Tuesday, February 3, 2026

"stay at home round robin" prompt for this week, double blocks

 

I did what I could this week, 

life is a challenge right now, and life interrupted my sewing time this week. 

(Pardon the pictures, it was dark in my studio )

The round robin prompt from Kathleen this week was to add "double blocks" to our growing quilts... 

I could not make things easy for myself on this challenge.... oh no, LOL

from google images

quilters planner souce

I googled images and wanted to do trapunto raised water lillies but wasn't sure that fit the prompt

I thought, start with double 4 patch and choose watery fabrics. What size?  it would be nice to just know but when you are the designer it's not always obvious. My dragonfly blocks finish at 12" my hourglass blocks finish at 4" so the double 4 patch will finish at 6" all divisible by the dragonfly size

and it all has to fit in with this!


start with water lily and sparkly blue fabrics, make 8 small 4 patches 
Decide how to make the little 4 patch into a big 4 patch with another water fabric

oh yes I'll like this. I ran out of energy, something is sapping my oomph. I do not want to mess up this pretty quilt so had to stop to do a post to link up in time. 
Generally the 6 days we have to do the work, write about it and link up are rushing me so much
the plan is to use the leaf papers to shape my lillies with that lovely batik pink fussy cut

it's going to look so pretty when sewn into the double 4 patch ( a big 4 patch made with two little 4 patches and two blocks of the water fabric.

so that's it for the moment... now to stop and do the Project Quilting prompt... 
it is a one off, I get to play since it's small. Their prompt is horse, and I'm inspired by a horse who lives in the next neighborhood over... wait til Sat to see that one

linking up with Kathleen here
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Saturday, January 31, 2026

creativity overload

 

three challenges converge and I'm overwhelmed!

Today (one thing at a time this week) (which means several posts according to deadlines)

for Rainbow scrap challenge color of January, blue scraps I present another hexie spiral done with snowy prints

cows... metallics, dots all ready to begin stitching together, life is going around in circles for me

as for blue, two of my artsy photos taken on a walk
Blue ball in the wild

blue skies and heat of a Colorado winter

I have an idea for the stay at home round robin this round... double blocks.... gotta keep it fitting into a dragonfly theme too. 

and here comes Project Quilting one week prompt on Sunday to complete the frantic pace and drain the rest of my creativity energy! lol 

linking to some or all of these

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Thursday, January 29, 2026

I Like Thursday # 489 life is a puzzle

 

welcome to this week's list of likes... we had a cold snap! yea! 

with snow that melted in two days. Three days later the temps are in the 60;s in the sun headed to sustained heat. We might have had random warm days in the past winters but now

too warm all the time but for one or two days of cold. We looked forward to cold winters when we decided to move here. 

On my walks this week

circle the circle that doesn't belong here... no not a giant egg, a rubber ball

a child dropped a candy on the sidewalk, it was covered in a dab of snow, and must be so full of chemicals that it has a half-life of a hundred years!

they call this colorful Colorado

squirrels and bunnies still active

my fave husky siblings, out at night to greet me
the boy is needy, has to sniff me long and thoroughly, the girl waits and gives me a drive-by  polite sniff, looks me in the eye, and says hi in this soft voice. I think they are about 11 months old now
I love them

what's that bright star? ask skyview on the phone,,, Jupiter! wow! 

jupiter  how beautiful!


I think this tree is trying to escape!

an art photo


and one more
zoom button brings the mountains closer

artistically I'm involved with two quilting art challenges... project quilting where I made a portable design wall to take blocks to the sewing machine to be sewn
flannel backing lets cut pieces stay in place to the machine

and a round robin of our own following prompts 


"a small like"

I like throwing out lettuce carrot and cabbage trimmings for our bunny, saw her foot prints in recent snow so she's still here

"another like "

is chatting with friends by phone ( Cindy, Joy and Diane in texas) this week! 

conversation starter this week is 


Do you like puzzles? what kind? jigsaw, things like rubiks cube or slide puzzles, written ones like crossword or sudoku ? 

I have loved jigsaw puzzles as long as I can remember. I even remember the big 6 piece wooden jizsaw I had as a really young girl! I quickly mastered it and did it over and over. Then there was the cardboard pieces that fit into a holder as I aged.  Now I have been doing 300 piece puzzles online and love them to zone out... just see color shape and images... 



I do not, repeat NOT like slide or twisting (rubiks) puzzles at all, I do love a book of math puzzles, sudoku, or logic as well as old fashioned Dell puzzle books with a variety of puzzles. 

they are logical when so much of life does not seem logical at the moment

puzzles are somehow calming while being stimulating at the same time, maybe that's why I love a good mystery show too



what about you?

Fine Dining

wish you could sniff the scent if oranges, cranberries walnuts and butter!

Tried this cookie recipe... OMG good

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/soft-and-chewy-cranberry-orange-cookies-recipe 

OMG, laughing still.... knowing my Milo baby would have agreed




for my friend Sonja and love to all of you

kisses for V-day.... 

let me know if you want to be included in the I Like group

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Monday, January 26, 2026

Dragonfly update round robin latest row

 

The prompt for our first row after the center on the Stay at home round robin (SAHRR) challenge is

Hourglass blocks. Our choice of size, color and placement

(I'm having a lot of trouble making decisions right now)

I made these hourglass blocks first

but wasn't sure I liked the placement... 
oooo pretty colors and fabrics!

love them! 

I had decided I want to make lots more even! but.... are they too dark for placement next to the dragonflies? 
so.... what if I gather light sky batik colors and make some more? okay!
2  5" squares, face to face,  chalk in a diagonal line, sew quarter inch from it on both sides of the line
cut in half and open up, press. Place the HST units face to face (opposite color over the other) draw diagonal line the other direction, sew quarter inch away on both sides of the line, cut on yellow line, open press and
oooo pretty colors again! pretty batiks!
start arranging them on top this time...

more confusion.... I'll need to have a clearer head to decide on a fabric to go between the dragonflies and the hourglass blocks. 

batiks are so pretty!


so is this garden scene, but it's a change from the painterly looking batiks...



so all I know for sure is I like hourglass blocks, and batiks, and 
DRAGONFLIES!

linking to some or all of these

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Saturday, January 24, 2026

Creativity this week in January.... plaid portfolio

 

For this week's creativity round up I present

 "Plaid Coat" about 13" X 14" 

Project quilting prompt was plaid . What's a Scottish Dog supposed to wear if not plaid?

I saw a few renditions of scotty images, and 

I'll share a few pics as I tell you about making it

I often need to transport cut blocks to the sewing table so I like a portfolio with flannel to drive them over  to the machine

lavender flannel on the back
I used the cardboard insert from my recent calendar as a stabilizer this time

I have another one to make a second carrier... 

sewed the pieced block, quilted it to cotton batting, trimmed and sewed   put right   sides together with a piece of flannel (lavender) 
Then sewed around three sides to do an envelop turn finish, turned right sides out and
slipped in the cardboard. 
Then turned under the bottom opening and did an invisible closing stitch to seal the deal
time to embellish! I found a plaid button for his coat, and a shiny button for the eye. The nose is colored in with black marker. 

time for some photos! 

Oh look, a bit of tiny blue scrap piecing also done this week, for Rainbow Scrap challenge color blue

sew small rectangles together into 5 rows 
overlap and cut curves, sew together keeping flat, press and voila!

I think I'm going to make something fun with this!  
now to clean up my plaid and homespun fabric drawer, pull out lake colors to add a row to my SAHRR
dragonflies... one thing at a time even though I want to do it all...




finishing with a photo taken on a walk this week.... that sky is blue blue blue! and looks great with the stone colors in this pillar 
hmmmm learning color theory from a walk.... the stones skew to yellows, (and some blue grays).... opposite on the color wheel which mean complimentary. 

linking with

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