Erin's Butterfly blocks

I had good intentions to press and load a quilt top and backing onto the boards for pinning yesterday. That would have involved clearing off my sewing table. The backing blocks and the parts for Erin's Butterfly were sitting on my cutting mat. I had zigzag stitched the pink and a light blue one earlier this year. Instead of moving them..... I decided to cut the fusible to attach to the wings, pressed them on then placed onto the background and machine stitched them down. All eight are ready for the body to be attached by hand, (the pink was done) and then they need embroidery for the antenna. I do need one more of these made... so I think that will be the next step in the sewing room. Dark green I think - I'll steal from the greens I got for the Christmas tree quilt I have yet to make for those wings. Julierose - this one making progress should make you happy! I know you've been rooting for this one to be moved along for a while now.

I hand stitched this purple shoo fly block yesterday as well. 

I'll link up on Saturday with the RSC for progress on some purple sewing this month!

Slow Sunday Stitching.

 I'll be doing a little applique today on 2 projects. This dresden plate circle, needs a little repair to secure it to the top. I'm hoping once Aidan is home from his ACT testing this morning, I can finally get my quilt holder up on the wall so I can hang this quilt in the kitchen/living room area. I need a tall person to help me!

My other applique is to get this body of the butterfly stitched down and then I'll add some embroidery for the antenna. I've got 8 more of these blocks to get onto their background and get finished off. 

Four more granny squares were crocheted this week to add to the pile. 

Yesterday, Emily's riding partner called out sick so our trainer asked if I wanted to ride with her. I've been sick all last month so no riding since early December. I just did a little walking and a trot a few times around the arena, then I was content to sit on my recliner... I mean Goody the horse and watch Emily deal with an ornery Doc who was not understanding to pick up the canter.

After our lesson, there was an estate sale about a mile from the riding place that I wanted to check on a Singer sewing machine. Alas, it was gone but Emily wanted to walk through the house. Everything was marked as they were going to gut and remodel it. In a punchbowl box of cut glass there was a cut glass platter. Ours dropped and shattered a year ago, so I pulled the platter out of the box and asked the price. It got washed last night and is all clear and shiny now and very heavy!

 It came home with us along with this pretty quilt rack. I was thinking I would paint it, but I wiped it down and polished it and now I am not sure. I'll think on it.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Slow Sunday Stitching.

 I really like Kathy's idea of 'touching' multiple projects to keep them moving. I think I'll give that a try today!

I will add a few threads into this fun Snowflake embroidery from my 2024 MSQC Jenny box.

I'll add one granny square to the pile. I made two in the light blue last night.

I'll layer this little quilt for hand quilting around the sweaters or around the blocks. Probably around the blocks, I think.

Then I'll grab the seam ripper and remove these two hand appliqued butterflies from their current background. I'll plan to do all 8 of them at once with the same background. I just need to make one more for the set for a nice nine patch setting. Getting them off this background is step one.

I'll be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. What will you be working on today?

RSC round 2 for the day!

 I was thinking of riding today, but Lori figured it was pretty cold out and offered me a pass this morning. Emily and Kyra went early to give the horses some pampering before and after their 11AM lesson. She asked to be picked up around 2PM. So... I got to sew!

Those mistake Birds in the Air blocks were asking for one more set to be created in pink, so I obliged! 

I do think I will like these blocks. I'm not sure if they will get mixed up with other colors or will stay in groups of one set of 4 colors. I guess I am adding these to the mix for the RSC 2025! While making these I am cutting some 2.5 inch strips from the scraps and wall of fabrics. They are used to make these, the bird in the air blocks and the 16 patch blocks. My little pile of them was gone, so it was time to build it up again for quick pulls for projects.

I made another 16 patch block while sewing the above two blocks. A couple of these a month will be fun to play with at the end of the year. 

While in the sewing room.... I played with the cast off cuts of the sweaters and ironed them to a 5 inch background. I got a bolt of Kona from MSQC last month in navy and eggshell. 10 yards each, so I used the eggshell for the cozy sweater quilt and again for these fun blocks. I saw on the Facebook group of the 2023 Christmas box last year someone who did this and alternated them with the sweater blocks. I thought it was a neat idea. I do have quite a few charms left and did get another charm bundle when they were on sale this year. These are 5 inches.

Next on my list of things are the Erin's butterfly parts I made years ago with the RSC. I started with hand applique of the red and teal, but I don't have more of that dotted background. I spent about 30 minutes searching for it yesterday. I also did not like how the placement shifted as I worked on them.  I think I'll pull them off and instead use one of these three bolts for the background instead. (Ivory, eggshell, navy) Now that I have used interfacing, I think I'll machine applique them to the background and then will finish them off with embroidery for the middle body and the antenna. I have 8 of them, so I might need to add one more to make a nice 9 patch with them.

Linking up with the RSC.

Weekend...

 I have no clue where the week went! I know I have been concentrating on hand stitching the hexagons together and have half the quilt together. Not sure if the other half will get finished this month or not. We will see how the beginning of this week goes I guess.  I'll keep concentrating on hand stitching the hexagons together. This half is 88x34. The front and the back.

I did take a break and thought about the Table Scrap Challenge mid week. Thursday I had all these ideas running through my head - yellow dreseden plates made into a sunflower runner, maybe some tulips in red and yellow.... alas... time got to me (and I don't know where I put the Quilters Patch book where I was going to pull the flower patterns from!) and as I was looking for things I found this set of 4 blocks with some yellow... and flowers .... the two prompts for March! I put them together and did some quilting and finished hand stitching the binding on it this morning! My entry for the March Table Scrap Challenge. I believe this is the Tiffany's magic stars pattern found on Joyful's blog.

Thursday evening was shopping for the troop sleep in at the church we meet at. Friday to Saturday around noon was the troop sleepover. Let's just say not much sleep was had but it was great to see all 6 girls together having fun. They baked a cake, got to experience plan B ( it rained all day Thursday and I could not get the camp fire started!) of making smores in the microwave. Pancakes and sausage for breakfast. They did a great job cleaning up and then while waiting for their rides were sitting outside in the shade playing a game of UNO. Me.... took a long nap Saturday afternoon! Then Aidan tried warming up pizza for dinner and the microwave decided it was done. Greg and I headed to Lowes to pick up a new one and got a counter one rather than the over the stove.... which meant I needed to clear off a counter, find where to put stuff (yes, Joy, I will be getting rid of things!). We will replace the old microwave with a range hood we think.... or just remove it and add pop up lights under the cabinet? Not sure yet. No way to vent it outside so still considering.... knowing they will probably be taking our house and property for a road project expansion in the next few years we really don't want to invest a lot of $ into it. 

I also found the remaining butterfly wings that need to get appliqued down to their background this year. The yellow for March and the Pink for April with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I am a bit behind with this challenge this year but scraps are very forgiving and will wait patiently for next year's turn at them. I am sew glad I decided to use a big safety pin to keep these all attached! 

After a long overdue clean of the house today... I will be in the sewing room prepping the last of the Memory quilt blocks with interfacing so I can begin stitching that very large quilt together. Once that quilt is finished I think I will become much more productive in the sewing room. 

Linking up with The Rainbow Scrap Challenge and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.