“Friendship, love, health, energy, enthusiasm, and joy
are the things that make life worth living and exploring.” ~ Denise Austin

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

To-Do Tuesday #21 and Bluprint closing

I found out several days ago that Bluprint (formerly Craftsy) is closing!! This is shocking and upsetting!!!  I have a lot of classes that I had planned to watch and many more to watch again.  Then there are the forever classes that we all purchased when it was Craftsy with the thinking we would always have them available!!  

This is my 21st week of linking with Home Sewn By Us for To-Do Tuesday.

Here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do Tuesday for the Week of May 19 through May 25:
  1. Finish the A blocks on the Hope quilt yes
  2. Work on one or more quilts to be given as gifts yes
  3. Work on 3 or 4 pages in my 2020 Artfully Inspired Life online class yes
1 All of the A blocks are sewn and squared.  Photos of these fabrics in former posts.
2 I worked on the dolphin tablerunner design decision on sizes to cut and placement.  Photo of fabrics in former post
3 I made good progress in my class book this week

I finally did another Stitch Meditation after not doing one for awhile!
I like to have little squares cut ahead of denim or flannel to make these little zen stitcheries!  I like the NO PLAN concept and just do it without spending any time thinking about it!  These four little scraps of fabric wanted to be together!  I used these fabrics just as I found them in my scraps from using them in different projects.  And then just start with needle and thread and go with the flow!!

To-Do Tuesday for the Week of May 26 through June 1:
  1. Watch lots of Bluprint classes.  Download some of them.
  2. Work on my ongoing projects....quilts and painting and creative journaling.

Be sure to see what everyone else is doing and join in the fun!!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

To-Do Tuesday #20

This is my 20th week of linking with Home Sewn By Us for To-Do Tuesday.

Here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do Tuesday for the Week of May 12 through May 18:
  1. Work on quilts..........Hope...Mai Tai (pineapple blocks) and Yellow Brick Road yes
  2. Work on online class and creative journal 4 days at least yes
  3. Learn about Zoom.........our small quilt group is meeting on Zoom and I have the e-mail invite......now just figure out what to do since this is my first time with Zoom. yes
1 On the Hope quilt the A blocks are in stages of completion.  The photos show one done and another under the stripology squared ruler waiting to be squared.  There are others ready to be squared and some yet to be sewn together.  The blue arrows are for lining up the center black strip and the corners of the 10" square.  The pink arrows were the cutting arrows for the A blocks.


    On the Mai Tai quilt the pineapple blocks are done with sashing
    On the yellow brick road I did some more FMQ adding a different flower...........Faye's flower by Lori Kennedy....and also some loops and heart leaves....my favorites!!

I did some FMQ to practice on an old Susan Winget fabric with a sunflower.  I used the ruler for the straight lines around the red edge and did not use the ruler foot.....I just continued to use the BSR foot.  It seemed to work doing it carefully and it was easier than doing a straight line with the BSR foot.


2 I worked in my creative journal and on the online class each for six days this past week.  (yeah....more than my goal!)

3 I did have audio issues with my connection to Zoom.  At first I had both my phone and tablet signed into the meeting.  The group saw 2 images of me and took the phone one off of the meeting.  Then I had a lot of trouble getting audio on my tablet....they could see me but couldn't hear me!!  Finally I was able to get it to work at the end..........very frustrating.  I am used to my iPad and the iPad is too old to use on Zoom.

To-Do Tuesday for the Week of May 19 through May 25:
  1. Finish the A blocks on the Hope quilt
  2. Work on one or more quilts to be given as gifts
  3. Work on 3 or 4 pages in my 2020 Artfully Inspired Life online class


Be sure to see what everyone else is doing and join in the fun!!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

To-Do Tuesday #19

This is my 19th week of linking with Home Sewn By Us for To-Do Tuesday.

Here is my list from last week and my progress
To-Do Tuesday for the Week of May 5 through May 11:
  1. Work on the Hope quilt yes
  2. Make more masks.  yes
  3. Trim the pineapple paper pieced blocks and add sashing.yes/no
1  All the A blocks are cut and some sewn.  The photo shows the sewn ones on the left and the others in possible groupings.  I am planning out the pairs instead of just grabbing at random.  



2 I only made one more mask as we received some masks
3 I trimmed the pineapple blocks and have the sashing ready to sew....but I forgot when I made my goal for this week about getting all the paper off the backs of the blocks!  

I finished the mini quilt I was working on and blogged about it in the last post.

To-Do Tuesday for the Week of May 12 through May 18:
  1. Work on quilts..........Hope...Mai Tai (pineapple blocks) and Yellow Brick Road
  2. Work on online class and creative journal 4 days at least
  3. Learn about Zoom.........our small quilt group is meeting on Zoom and I have the e-mail invite......now just figure out what to do since this is my first time with Zoom.
I am linking to

Check out the link and join in the fun!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Mother's Day Slow Sunday Stitching and a finish

It was quite a different Mother's Day not being able to get together with our family!
I spent the afternoon on the patio stitching the binding on a mini quilt and got it finished.

I am linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching.. 


The mini quilt is asymmetric log cabin.  It is from a Bluprint class by Suzy Williams.   I blogged about it in April and also I blogged about it last year.  It is from the class
Fabric Play:  Sewing Mojo Minis   




The class is a series of four little minis and not done with binding.  She framed them with the batting showing.  
There is machine quilting and hand quilting on this quilt and I really like the combination.
I decided to add a binding and not leave it with just batting showing.  Most of the quilting was done with just the batting.
Here is the back of the quilt
Here is a photo of the 2 mini quilts taken last month and I blogged about them then.
They should both be about the same size..........it was an improv quilt and I kept making my strips too large and it got larger than the first one!  
It doesn't look balanced....but will look better on the wall when I put another one next to it!!


I am also linking to  Oh Scrap!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

To-Do Tuesday #18 and Hope quilt along

This is my 18th week of linking with Home Sewn By Us for To-Do Tuesday.

Here is my list from last week and my progress


To-Do Tuesday for the Week of April 28 through May 4:
  1. Finish the mini quilt asymmetrical log cabin almost
  2. Finish the last 3 pineapple paper pieced blocks yes
  3. Participate in Quarantine Quilt Along Round 2 with GE Designs. yes 
1  It is almost done except about half of the hand binding to the back....I decided not to finish it this last week because I want to sit outside and finish it this week.  I usually do the hand binding at night but these fabrics are dark on the back and will be easier to see by daylight!
2  I got all the pineapple blocks sewn now and the photo shows the pile of 9 of them for a small mini quilt.  Not all of them were cut off on the outside line yet....the reason for some looking strange!
3  The Hope quilt along was a great success.  Gudrun of GEDesigns did a new pattern for the quilt along.  As of Sunday she had raised $34,150 with the sale of the pattern that will go to several charities she has chosen.  The Live FB Broadcast was May 3rd and now it is also on YouTube.  
I am using 10" squares of batik fabric and black accent strips.  The photo shows the fabrics and the arrow stickers on my Stripology Squared ruler marked for cutting the A blocks.

This week I started making a different mask pattern using t-shirt ties.  Here is the photo of the first one

Next are food photos from the last week...........I have been cooking more now that we can't go out to eat!  We used to eat out 10 to 12 times a month at a great variety of places.  
When I cook....it has to be.........easy......healthy......and delicious!!!

Bubble up enchilada casserole.  Recipe from emilybites.com
All of her recipes have the WW points listed.
Turkey meatball subs and roast potatoes

To-Do Tuesday for the Week of May 5 through May 11:
  1. Work on the Hope quilt
  2. Make more masks.  I ordered some elastic and just received it so now I will make a different pattern.  I have seen a lot of videos on making masks and just want a very easy and basic mask pattern to make with elastic.  Some people can't use the ties as their fingers don't work right to tie a bow.  (I live in a senior community) And then some people really like the strips to tie bows.  
  3. Trim the pineapple paper pieced blocks and add sashing.


Be sure to check the link for Linky #39 and join in the fun!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl