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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Thursday, January 22, 2026

I Like Thursday # 488 calendars and photos

 

I've been playing with my camera's art option button,  on walks and that's dried grasses 

a lot of the camera's options don't suit me but... the ones that do are going to be fun to use in new ways

along the way this week...
I got to visit with this beauty and her mom... she is VEWY OLD and so engaging... she and her mom are both charming and fun to chat with. The mom said, we're supposed to get snow tonight... probably will turn into a dusting. (disgusted like most of us that we have only had 2 small snows and little cool weather) 
As it happened, we got 3" of wet snow that melted when the sun came up
oy vey, winter why have you forsaken us? By the way, if you look up the high and low temps for Aurora, always increase heat for the sun factor, and increase sun because of thin atmosphere at over 6000 ft. 


oooo tired of shoveling already? 
4 out of a Meeelion geese who winter here now... on the putting green pooping... wonder how that affects the lie of the land? 

ducks avoiding icebergs

spectacular sunset
I'm doing two sewing/quilting challenges along with the usual rainbow scrap challenge, those posts are on Saturdays... but here is last week's project quilting art piece
and the round robin center I'll be working on starts with this 


got a new pair of RYKA walking shoes.... two thumbs up!  Love them and the cuddle duds fleece leggings that look like sweaters for my legs...


Just finished this season of BBC's Midsomer Mysteries, it was great but only 4 episodes... now it's time to finally open this new season of The Traitors, (waited til there were several episodes available ) 

Our conversation starter this week is


do you like, buy, have calendars ? I mean paper calendars of any type, diary style to go by the computer up to wall ones, and including have you ever printed ones yourself with your pet or children's pics on it? 

I don't like these "pull a page off a day" style, for me


I have a love of calendars though.... I loved my desk top big squares month at a glance one that I had on my desk top (when I was a social worker)... places to jot notes, ideas, who I met with, deadlines. 

Now I do all computer work at the kitchen table so I like a diary style, week at a glance with monthly areas, areas for addresses, notes etc

this one has pretty flowers and bird drawings, and lots of places to jot notes, lays flat showing that week

I have a wall calendar in the kitchen desk area, this year it's color my world, full of paintings and happy colors, shows a month at a time with a pretty picture over it

I also love having a Mary Englebreit calendar hanging on the studio wall so I can see it behind the sewing machine 

I do not like looking at a calendar on a phone or Ipad.... too small, not easy to write on, and I love to write with a pen... then I remember things!

I'm not doing great, my body is a challenge, no dog yet despite a friend calling to say a 2 year old was at the shelter 45 min from us.... she was just spayed so we couldn't bathe her, and I had just left chiro so a long drive was too hard, so I was sad.... very concerned about domestic issues...

I made the olive oil lemon cake recipe my friend Diane sent, again. This time I added a glaze of powdered sugar, almond extract, and cream.... it's now a dessert, small but good!

please visit these people

please visit these kind people to see what they like this week. love you all, 

 Knitty Quilter 




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Saturday, January 17, 2026

creating so far this new year....SAHRR center and more

 

Time to announce our "stay at home round robin" center for 2026

I decided to join my three 12" dragonfly blocks for my center and keep the small 6" blocks to use as I go.... 

I used a special nature fabric to join them and it was a challenge to find the right one! 


It has photographic branches in gold metallic. Not blending too much, but standing out a bit. Once I see the first prompted blocks to add, I think I might put a small border of this print around the joined three blocks as a spacer

at first I tried a sparkly deeper blue but it repeated the look of the body , I've gathered up blue dragonfly prints to add in, but I might just  end up making garden or pond blocks, who knows. 

I love this challenge every year. I love making a prompt fit my esthetic and theme, and love to see what everyone else is making with that same prompt!!! Quilting Gail (our leader's blog)

you can join in anytime.... 

I also cut out the next hexie spiral blocks to hand EPP piece by the TV... using snowy winter fabrics in blue for the Rainbow Scrap challenge color of this month

so much fun to hand piece hexies! I know I did them last year but well never too many hexies

our skies are the blue inspiration although we have had only about an inch of snow all winter here in Aurora CO this year.... temps are in the 60's and 70's all winter so far, plus intense sun (10 + hotter)

Just for fun.... lookie what I found to inspire me to paint

Now I want to take lessons from this frog.... mesmerizing music too.... Love a Lily pond...

https://youtube.com/shorts/8B7PBgWBWVw?si=vMuAhrQlFf86bwaB

loved this hand embroidered book cover tute


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Ui30gg7qU 
 
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Thursday, January 15, 2026

I Like Thursday # 487

 


Welcome to our list of likes, Thursday, and sunny hot Colorado. (January and temps + sun= hot)

I saw this aptly named truck along my walk this week.... 

dogs and cats seen on walks

this mini godendoodle was so charming...
then a cat came out of nowhere to chirp at us walking by


It did not linger,  but might have if I'd asked it to... It went a few paces ahead, sat down and turned back to give me such a look!!!  I rarely see cats... have allergic symptoms if I pet them but love them....

then later on the walk this sweet kitty meowed at us from a yard. 
I responded with hello beautiful! It meowed again, turned toward it's house then looked back at me, meowed again, flipped to it's back  wriggling and chirping! An obvious invitation to come play but I couldn't go into a closed gated yard with the excuse your cat invited me in! 


Canadian Geese are here for the winter, (they must be surprised at our heat too) and this one was the guard. The rest ate, meandered around the park, while he kept them safe. 
WE must have thousands of them in our neighborhood.  
pretty sunset

what are you doing for this new year so far???

noticed this on a walk, something left a question mark in the pavement!


I LOVED this great post  asking the hard questions then answering them... 

https://themarmeladegypsy.blogspot.com/2026/01/seven-reflection-questions-that-made-me.html#more

cow adopts puppy, so heartwarming.... you don't need to be the same to love....

link if you need it: https://youtube.com/shorts/dHR_-pu-jE4?si=b-UqY_GSpikQzV1b

Our conversation starter this week is

Have you ever lived anywhere else? 

 


I grew up in Tampa Florida, living there until I went away to College in Tenn for a year. 

I returned to Univ of South Florida to graduate, and work for a few years

My longtime boyfriend and I decided I needed to move where he was living at the time, to see if we could make a go of it.... he had moved to Edmonton Alberta Canada from Toronto by then, so I lived in Utah with my sister's family while I waited for a work visa in Edmonton. 

Eventually I did move to Canada but after a long recovery from Meningitis there, I returned to Tampa to recover my strength and worked there another 6 years or so before.... 

meeting my now husband at a contra dance. We decided to marry and within a year he had chosen a job in Baltimore so off we went.  Our labra-daughter Chelsea loved seeing snow the first time! We were there a long time before seeking the novelty and cold weather of Colorado. 

Jokes on us, global warming had made it hot here, virtually no winter at all this year. 

I have enjoyed all the places I've lived and visited.... my family owned a small Inn in NC and we visited often as I grew up. My sister lived many different states and I used to spend summers with her in each. 

we are interested in moving to France but I'm scared. I swear I've tried to learn the language but.... 

 


For Americans, our season of The Traitors started but I'm obsessed so I'm waiting til they accumulate more than 3 episodes to start! 

if you need me, I'll be sewing.... Project Quilting began, and Stay at home round robin too... I'll post my SAHRR center on Friday.... whee!

please visit these kind people to see what they like this week

 Knitty Quilter 

 


  


 

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