April Showers blog hop - My Day

 This months challenge was to pose about what showers, such as baby or wedding showers, late snow showers, or "just because" gift showers for friends.  What do you like to shower everyone with?

"Just Because" Showers - 

I enjoy 'showering' friends with gifts throughout the year.   One of the gifts I make and share are pincushions.

I love to use interesting bits of glassware and pottery found while thrifting to make pin cushions for quilting friends.   One of these days I may make some for sale.

This pincushion was just finished last week.   It will be a birthday gift for one of my best friends.  I used a single candleholder that I found at a local Goodwill store and a scrap of red material.  There's room in it to hold thread and mini scissors while stitching.

One of my fav things to "shower" my friends with are quilted postcards.   I love sending notes to encourage them, wish them happy birthday, or just let them know I'm thinking of them.   And what better way than with a card that I've made.

Scraps from other projects, or things that often would be thrown out find homes in them.   Like the flowers on these that are made from drawstrings cut off of a pair of capri's and silk leaves that would have been tossed in the trash.  And yes, these flowers were a "What if I do this?" kind of experiment.  =)

My little cross-stitch pieces  or even ones that I've found in thrifting (like the ones shown in these pics), often find homes in my cards.  Scrapbooking supplies frequently get put to use in the cards as well.

More thrifted cross-stitch and scrap-booking goodies used in this one.

Silk flowers, hand-dyed motifs, ribbons, scrap-booking supplies and bids of old cutter quilts have all been used at one time or another.

Baby Showers - 
I love it when my friends have babies because that means I can make something cute as a gift for them.  Over the years I've made quilts for close friends and lately stuffed animals for babies and older siblings.   But I always keep a stack of baby bibs that I've made as a gift, and will usually wrap up 6 or 7 of them for a gift.

I'll add ribbons, lace, or like these take and add quilt blocks or partial blocks to wash cloths to decorate them.  The opening is just a half circle that I bind with double fold bias tape.   I use Wright's for this because I have a ton of it to use from all my years of sewing clothes.   

Be sure to check out what everyone else has posted today.

Wednesday April 24

Quilted Snail

Ms P Designs USA

 Days Filled With Joy

Quilting Between the Rails (Facebook)

Bumbleberry Stitches

Gratitude's:

1. Estimate has been received for the needed work on the house, so I'm almost to the point of being able to get the remediation and restoration started at the house, putting me one step closer to being able to move in there and sell the mobile home where I'm at now.

2. For the blessings that come with long-time quilt friends, even when that comes with watching someone struggle with worsening health issues and knowing there is nothing that you can do to make it better. 

ScrapHappy - April 2024

Welcome to ScrapHappy day where everyone posts what they've done with scraps over the previous month.    Be sure to check out what everyone has posted about this month.

My first project is this toddler quilt top.  The center fabric was a remnant that I got as part of a bag of scraps that I bought somewhere about 18 months ago.   Fabric is from the Search and See line from In The Beginning Fabrics back in 2016.   After trimming the sides even, I was left with a 26 by 42 inch center piece.    

After letting it marinate for a while until it spoke to me, I finally decided that it would be a good one to leave in one piece and then just add borders until it got to a good size.  I added a 1/2" border from a WOW remnant that I had leftover from another project.   2nd border is made from the medium & light blues and turquoise string strips I made a couple of months ago.  Outer border is made from the remaining bit of the WOW used for the first border.   

After pulling out a 6" tall stack of novelty print squares earlier this week to send an online friend, I decided to use up the last strips of the novelty fabrics instead of putting them back into the tote they'd been in for years.   Cut all the scraps down to 4 1/2" by 9 1/2" and cut 1.5" sashing from an end of the bolt piece in my stash, there are teeny-tiny, multicolor stars on the black to add to the fun..  Just the sashing on the sides to go before adding a final border.   Will dig out something in the stash for a border, but don't know what yet.

Don't forget to check out what everyone else has done this month!

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid,  

Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen, Sunny, Kjerstin, 

Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, 

Preeti, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa, 
Lynn, Tierney and Hannah

Gratitudes: 

1. Getting closer to being able to get the needed work on the house done.

2. For meds to help me breathe better..........even if I'm still struggling to breathe like I should consistently

Give it a Whirl Blog Hop - My Day

Welcome to the "Give it a Whirl" blog hop.   The challenge in this month's blog hop was: "Life can send us spinning sometimes, so let's put those spins and whirls to good use in a quilt.  Make something with pinwheel blocks, circle quilting, or whirly gigs.  Try not to whirl out of control."

This is my day to post and I'm looking forward to sharing my project with you.

For a while I've been working with sewing up my littlest scraps (things like strings, oddball squares, triangles, etc.) by sewing them to adding machine paper for stability in dealing with lots of wonky sides.   I started with dark blue first, and end up with over 1000 linear inches of dk blue pieced strips.   

I paired some of the made strips with some 6" unfinished HST's (the blue/cream), made the red HST's and cream tonal scraps to make this quilt top.   

The outer round of the blocks with the blue and cream form 2 interlocking pinwheels.   And overall, the blocks give the quilt a 3D look.

At this point the quilt top still needs a border, but I have not been able to figure out what to do.   Anyone have an idea?

Don't forget to go check out what everyone else has posted about today.

MARCH 18

 

Just Let Me Quilt

Quilted Snail

Pattern Princess

Days Filled With Joy

Quilted Delights

A Quiltery

Bumbleberry Stitches

Gratitudes:
1. Things are finally moving on the remediation work at the house, with cabinets and flooring finally being chosen

2. For the "quick" appointment at the ENT's office about the back-to-back sinus infections.

Give it a Whirl Blog Hop Coming This Week

The "Give it a Whirl" blog hop is happening this week.   

The challenge in this month's blog hop was: "Life can send us spinning sometimes, so let's put those spins and whirls to good use in a quilt.  Make something with pinwheel blocks, circle quilting, or whirly gigs.  Try not to whirl out of control."

Be sure to check out what everyone posts about this week!

MARCH 18

 

Just Let Me Quilt

Quilted Snail

Pattern Princess

Days Filled With Joy

Quilted Delights

A Quiltery

Bumbleberry Stitches

MARCH 19

 

Selina Quilts

Inflorescence

Words & Stitches

Quilting Between The Rails

Sew Many Yarns

Vroomans Quilts

 

MARCH 20

 

Quilting Gail

Just Sew Quilter

Karrin’s Crazy World

Scrapdash

Time 4 Stitchn

 

MARCH 21

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Songbird Designs

Beaquilter

High Road Quilter

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Gratitudes:

1. I'm almost through getting everything out of the great room and kitchen that needs to be out of there before the remediation work can be done.

2. For all those that have given of their time and effort to help me get to this point.

ScrapHappy March 2024

 Welcome back to the ScrapHappy blog hop  for March.  

First up was sorting through more of the 2 gal ziploc bags of sorted scraps to weed out the strips, small scraps, single squares, and oddball prints that never seem to get used.  I managed to get the reds, pinks, and greens sorted.   Once that was done I sewed the red ones up.   

Each of the long strips is at least 72" long,  So between all of them, when added together it is roughly equal to 1 yd of fabric.   

Then I quilted this toddler quilt.  The pieced panel is a scrappy one that I bought from a scrap barrel at a quilt shop in Texas.  The yellow was a remnant piece bought here in AZ and has all sorts of traffic signs on it.   The quilt will be bound in what remains of the yellow.

The backing was pieced from a remnant of a grey that matched the yellow and a piece of grey Kona that was leftover from another project in the past.

Don't forget to check out what everyone has done this month - 

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid,  

Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen, Sunny, Kjerstin, 

Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, 

Preeti, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa, 
Lynn, Tierney and Hannah

Gratitudes:

1. For being able to get a relatively quick (10 days) appointment for the PA at an ENT office.

2. for the beautiful rainbow that I saw in last weeks big storm here.

"It Moose Be Love" Blog Hop

 The "It Moose Be Love" blog hop starts today.  The challenge was: It's the month of "Love".  Show what it is that you love.   Moose are optional, of course. 

Be sure to check out what all of the blog hoppers post this week.

Monday February 19

MooseStashQuilting

Pattern Princess

Karrins Crazy World

Quilted Snail

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

 

Tuesday February 2

A Quiltery-For the Love of Geese

Quilting Gail

Quilted Delights

Words & Stitches

VroomansQuilts

Kathy’s Kwilts and More

 

Wednesday February 21

Selena Quilts

BeaQuilter

Ms P Designs USA

Kathleen McMusing

Days Filled with Joy

Quilt Schmilt

Thursday February 22

Just Let Me Quilt

Inflorescence

High Road Quilter

Just Sew Quilter

Scrapdash

Gratitudes: 
1. Inspector has been out to the house to see what needs to be done to remediate the asbestos and some other issues.   Waiting now on estimate to see what that comes back looking like.

2. Beautiful late winter weather here in the Valley of the Sun.