Trains?

 Excuse the mess. We were rearranging furniture to put the tree up (Emily built it in under 3 minutes!). That chair is broken (unfixable) and headed to the dump on Wednesday when they are open next. It was in Gregs area. We put the other recliner from the set in his room and the other chair went into my master bedroom where Ollie has claimed it as his. Now my living area is less cluttered with chairs! 

I mentioned I wanted the train out this year as it has been a while since we have had it under the tree. After I pointed out the box with the train stuff in it, Emily got to work. It was Bear's first time seeing the train and he got good and nosing it off the track,but she was training him with treats to leave it alone. He is afraid of anything 'new' so it was fun to see his reaction.  He was exhausted after all the train play with the kids and snoozed hard last night after we turned it off. 

I made the mistake of taking out my 9.6 pound turkey out of the zero freezer (hubbys idea and I wasn't thinking!) last Thursday. Yup, was defrosted fully by Sunday night and needed to be cooked! Sigh. After Emily's annual physical Monday after I got done work, (4PMish) I cooked an unstuffed bird (well, parsley, onion and rosemary were inside) Monday night with mashed potato and stuffing. I was lazy and didn't do gravy for the meal and used one I bought at Sams, a Kinders Turkey gravy. Yuck! I made gravy after with the turkey drippings for open turkey sandwiches for lunch today. I tossed the other carton of the gravy. No one liked it. So, I did get another 10 pound bird (Publix had them 49 cents a pound so $5 for a 10 pound turkey!) that I took out of the freezer Monday night and should be perfect for cooking on Thursday! 

I seal a mealed the legs and one thigh as one packet for the freezer and another packet of the carcass for soup making later, also in the freezer. The second breast was held for lunches today with the last wing. Any leftovers will get sealed this afternoon. Much cheaper for Turkey

 breast this way!

Repairing a quilt

 

Thursday I finally pulled out this quilt that I said I'd repair for a friends daughter. It is a weighted purchased quilt that is very worn on the edges. I did get permission to cut it but keep the middle intact if I can. One edge was worse than the other so I had to cut about 4-5 inches off one end. I used some of that to patch a part on the other edge that was a u shape torn out completely. The backside along the edges has a lot of wear, so I decided to do a large new binding in brown. I cut strips at 4.5 inches and sewed the 1/4 inch on the front and am hand piecing the back so that it is covering up the worst of the shredding of the fabric. I'll go back after and check for holes, there are a few holes and tears on the front that I can patch with the part I cut off. I think a few stitches here and there on the back will fix the rest. I had hoped to get this back to them late this week, but I've been so tired at night it is ridiculous! I'm falling asleep on the couch around 7 or 8PM! I think it is the new medicine I started on Monday. Hopefully it will get better in a week or so.

I'll be working on adding some stitches to this today, between picking up the house and changing it over to Christmas. Hubby did just vacuum for me (didn't move stuff but vacuumed around things), while I dusted and changed out some quilts on the walls and put the fall/halloween things away. 

I will pop down to the farmers market and get real tasting tomatos and cukes and whatever else looks good in season down here. I started the morning watching the F1 qualifying with Aidan, which happened late last night in Las Vegas. The race is late tonight - 11 or midnight I think. We will see if I am awake for that or not.

Mid Week

 I know it's been a week since I posted last. Just busy. Saturday Emily and I were up early to go help set up the Wizzarding event for a few hours across town. The event was all day on Sunday - we left home at 7:30 and got home around 6:30 that night. Emily got 12 hours of volunteering time as she worked both the morning with littles and afternoon with the older girls and helped pick up after. She needs 100 volunteer hours in her program to graduate. She is around the mid 60 range now with working the weekend at Sisters Retreat and this event for 27 hours. 

I have added some stitches to Gobble Gobble and then sketched out the wording onto a block page so I can see it better. I'll start stitching that later today.

I picked up a bug over the weekend (lots of littles and I know one adult went there both days not feeling well.... Arrghh). I took Tuesday off and slept until 11AM. Might have been that or a new medicine I started Monday. Better today! Off to work I go.

Veterans day

 First off, Thank you to all Veterans who have served their nation. My hubby was in the Air Force back in the early 90's.

I made some progress on gobble gobble. Time to add more brown to the turkey.

I started November 2nd adding one of these a day. All caught up and I'll add a teal one today.

I picked up the girl a couple hours earlier than expected yesterday. Since the government is shut down, they were unable to do one of the museums on the last day as it was a national one. She had a great time and enjoyed peace and quiet in her room for a bit. We had temps around 32 this morning, and she took me up on my offer to start her truck for her 10 minutes before she left for school at 6:40. The boy declined my offer about 40 minutes later when he left. No frost, so it was just cool outside.

 I have the day off, and plan to add bear paw blocks and look at 'fixing' a quilt for a friend. It needs a new binding and there is some damage. I think I need to cut off a little from the top and bottom, use that to 'fix' a few areas with applique and then add a new binding. 

Greg had mentioned Mexican Skillet as a meal a few times, so I let him make it last night while I went to get Emily. I did pull everything out he needed including the recipe. 

The kids found this one years ago and liked it, so we added it to the rotation. It only take 20-30 minutes depending on if you use chicken in a can or raw chicken. I need to start picking a recipe from a cookbook and try them out! 

I'm thinking zucchini boats tonight or taco's using ground chicken instead of beef. I'm sure I'll get push back on that swap. Both kids are late tonight - Emily made the JV Winter Guard team and has practice until 7 and Aidan has an Academic Club meet across town, so will be home later this evening. Not as late as last night - he was helping at an event as an Ambassador for the school. Got home around 9PM. 

Off to walk the dog, who enjoys these cooler temps we are having for a few days.

Sunday stitching.

 It is a quiet morning at my house. Well, other than the neighbor across the street playing weird music before 7AM that woke me up! Sigh. Better than the 2AM it used to be but this is the second Sunday this has happened. Deep breath, I am enjoying the quiet house all to myself with some coffee and catching up on blog reading.

I have been stitching up a Hexagon each day this week (except Friday and Saturday as I was too busy doing cross stitch! Oops) I'll just whip up 3 of them today! Once these are prepped, the stitching goes quickly. I will plan to prep a few more of these today. Sometimes I feel like working a certain color and all I have right now are blue/teal prepped.

The gobble gobble I started on Tuesday has been taking most of my time. This is a free pattern from Melissa who is so kind to make and share her talents with us. I transferred the pattern to a block sheet as it was easier for me to read that way. 

The bulky quilt addition of circles has not finished, but I will get the last 5 done today. I'd like to move the String of Beads quilt to a completed top stage. I'll probably do these during the F1 race in Brazil today. It was quite a Sprint race yesterday. 

Hand quilting - I have neglected the quilt in the frame as I did not like my choice for quilting on it. It came to me this week, I really want to do a Baptist fan pattern on it. I'm just going to free hand it I think (Yes, I'm too lazy to create the pattern although I might change my mind on that too!) I do need to take out the quilting I have done on a few of the blocks first. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers. The drizzle rain has ended at my house and the sun is bright and shining. A last 'warm' day before we get a freeze warning tomorrow night in Florida. It does happen and I'll enjoy grabbing out my jeans and sweater to be cozy! It will warm back up later in the week to our 'normal' temps. I am really enjoying these cooler weather systems that keep dipping down to us. 

Somehow I have 3 days off in the middle of the week, so hubby and I will attempt to tackle his Dad's house a bit. It needs to be cleared out, cleaned and then someone to do some plumbing work and painting outside so we can list it for sale eventually.  He is extremely happy in the assisted living quarters closer to us. He has his own room and things, they do his medicines, meals, cleaning and laundry and check on him throughout the day and help in the bathroom and dressing if needed. He is quite content for a 90 year old man. 

I forgot - I also need to make some wands for a Wizarding event next weekend! Oops. I guess I will be drizzling hot glue onto chopsticks today as well. Then I'll go grab some spray paint and get them colored up for next Sunday's event. Emily was planning to do it, but I ordered the wrong glue sticks for our hot glue gun. 

Taking stock RSC

 It was time to open the bins that hold the RSC blocks and see where things are at.

The alternate BITA blocks (the hst's are swapped and made a fun pattern so I kept making them!)

I see I am missing some colors. I think I'll keep making these in 2026.

The sixteen patches with 2.5 inch squares. Always nice to have on hand for a quick quilt.

The string of beads blocks have 5 more green circles that need to get added. I'll work on those this weekend during F1 races - a Sprint race today and the main race tomorrow.

Linking up to the RSC on Saturday.

Some progress on the Gobble Gobble from Melissa at Pinker n Punkin Quilts. So exciting when it starts to look like something!

Emily is on her Civil Rights Trip. They got stuck in traffic yesterday with a cotton something overturned on the highway and had to cut one of their stops out. She is having fun and shared a short video of the bus all singing along to a song last night. 

At school Friday, there was a surprise visit from a Food Network star. Aidan was hoping for Alton Brown (whom none of his friends knew!) but it was Duff Goldman - the cake guy! Aidan is friends with the person in charge and got asked to meet him and then got to listen to his presentation. He also brought a French chef from WEC (World Equestrian Center) and it was an inspiring speech. I was told I had the Food Network on a lot when he was a kid, so he remembers all the old chef's. I think I put that on as it was a kid friendly show and was good background noise! He is off to a Ted Talk at a local High School for most of the day today. 

Duff and Aidan.

The start of Bear Paw Wanderings... Bear Tracks in the woods?

 Not sure that either name will stick, but I did show Aidan a non-traditional bear paw setting that I'd like to try and he is considering it. He can't picture it with his colors, so once I get a few made we'll test it out.

I know I didn't want tiny ones, as he indicated his quilt is for 'after college' so a bigger size is needed - double bed size. 

I found this pattern at FQ shop for a finished 6 inch single paw and a 14 inch finished standard block. Better than the much smaller ones I have in my books. That should help with the amount of blocks needed!

I showed him some arrangements from this page where I pulled these photo's from. This is the layout they called Bear Tracks. Now picture it in civil war type fabrics of cream, green and blues.

As opposed to a more standard layout... although I really like this RSC type scrappy one!

I really liked this one as well with the different sizes.

and the chain in this one is nice too. I love the little touch of color at the middle of each block by the sashing.

The girl was dropped off to school before 6AM this morning for her school trip to a few neighboring states to learn about the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. Shout out to the 9 teachers taking 90 students under their care for the next 5 days. 

Time to go make some cuts into the fabric and see if I can get some paws made today.