A new project, some yellow scraps, and slow stitching

     I am so excited about this new project! Yesterday I took a class hosted by                                                           CraftyMonkies.                                                        BTW: I love that I can take a class in Great Britain thanks to Zoom! This is the 2nd class that I've                                  taken through Craftymonkies and they do not disappoint!                               The class was called Mindful Stitches by GaryMillsDesigns. Gary taught us how to create a fabric journal that you can store your keepsakes, pieces of art, stitching, even photographs! It really is up to you! Here is my journal!

I stamped the words Mindful Stitches on a piece of scrap linen and hand stitched it to the front. 

The cover is made of red/cream ticking fabric and the inside cover is some cream linen. Both I had in my stash. I used perle cotton thread to hand stitch around the journal. The pages are made in set of 4 that are folded to make 8 double sided pages. We made 2 set in class. I used some light colored calicos, some muslin and a piece left from a baby quilt I made. 

On my 1st page I put a scrap from a quilted jacket I made back in 1997. (Yes, I still have scraps from that far back! I also made quilted Christmas stocking ornaments from these scraps. 

On the backside of that page I put a candlewicking piece made by my mother. Over the years the piece got soiled/yellowed around the edges. I needed a way to preserve it. I cut it to fit and hand stitched it to the page. I added the lace flowers and  beads. I blanket stitched around the page edges. Here is a close up.

Other ideas I have to add in are my zentangle squares I made back in 2014 and some small orphaned quilt squares made as trial pieces. 

This is an ongoing project. Many more pages will be added before this journal is finished! I'm linking to Linky Party @Patchwork & Quilts. 

I worked on some additional yellow scraps for my EPP ~ tumblers project. 

I will link up to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy. 

I haven't given an update on my Slow Stitching hoop embroidery in a while. Slowly I've been stitching more flowers. Here is where it is today!

I'm almost finished with on half!

I'm linking to Slow Sunday Stitching @Kathy's Quilts.

I hope you have found some time to sew or stitch! If your interested in taking a class, go check out Craftymonkies!

SAHRR and Moorwood Mystery Quilt

 This week I focused on completing Round 5 of the SAHRR. Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts of my Quilting Life chose the Wonky Star for this round. I wasn't sure if I would like it because my quilt isn't wonky. Do I add a round of wonky? Well, I am a rule follower by nature and so I followed along. Each quilter is allowed to decide how to use the design element in their quilt. Here is what I did:

Miss Sadie gave her approval!

Linking to SAHRR-Round 5

I also was able to finally work on putting together the final steps of the Moorwood Mystery Quilt. I decided to add a simple narrow border to the top. 

A photo shoot was a bit challenging as we have so much snow on the ground. It was difficult to get the quilt top to lay flat without trudging through the snow. But here it is...

This Quilt Along was fun to do and it is also fun to see all the different versions. Cheryl, @Meadow Mist Designs does a very nice job with quilt design, instructing, and keeping it challenging/interesting enough for those that have been quilting for some time as well as easy enough for beginners. This is my second Mystery quilt along I have done with her and I love both! See the first one here. I will piece a backing and work on getting this quilted (probably bumping it to the front of the line)!

Linking  to Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday @ Alycia Quilts, and Friday Foto Fun @Powered by Quilting. Head over to the Facebook Group Meadow Mist Designs to see others!

Happy Valentine's Day!

                                 Roses are Red, White is the Snow.                                        What could be better, than a finish to show? 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, I have finished my Under the Sea (#shoalsewalong) quilt! I love this quilt! It was super fun to make and I tried new things and learned new techniques!

After I finished the top, it hung on my design wall for some time while I finished quilting my Watermelon Sparkler quilt. Everytime I looked at it, I felt it wasn't quite right. Originally I had all the fish facing the same way. It needed to have a rebel fish or three. I ripped out the fish I wanted to turn around and restitched them. Much better!

This quilt was made following the improv techniques of Nicholas Ball from his book Inspiring Improv and sewing along with him on Instagram. I also took a class with him on Craftmonkies. Take one if you can! 

This quilt finished size is about 30" x 50" 

      I used the techniques of facing a quilt for the first time instead of binding.                                      Thanks to several recommendations on Instagram.                                              I used the tutorial by cottonandbourbon. It is in her highlights.                      The picture above shows the backing with a pieced border and the facing as well       as how I quilted it with gentle curves to simulate the movement of water.         The backing fabric is a piece I bought on our trip to Hawaii.

This picture show the pocket I added to hang it!

All the fabric used in this quilt was from my stash! YAY!

                                      It lives on my living room wall!                                           I'm linking to Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop, Finished or not Friday, and Linky Party.

 Although this past week has been incredibly busy (subbing every day, knitting club on Monday evening, and book club on Wednesday), I finally was able to work on my SAHRR clue. Roseanne and Sue from Home Sewn By Us were the hosts this week.                                            They chose a checkerboard.                                             Here is what my SAHRR quilt looks like after adding my checkerboard border.    

I'm a little late to the party but better late than never!

I'm linking to SAHRR linky party for Round Four!

With Monday off because of President's Day and my district is giving us Friday off so we all can get our second vaccination, I should have more time to sew this week! 

Hopefully with an update for the Morewood Mystery finish!

A New Month and a New Finish!

 This week began a new month and that means a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC)! Angela choose sunny yellow! Before I get to my yellow blocks I want to share a new finish!

Way back in September, I joined a quilt challenge hosted by the National Quilter's Circle called Starlight Mountains. In October, I finished the flimsy but then it was put aside to wait it's turn for further attention. In mid-January I was able to put the backing together and get it sandwiched. I started quilting the last days of January and finally have a finish!

I'm naming this quilt Watermelon Sparkler. All the fabrics are from my stash - most were donated to me years ago. 

The exception is the Kona black and white that are regular staples in my fabric stash. 

I think this quilt will make a nice picnic quilt with all the watermelons slices!

The quilting in the main part of the quilt is straight line along the length of the quilt. In the outside border I quilted a star and banner motif. 

You can see it better in the picture below. 

This quilt finishes at 61" x 77.5"

I was excited to pull out my yellow scrap bin and dive into making my blocks for the RSC. I am working on 2 different blocks each month as well as cutting scraps for my EPP tumbler blocks. 

First, I worked on making the wonky shoo fly blocks. This is a fun block and it gives a great opportunity to use the smallest scraps!

I made 10 of these. The background fabrics are low volume cream to beige scraps.

I then settled in to make the Joy Luck blocks. The background for these are black on white scraps or white on white scraps. 

I also cut at least 10 pieces for my EPP tumblers but those still need to be 

hand stitched.

This week was Round #3 for the SAHRR. Round #3 is hosted by Anja @AnjaQuilts. She choose flying geese for the 3rd round. Anja did some paper piecing for her flying geese so she could vary the size of the geese. This was effective for her as she is using all solids. Others did just around the corners, another did wonky geese, or double geese or even geese made into stars. Most chose to stack their geese. I chose to lay my geese side by side. Here is mine. Go to the link above to see what others have done.

I'm ready for Round #4

Inspired by my blogger friend, Annie @FreezeFrame03, I once again began a monthly calendar journal. I kept one before in 2013 and 2014. At that time I was making my monthly calendars from fabric with each month having a different theme. I used stamps and other supplies to record one thing each day. You can see some pages here and here and here. I really enjoyed making them but as you can imagine, they were time consuming. When my mom got sick, I couldn't keep up and I never got back into it. After admiring that Annie was still journaling, I asked her what calendar she used. She was actually trying to find a way to simplify making the journal and she shared a link for a downloadable calendar. Now, my creativity nor handwriting skills are not even close to Annie's. However, I did start a simpler calendar journal and that makes me happy!

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Friday Foto Fun @ Powered By Quilting, link party @Patchwork and Quilts

Another Busy Week

I had another busy week this week! We had a 'snow day/remote learning day' on Tuesday so my Tuesday job was cancelled but I worked on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! I found out on Wednesday that my District was able to secure Covid-19 vaccines for all staff including regular substitutes in the district. It happened very quickly as the dates were Thursday and Friday! I was able to get an appointment for Thursday after school! I never have been more excited to get a shot!

I am thankful that our district was able to get the vaccines! #IGotMine #OneStepCloser

In my sewing room, I continued to sew on the shoalsewalong and I got my fish top finished. Nicholas explained his technique of putting together 'slabs' using the puzzle method. Here is my top!

I did make a few minor changes since this picture. 

I'm linking to the link party @Patchwork and Quilts, Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict      

I also put the back together so I'm just about ready to figure out the quilting! 

But before that can happen, I needed to get to this:

My Starlight Mountain Quilt that I finished a October has been waiting to be quilted. I was able to work on it a bit and hopefully will finish this weekend. 

In the meantime, the 2nd round of the SAHRR was announced as the plus sign. There were various ways the hosts used this prompt. I decided to keep it a bit simpler since the piano keys were quite busy. I just made a few small plus signs for each corner similar to Susan's @QuiltFabrication. 

I'm linking up to Round Robin Round #2 @ The Darling Dogwood

I have taken some time to slow down and continue my hand stitching. Here is the progress I've made! 

The first set of flowers are finished!

Linking to Slow Stitching Sunday @Kathy's Quilts

Looking forward to February! The new color is bright, sunny yellow!

Hope you had a good week! Stay safe! There is hope!

A busy week

 It has been a busy week! We started back to school this week with a new hybrid model. Before school closed for the 2nd time, the hybrid model was for part of the students to return on Monday and Tuesday, part on Thursday and Friday, everyone remote on Wednesday. Of coarse, several families chose to remain completely remote. Class sizes were about 6-8 in each session. The new model is to include Wednesday as a school day. The MT kids will attend on Wednesday one week and ThF students will attend the other week. Since I am a substitute teacher, I started on Friday as I'm scheduled every Friday and the remaining days as needed. I was exhausted after one day (I have been off too long!)

On Tuesday, I took a Zoom quilt class with Nicholas Ball @craftmonkies. He taught improv fish. Although I have his book and I'm following his sewalong on Instagram, I still learned a lot on tips and insight from him. He showed us how to make fish with deep curves and curved tails. 

This is one of the fish I made during class. I'm working on putting all my fish together using his patchwork/puzzle method. 

I also worked on my SAHRR block as Round 1 was released on Monday. 

The round was to include piano keys. You were to interpret that any way you would like. Each of the round hosts post their interpretation on piano keys to help spark your imagination. Here is what I did.

I'm ready for Round 2

On Thursday, a couple of my friends got together again to quilt for charity. I previously posted about how we cut a donated quilt into 4 and then rebound them. 

They are finished and we started on making simple turned (not bound) quilts from a yard of fabric. We still sandwiched three layers and straight line quilted. 

Here are the ones we completed.

The shelter was overjoyed to receive them!

I'm linking to chrisknitssews link party this weeks hosts of SAHRR, link party at Patchwork & Quilts, and Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts.

Slow Stitching Progress

 I was able to spend some time on Sunday working on my flowers. I have almost 1/4 of the flowers complete! Yay! It has been fun learning new stitches or relearning stitches. It is relaxing but I find that good light is needed for these old eyes. 

I also finished knitting a hat for my daughter! It is a simple pattern with a new to me cast on method so it is nice and stretchy. She loved it! Linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching @ Kathy's Quilts

I'll leave you with this cute picture of my grandson. He loves to play! Here he is playing with his stretchy newt. (His mom had a pet newt when she was young)