I Like Thursday #188

Welcome to I Like Thursday where a bunch of us bloggers post happy and uplifting topics. You can visit LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color to find more blogs to visit. My husband and I were watching TV when we heard this weird noise outside. According to the meteorologist, we heard graupel falling. We both looked outside and this is what we saw. I guess it's soft hail. It melts pretty fast. The air was colder above when compared to the ground. We had never heard of it! I guess you do learn something new everyday! It was a little scary since we didn't know what was happening! It was quite noisy.

I started my Spring cleaning. My son hasn't lived at home in years but I still keep his bedroom as though he lived here. I put a new quilt on his bed and cleaned the windows and curtains. After finishing, I noticed Molly had found a great place to make herself comfortable. She even pulled the quilt down so she could lay on it. It look like I'll be cleaning that room again! Fresh kitty!

I made a couple of table toppers for gifts for upcoming birthdays. I love that hydrangea fabric in the middle. I found it at JoAnn's! I get pleasantly surprised when I shop there sometimes. I just have to quilt them which shouldn't take too long. They measure about 20" X 20".

I just finished this book. I'm not a big fantasy fan but this was so well done. I really enjoyed it. I love Stephen King anyways. It kept me interested even though it's quite long. 

The prompt this week is whether you're bilingual. I spoke Italian before I could speak English. My father was fluent in English but he and my mom would always speak Italian at home. I learned a lot from watching TV but I still wasn't considered to be fluent in English when I entered first grade. I remember my dad told my first grade teacher but she didn't really respond. I picked up English very easily. I think most kids do learn languages so much faster than adults. There are so many more services available in schools now but not back then. I still did fine. I took French in school but I'm not fluent in it at all. I can understand a little bit but not much. I took it for 5 years! I think it's hard to be fluent when you don't practice in real life, outside the classroom. At least, that's how it worked for me.

Have a great weekend! We're getting another rainy weekend. So glad I'm retired and can enjoy any day I want!

 

New England Quilt Expo

I attended the New England Quilt Expo this past Thursday. It was wonderful to be at a quilt show once again! There were vendors, quilts and classes. I don't think I realized how much I missed the shows. I felt that I was back with my people! I met my future daughter-in-law there which was also fun. We had a great lunch and enjoyed seeing the quilts together. I took pictures of quilts but didn't note who made them. The place was packed so it was hard just getting these pictures. I loved this wall hanging. The placement of the colors made the design so vibrant. I think it won a ribbon if I remember correctly. I see lots of Kaffe Fassett fabrics!

This one reminded me of a Venn Diagram. Do you remember those?? I love that the quilter used different color thread depending what area was being quilted. This quilt has movement!

The colors in this quilt are just breath taking! I love the symmetry and the energy this quilt exhibits. 

This quilt starts with a panel. However, the panel is very heavily quilted. It almost looks painted when looking at it up close. The quilt pattern around the center really highlights the colors of the panel. 

I love this Halloween applique quilt. The applique is perfect and it's so fun. I love the bats surrounding the border. It's so well done!

This quilt seemed to twinkle and glow. It was so large that I couldn't fit the whole quilt into the picture. The quilting was very well done also.

I just loved these zebras! This quilt looks like it was so difficult to make. The zebras seem to be posing! They also look like they're standing so closely together. I love it!

This quilt was so beautifully quilted. The quilting enhances the design. I really loved studying the different quilting within the wall hanging. 

I hope you enjoyed my little tour of the quilt show. The show had many more quilts to see. These just happen to be my favorites. I'm already looking forward to next year's show!

 

I Like Thursday #187

It's time for I Like Thursday! Please visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to link up to more fun and uplifting posts. I'll be leaving for Manchester, NH later this morning. I'm all signed up for a class on Longarm Maintenance. I'll also be visiting the vendors and drooling over the quilts! I'll post about my quilt adventure in the next week. I'm really looking forward to this. I'll be meeting my future daughter-in-law for lunch as well. It's been such a long time since I've been to a quilt show. I can't wait!

 

I started tutoring again. My student is from South Korea and she is delightful! We had our first meeting yesterday. She even brought me a coffee! She's already won me over. I hope to make a difference in her life and make her feel more comfortable speaking English. We'll be meeting once a week for 2 hours. After speaking to her, I have a better idea of what her first lesson plan should include. We admired this beautiful stained glass window in the library. Our library is a hidden jewel. The woodwork is gorgeous. It's kept up so nicely. My student was surprised at how beautiful our library is. 

Here are more blocks from the Blast From the Past Sampler Mystery Quilt. I only have 9 blocks left to make. I'm basically just using up scraps. I can't wait to put it together. These blocks range in size from 6.5" square to 12.5" square. This is such a fun project!

This week our prompt is our favorite smells/scents. I have been using Pure Grace for years! It has such a clean smell. I'm totally addicted to it and always have an extra on hand. Sephora used to carry it but not anymore. I found it at Macy's so I just buy it there now. 

Another favorite scent is cinnamon rolls baking in the oven. When my kids were little, we were snowed in one day. I made cinnamon rolls from scratch and just remember how great my house smelled. It was a day I'll always remember. The kids couldn't wait to eat the rolls. We were stuck indoors and it just felt so cozy. 

That's my likes for the week! Have a wonderful weekend!

A Swoon Finish and Some Applique

I'm slowly appliqueing the Cottage Tulip Block onto a 25.5" square. I've decided to just work on one quadrant at a time. I've done one quarter and will just make my way around the whole circle. This is very slow work but it's coming out okay. 

Here's the Tula Pink Swoon. It's all finished! I just have to make a label and sew it on. I really loved working on this quilt. It's a great pattern and never disappoints.

This is just a close up of a corner so you can see the binding. I really love the binding fabric. It blends well with the fabric in the quilt. So nice to have it all finished!

I Like Thursday #186

It's time for I Like Thursday! LeeAnna is our hostess and her blog, Not Afraid of Color, has links to many more bloggers who post on Thursdays. Go take a look around! The weather has warmed up this week and my lilacs look like they're getting ready to bloom soon. I love seeing that deep purple getting ready to open up. It's a true sign of spring!

These are a few of the blocks I've made for Blast From the Past Mystery Quilt. I love the hearts theme! These blocks weren't too hard to make. The directions are very detailed and even tells you what direction to press your seams. I love that!

For our Easter dinner, my mother made a traditional Italian rum cake. She made her own chocolate and vanilla creams that are in the middle of the cake. There is rum in the cake but it's diluted with water so you just taste a hint of it. I haven't had this cake in years. It was so good. It's so much better than anything you can buy.

 I just finished this book and loved it! I highly recommend it. It's about 2 people who meet when they're younger and reconnect in college. They're not romantically involved but they write video games together. I'm not a gamer at all but you don't have to be to enjoy this book. It's about relationships and life in general. It's so well written. I was sad when it ended which is the sign of a great book!

The prompt this week is whether we're a day or night person. I'm definitely a night person. I don't stay up real late but I hate getting up in the morning. When I used to work, I had to get up at 5 to be at work for 6am. That just about killed me! I could never fall asleep early enough and I would drag the whole day. I usually get up around 8 but I lounge and have coffee until about 9:30. I'm usually up until midnight most nights either reading or watching TV. These hours suit me so much better than my old work schedule!

Have a wonderful weekend! It's supposed to be cool off over the weekend but in the 80's the next few days up here in the Northeast.

Cottage Tulips Block

This block is one of the hardest blocks I've ever made. Before I even started, I knew I'd have to sew Y seams. I decided to brush up on making them by watching a video made by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. She uses Y seams in many of her patterns and has taught the technique often. I found it by searching on You Tube. 

I appliqued the green arcs onto the background. Then, I was ready to try my new Y seam technique to add the yellow diamonds.  I thought this was going well and it wasn't as hard as I remembered.

I repeated my Y seams and put a few pieces together to see how they would look. So far, so good!

I had no idea this was when the hard part starts. This is the block during assembly. I must have sewn, ripped out and re-sewn a million times! I had to stop a few times when the fabric started to fray. The block is done. It's not perfect but at least it's finished. I have to baste 1/4" all around to get it ready to applique onto a square piece of background fabric. I'll be glad when this one is done! I'm more comfortable with Y seams but I'll never consider them easy. 

I Like Thursday #185

It's Thursday so it's time for a happy post! We join LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color who hosts a bunch of us bloggers to post uplifting subjects once a week. I can't believe Easter Sunday is this coming weekend! The days are going by so fast. I wish time would just slow down once in awhile! Anyways, have a happy holiday!

These are the next 2 blocks for the Blast from the Past Mystery Quilt.  Each block uses a different technique. The directions are very detailed and videos are available as well. 

This block measure 9.5" square.  I made my windows yellow as if lights were glowing from inside the house. I had to remake the windows a few times. I kept using the wrong house piece between the windows! It's not so easy to use your phone for reading the directions! I may start using my laptop instead. 

This one measure 12.5"square. It's only 2 colors and made up of 4 identical blocks. I had never made this block before so I feel as though I'm learning new patterns. These are all fun blocks to make.

Our prompt this week was Easter memories from our younger days. My grandmother always made something similar to this picture. We used to call it Easter Bread. It wasn't easy to eat. It was always a little bit on the tough side but we used to dunk it milk or coffee so it would be easier to chew. My family didn't understand the Easter Bunny at all. They were from Italy where Easter was religious holiday. I used to get the random chocolate bunny or a small store bought basket but that was never a very big deal. My mother would cook for days getting Easter dinner ready. Easter outfits were always so important! I remember admiring my mother's hat. We were all so dressed up back then. Times have certainly changed!

Enjoy the holiday! 🐣🌷🐰

Blast From the Past Mystery Quilt

I bought American Patchwork and Quilting magazine this past month. The cover features a great scrap quilt on the cover so I couldn't resist. I went to their page on Facebook and found the Blast from the Past Mystery Quilt. It's a sample of quilt blocks that have appeared in the magazine which turns 30 years old! I thought it was a great way to use up scraps. They started in March 2022 but all the blocks are still available. Each month has either 2 or 3 blocks to make. The quilt will finish up at 60.5" X 64.5".  This first picture shows the blocks I made from the first month.

The blocks finish up at all different sizes. The largest finish at 12" square. The smallest blocks finish at 6" square. They're fun and I love using up my scraps.

I'm trying to keep close to their colors just so I don't get too many of the same color in the same place on the quilt. I'll be starting the blocks from the 4th month later today. These blocks are so fun! There's a total of 30 blocks.