Sunday

 I did have a finish this week. My cross stitch had the last few stitches taken in Take time. I'll need to figure out how I want to finish it off but the stitching is completed.

It was an early wake up today for the F1 race in Baku - 7AM our time for 3PM their time. The dog is impatiently waiting on his walk. Look at that face! I'm stitching on the peels on the last String of Beads block. One peel down, 7 to go!

The front room finally got cleared out yesterday afternoon. Well, the Victrola and a telescope are in the middle of the room under a sheet. Emily and I did the first coat of what we could reach without ladders late evening. I did the edge work with a brush while she used the roller. The dark maroon wall (that I have hated for 14 years) is nearly gone. The model home we bought had lots of accent walls, and all were maroon. Greg is taking over my office area and decided to keep the table I had in there as my desk (my old kitchen table). He ordered me a rising office desk like we got Emily last year for her room. It will fit nicely against the front side half wall. The hand quilting frame will be in there as well. Aidan's racing and flying gear set up is now in his room - I have yet to go see how crowded it is in there.

I've been drawing different patterns into this triangle space to figure out what I want in there. I think I have settled on the green spot. We will see if I keep it hand drawn or make a template for it. Everything is stuffed into the sewing area of the finished garage area next to my old office. I can't get in there yet, but maybe by tonight.

I have a couple of hst's stitched for the next shoo fly block. Plenty of things to keep me busy this week.

Greg is going with Em for horses today (it is 50 minutes away now and she is not comfortable driving herself there yet). I've signed up for another cookie decorating and topper class this afternoon. I'm hoping some painting happens at home while I am away this afternoon! 

Nothing too special planned for our 19th anniversary today. I did get a pretty bunch of fall flowers handed to me yesterday. 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Rsc in light greens

 I pulled out the alternate bita blocks.  I only had 4 in sage green. I have added 8 to the pile. Bright greens and light greens. It looks grey, but they really are greens! I'll have to add some light blues next week. Each block is 6 inch finished. 

Looking at the collection - there are eight blocks each of reds, pinks, dark blue, and yellow.

Guess I'll need to be filling in the missing colors over the next few weeks or more likely, this will hold until next year and get added to in 2026 I think.

Linking up with the RSC.

The kids will head with us over to visit their Grandpa in Assisted living today. It is an early Happy 90th Birthday visit for him as he celebrates the big event on Monday. They have it on the calendar of events at the place he lives. 

Take time cross stitch finished

 Well, the stitching is completed. I'll need to find a nice frame for it now.

Thursday

 I ordered this dr seuss panel for a baby quilt. Emilys music teacher is due the end of November.  Gender neutral as they are not sharing that info.

I think I will cut them and plan something around them. I'm hoping for a completion by Nov 1. I have 2 yards of music note fabrics for the back.

The girls

All 5 laid on Tuesday!  One egg Wednesday.  Wonder how many today?

I posted a photo with batting on top on celebrate hand quilting. Seems the batting should go on the top rail with the top! That was not in the video I watched! Another 2 hours fiddling with it yesterday and it is loaded. Hopefully it is good enough. I'll start hand quilting on it tonight. I had a girl scout planning meeting last night.

Another block added to the pile.

Errands for my FIL this morning. Prepping walls and moving stuff in this front room this afternoon.  Hoping to paint Saturday, and yes the frame will be moved out of there when we paint.

Friday evening I have an awards banquet for volunteering with girl scouts.

Tuesday progress

 Sunday did not progress with lots done but things moved forward. 

I moved my EZ3 hand quilting frame from my bedroom (where the cats would shred the batting if it was loaded) to the front room. I got rid of the futon and coffee table that were in this spot. The dog crate was also moved to the dining room (about 6 feet away) for a bit until I figure out how that room will be set up. 

Then I sewed the last seam after pressing the top and had to remember how to load it on the frame. Lots of youtube videos to watch. I had to cut the backing and missed by an inch or two. Sigh, I just rolled one side over that extra inch and called it good. It is not in the hand quilting area - although it is quite tight. For a 90x90 quilt, I think the frame says it is 96 but is more like 95 inches across. I might have put some extra leaders in on the backing 2 poles so it is long enough. 

I looked through the batting options and will try this wool batting. I just need to remember to wash it in cold water and not agitate it much in the washer. I pulled it out of the bag, but I've got a few hours on the final decision on this. Anyone else use wool batting? Do you like it or not? It feels soft so I'm hoping the needle will pull through it well.  The backing is a 108 - 3 yard cut in blue from Missouri Star Co. I got last year. 

I just took it out of the package at lunch to relax it. It will need to get trimmed to fit on the frame better. I hate cutting batting, especially when it is going on the frame and a tight fit.

I made a bit of progress on the cross stitch. The green parts were finished, and the outlining began. I need to add the words as well.

Yesterday was a Sam's run after my work day got done at 2. I had dinner planned and the chicken marinating for Chicken Tikka Masala. I finished the prep work and got that cooked and on the table by 5:45. Aidan had guitar and Emily was late with marching practice. I picked up their grilled herbed chicken in the meals section. I got 5 - 4 ounce portions and add one to my lunch salad. My Noom app tells me I need more protein and to do more strength exercises. I do like their sitting stretching videos - it has helped ease my neck pain this week. I also got a roaster chicken, which will be tonight's meal I can't pass up a $5 chicken that I can make stock with for a soup later this week. I think they get leftovers Wednesday to clean out the fridge. Em and I have a GS planning meeting Wednesday night. I made my Mon's spaghetti meat sauce Sunday to go with Emily's homemade pasta, so a few things to clear out by then. 

The temps are in the 80's with feels like right below 90 - so I'm hoping to play with weeds in the garden this evening and finish getting that cleared out for tilling. I do notice there is tons of sand rather than dirt, always a challenge here in Florida. I'll have to go get bags of moo doo on Thursday and get that tilled in so I can plant it up soon. I had gotten a couple cukes, but since I did not put the fence back up the bunny must have munched it. At least the basil plant is still intact.

Sunday stitching

 I've been making good progress on this stitchery this week. I just have a few more of the sea green to stitch above the peach shell, and then the backstitching and words will be the last steps. I forgot how fun it is to cross stitch - I think the last time I did was around 2005.

I'm still adding blocks to the flying snowball quilt. I'm in the final stretch on this one and have hand pieced over 40 blocks. The final count is 49, so a few more to go. They did all get marked for stitching during a staff meeting this week, so that task is completed.

Today, I'll be deciding if I hand quilt or machine quilt my BITA quilt. It is 90x90 and I'm not sure I'm up to trying to machine quilt that on my machine. I am planning to move my quilting frame (which will fit this!) into the front room that I have cleared out this week of the futon, coffee table, extra boxes. I'm hoping to finish clearing out in there this week and get it painted, so I can move my office in there along with the quilting frame and maybe throw a tv on the wall in there as well. I've also got some more weeding to do in the garden, so that can get tilled and planted soon for fall. Slow progress all around, but progress is happening. 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Thursday

The girls enjoyed some outside time Tuesday. I let them out right before it rained. They stayed out and enjoyed pecking for bugs in the rain. It is so funny to watch them shake off the water in the rain. I'll try and grab a video next time. These are our five girls. Maple, Poppy, DC, Buttercup and Nutmeg.  Poppy and Nutmeg give me the pretty green shelled eggs.

Another pretty sunrise this morning on my walk with bear a little after 7AM.

I've added a couple of the shoo fly blocks to the completed pile. I also got the rest of the parts marked for hand piecing during a quarterly staff meeting at work on Tuesday. 

No photo - but I also spent a slew of time looking for a specific green print fabric in the sewing room to fix the quilt I made for hubby 17 years ago. Seems there was a rip (dog nails I assume) on one triangle block. I never did find the exact fabric, so I went with a similar color. The tear was in the triangle part of the block, so I cut it a bit bigger, and appliqued it down on top of the original. It worked and is back on the bed.  This is a photo of the quilt from when I pulled the machine quilting out and then hand quilted it last year I think. The pattern is from the Nickle Quilts book.

I'm hoping to get the BITA pressed and sewn together today. We will go visit my FIL. Hubby needs to do some banking for him and has to go to his bank in Lady Lake for the file transfer, since he can't do it online for some reason. Since he mentioned it last night, I assume he wants me to go with as he has had all week to do it but waited for today, my day off. Sigh. 

I did get my package from Missouri Star in the mail Tuesday night. lots of pretty things in my bundle  =).

These were all daily deals, except the 50 clips which were a weekly special... but I somehow got them for $4 instead of $10! 2 jelly rolls and a 2 yard cut of a green leaf print on tan.