February Monthly Color Challenge

 

The color challenge for the month of February is lemons! Monthly Color Challenge is hosted by Jen at Patterns by Jen, and each month a fruit or vegetable is the inspiration for color. Jen provides the pattern in either 6-inch or 12-inch size.

In keeping with the look of my eggplant inspired block from last month, I chose a less vibrant tone of yellow, and I elected to add a bit of interest in the center. The background is Decostitch in Cloud, one of my current favorite fabrics.

Next month the color is "Yam" or reddish orange, and I already have a fabric in mind - just waiting for the pattern to be revealed. Be sure to check out other versions of Jen's pattern at the linky right here.

2021 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Yellows

I've been happily sorting through my yellow scrap bin this past week to catch up on the 2021 Rainbow Scrap Challenge, hosted by Angela at SoScrappy.

My monthly scrap blocks are Geese Migration, Scraptastic Stars, strings, and four-patch Irish chains. Sometimes I plod through them just to get them done, and sometimes I enjoy them, especially since I only do them once a month. I enjoyed the colors this month, but I always dread the mess of doing strings, because I have 3 or 4 bins open, scraps all over the place, and that is the time that all my cats and my husband decide to pester visit with me - lol!

It really seems like I should have more Scraptastic Stars! I need red and purple, then I want to try a layout like Option E on Melissa Corey's blog.

I love Irish chain quilts! I will choose a pretty white for the solid squares when I have enough for a quilt.

Be sure to visit Angela's linky party for all the yellow goodness made by other RSC participants!

To-Do Tuesday

 

Yes that is minus 3!

I am joining in with Chris at ChrisKnits and other folks for To-Do Tuesday! Due to snow, record low temperatures, rotating outages, and no water last week, I spent little time online  so this post is about my goals from my February 9 To-Do Tuesday and I shall pretend last week didn't happen! Fortunately everything is back to normal, and we even got the "all-clear" on having to boil water yesterday!

Brief respite between snow bands

A trip to Bonham to get water and Dairy Queen!

Our actual snow was only four inches or so, but most of Texas got even more and in areas that rarely see snow and sub-freezing temperatures. Even our son and family north of Houston were out of power for 3 days! We feel grateful that things were not as dire here as in other areas, and we continue to pray for all those still affected by the storm.

So I am back to business in the sewing room! Here is my list from February 9:

1. Sandwich and start quilting roses quilt - no progress

2. Sandwich and start quilting Meadowland quilt - no progress

3. Add checkerboard border for SAHRR - DONE and posted here (and I have already changed it!)

4. Continue to work on Exploding Heart quilt - no progress

5. Continue to work on crochet afghan - no progress

6. Finish Squirrel - progress - I have it sandwiched and partially quilted

Riley Blake Quilt Block Challenge block 3

I did finish a couple of things that were not on my list. One is the above block for Riley Blake Quilt Challenge, and the other is my 2021 Monthly Color Challenge block, which will be in an upcoming post.

My list for this coming week:

1. Finish yellow blocks for RSC

2. Finish quilting Squirrel

3. Sandwich flower quilt

4. Sandwich Meadowland quilt

5. Finish making blocks for Exploding Heart quilt

We are off to our first appointments with a new doctor this morning, and you know that means filling out reams of paperwork. I hope you will check out the other posts at ChrisKnits! 

Stay At Home Round Robin Border 5

Wonky Stars was the border selected for this week's SAHRR by Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life. My first thought was Oh I'll skip this one - mainly because of our crazy weather week, but also because "wonky" has never been my thing. Then I saw that Wendy said we could use regular stars if we wished. OK good, I thought. Then I read that she asked us to make "one wonky star" just for her. Well OK Wendy I can do that if it will make you happy - lol!

First of all, I redid my checkerboard border from last week, as I was quite dissatisfied with it. This time I put more effort into it, and now I'm pleased. I added it to the top and bottom of my quilt and then was able to anchor the corners with the wonky stars.

I am probably the only quilter ever who doesn't know how to do wonky, but I really thought wonky was going to be a breeze,. Boy was I wrong! I confidently made my first batch of stars then quickly realized I had cut off the star points. After (finally!) reading a couple of tutorials, I saw the problem, but I still had trouble; however I only cut off one star point this time. The stars aren't just wonky, they look deformed - ha-ha! I think part of the problem is that I was making tiny stars. The star block needed to be at 3 inches UN-finished, and that meant I was working with 1-3/8 inch squares and even smaller triangles of fabric for the stars. And no matter how often I consulted the tutorials, I still couldn't grasp how to make the stars look right. BUT, I learned from the experience, and yes Wendy, I did enjoy in spite of being clueless! I would like to try it with larger squares sometime.

My quilt is showing some "waves" on one side. Does anyone else have this issue? Although I haven't pulled or stretched to fit, maybe it is the result of mis-measuring pieces to make pieces of the border fit together?  I might redo that side this week.

Be sure to check out other participants' wonky stars at Wendy's linky!

Stay At Home Round Robin Border 4

The challenge for border four of SAHRR, selected by Roseanne and Sue, is the checkerboard block. I've had my fingers busy with Squirrels this week and did not start my border until today! May I just say I am loving these border suggestions by our hosts? I am really enjoying these challenges each week!

I drew inspiration from @snell.jan on Instagram and Carol at Quilt Schmilt to create color and interest while keeping the focus on my original Lynx Star block. I think I kept my simple plans too simple and am not entirely pleased with my hurry-up job, so I might adjust it with the next round. I only added borders above and below in order to add length. In all I added about 6-1/2 inches in length.

I did enjoy using Grunge in Sugar Cookie, with its hints of green.

Front and back yards

We are in the midst of a Winter Storm Warning with about an inch of snow on the ground and temperatures hovering between 10 and 14 degrees and tonight and tomorrow night lows of 3 and -3 degrees. We are expecting heavy snow tonight, then another round of heavy snow on Wednesday. This is "historically cold" and unusually widespread snow even for north Texas, and in fact is creating cold and snow over much of Texas. I am praying no one loses power or suffers burst pipes.

Please click right here to go have a look at the beautiful and creative ideas of other participants.

To-Do Tuesday

Crochet project started!

Today I'm joining Roseanne and her friends for To-Do Tuesday. Roseanne has faithfully and generously hosted this event for the past 78 weeks, and today is the last linkup for her website. I'm giving her a big round of applause and a standing ovation! She is passing her well-used baton on to Chris at Chris Knits.

This past week has been an interesting one at our house. I've been caring for my sick husband, taking him for a COVID-19 test last Friday (it was negative), then taking him to receive a COVID-19 vaccination this morning. He is better now with no fever but still coughing. At any rate, our kids were supposed to drive in from the Houston area this coming Friday and celebrate a belated Christmas, but due to their Dad's illness decided to play it safe and wait until first of April. And it's probably a really good decision, because we are due for ice, snow, and sub-freezing temperatures for the next several days.

So in spite of all that, I did manage to sneak into my sewing room a few times. Let's take a look at the status of my goals for last week and see if I met any of them:

✓1. SAHRR Round 3 -  add flying geese border and post by Feb 7 - DONE and posted here

✓2. Project Quilting - create a project using the theme "Virtual Vacation" and post by noon on Feb 7 - DONE and posted here. 

3. Work on blocks in "lemon" for 2021 Monthly Color Challenge and yellow for 2021 RSC to post by end of month - have not started yet

✓4. Continue to work on Exploding Heart quilt - PROGRESS - I made more blocks but still have not caught up to the QAL schedule. 

✓5. Decide on a crochet project to start on - STARTED - I've done a couple rows for an afghan with Lion Brand Thick & Quick Mandala yarn - see photo above.

I might have started on a Squirrel involving hearts!

Now on to my plans for the coming week:

1. Sandwich and start quilting roses quilt 

2. Sandwich and start quilting Guns and Roses (Meadowland) quilt

3. Add checkerboard border for SAHRR

4. Continue to work on Exploding Heart quilt

5. Continue to work on crochet afghan

6. Finish Squirrel (see photo above)

Check out the linky party by clicking here to see the awesome participants and their projects! If you would like more information about any of my projects, please see the corresponding buttons in my sidebar. 

Project Quilting 12:3 Balboa Park Virtual Vacation

Project Quilting is the dream child of  Kim at Persimmon Dreams, who developed a challenge based on one of her favorite shows, Project Runway. Participants in Project Quilting have one week to create and post about a finished project based on the challenge prompt. The prompt for Challenge 3 was Virtual Vacation, and we were to draw inspiration from a past, future, or dreamed about vacation.

I've had an urge to make a quilt for my niece for several weeks, so I knew I wanted to make a quilt, not a small project. Although this is a flimsy, and I did not meet the Project Quilting deadline for a completed project, I am posting about it anyway and will provide the link to the completed projects of other participants at the bottom of this post.

In 1988 my widowed Mother got married for the second time to her childhood sweetheart. She moved from Oklahoma, where she had lived most of her life, to Riverside CA, and for 14 years enjoyed the good weather and mountains until my step-Dad passed away in 2002. While she was there she sent me plane tickets to visit her every few months - what a treat!

Balboa Park Rose Gardens

On one trip my teen-aged daughter went with me during her Spring break. Mom took us to visit the San Diego zoo and the rose gardens at Balboa Park. Mom and I shared a love of roses, and that park was a rose lover's dream. What a perfect day as we walked along the paths and oohed and aahed over thousands of roses in every color. I wish I could share one of the photos from that day, but of course they are in a box in the attic. Let's just say during that trip I was with the two women I love most, and it is a treasured memory.

Bouquet Splendor by Henry Glass

My quilt was planned around the roses we viewed that day, and I had the perfect piece of minty rose-strewn fabric by Henry Glass in my stash. I wish I had taken a photo of the full yardage before I cut into it! I made blocks based on this simple baby quilt pattern by Sedef Imer. and made it lap-sized. I placed colors as randomly as possible to emulate a true rose garden with varied roses. I know Mom would have loved this rose-inspired quilt.

Jack gently steadied my hand as I chain-pieced.

This quilt will be gifted to my niece once it is finished. It measures 54 x 72 inches so far, and the final details will be provided in a future post. Be sure to visit Kim's Persimmon Dream and check out all the other beautiful virtual vacations!

Stay At Home Round Robin Border 3

This week Anja of Anja Quilts hosted the SAHRR and her prompt was to make flying geese. Anja made beautiful and varied flying geese for her block! I LOVE flying geese, but I didn't want a lot of them landing on my quilt to distract from the Lynx Star center block. So I decided to keep them small and sparse.

I made 2-1/2 x 4-1/2 inch units

I added two lengthwise borders in the same red plaid and dark green as the plus blocks from last week, and the quilt now measures 46 x 51 inches. I am really enjoying these weekly challenges, and I'm not tired of working with Christmas colors! Go have a look at all the flying geese goodness from other participants on Anja's linky.

To-Do Tuesday: I'm A Dropout

 

Welp. February is an early month to drop out of something that I started so enthusiastically in January, right? But drop out I did. All People Quilt UFO Challenge is the victim in this case. My first goal in this challenge suffered from "not enough backing fabric" and "waiting for backing fabric".  Plus I decided that trying to finish a UFO each month might be too much for me, especially when I want to leave time for any Squirrel that might visit my sewing room!

So here is the report on my To-Do from last week, and I'll be joining in with at Roseanne and all her buddies, who valiantly host this event each week:

1. Cut additional pieces for Exploding Heart QAL and finish blocks B through F - Progress - I finally got the rest of my background fabric, finished cutting and making blocks A-D with blocks E and F still to go. I'm behind schedule but that's OK.

✓2. RSC blocks - finish and post by end of month - DONE and posted here

✓3. SAHRR - the prompt for this week is to add plus block border - DONE and posted here

✓4. Post about and link up my "eggplant" block for 2021 Color Challenge - DONE and posted here

5. Sandwich, quilt, and bind Meadowland quilt (I'm supposed to be finished by Jan 31!) - No progress. The backing fabric I intended to use was short, and my husband (God love him!) suggested we go find something else at a LQS. In the meantime I found a flannel backing I love online, so I ordered enough of that to back it.

On to the list for this coming week:

1. SAHRR Round 3 -  add flying geese border and post by Feb 7

2. Project Quilting - create a project using the theme "Virtual Vacation" and post by noon on Feb 7. I've got an idea, but it is for a full quilt - wish me luck!

3. Work on blocks in "lemon" for 2021 Monthly Color Challenge and yellow for 2021 RSC to post by end of month

Exploding Hearts blocks

4. Continue to work on Exploding Heart quilt

Yarn stash begging to be used!

5. Decide on a crochet project to start on. I haven't picked up my cross stitch for over a week. I think I need a new TV-watching activity!

Check out Homesewn By Us to see what is going on with other participants!