Random 5 Friday - "to ponder"

(1) Pondering on a Japanese Red Maple

 

This tree looked so lovely against the blue summer sky that I had to take a picture.  It grows outside the door at the one-woman tailor shop I visited with my daughter to have her wedding gown fitted.  The tailor is a family friend whose son went to high school with my daughter.  I admired her tree and she asked me if I wanted one.  Apparently, she has them spring up like weeds in her yard and is always looking for someone to take one away.  I am negotiating with my hubby, who is not sure we need another tree in our yard.  I am reading up on the care of these trees here and here.

I am pondering.

Please share any thoughts you may have on these trees for me to further my ponderings.

 

 

(2) Word Ponder

 

When I was pondering on a word to pull these random rambles together, this word came to mind so I rambled around the search engines and found this interesting site for word lovers ...  

 

 

[ source:  ThinkMap Visual Thesaurus ]

 

Ponder:



Part of Speech:	verb
Definition:	think about seriously
Synonyms:	appraise, brood, build castles in air, cerebrate, cogitate, consider, contemplate, daydream, debate, deliberate, dwell, evaluate, examine, excogitate, figure, give thought to, meditate, mind, moon*, mull, mull over, muse, noodle around, perpend, pipe dream, put on thinking cap, puzzle over, reason, reflect, revolve, roll, ruminate, speculate, study, think out, think over, turn over, weigh, woolgather

[ source: Thesaurus.com ]

 

 

"Build castles in the air" is my favorite synonym here  :)

 

Pondering this word brought to mind, "Words," the old Bee Gee song added to my player.  This song is a old favorite.  I was happy to find that Playlist.com had this in the music stream

 



(2) fabric pondering

 

I am a quilty ponderer. 

I build quilty castles in the air. 

My "wool gathering" is more "cotton gathering."

I usually have an image of a quilt I want to make somewhere in my mind.

 I am also constantly meditating and rethinking my quilts in progress. 

This week the project On My Design Wall that has me pondering are the circle fabrics in this quilt.  The top is sewn and I am adding the applique circles, but I have two fabrics that did not make the cut in the original plan that I want to add to the top.  One of them is the lovely green on the left.  In the process of deciding if I wanted to add a circle, I decided to add another row of blocks on the outside edges that will make the quilt the wide queen size I like for a personal bed quilt.

(3) Pondering a Stamp Sized Quilt

 

I am pondering and working on a blog hop project that calls for making

a "stamp" quilt.

 

 

(4)  Pondering Teeny Tiny Strips of Fabric

 

This teeny tiny quilt called for cutting teeny tiny 3/4" strips.

The traditional quilter's seam is 1/4" wide.

Doing the math here ...

1/4" strip - two 1/4" seams = a finished 1/4 inch piece in the quilt.

Pictures of the teeny tiny quilt will appear on my blog on next Wednesday.

 

 

 

(5) Butterfly  Napping Pondering

 

My Friday post would not feel complete without at least one feline.

My Butterfly has been a constant helper and companion in my sewing room this week.  She has spent much of her time curled up in the sunny window. Both she and I are feeling better.

Thanks to all who sent well wishes last week.

 

Linking up again this week with the interesting bloggers at

 

 

Random 5 Friday @ A Rural Journal

Thanks to all who stop by and read my random ramblings.

 

May you days be filled with beauty and love.

 

~ <3 ~

 

Random 5 Friday

1)  My Mother's Lilacs

 

 My Mother passed away several years ago after a long decline in health and in her older years she was not able to care for her garden and flowers.  Her favorite lilacs had become overshadowed by a large tree and had become woody and had withered away to just one small bush crowded by other growth.  That last bush had not bloomed in years.   My hubby and I were able to save this last one by transplanting and tending and now it blooms again each spring and I like to think My Mother is smiling.

 

2) The Katniss on her leash

 

Here is Katniss outside on her leash watching the birds and waiting patiently by the chairs for her humans to return.  Hubby was working in the yard and went in to make a cup of coffee and I was cat sitting and decided it was a photo opportunity.

 



3) The Butterfy had pressing matters

 

Butterfly was a very busy and helpful kitty in my sewing room today. We are making  The Bride's Choice table quilts for Our Girl's wedding.

4) My First Bed Quilt!

 

This quilt was made for my daughter to take to college. This photo was taken eight years ago by her in her dorm room.  I thought this photo was lost and just happened to come back to me this week. It is a treasure.  

I love the little detail of the lipstick rolling around on the floor.

I blogged about this and my first quilt this week I reached the blogging  milestone of my 300th post. I like to think my quilting has come a long way since that quilt.

 

5) Just for fun, I have entered My Dresden Square Quilt

 

in the big online spring quilt show @ Quilt Blogger's Festival.

 

If you like quilts, click on the link and enjoy the show!

 

 We are linking up again today at

 

Random 5 Friday @ A Rural Journal

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

:-) 

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today I am linking up with A Rural Journal

and Two Bears Farm 

for their

 1st Annual

Valentine's Day Boost My Blog Party!

Welcome to my Scrapatch!

For you for Valentine's Day, I am sharing my

Heart Mug Rug Tutorial

This is a scrappy 16 patch block.  My squares are 2.5"

Layout the squares.

Chain piece into pairs.

Cut into pairs.

 

Chain piece together pairs into 4 strips.

Do Not Cut the thread that holds the chain together!

This will keep your strips aligned. :)

Fold one strip over the next and sew.

Fold seams up and down and nest as you sew.

Back of 16 patch with seams folded and sewn in opposite directions.

front of 16 patch block

use freezer paper to make your shape and quilting template

fold and cut and heart shape

Sandwich your pressed block

with batting and a backing square

and press the freezer paper heart template

with the plastic coated side DOWN onto the top of your block. 

stitch around freezer shape with your walking foot

cut heart shape just outside your stitching line

 ready to quilt

I quilted smaller hearts  within this shape by cutting down my freezer paper template
to smaller hearts for each round.

 Cut the same freezer paper template smaller.

stitch around each smaller heart shape

have your kitty quilty inspector checking your work as you go.

I made five mugs rugs reusing the freezer paper templates

and they can be saved and used again for another project.

cut 1.5 inch strip of binding fabric. 

I did not cut on the bias and it eased around the curves nicely

start at the bottom point leaving a tail over the edge of about an inch on one side and machine stitch slowly 

around the curves holding the fabric loosely to the edge ... no need to pin

when you get to the top point,

stop and back stitch

make a fold and tuck toward stitched side

press needle down on other side of the fold aligning carefully

I like to put in one pin at the point to mark where where the needle should be inserted and remove the pin to press needle down

resume sewing the binding to the other half of the heart easing as you go around the curve. At the bottom lift the end up, fold the starting strip down and set the end over this point and stitch over it to close the seam

 double fold to cover raw edges and pin

also use one pin to hold the top fold over onto the backing

start stitching at the bottom point

stitch around the curve turning under the raw edge as you go

You could do this with you machine. 

I like to hand sew the binding to the back

 remove pin and stitch the top and continue on around the other side

My Heart Mugs Rugs!

I have really enjoyed making these mug rugs as gifts for my friends.

One of these may be a Gift For You!

as my

Valentine's Day Boost Your Blog

Giveaway

For the chance to win one of my Pink & Green Heart Mug Rugs, please leave me one lovely comment to make my day happy. 

You do not need to be a follower to win. 

I will send my mug rug anywhere in the world.

Please be sure that I have a way to contact you by email to tell you that you have won and to get your mailing address.

For a second chance to win, be a follower and leave a second comment telling me you are.

This Giveaway will close at Midnight EST on Sunday, February 17th.

I will pick a winner using a random number generator and will announce

the winner on Monday, February 18th.

Good luck!

Thanks to Lisa and Nancy for hosting this Blog Party!

Thank you for visiting me in the Scrapatch!

 (hint ... if you read down the next post, you will find the prototype of these mug rugs in another giveaway ;)

Have a Happy Heart Day!

<3<3<3