Thursday, February 27, 2014

Kaleidoscope progress.

I managed to sew the little triangle onto all the Kaleidoscope triangles this morning quickly between running errands. Now I just need to press all these and then sew the Aqua triangle on to make some pairs before I figure out the final setting. I think I may wait for Mom to get down next week and have her help figure out the final layout before I put it all together.

I work tomorrow and since tomorrow is the last day for one of the staff at Emily's PreK, I had to get a little gift for her and say our goodbye's today. She is the glue that holds that place together and the first person I talked to when I was dropping the registration off for Aidan. I am going to miss Tammy and chatting every morning.

After picking up Em, we headed to her friend Mackenzie's house for a play date. The girls had a great time. The Mom's got to chat and I seem to have played a lot of toss with their little dog Daisy who decided to be a lap dog for a bit and was sitting on my lap to be petted. Now to get homework done, some laundry done and then it will be time for soccer practice and bowling for me.




Wednesday, February 26, 2014

A rainy Wednesday....

 I missed Tiny Tuesday so in the 15 minutes I had this morning I whipped up this block from The Civil War Diary book. It is called 'My Greatest Trial' and was a fairly easy block to piece.

A shot of all of them so far this year.


Miss Em in the car line waiting for brother on Monday. Tuesday we had a play date at the park after school, and the loose front top tooth for Aidan was kindly pulled by his friend Trey's Mom. The tooth fairy had to scrounge around a bit for payment but she arrived and traded tooth number 4 for a little $. Now Emmy wants to know when her teeth will fall out so the Tooth Fairy can visit her! 

Monday, February 24, 2014

Design Floor Monday.....

The Kaleidoscope quilt so far for the graduation girl this year. I think I need to cut out a few more specific purples and then blues for the corners. I knew I only cut 120 of the colors for a reason!
Progress on this is good though. I should be able to start sewing my twosie units together today after I get back from the gym.


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Slow stitching Sunday....

After all day in the sewing room yesterday and making such great progress, tonight it will be time to slow down and enjoy some nice slow stitches before the busy week starts again tomorrow.
I have one side left of my Easy Street quilt to get the binding sewn down until I can call it completed. I attempted to work on it last night...... but could only go so far and Maxie would not let me move the quilt so I had to stop. Tonight it will get finished even if she has to get up and move a few times for me!

Now to go prep 25 more orange peels to finish the border on this one sometime soon. That will be the waiting in the car line project for this week.


Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other slow stitching projects are being worked on today.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Progress report....

All the hugs and kisses blocks were trimmed and laid out. Good thing I was paying attention and was thinking having the O's on the outer corners seemed wrong. Can you figure it out?

The bottom square of an X was framed in light instead of a color. I ripped it out and framed it with orange and all is right with the world now. These are ready to sew together before anyone comes home and messes it up!

I also got 12 of the nine patch pink blocks completed. I think these will work into a cute little baby girl quilt. I need to figure out size and then what I will do with them. Hopefully Erin will like what I come up with.


After trimming all those X and O's - I cut 148 corner triangles for the Kaleidoscope graduation quilt. I'll try and play with that tomorrow and come up with a layout so I can start sewing that one together next week. The aqua fabric is the 'solid' or background fabric.


Ok - back to the sewing room for me but I'm making great progress in there. Hopefully the going out to dinner will happen around here or Grandma's house so I don't have to drive to The Villages. It would take a good 30-45 minutes out of my sewing time =) Now to get those X and O blocks all sewn together......


Pretty in Pink....

I swapped work days with Greg so I could have some quality me time in the sewing room today to get some things moved forward and done. So far it has been almost two hours of pure fun!

I have to thank Moneik for sending me some wonderful pink fabrics to play with this month.

They have been put right to use today to make some churn dash blocks. I needed 6 of them for my 12 this month but was so cutting happy I have 7!

I guess it can go in the sampler. I have five blocks for the RSC Sampler completed in pink and it looks like there will be one more released sometime this week to finish up the pinks.

I also cut some 2.5 inch squares and made a 16 patch block...which will turn into a star block like last year. I loved how it came out and since it was gifted to Papa Andy I think I'll make another one this year. I also did a couple of nine patches using 2.5 inch strips.  I also have plans to squeeze one more new block in over the next few hours and a few more of the nine patches.

I'd love to have all my Kaleidoscope quilt cut out to play with on the floor to figure out how I want it to look for tomorrow. I need to cut 120 or 148 of my 45 degree angle triangles so I can do that. I have all the other shapes cut out and ready to play.

The plans are also to trim up all the Hugs and Kisses blocks and start putting that together. I think  I have enough peels for the border I am thinking of, so hopefully I'll have most of that together later tonight too. I'm thinking instead of cooking dinner (much needed sewing time) I'll head out to dinner with hubby tonight before picking up the kids from Grandma. Don't worry Mom - I'll have my sewing room turned into a guest room for March 3rd when you arrive!

Head on over to check out all the other scrappy pink projects being linked up today for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Tiny Tuesday

This week I decided to hand piece this block, called Sorrows Of War. It would have taken me under five minutes in the sewing room but I wanted to be in the living room after the kids were in bed so I hand pieced it. There is something so relaxing about putting a needle and thread through some fabric. Sophie is waiting patiently to get brushed this morning so she is the model.



I also needed some new dish cloths last week and went searching for the correct yarn in the house. I found a little yellow, some green and white and a little more of the rainbow yarn. I now have about 8 inches of the rainbow yarn left and a new dish cloth to use in the kitchen. I don't think the dishes will mind!

Saturday I used my 40% off at Joanns Fabrics and got a 4 ounce of blue to make more. Not bad for $1.79. Now it is time to brush Sophie before taking the kids to school. Ahh. Blissful peace and quiet for 2.5 hours this morning. I can't wait.


Sunday, February 16, 2014

Slow stitching Sunday... .or prepping as the case may be.

Well, the children have learned how to share! Daddy has had a sore throat for a few days and I started sneezing yesterday and have the lovely stuffed head which sudafed is currently attempting to dry up. Yes Mom, I went through the house with clorox wipes and got the light switches, remotes, phones, ipads, door handles..... in the hopes of killing those bugs so we all get better quickly.

The kids were out playing this morning for a bit. Grandpa A came over for a little visit and Greg has headed into work to clean and buff the floors after closing at 3 today. We were going to do that back in December when we were closed for the week of Christmas but someone had to have some lovely things happen and while I was resting and doing doctor visits he was on kid duty. They will get done today.... before we get a big inventory shipment tomorrow morning.  Fingers crossed that the spa's arrive. I popped a movie Brave in for the kids to watch and I plan to do some cutting out of fabrics (Kaleidoscope quilt) at the kitchen island while we watch it. I recorded it a while ago but none of us has seen it. So far they were scared at the first scene with the bear before the title even came on!


I also need to shake the dust off this very old project that has been sitting out on my table in the sewing room for quite a few months. This project is a Y2K BOM from Joann's Fabrics. Yikes... how did it get to be 2014 so quickly?

Does that count as a very old project Kathy? I hope to finish prepping this so I can maybe applique this a bit later tonight after the kids are in bed or while waiting in the car line at school this week. I have three other applique blocks for this quilt that are waiting to be started once this one is completed. All the pieced blocks are completed and waiting patiently in their slot with the finishing kit in the sweater holder in the closet.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other lovely hand work is being worked on today. I will warn you..... there are lots of pretty projects being slow stitched... you may just have to start a few new ones.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Weekend in Pink.

I got a bunch of hand work done this week while sitting with sick kiddo's. Emily wanted to snuggle most of Wednesday with me and two days later it is always her brother's turn. He got sent home from school with a 102 fever - extremely high for him. After some medicine, then throwing it up and resting with a few recorded shows he seems to have gotten some energy and is busy making some dinosaur's from foam that Grammy sent down for Valentines day. Emily is busy making her flower, butterfly and snail versions. Now that those are done and he played a bit on the ipad he is back to being really, really cold Mom. Yup - temp spiked again and I can't give him more tylenol for a couple of hours. Somehow I am out of Advil.... so Dad will bring some home after work. I have a feeling he has more than the cold his sister had.



I prepped and made a few hexie flowers... and then prepped and made some more this week. Now the decision - do I frame them all with yellow like I was planning or go with black, which I saw out in the land of blogs last week and really, really  liked ...... Maybe yellow around them all and then black to link them together? Cream or another color? Maybe I'll just leave them and keep adding colors each month until I figure out what I am going to do with them.




Being Valentines Day... I just had to start/pull out a new project. Who could resist these pretty hearts? I had made a version of this quilt years ago for my niece Sarah. I have a bunch of print pastel fabrics cut out to make another .... lets see she is 14 so they have been waiting for about 13-14 years now. Poor baby fabrics. Time to play with them a bit I think. I'm going to use the pastel dots on the cream background for the background of this one.

I feel like Suzy homemaker (no, not cleaning the house Mom!). I have Greek Chicken baking in the oven, Greek salad prepped in the fridge (and the house reeks of garlic - I may have grated one too many cloves into the marinade). 

 I made a cheese ball for the hubby for Valentines Day (yup, real romantic here at my house - I prefer all the little things he does all year - like starting the van when he left for work so I had a nice warm car to take the kids to school this morning with no scraping of the frost off the windows). Sugar Cookie batter is chilling in the fridge to be made into hearts later this evening when the oven frees up. 
I think I'll go cut out the background fabrics for the above project so I can sew up some little hearts the next time I get to play with the sewing machine on Sunday.

Head on over to SoScrappy on Saturday and see what other pink projects are being worked on.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Crazy Cake... or Silly Cake as it is now known in our family.

Mom mentioned she made a Crazy cake last weekend. Boy, don't you hate when someone mentions something and then you really, really want some? Well, I'm sure hers is long gone and it is up in Vermont. Not going to help me out here in Florida. I finally decided it was time today to make one this afternoon. I knew I had put the recipe on the blog but out in the recipe page it is not going to the right place. Bummer. I had to get out my blue cookbook for the recipe.  I also have it in the Heavenly Recipes Cookbook in my bookshelf. Aidan knows which cookbook has which recipe. At one point I knew it by heart.... which means I used to make this a lot. I still know which cookbook to get it from at Mom's house and out at the camp. - The Enosburgh Grange cookbook - white cover with black lettering. Right Mom?
Does everyone have favorite measuring devices? I have some plastic ones but LOVE my metal ones and always use those if they are clean. For this recipe I used the 1/2 cup, 1/2 tsp, 1 tsp and 1 Tbsp.


Oh. I forgot about Zucchini brownies. Maybe I should have taken some of the free zucchini from the fruit stand this morning and made a batch of those up too! For now - the Crazy Cake will have to do. I also kept some butter out to soften to make a batch of sugar cookies. I was reminded of them when I read the newsletter to my old guild in Vermont and will make some heart shaped cookies tomorrow for the kids to decorate up with Daddy tomorrow night. The blueberry buckle cake on this page is from me and very yummy too! Now the hard part..... waiting for the cake to cool before making the sugar frosting for the top. I can't wait until after dinner to try some with a nice glass of milk. The smell of chocolate in my house is wonderful!

The girl is napping (she put herself down after we got home from picking up her brother. Aidan is watching a show. I think I'll go press some fabrics for the Kaleidoscope quilt before I have to start prepping dinner. Roasted veggies and Italian sausage penne pasta is on tap tonight. I see a nice glass of moscato wine with my dinner tonight.

Crazy Cake (Silly Cake as my nephew Charlie called it when he couldn't remember the name)
1.5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp cocoa

1 tsp vanilla
1Tbsp vinegar
1/3 cup oil
1 cup water

Mix together. Put in a greased 8 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Let cool.
Sugar frosting. Bring to a boil 1 cup sugar, 2 Tablespoons butter and a little milk to dissolve. Boil without stirring until a soft ball forms in cold water. Take off heat and stir until it starts to harden. Pour onto cake. Enjoy.

Mid week....

I was all set to go to the gym today..... but a little girl was still feeling off this morning and when I 'beeped' her (took her temp) it was a little high for her..... and normal for all other kids. (98.9 - she is normally around 97.0). So.... no school for the girl today. We dropped Aidan off to his school and then came home and watched some Dora the Explorer in between sneezes and nose blowing. It is so funny to see her get up and do the things they tell her to. While she was doing that, Mommy had to sit on the couch with her so I added a few of these pink hexie flowers to the pile. I cheated a bit on the RSC and picked up a little bundle of pinks at Walmart the other day. They were 9x21 inches and I do plan to use them in a baby girl quilt in the next month or two.

We did pop out and drop the recycling bin to the drop off center, stopped to the gym so I could sign my charge slip and then the fruit stand because I completely forgot to get potato's and cukes yesterday. I have a pot of potato and sweet onion soup bubbling on the stove top for my lunch.  Yum. Emily cracked a couple of eggs and had scrambled eggs, ham and bread for her lunch. I had pulled some ham from the freezer that I had sealed from Easter last year I think. I popped a little into my soup too! I completely forgot I was going to try scalloped potato in the crock pot.... must go get a few more potato's tomorrow.

Here is a picture of the kids yesterday afternoon playing out on the driveway. Aidan created a Valentines card with lots of hearts.

I'm being summoned to sit next to someone as she watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I see a few more slow stitches in my future today.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Tiny Tuesday

This week the block I made is called March to the Mountains. I think I cut my squares 1/8 too big as it is just a bit over 6.5 inches unfinished. Oh well, it will bet 'fixed' with the setting.

A picture of all the blocks so far this year.


Kids have been dropped to school. Second load of laundry is in the washer. This block got made while I was waiting for my blueberry muffins to cook in the oven. Time to finish cleaning the bathrooms and sweep and mop the floors before I go pick up one kid from preschool. Speech today and I meet my new HIPPY person at the school while Emily is at speech. Another busy day at my house. So, how long after the kids get home do you think there will be something spilled on the floors?

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Slow Stitching Sunday..... orange peels

Today I will be working on some orange peel blocks for the border of my hugs and kisses quilt. I prepped a bunch of them on Friday and glued them down to the background squares on Saturday. I think I need 18 per side and maybe 4 for the corners. I have about 27 done so a bunch more to go before I can get this quilt top finished.



Today will be just me and the boy for a bit. Dad is headed into work for a short day today at the store and Emily had a sleepover with Grandma last night. She will be returned later this afternoon. I do believe we have a play date with his friend Katie this afternoon and then we'll attempt our second try at Yamato's - a Japanese steak house with the grills that the chef's cook at in front of you. Aidan went last summer with his PreK teacher but Emily has never gone. That will be his special birthday dinner out.... and then we are done with his birthday! For now, he is in his room playing with his Hot Wells race track. I got some batteries yesterday at Sam's club so he should be entertained for a while now.

I'm hooking up with Kathy's Quilts. Head on over and see what other slow stitching is being worked on today.

Edited to add my view from the couch. Sophie is the white one and Maxie is the black and white one - or as my parents call them - the white cat and the other cat!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Saturday in pink.

This is the second Saturday for pink and I got both of the sampler blocks done this week.

I also noticed that I had no pink peels prepped for the border treatment of the Hugs and Kisses quilt so I cut a bunch of those to work on this week.

Not too much pink progress for me this week but hopefully I will have a little more sewing time next week. This one did turn SIX years old on Thursday. He requested a Jake and the Neverland Pirates cake so I created an island and popped his figures onto the top.

Head on over to SoScrappy and see what other pink projects are being worked on.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

A new project.....

First off - Happy 6th Birthday to my favorite son - Aidan. He was not cooperating for pictures last night - or just wanted to show all those three teeth missing on the bottom! I set this to post at 1:26AM - when he was finally born 6 years ago.



I'll be bringing in his cupcakes for snack with his classroom this morning and then Daddy is going to bring him lunch and eat with him in the cafeteria. I think they both will have a great time. Then a big Thank You to Grandma H - she will take over the kid duty for us while we (Greg and I) head off to Tampa to take in a hockey game and a night away. Someone was just making sure I got to see the Leafs play and didn't notice it was someone's birthday when he purchased the tickets for me for Christmas. Aidan seems ok with us heading out and we'll celebrate with the Grandparents that are here on Friday after school. I set up a play date with his little girlfriend for Sunday too.

Another year and another graduation quilt needed for June. It seems my siblings have all conspired to have kids or step-kids about 6 months apart so that each one is in a different grade, thus making my graduation quilts one a year for the last 4 years and I have two to go before I get a break!
Technically, it is a double year as siblings are graduating from college (Ben) and high school (Becky). Not sure if he will get another one or not this year =). She has asked if the quilt I made last year was hard - because she liked it. So.... another Kaleidoscope quilt will be undertaken this month. She requested midnight blue, deep purple and teal/aqua for the 'main' or background color. This is what I have come up with so far for fabrics. I poked through and knew I had purchased a bunch of purples when the FQ's were on sale at Joann's over the last couple of months. I figured I had a bunch of blue in the stash...... well, I guess I don't have much left of the darker blues so I must go grab a few more to add to the mix at some point. I think that blue with the cream flowers will probably fall out of the mix.  Next week, I will start to cut into this fabric to make a twin size quilt. I'm going to follow the directions from the Sew along over at 'Don't Call me Betsy's' blog like I did last time. It went together great... the most difficult part was playing with them on the floor and deciding how to put them together.


What are you working on?

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Tiny Tuesday

I was prepared this week! I got two blocks done on Sunday. Thanks so much to Angela who reminded me 1.5 inch strips to make those little triangles in the blocks. These went together much better than last week's block. The one on the left is called Healthful Region and the other is A secession ball. I cheated and used some fabric with stripes for the corners. These are from The Civil War Love Letter Quilt. Each block will finish at 6 inches.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Design floor Monday....

I got a lot done in the sewing room yesterday.... just not exactly what I had planned.
The weather did turn nice and it hit 79 and was sunny. Sadly... we did not go kayaking. Maybe next week - I did scout out a few places to go.

I did get my blue and cream log cabin pressed, backing pressed and it is all pinned for quilting. That is currently 87x87 - so a huge quilt. I have thoughts of doing feather quilting in the cream area's but since it is just me and my little domestic sewing machine I think the swirls with either flowers or hearts or loops all over will win out this time. I hope to make some progress on that one through the week as time allows.

After that was pinned - I moved onto a couple of tiny Tuesday blocks for tomorrow's post. Then it was time to finish framing the hugs and kisses blocks. I have them all framed and just need to trim them and then decide where they all go and sew them together. I'm still working on the peel border but hope to have them all finished by the end of the month. I love how it is coming out so far. The orange peel pattern is from the book 'Remembering Adelia' but I decided to make the X and O's for the layout. It was not quite big enough for me - so I framed them and now each block is 10 inches.