Final Round of SAHRR

 This week I spent most of my 'free' time quilting a wedding present. I did read the SAHRR post hosted by Chris Knits early in the week. She picked shoo fly for the final round. I just finished a shoo fly quilt for RSC from last year so I didn't think it                 would be too hard (except that I was running out of fabric.)                         I thought that I would spend some hours on Saturday and get the round done! However, my SIL was running a race on Saturday morning and my daughter and grandson anticipated going but it was rather cold so she called and asked if we could hang out. They only have one car right now so we planned an outing and went to pick them up. We spent the morning together at a local electronics/appliance store that has a huge aquarium, a fountain and more fun things to do (no, we were not shopping). We dropped them off in time for lunch and a nap.

Enjoying the 'dancing' water fountain!

The moray eel and shark among many other fish!

We got home and had a bite to eat and I headed to my sewing room. Calculating how much fabric I would need to make this round and determining whether I had enough fabric, I got busy. I needed to keep each round as narrow as possible so I wanted 3" finished shoo fly blocks. I needed to add a narrow half inch border to make my quilt 30". Then I could add 10- 3" shoo fly blocks to each side. I didn't actually have enough fabric for 40 shoo fly blocks and I was running out of time. I did find more of the main black fabric hiding in my stash so I crossed my fingers that I could stretch it this round. After sewing small shoo fly blocks through the afternoon and into the evening (stopping only to have a bite to eat with my DH), this is what I came up with! 8 pink/black, 8 green/black and 4 black/light green shoo fly blocks with black background strips between.  

                   I am pleased with the results of this year's SAHRR challenge! I missed the link up but still glad I finished this round!
 The finished parade starts on March 21st!

Slow Stitching, SAHRR and Macaron Mystery

             Slowly I've been making progress on some of my projects.                       But first I want to share these Valentine's Day cards that I stitched up. 

The cards are free from Christina Cameli @Afewscraps on IG. I have been a fan of Christina's for some time. At Christmas, she offered some cards to stitch. I was very tempted but we have been doing photo cards over the past few years so I didn't get them. When I saw her post about her Valentine's Day cards I immediately downloaded them and started stitching. I made 2 sets of them (slightly different). It was so satisfying to slow down and stitch these beautiful cards (even if I knew that                           some wouldn't get to their destinations in time). Better late than never!                           Thank you Christina for these lovely cards!

I worked on Round 5 for the SAHRR project. This round was hosted by Quilting Gail. She gave a choice of applique and/or fence rail. I choose to add some fence rails to the corners of Round 4. Although I'm not in love with it, it will have to do. I'm running short on fabrics that go with this orphaned block. Note:after I had this round together, I found more of my main black fabric but no more of any coordinating fabric. We will see what the next and final round brings! 

Linking to Linky Party for Round 5.

I also finally put together the flimsy for the Macaron Mystery from Meadow Mist Designs. I still need to trim it up and add some borders on the top and bottom to make this quilt a bit of a rectangle. It is a bright one!

I'm very pleased with this pattern from Cheryl. It is my 3rd mystery 

by her and I love all of them! Thanks Cheryl!

More RSC and SAHRR

 I was able to finish my 3 RSC block for February! For this block, I'm using scraps of gray for my background.

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @So Scrappy.

I also worked on my SAHRR block. Round 4 was hosted by Wendy @piecefulwendy and she chose a signature block. Because I am running low on my fabric, I chose to make 3" cut squares for the main piece and 1 1/2" squares for the corners. This makes a 2 1/2" round. 

I made 6 blocks for each side. As you can see, I did not attach them yet as I'm waiting for the next round to see if I can combine them with the corners. I'm trying to be conservative with the fabric I have. 

The center block I'm using is an orphaned block from years ago that I found. I honestly don't even remember making it. I'm happy that I found some of the fabrics still in my scraps and a few coordinating colors and fabrics in my stash. So let's see how this all turns out. Stay tuned! I'm linking to the linky party for Round 4. 

I'm also participating in #monkiemotivation over on IG. This is the 2nd year for this campaign. There are prompts several times a week that give you motivation to be creative, mindful, and uplifted. Who doesn't need that in February?

Last week's prompt was Play: Create a Sewing Room Mandala. Here is mine! 

This took only about 10-15 minutes to create but it was a 

fun exercise for the mind! I have also taken several classes 

through @craftymonkies that were very satisfying! I will take 

more when I have more time in my schedule. 

In the meantime, I have 2 quilt projects near the finishing stage 

and one waiting to be started. 

A new month, new color and a new round

 February brought a new color for the RSC...aqua/teals! I was able to get 2 of my 3 blocks finished this week. These 2 blocks are made together.  The bonus corner HSTs from Hang Ten are used to make both of the squiggle blocks. 

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy.

For the SAHRR, Rosanne and Sue from Home Sewn By Us was the host this week. They chose stars! I decided to paper piece stars because I wanted to keep my round at 2 1/2" wide. That is a pretty small star so I felt paper piecing would be the way to go. I decided to add 3 stars at each corner. 12 little stars to make!

I'm linking to Linky Party for Round 3.

February brought the end of January and another completed calendar journal!