman Fabrics — https://hoffmancaliforniafabrics.net/
Moda Fabrics— https://modafabrics.com/
Timeless Treasures — https://www.ttfabrics.com/
Jaftex — https://jaftex.com/
Electric Quilt — https://electricquilt.com/
Banyan Batiks/Northcott — https://www.northcott.com/home.aspx
Benartex — https://benartex.com/
Hancock’s of Paducah — https://www.hancocks-paducah.com/
Fox Chapel/Landauer — https://foxchapelpublishing.com/
C&T Publishing — https://www.ctpub.com/
P&B Textiles — https://www.pbtex.com/

This event has been sponsored by so many wonderful companies!

Thank you Sponsors! Without you, this Blog Hop wouldn’t be possible.

2024 Stay At Home Round Robin – Finish

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It is a bit early but my SAHRR project is finished and I am excited to share it! This event began in mid-January. With suggestions each week from a group of bloggers, the participants made quilts that could not be more unique. We were to pick a center to start with and build from there. Some quilters kept their center at the middle and others chose to off-set it. I made a small quilt (17″ x 18″) and others made large lap size quilts. Overall, it was so much fun.

My main goal was to use a bag of fabric that remained from my Stepping Stones quilt, made back in 2016. While I wasn’t able to use all of the scraps, I did manage to stick to using bits from that bag for this mini quilt.

Choosing designs to quilt in the various sections was fun. Loops, cross hatch and triangles filled most of the sections. I did quite a bit of dense pebbling on the black strips which was silly because it is impossible to see. I felt like I was quilting in a very dark room and just hoping what I was doing was right. The black thread was nearly impossible to see on the black fabric. I wish I had used dark gray.

Here is a close shot of some of the quilting.

I have the quilt hanging above the guest bed (which is in a corner of the sewing room). It looks a little lonely having there but I am on the hunt for something to hang with it. For the meanwhile, it is hanging out all by itself. Doesn’t this picture make a person think I have an immaculate sewing room?? Let’s just say there is a reason the photo was taken from this angle. 🙂

Many, many thanks to Gail, Wendy, Kathleen, Anja, Emily, and Brenda for the fun weekly prompts. I am excited to see the other finishes that are linked up at Quilting Gail’s site on March 18th.

I hope you will participate in and enjoy the upcoming Villa Rosa Designs blog hop!! It is sure to be lots of fun – so many quilts and patterns to be shared and prizes to be won. See you back here for my post on Saturday, March 16th!

Scrappy Pink Finish

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Not sure why I have not posted this already but I finished up the pink heart quilt for the twin bed. Actually I finished it several weeks ago. I kept thinking I would go take some sort of artsy, creative photos of it but really, a twin size quilt is a bit cumbersome to take outside and hang over a fence or tree branch. I settled for somewhat boring shots of it on the bed. Better than never recording the finish!

It is cozy, warm and very, very pink! Just what little girls need when spending the night at their grandparent’s house! Simple cross hatch across the heart and then minimal straight line quilting over the white portion did the trick. I am somewhat concerned I need more quilting over the white background and will add another set of double lines between the existing sets. Shouldn’t take any time at all to pop the walking foot on the machine and add a bit more stitching.

It looks puffy because it is! I wanted this to be super warm. The girls often wear nightgowns or little shorts and t-shirts to bed so I gave this quilt an extra layer. When I basted it, I had the batting (80/20) and then also added a layer to thin pink flannel between the batting and the dark pink backing. Not surprisingly, this added some heft to the quilt. I think it feels super cozy.

Here is the backing. I have a number of yards of this leftover from the shop so it felt great to use a large portion to back the quilt and to bind it as well. I prewashed it to prevent any color bleeding into the white portion from the front of the quilt. It shouldn’t be an issue.

Both of the heart quilts look sweet side by side in this guest room. These will keep the grand kids cozy for the next sleepover!! Enjoy the weekend everyone. We don’t have any plans so maybe a little sewing, a little exercise and some yard work. Sounds good to me!

Linking to my usuals. Check them out at the top of the page, under link ups. Additionally, I am linking to the Favorite Finish link over at Quilting Jetgirl.

SAHRR – Final Round & a Little Extra Project

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I knew this event would go quickly! Here we are finishing up the sixth round for the Stay At Home Round Robin and then it is time to quilt it. Crazy fast. The final week was set up by Kathleen McMusing. For her prompt she asked we incorporate letters or numbers into the round. In her post, she provided so many fun ways a person might do this.

I really didn’t want to add more pieced blocks to this very busy little quilt. Instead, I took the fabric I had left from the five inch square you can see at the top, cut a narrow (1.5″) strip of it and stitched it to the side. To balance things out one last time, I added another strip of the blue along the bottom.

I am calling it done. When I look at this, I feel like it is complete. Hopefully I will baste it and begin quilting it this weekend. Everyone will be back on March 18th to share their finished quilts. I believe Gail (the originator and organizer of the event) said there were about 50 quilters participating. Creativity abounds in this group so I am excited to see the finishes!

While I am here, I want to share this quick little placemat I made this week. My grand daughters both have birthdays in March – Big sister will be 7 and Little sister will be 4. I thought it might be fun for them to have a birthday placemat they can share, each one using it on their birthday.

My sister, Cathy, has a shop on Etsy called 6 Monkeys & Co where she sells handmade childrens’ clothing. She thoughtfully saves many adorable scraps for me to quilt with. Making clothing means a large amount of extra fabric that isn’t useful to her but is very fun for me. Anyway, that this where the birthday fabric scraps came from. Just enough to piece together a placemat.

I glued strips or rick-rack trim around the edges before I put the binding on. I was concerned it might make the binding bulky but it wasn’t a problem at all. The backing fabric is a festive rainbow of polkadots. Hope the girls enjoy this during their birthday month. I won’t see them for a couple of weeks so I need to get this off in the mail to them.

Update to last week’s post – I attending the Project Linus meeting and it was quite fun. These women work hard! So many donations that needed to have labels attached. Also loads of donations of fabric which I spent several hours sorting and measuring. I plan to return to the next meeting. Yay!

Enjoy the weekend everyone! I will be working on the SAHRR quilting which I am looking forward to.

2024 SAHRR – Round 5

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It took me all week to get upstairs to work on my Round Robin project this week. But yesterday I did it! This week was Quilting Gail’s week to supply the prompt. Her only request was that, somehow, the number 4 factored into our decision for what to do with this round. Four patch blocks, use four colors, maybe 1/4 square triangles or pinwheel blocks – these use the number four in one way or another.

I had no problem deciding how to implement the suggestion of four in my round. I looked at the bits of leftovers I am working with and counted out four blue strips with tiny black and white HST’s attached to them.

I connected four of the HST’s with a square of the blue in between each one. Then I added enough of the blue strip to each end to be able to border one side of the Round Robin project.

It looks great. After attaching it to the left side of the quilt top, I measured the width of the rounds on each side of the original center block. Unless the prompt doesn’t work out, I plan to add the final round to the left side of the project and hope to emphasize black in that last round. This should lessen the asymmetry and balance things out a bit.

This has come together quickly and now that it is almost finished, I am looking at each section and planning how to quilt it. I enjoy quilting something small and easily maneuvered. This one will be fun.

We had one really nice day of sunny weather this week which was such a treat. Ray wanted to take out the boat as he had done quite a bit of work on it and needed to test a few things out.

As you can see, there was no one on the water. But the sun was out and the sky was just gorgeous. It was the perfect way to take advantage of a bit of sunshine. Heading to the end of February is leaving me hopeful spring is not far off!

This weekend I plan to attend a monthly meeting of the local chapter of Project Linus. I have donated to them before when in California. However, I haven’t ever gotten involved. Since moving up here, I haven’t been interested in joining a guild but I am interested in meeting other quilters and, as always, love service clubs and projects. Have any of you gotten involved with Project Linus? I am sure I will meet some like minded, nice people in the group!

100 Year Old Ladies, SAHRR Round 4, Ruler Quilting, and Hand Quilting

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Lots to catch up on today! I think my priorities are correct in introducing my 100 year old grand daughter. Big sister is in first grade this year. She loves school so much. This week her class celebrated the 100th day of school for this year. The children came to school dressed up as though they were 100 years old. It was so much fun to see the joy on her face when the day finally rolled around.

She was so cute with her gray hair (wig) and cat eye glasses on a chain. H was watching the bus pull up with this huge grin on her face. These special days at school are so much fun for the kids.

Moving on to this year’s Stay At Home Round Robin…. It was Brenda’s week to choose what we were to incorporate into the round. She chose the square in a square block, also called an economy block. For some reason, I had the idea I needed to make a larger block and it was bothering me. I couldn’t come up with a way to use a bigger block. At first, I thought I would skip the whole round. But then I decided to try and make a tiny one. My first attempt was very wonky and I tossed it. Then I tried again and made two blocks I was happy with.

The blue piece set the size for the block. The blue square measured 1 1/2″. I cut large white squares for the surrounding triangles and chopped those in half. The finished square ended up being two inches. I made two of these. They are totally improv which means the center is not square. (I still need to trim the blue corners on the back side). I love them!

I also made this blue border by alternating the solid blue with two tiny black and white HST’s. As I mentioned before, all of these bits are leftover from a quilt I made a while back. As of yet, I have not attached the blue border or the tiny S-I-S blocks. I want to wait to see what comes up on Monday. But for now, I like the idea of this layout.

Since I keep referring to the quilt I first made with these pieces, I thought I would show the original quilt to you again. I made this quite a while ago as part of a quilt along with The Inquiring Quilter. Seems like seven plus years is long enough to hold on to the extra bits. Time to use them up!!

Hand quilting is a great way to keep my hands busy while watching television or listening to an audio book. This peek shows a snippet of a wall quilt I am working on. I stitched much of this while Ray watched the Super Bowl last weekend. By the end of that time, my fingers were sore. Even with a thimble, it is hard to push that needle back and forth for a long period of time.

In the sewing room, I have been working on a quilt for a blog hop in March. (I am way ahead of schedule on this)! The layout of this quilt allows for lots of FMQ practice. I have been quilting it with a straight ruler. After a number of squares like the one above, I think it is time to switch to a curved ruler. When I practice with the curved rulers, I have a lot more hiccups. There are so many pretty motifs to be stitched with rulers so I am motivated to keep practicing.