I Like Thursday #130

It's time for I Like Thursday! Please visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to get linked to more fun and positive posts. I finally finished my sock! The pattern is Rhombus by Cookie A. This pattern is not easy and took me quite awhile. I'm hoping the next sock will knit up faster since I know what I'm doing now. Kind of!

I bought this wideback from Keepsake. I'm planning on using it as the backing for Color My World which was the BOM from The Quilt Show for 2021. I had dots in the background fabric and the whole quilt is a circle. I felt this fabric was appropriate!

My husband and I went into Boston on Tuesday for a doctor's appointment. I always love seeing the city emerge as we drive in. We were lucky there was no traffic. Sometimes, you just time it right!

We even drove by Emmanuel College. I lived in that building on the left, Loretto Hall. Massachusetts College of Pharmacy rented dorms from Emmanuel for the pharmacy students. I lived there my first 2 years of school. I was in Room 209 and I met my future best friend who lived right next door. I certainly have many great memories from my years there. So long ago now.

Enjoy your weekend! Although it was 70 here yesterday, we're getting 8-12 inches of snow tomorrow. UGH! I'll be home sewing.

 

Spring Mugrug

I finished my little mugrug for Spring! I found a few paper piecing patterns and changed them up a little so the dimensions would fit. If you look closely, you can see I made French Knot eyes! I wasn't even sure I would remember how to do that! 

I decided to just quilt swirls in the background. I was hoping it would create movement just as if the birds were flying!  I outlined the birds and the heart. I actually wanted them to puff up a little bit which happened after quilting the background.

Here's the back of it. I just used scraps to make this whole mini. It measures about 10" X 6".

I applied the binding and sewed the back by hand. It definitely looks more finished with the embroidered legs. I might make a few of them for gifts. Spring is only one month away! (Can't come soon enough!)

I Like Thursday #129

 It's time for I Like Thursday! Go visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to link up with more positive and uplifting posts. I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day! I got the traditional flowers and chocolates. My roses still look nice 3 days later!

I wanted to make a little something for Spring. Can you tell I'm sick of Winter?? Anyways, I made this cute little mug rug. It still has to be quilted and I still may change things around. I'll see how it looks after I quilt and bind it. I was going to embroider bird legs after quilting and maybe add buttons for the eyes. 

My poor sock is almost done! It gets neglected at times but I'm almost at the toe. I really love the pattern. I can't believe I have to start all over again and make another one!

We had a birthday party for my son this past weekend. He's a Valentine's Day baby! I can't believe he's 30 years old! We had a nice dinner that consisted mostly of appetizers since it was also Super Bowl Sunday. I made egg rolls in the air fryer as well as his birthday cake. It was a fun time!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We're expecting rain and wind overnight. It's quite warm right now (over 60!) but the temperatures are going to plummet overnight. I'm looking forward to Spring and Summer!

Rulers and FMQ/Fast Forward

 I finished quilting Fast Forward over the weekend. It was a tough decision to decide what fabric to use for the binding. I'm not a fan of very light bindings. I feel they get handled so much that they tend to darken from use. I found a marbled medium gray that I thought would work. I think it fits the quilt very nicely!

This is the quilt without the binding. I like how the binding frames it and makes a nice edge to the light border. The darker binding also brings out the colored fabric in the quilt. 

I like how my quilting looks.  When I decided what motifs to use, I had no idea how they would look all together. I wasn't sure if I should make the arcs in the middle of the quilt where the fabric is the same as the border. I think it really turned out well. I always like using rulers with some free motion quilting. 

My boomerang ruler made this all possible. It was a bit pricy but worth it in the end! I bought it from Deloa Jones at a quilt show in Manchester, NH. I watched a few videos and figured out what to do.  I'm so glad I pushed myself to use it. There's so many patterns you can make using this ruler.

I Like Thursday #128

 

Welcome to I Like Thursday! LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color hosts a bunch of us quilters to post happy and uplifting posts every week. Go take a peek! As you can see, I finished Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Rhododendron Trail. This quilt had so many seams to line up. It was such a trial on my patience. But, it's done! Not perfect but whatever! It measures 83" X 96" approximately. Phew!

I went to CVS the other day and bought this cute little kit. I hope it actually works and I get a nice miniature rose plant. We'll see! I'm not great with plants. 

I'm redoing my sewing room. I'm getting rid of a few things and getting some new furniture. The first thing I bought was a pink chair! I'm not sure why but it had to be pink! Isn't she pretty??

A friend of mine got me this cute little canister. I'll try to use to for storage in my new sewing room. There are 2 smaller but identical canisters inside this one. I have so much to organize that I think they will come in handy.

Those are my likes! I tutored this morning so I'm posting this sort of late. Have a wonderful weekend!

15 Minutes of Fame

This post is a little different than most of my posts. This picture of me holding a quilt was featured in a French magazine! Back in October, I took part in a conversation on Twitter about quitting my job. I guess a record number of people have been quitting their jobs. A journalist named Alexis Buisson messaged me and wanted to interview me. He works for a French magazine called Le Point. He said it's very similar to our Newsweek since it's also a weekly news magazine. A part of me was hoping this wasn't a scam!

I tried to get out of being interviewed but Alex was quite persistent. A few weeks later, he called me on the phone. We spoke for awhile and I told him I just couldn't take it anymore. Health care has changed so much since I got out of school. Covid only made everything worse. I had a hard time being told what to do by new grads who had no idea what they were doing. My schedule had changed without my consent so I just left. I told him I like to quilt and that's what I intend on doing! The magazine came out January 14.

About a month later, Alex contacted me again that he was sending a photographer for a photo shoot since they wanted my picture in the article. A part of me thought this can't be real, but I looked into the photographer and he was legitimate. He had been hired by Zuma Press that uses free lance photographers. He came to my house and photographed me and my quilts for 2 hours. The picture that made it into the magazine was one of the last ones he had taken.

I guess this is my 15 minutes of fame. My family jokes that I'm an international star. I said I always wanted to be the toast of Paris! Anyways, it all worked out. I bought 3 magazines and plan to have one framed. Too bad it's all in French!

 

I Like Thursday #127

It's time for I Like Thursday! Please visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to read more fun and uplifting posts. I'm going to start with this beautiful pouch I received from Dawn at Relaxing Robin. She's so generous and thinks of everyone else even when she's going through a difficult time. I was thrilled to receive this from her yesterday. I'll be using it on Valentine's Day as well as every other day of the year! Thank you so much, Dawn! You're the best!

I'm so excited that I have one half of Rhododendron Trail completely stitched! The other half is missing just one row. Then, the 2 halves will be 1 quilt top! Of course, I still have the border but I'm making progress and that's what counts!

My daughter received this gift from her godmother, my best friend. It comes from Europe and took forever to get here but it was worth it! It's made of some sort of metal. She found it on Etsy. It will make any wall look great!

 I just finished this book and it was delightful! I'm usually not into fantasy but this book was so charming! Sometimes, when you least expect it, you find your family and where you belong. That's what happens to Linus. He lives a very solitary life until he visits a very magical place.

I hope you all have a great weekend. We're expecting another storm. This one includes snow, rain and ice. Can't wait. (Not Really!)

Projects

I've been diligently working on my projects even through the snowstorm we had last week! Although we got 15 inches, that's nothing compared to what some towns got south of Boston. Some towns got 30 inches! Anyways, we were lucky since we didn't lose power. This is Rhododendron Trail which is Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt. I have two rows left to sew. They will include the corners. I'm so glad all those little pieces are becoming part of larger pieces! I was so afraid I would lose them! Some squares were as small as one inch! Putting this quilt together is trying my patience but I'm getting there! I still have a flying geese border left so the fun isn't over yet.

I'm not sure how well you can see this but I started to quilt the colored areas of this quilt. I changed thread to King Tut that is 40wt. It's a variegated pink/purple. It's a little hard to see but I quilted loops in the triangle areas. I made straight lines in the rectangles. I also made straight lines in the middle square with a little wish bone thrown in the middle!

I hear there's another storm due Friday. I'm done with winter and just waiting for Spring! Enough already!