Maestro, 12 weeks, and me.
The prompt for today for
I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color
is
"If you could choose any baby animal to be your pet,
what would you pick and why?"
I would choose a kitten,
as I have done so over and over in my life.
My pet does not have to be a baby animal.
They are all my babies.
Why?
For the unconditional love,
on both sides.
Today my purple flowers are made of yarn.
I am late adding my post for
I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color
because I have spent all day making these
five rows of crochet stitches.
This is the Jasmine stitch.
This is the most labor intensive
and yarn consuming crochet stitch
crossing my hook in recent memories.
I like learning new things,
making new friends in the crochet along,
playing with the pretty yarns.
in part because it had to be adapted to this row stitch along.
This stitch is normally starts with clusters instead of a chain.
I think I may have made a scarf with it many years ago,
but do not recall it being this tricky.
Maybe my fingers were just younger and more able.
It was the young and able fingers of this
Spring Crochet Along
designer who did the adaptions.
Her excellent instruction video
may be found at
as it feeds through the cluster can be learned.
For two rows, there were 19 loops on the hook for each cluster stitch.
I tried this stitch last night and could not get it started.
This morning I started with my morning coffee
and kept at it all day,
with occasional necessary rests for my hands.
My finished Jasmine Stitch row is far from perfect
but I am feeling very happy and accomplished tonight.
the first flowers of spring in my yard.
Yesterday it was cold and gray and they were closed up tight.
Here are some more of my crocuses.
It was sunny today but very windy and bitterly cold.
My crocuses were closed up tight.
Hopefully it will be warmer soon so they may spring open.
Happy Spring to all,
whatever your weather or season of the year.
Time to catch up with some blogging.
I have been sewing, just not taking lots of photos or posting.
Here are my first six blocks for the
This sew along is from the fabric designers for
The free block patterns are available by email
and are released on Thursdays.
I have been sewing every Friday.
I have been using some of the fabrics in my stash,
some solids, some prints by Alison Glass. who is one of the block designers ...
... and these lovelies by Anna Maria Horner.
I finally found a selvage in this stash of smaller cuts.
These fabrics are from Folk Song, circa 2015.
I have used these to three other quilts,
two of which are in my WIP boxes.
I love her use of color and design.
Here is my Block 5.
Last week they also released this Bonus Block 1.
The print in this one is from the Trinket collection by Alison Glass.
I believe I read somewhere that there will be 36 blocks,
or maybe 36 weeks, in this sew along.
I have no thoughts as to what these blocks might look like together in a quilt.
There may be layout suggestions in the end
which I may or may not follow.
I am just sewing along each week,
playing with the fabric,
using up some of my stash
and that is all good by me.
Do you ever make blocks just for fun?
Spring in in the air!
Today when I was sitting and working on my
Spring Crochet Along with Any Day Crochet
I had the windows open on the south side of the house.
You can see the sewing in progress on this zipper bag in the link above. I love how Dorian takes her smallest scraps and adds beautiful hand stitched touches to make such beautiful and useful things. I am sew blessed to be the recipient of this lovely. I have tucked my crochet needs like small scissors, yarn needles and markers and extra hooks into this pretty pouch and tucked it in the top on my yarn bag.
Thank you, my dear friend, Dorian!
with the cute blueberry bobbles on top of the orange basket stitch rows.
See the adorable purple and blue iced cupcakes row?
Tulips and Bunny Ears and Dragonflies, oh my!
I think the Carrots row is my favorite.
Maybe. They are all so cute!
As you can see, it is bright and sunny
but there are no flowers outside my door yet.
As you can see, this week the trees are all pink,
which means the day temperatures
have been in the 40s and 50s, Fahrenheit.
The night has dipped into the 20's though and it has been windy.
As you can also see, Nutmeg has approved these blocks.
Time to sew them into the row!
~~~
Although it getting warmer is much too early in my corner of the world
for spring flowers as each night it goes below freezing.
The I Like Thursday question of the week is what are my favorite
spring flowers.
Though they are not blooming yet, I have two.
In my yard, I love the brave little crocuses
which will be my first garden blooms.
I also love to fill my window boxes and hanging planters
with spring pansies.
There are not available to purchase yet at the garden centers yet.
Soon.
For more Thursday fun, visit all my friends at
I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color
Happy Thursday!
Day 7 is complete for my
Spring Crochet Blanket Started Here
This is a free crochet along.
All information, patterns and tips can be found at
Nutmeg is my ever helpful crochet kitty.
Her favorite part of the job is testing our crochet blankets for comfort.
Nutmeg and I are linking up today with all of the lovely creations at
Slow Sunday Stitching @ Kathy's Quilts
It has been a weekend of heavy rain and now clearing skies
in my corner of the world.
The forecast is for more spring like weather.
We were able to start a little yard cleanup and found
our crocuses and tulips are sending up green shoots.
No spring flowers yet.
Soon ... very soon ... :)
I hope your weekend has been full of good times and happy stitches.
The first week of March has been blustery, rainy and busy.
There has been plenty of fun with fabric and threads stitched in.
The pieces for the shamrock block are cut slightly oversized and
trimmed to size to make a 5.5" square
with narrow border strips on top and bottom.
I now have four rows done and the fifth begun.
I have also been working on the next block for my
I am working on this challenging Sugar Plum Block.
I made plastic templates for this block last week.
When it came time to cut, I extended the inner points
as I had seen a block made this way on a website.
I started on the outside edge leaving a quarter inch seam start.
I am very comfortable sewing curved seams on my machine with no pins.
I just ease the seam as feed the fabric.
in the template in the book and it came together well.
The center appilque circle cover the center of the Sugar Plum swirl.
I am now working on the outer pieced circle of triangles
and preparing to sew it to this center.
which opened near me in New Hampshire.
I am not sure how long this one has been there.
I have not been to a Hobby Lobby in many years.
I have actually not been to a large box craft store since before Covid
closed us in our houses.
I have been buying all of my crafty stuff online
except for a few stops at my small local quilt shop.
I felt lovely and new to go to a store and look at all the pretty
yarns and fabric and craft supplies and spring decor.
The reason for my adventure was to purchase the same yarn and colors
for a this fun
Spring Blanket Crochet Along @
The videos are colorful and give all information needed to
stitch by stitch and row by row make a lovely spring blanket.
The hosts are two very creative sisters.
It is free and there is nothing to buy.
My idea of a fun creative endeavor.
This started with a green foundation row and
then a pretty pink tulip field under a blue sky.
Maestro helped.
Nutmeg helped.
I am a day behind because I had to find my yarn
and hope to catch up by the weekend.
This yarn is made for Hobby Lobby,
My "I Love This Yarn" is acrylic
although there is a cotton version of the yarn, too.
While I was at Hobby Lobby, I looked at the notions
and saw this new-to-me Yarnology Crochet Hook.
Normally I do not like plastic crochet hooks,
but this looked interesting so I thought I would give it a try.
I do have a lot of arthritis in my hands these days.
You can see how bent by this is my pinky,
which can be quite painful at times.
and the shape of the ergonomic handle fits well in my hand.
The hook is tapered and round and it has a deep hook to hold the yarn.
I like this in a hook.
I did a few rows with my favorite old aluminum Boye crochet hook
and quickly switched back to this one.
It is much gentler on my hands.
I will likely be purchasing more of these in different sizes, as needed.
I had not crocheted in over a year in part because of the pain in my hands.
My trip to the store and coming home with the yarn and new hook
for under $30 to start this new spring crochet adventure
has brightened this gray and rainy week considerably.
I hope your week has been filled with happy stitches.
For more Thursday fun, visit all my friends at
I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color
Happy Thursday!
Friday has become my day to make this week's block for the
Made & Found QAL @ Alison Glass
Free Block Designs are emailed weekly after sign-up.
There will be 36 blocks from the Andover Fabrics Designers.
I played with the colors a little and decided to add a fourth fabric to the mix.
I have been using some white in each block for contrast.
I just pair my squares, cut in half and chain sew.
These are 9.5" unfinished blocks.
Quick and easy and an hour of sewing fun
that is using up some of my scrap and stash.
I have no idea what collection the print fabric may be from.
I bought it a few years along in a fat eight bundle from
Alison Glass for her Ventana pattern.
There is no selvage.
If you know what it is. please tell.
I am happy I decided to sew along with this one.
Today is also time to decide on whether I will sew along
on one of my favorite free quilt-along of the year.
A small donation for Make A Wish is requested,
if you wish to say thank you.
The first block is it beautiful bird ...
Dove Block ~ Free Download ~ Here
The fabric requirements for the quilt
and the Cross Stitch Border Design
may also be downloaded in the links.
I am saving the patterns for now.
I am very tempted to sew that beautiful dove block.
Will you sew or stitch along?
