Where do I begin

I don't even know where to start, taking one week off of blogging led to two and then three and before I know it two plus months have went by.  Thank you to those of you that asked if I was okay, the answer was yes I am fine just in need of a break! Plus I didn't really have anything knew to show you. I took three weeks off from sewing during that time, pretty much unheard of for me!

Since getting back home I have fired up the longarm and she purred like a kitten so I have a couple of finishes.  This is made with the Accuquilt BOB die called Morning Star.

And since it's getting close to summer I have been thinking of strawberries.

We definitely had some yummy strawberries while in Arizona. 

A couple of sites we discovered while ATVing in AZ.  

An old mine🠟

The remains of a long ago house. Can you imagine living in a small one room house! 🠟

And of course gotta love some  prickly pear cactus blooms.

Our wild plum trees are in full blossom and oh they are so fragrant!!

Linking up with these linky parties: Wednesday Wait Loss, NTT, TGIFF, Finished or Not Friday

Strawberry finishes

 You might remember back in February I posted that I was making strawberry blocks. I have since turned them into three table runners. Pictured below is one of them. I had previously finished two runners and packed them away. I managed to remember to take this one's photo before packing it away. 

These strawberry blocks are a good scrap buster for 2.5" red squares. I could have used green scraps for the checkerboard border but chose to use yardage for them. 

I also have a start on my table runner for the Table Scraps monthly challenge! It's also the RSC color of the month. Tune in later this month to see the finished project. 

Linking with:

Oh Scrap

Monday Musing

Sew and Tell Monday

Design wall Monday

Scrap Happy RSC

Getting back to blogging

 Hello, hello my fellow quilting peeps. While I have really enjoyed my blogging break it's time to get back to posting. Even though I wasn't writing posts I have been keeping busy.  

Many red scraps have been used in making strawberry blocks, four done so far. 

Next up was getting out the gold scraps and cutting many 2.5" squares and some HST's in golds and greens too.  The strawberry and pineapple blocks were all cut with Accuquilt dies from the 8" cube.  Speaking of Accuquilt, I have been accepted for another year as a Go! Getter. I am excited to see what is ahead for this year. 

Also on the agenda has been a little sock knitting in the evenings.  The gray marl Kroy sock yarn was a bit boring so I decided to jazz it up a bit with a variegated purple/blue. It's also a Kroy yarn but it is a different weight but it still worked for the heel, stripes and toe.  I am currently working on the foot of the second one. 

While I did try to read a few blogs here and there I mostly stayed unplugged. I would love to hear what you have been working on!  Tune in Saturday for an announcement!

As an affiliate of Accuquilt they let me know the current sales. 

All month long are MARKDOWNS -- Save up to 65% on select items for a limited time so check those out and see you need want any of them:)

Through Feb. 12th--50% Off Studio Dies & Bundles (use code: STUDIO50)

Linking with Whoop Whoop, Finished or Not Friday, TGIFF, Off The Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, and Oh Scrap!

Friday Fruity Finishes

 I have two fruity finishes to show you this Friday.  If you are a regular follower you have seen very similar finishes here often. Both of these table runners have been popular spring and summer ones in my Etsy shop. Their counterparts sold last weekend so I remade them this week.  

I realize now that I should be showing you the backs each time especially when I use different backings, that way you would know I made a new runner!! 

The strawberry blocks are so fun to make because I get to dig into the red scrap bin and cut 2.5" squares with my AccuQuilt Go!  This runner was inspired by a block from SkyberriesHandmade. 

To complete the fruit basket for this Friday is another pineapple runner.  Another great way to use scraps for the pineapple block itself.  I would buy this one just for the backing itself, such cute paisley in gold and greens. I added a bright green to get the length I needed for this runner. 

And to complete the photo I added my gingham plate and black cup for props!  Props make for such a cute photo, it's been fun running around the house seeing what I can use.  Sometimes I pop into the dollar store or Hobby Lobby to pick up something.

There are my two Friday Fruity Finishes my quilting peeps:)  Linking with TGIFF, Beauty Pageant and Finished or Not Friday.

On Monday I will be kicking off the Foodie Blog Hop hosted by Creatin' in the Sticks.  so I hope you will pop back in and see what I have come up with for that. 

Too Inspired to be Tired

It's been a productive five days!  Sometimes all of you seem to think I am the energizer bunny with all the table runners I produce. So when I was at the dollar store I saw this small notebook and had to giggle a little.  It's so true, so I had to get it! 

Here is what I have accomplished... My Etsy customers have been favoriting fall and winter already with a couple purchases of them also.  So I better up my game and get busy making a few!  I cut for several of these runners but only sewed up one for a quick finish.  The pattern I used is in a Calico Printworks book printed several years ago.  The pattern is called Cornerstones. 

From there, well I couldn't help myself😆 I had been thinking of a gray gingham runner so much that I just had to make it!

Looking back at older photos to get quilting ideas never hurts as I had forgotten about this all over freehand lettuce leaf feather design. So fun to do.  For the most part I quilted three lettuce leaf feathers with one central point and then echoed them to get where I wanted to start the next set.  However, sometimes you have to do one or two of them instead of three to make them fit in.  And that's okay!!  I used a light gray Glide thread for the quilting.  I did this quilting on the fall table runner above too.

I know you have seen ones like this one below a lot, so I'll show you more of the back instead of the front again.  I had to replenish it in the shop. This one uses the same fabric as the previous one but with a different backing.  This runner has been really popular this year. 

And a strawberry runner, you have seen these before also, but this was a replenish in the shop too. 

Now I am working on some snowman table runners, seems weird as it's one of the hottest days so far at 90 degrees. But it feels good to stay inside and quilt with my AC on!  But yesterday afternoon we were invited to a friends house, they just moved into this ginormous house so they wanted to give us a tour.  Holy cow, it's HUGE, 6 bedrooms, 6 baths, so gorgeous!  It was fun just sitting around talking for the afternoon, kinda felt like I was playing hookie 😄

Maybe I'll be back later in the week with a few more finishes, hope to see you then!  My wish for you is to have a wonderful week of sewing.

Linking with:

Wednesday Wait Loss

Midweek Makers

NTT

Put Your Foot Down

Strawberry fields and panel challenge

 I don't know about all of you, but I am dreaming of summer sunshine🌞 and strawberries🍓!  I bet all of you are too.  Can you just taste the yummy sweetness?  

On Saturdays, when it fits in my schedule, I join the Inquiring Quilter Facebook group for Saturday Sew In. This past Saturday was going to be 80 degrees here, perfect day for being outside. The hubby and I went for a nice bike ride in the morning and then I set to work clearing out a flowerbed in preparation for planting some posies I bought on Friday.  Later in the afternoon I started sewing this strawberry table runner.  The quilting and binding was done on Monday.  

But before I could ever start it I spent at least half of an hour searching for the zip lock baggy with leftover red squares.  Now I used to keep it right on my counter top, but back in December I got the bright idea to move things around😏.  I thought I might have put it in the closet with a bunch of other WIPS/UFO's.  I looked and looked and came up with nothing. Looked elsewhere, nothing. So I went back to the closet and started to pull out all of two shelves determined that I had put it in there. I emptied the first shelf with no luck, started on the second and bam, there it was!  The ironic part is I was only inches from it the first time😛.  I am just sure none of you have ever experienced that!

Now it's back to more red white and blue, pretty much more of ones I have already done.

Don't forget the voting polls are now open for all the panel challenge entries at Prairie Moon Quilts.  I might have entered two.  One of them is Harvest Puzzle that I blogged about HERE.  The other is this patriotic wall hanging.

The center with the flag and fireworks is the panel and I added red borders, friendship stars and outer borders of coordinating patriotic prints. Simple additions to a panel make it shine a bit. 

There are 40+ entries in the challenge, it's so fun to see what everyone came up with to make their panel unique. 

Linking up with friends at Wednesday Wait Loss,  Midweek Makers,  NTT, 

To Do Tuesday #37

 What a week it has been, so much done and so tired!  Okay here were the goals I had set for the week:

1. Another strawberry table runner-✅

My customer requested a strawberry runner with a plain green border instead of my usual checkerboard. She was thrilled when I sent the finished photo.

2. Two patriotic reversed S swirl runners-✅

These were part of the order of 14 table runners, from one lady, through my Etsy shop.

3. Finish another panel that I started yesterday-✅

I posted about this HERE

4. Two Easter table runners for an order-✅

These were also part of the order of 14 table runners, from one lady, through my Etsy shop.

                                          

5.And if I have time for anything else that would be awesome!✅

This was also a customer request.  She knew exactly what she wanted, Green background with the checkerboard in red and white.  The snowman was to look like Frosty the snowman with his black top hat and flower in his hat. I had never seen a Frosty with a flower before, but she sent a pic and I did my best to make it look like that.  I left the flower to be dimensional and added a yellow button to hold it all in place. 

I have officially completed all my Etsy orders and now I have nothing planned for the week!  I will just roll with the punches and see what happens.  When is the last time you have heard me say that:0   So officially I don't have any goals.  But you know I will be working on table runners here and there.  I mean that is what I do! 

Linking with our To Do leaders Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us.  I am anxious to go see what others have accomplished this past week. 

You all left so many kind words about my strawberry runner that I hurried up and quilted and bound it right away.  No UFO or WIP with this one!

 I kept seeing crosshatching in the center because of the angle of the leaves so I went with it. 

 And it seemed natural to continue with it in the checkerboard border.

 The scrappy strawberry received some loops, and leaf shapes in the green HST's.  I just could not get them to show up in the pics.

 And the perfect green and white print for the backing was in the stash, well all of the fabric came from the stash:)

But I didn't stop there, nope I was on a roll yesterday!  The second pineapple runner got finished too. 

 Everything is the same as the first one except for a different gold fabric for the border.

 And the backing fabric was different also.

I hope you will come back tomorrow as I will be posting a quilting book review.  Oh it's a good one you won't want to miss!

Another thing you won't want to miss is the Be a Diamond blog hop starting on April 22 going through the 26th.  I have my project ready and will be blogging on the 24th.