Prepping for travel

I prepped a bunch more of the flowering snowball and the shoo fly blocks for hand stitching while travelling. The pattern calls for 13 of one and 12 of the other. I have 12 of one and 11 of the other. It should be plenty to keep me busy while away.

I also weaved in the tails for the 13 dark blue granny square blocks. I'll start adding some grey surrounds tonight during the hockey game. I have the Brimfield EPP project packed and ready to go as well. 

Right now Greg and I are at home without a vehicle. Emily took one to school for a summer marching band practice for a couple of hours. They perform at a Villages parade on the 4th of July. Emily won't be here for that, but I think she misses her buddies. Aidan took my car (she coordinated with him, since she did not want to drive my car!) and headed to his guitar lesson. He should be back in time for the hockey game tonight. 

Time to put dinner away (Chicken Tikka Masala over basmati rice) and get out the custard for the ice cream and get that working in the cold mixer. 

Happy Fathers Day

 A special Happy Fathers Day to my Dad. A man who back in the 1960's and 70's got up in the middle of the night for diaper changes and feedings to me and my siblings. Mom was a stay and home Mom. Great memories of Saturday rides to the dump, and stops at the little store (both at home and at camp) for penny Swedish fish for me while he chatted with the owners. Lots of games of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, then Racco and Sorry as we got older and lots of card games. This was last summer at Bingo at the lake. 

We are heading over shortly to see my FIL Tom in Rehab and will bring him his favorite Moca shake from Arbys. 

Today is my parents 62nd Anniversary and it is also my cousin Ben's 34th birthday! We like to pile on everything on one date it appears!

For my slow stitching Sunday - I started a new project this week and it is hand piecing a flowering snowball block and a shoo fly block. I stitched the shoo fly block last night. I have another 5 flowering snowball blocks cut out and 5 of the shoo fly I think. I'll have to run some more fabrics through the Accuquilt so I have plenty to take with me on my trip to Vermont. We will be gone for about a month, with a week of travel to get up there exploring things along the way. Greg is home on animal duty and getting his Dad settled into Assisted Living. I was originally going to do various blues from my stash, but some purple and greens jumped into the pile so I guess it will be a multi colored one!

The back with little stitches.

The pattern is Happy Village off the Accuquilt site. This was the inspiration quilt I saw that told me I 'have to make this now'!. I know you all understand!

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Saturday

Instead of finishing something, I decided to start a new project! I'm using the Accuquilt dies I have and a pattern from them, called Happy Village. It uses this below flowering snowball block and the shoo fly block. That one can be made with my 8 inch cube - shape 1&3. I need to prep some more of them to take with me. These finish at 12 inches. 

The 2 orange string of beads blocks were completed this week. I have prepped the last 2 blocks with their aqua/teal peels to take with me. That will give me 16 of these blocks for a 48x48 set. I'll decide later if I add a peel border of some type around it. 

 

Linking up with the RSC. I hope to do a little orange sewing later.

I got up early, and headed to horses with Emily today. She rode yesterday, but the girls asked if they could ride again today. Seems the new horse tried to jump over the poles with Kyra and then went into a Canter she was not expecting. She stayed on the horse, but riding today was a good confidence builder. Emily won't be riding for about a month now, as we start our rambling drive to Vermont late next week. We will do a college visit on Friday, then wander up leisurely to Vermont. Vanderbilt is in Tennessee, so it will be a new route for us to travel. We have tickets to 3 things already and will hit quite a few things along the way. Mammoth Caves and the Prison where they filmed The Shawshank Redemption movies are booked. The Hermitage is also booked just outside of Nashville. We will also got to the Air Force museum (Aidan) in Dayton, OH and then mozy through the town where their grandparents raised their Dad in Ohio. I think we are also visiting where Abraham Lincoln was born as well as Niagra Falls and the Erie Canals museum. We will see what else they find to visit. I know we have college visits to Dartmouth and University of Vermont while we are up that way. Aidan mentioned a couple places to visit on the way home as well, but I can't remember what they are. The kids just find and plan out the route and I pay! I'm off work for about a month while we travel and enjoy time in Vermont with my family. Greg stays home and takes care of the animals and will be busy moving his Dad into Assisted Living and getting him settled.

I've been watching the peaceful protests for No Kinds day here in the USA - against the current president and his policies and executive orders. If I was not tapped to go with Emily, I would have attended our local one here. It is great to see so many peacefully protesting and exercising their constitutional rights. 

25 hours without internet

 We also live in a dead area for our cell phones..... we tend to use the in house wifi for our phones.

Everyone is alive.... although someone didn't make a peach cobbler as he was unable to google recipes. I did point him toward the bookcase of cookbooks. He did find one for a cobbler ... and said 'Did you know you have a Chinese cookbook? Yup, I do!. Does Emily know? Not sure'. He took it to her, since that is her wheelhouse for making things.

We had no phone (through the wifi for the land line one) and no tv as we do streaming. I occasionally had one bar on my cell phone.  It was probably a good thing we could not watch the hockey game Monday night.... as we are both rooting for the Oilers and they lost big time to the Florida Panthers (we are lightning fans!). 

I work from home, and log in through my work's VPN. No internet means not able to work. Arrrgghh. 

I did drop a load off to Goodwill and got it out of my house around noon yesterday. I might have finished my audiobook and needed to get to an area I could download the next one .... hehehe. I also did a check on our outage. Yup, was still out with expected 6:30PM resolved time. It came back a little earlier - with no notification from them. Greg just happened to check and it reset and came back around 4:40PM. We lost it around 3:30 PM the previous day. So much for signing up for a text notification of it coming up. 

I really did not get much done as I had no motivation. I did give the dog a good walk before it got hot (before 8AM) and chatted with a couple of neighbors. One also worked from home but had Verizon cell service. We have TMobile. The other has a different provider than Centurylink for internet so she was fine. They are putting in fiber across the road so I'm sure they cut a line somewhere. 

I did mark stitching lines on the back of one of the shoo fly blocks and one of the flowering snowball blocks. I started on the flowering snowball.

And got these 3 parts together. I need another one like this and then the two lighter parts with a yellow square in the middle.

I also got the two orange sting of beads blocks done for the month. I got the darker orange one with green peels done yesterday.

Back to work today. Greg took the kids to the bank to get their own checking accounts and a card attached to it. We will still be paying this, but it will establish their credit ratings and we can separate out their use of the 'card' they each have in their name for paying for gas and things while they are out and about. Greg had it lumped in with his and was questioning things and I had to explain which kid was where for each of the dates listed. He was questioning Jacksonville Food Trucks. I explained, the end of April was Skills USA for Aidan and they did not cover food, we did. They covered the hotel and getting them up there and back. We pay for gas and food for them. Some extras we discuss and pay, some things they pay out of their monies. Like Aidan and books he bought while at Skills USA. They are pretty responsible with their money. 

Aidan is off for his Senior formal photo for the yearbook. They have men in tuxes and ladies in a black v shape by their neck. Very different from what mine were, but $25 and done. We will do outside ones ourselves for him at his request.

I'd better finish this now as it is the end of lunchtime and time to get back to work. 

 Instead of clearing out the front rooms for painting... I puttered in the cluttered and unorganized sewing area yesterday. It felt great to play with fabric.

I did drive to the Market of Marion first and got some fresh veggies. My $15 haul. Peaches, tomato, eggplant, peppers, tomatillos, zucchini, cukes and corn on the cob.

I cut out parts to make the last needed Birds in the Air Block. This has been placed in the correct spot and is ready for assembly.

I added the green big triangles to the alternate blocks from last month.

Then the bright and shiny new idea took over. Happy Village is a pattern on Accuquilt that is free for me as a member. I actually have all the dies for it as well, and decided to use the eggshell #184 Kona bolt I got from Missouri Star Quilt Company as the background. I did finish cutting out the backgrounds for the rest of the butterfly blocks before starting on this, just to make sure I had enough for those blocks to be consistent. 

The pattern uses the 8 inch Cube - shape 1 and 3. Those are the big guys. The Shoo Fly block will finish at 12 inches. I think I cut out parts for 5 blocks and was pulling different shades of blue for them.

Then the Flowering Snowball die is the curved one. This one is a fun one to hand piece. I was thinking an all blues/teals quilt. But the purple and green fabrics seem to have gotten cut? We will see, it might change back to all blues and those go into another quilt. Plenty of time to decide. I did cut out parts for 6 of the 12 inch blocks. I did go with a yellow as the center of these. I do love a touch of yellow in things to brighten it up. 

I finished listening to one audiobook (Libby) and started another. I finished 'The Book of Lost Names' by Kristin Harmel.  This was a great book.

Then I went back to a cozy mystery series of the Torrent Witches I had started on Audible by Tess Lake. I'm on book 5 - Holiday Witch. It is nice and light and cozy to listen to.

Sunday, a time to take a deep breath!

 It has been a week, but lots of progress has happened. Today, I have plans to visit the Market of Marion and get some fresh veggies for the week. I really need to get back into a routine of real meals this week and eating healthy.

Then I will clear out the front rooms of all the clutter and prep it for painting. Dining room and a family room. I know, the house will get bulldozed sometime in the next year, but it has been 14 years since we moved in, and they will assess inside for the counteroffer (once they make an offer on the eminent domain take) so a fresh coat of paint should make it look 'nicer'. Maybe I can get Greg to have the Steam Cleaners come in and do the carpets while we are up in Vermont later this month. He's going to have his hands full though, with getting his Dad moved into Assisted Living a few days after we leave to drive north. We went and saw my FIL yesterday, and he was resigned to moving to assisted living. Realistically, he is not even bathing himself or dressing himself, so he does need that assistance after the broken hip. 

I do plan to take some breaks and start working on my second orange, sting of beads block today. The hand stitching of the applique will be calming.

I have 2 of the medium blue granny squares that need their grey surround added to finish off that color. Those will get done tonight, and then I'll move onto the stack of 13 dark blue. edited: I got one done this morning. This container of blocks and yarn will go in the car for the trip up to Vermont. We will see how the stitching them into a blanket goes. 

I'm going after the 'shiny new thing in my head' and will play with my Accuquilt Dies and cut out parts for a pattern called Happy Village. Turns out, I have all the dies needed for the pattern. I have the flowering snowball, the 8 inch cube and the 2.5 inch strip! I'll work on cutting out a 'kit' for possible hand piecing (to take with me.... because I like a lot of options!). It calls for 4 yards of background, which I do have a couple of bolts of fabric but I might go with a scrappy look instead. We will see. I'm not sure if it will be various shades of one color or a bunch of colors. I'll see what I have available in the stash.

I'll link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Friday!... or Saturday as time just keeps moving along.

I'm happy to say it has been a very busy but productive week.

I had 13 of these granny squares that got their tails woven in and 8 of them have their grey surround added. I have 5 to go. I counted the last stack of dark blue, and there are 13 of them that will need their tails woven in and then the grey added after this medium batch is finished. I've been trying to do one or two a day after weaving them in Sunday night.

The cats are keeping themselves entertained. Peanut is the little one and Ollie is the one on the right. It appears Aidan weighs them every few months. Ollie is about 15 pounds and Peanut is 9. 

 

I saw this photo on an Accuquilt Facebook Post. It appears to be a flowering snowball and a Shoo Fly block. I have the flowering snowball Accuquilt die and have been wanting to play with it, and I think these two blocks make a fun quilt. I had not thought of using the color in the rounded area of the block. I do like how these two blocks together appear to have curves in the quilt. 

I found this plate this week while looking in my FIL's cupboards. 

You can stop reading here if you'd like. This is more for me and a recap of my life this week.

Monday - I worked 7 hours and have no clue what happened that evening. Oh, that was the meeting with our lawyer to do our wills and a trust for the kids.  We never had them and with all this going on with his parents kicked us into getting it done.

Tuesday - I got up and walked the dog, got a quick shower and headed to The Villages a bit after 8AM to meet Tom at his Doctors office for 8:45. It appeared they were running late at the facility and he arrived right at 9AM. New doctor who did his surgery - so I had the pile of paperwork to fill out. I had to wheel him around and was there to hear he needed another 2 weeks before he can put full weight on it. I called the driver when we were done, and he met us at the entrance. He got him back to the facility and I did a quick stop at Dunkin and got breakfast before heading to the assisted living facility for 11 about 15 minutes past our house. Good thing I heard the text bing on my phone near home, and checked it at a stop light. They delayed from 11 to 12 noon, so I turned and went home. We took 2 cars as we were planning to drop my car off for a service when we were done. Turns out, the elder lawyer booked another facility for us to check out and it was a good thing. The first one had residents sharing a room, and the room was small. Think of a shared hospital room with a shared bathroom. That was the set up. Yikes. We headed across town to the other facility. We left the truck and just took the car. After a tour through this one, it was so much nicer. Everyone has their own room and bathroom - about 338 sq ft and a nice walk in closet. A fridge is included with wifi. We had a private chat with the elder lawyer rep that was with us after speaking with the sales manager there. She said it is the nicest place that takes Medicaid in Ocala and it fits his budget. There were 2 rooms available, so we put a deposit down on one of them the next day and secured it. Thankfully Greg's head is clear right now being off meds for a few weeks, so he was able to drive down to drop the check off on Wednesday while I worked. We dropped the car to the service center and had the kids pick us up and shuttle us (in a torrential downpour - thanks Aidan!) to our truck about 15 minutes down the road. He headed home and Greg and I went out for a 4PM 'lunch' at Bob Evans and decompressed. The kids were on their own.

Wednesday - a long work day and a hockey game that night.... I went to bed at the end of regulation but was happy to see the Oilers won the next morning when I woke up.

Thursday - I did a dog walk of a very drugged up dog in the morning. Greg and Emily took the dog to the vet for a shot and then I took the kids to the post office to get photo's for Passports for all of us. Greg did the paperwork for the kids and I did mine. They took the photo and verified everything and will mail it out for us. It appears I did change my name on my passport after I got married but it has been more than 15 years, so I needed a new one. Now when I move, I should not have any issues with voting! Life is crazy here in Florida, so I wanted a secure citizenship record with my current name.

Let's see, after that the car was ready so I drove us to the shop and the kids headed home while I paid for the brake pads, alignment and filling the AC with new coolant and that vehicle is ready for travel!

I grabbed a kids meal from Zaxby's and headed home to eat around 2:30. We then headed to The Villages to stop in and see Tom and then head to his house to meet a realtor friend of mine. We just wanted advice on what to do and next steps and she was very helpful. 

Unfortunately, when we stopped to see Tom, we mentioned the lawyer told us of his release date of June 23 and we found a place in an Assisted Living. He was shocked, and thought he was going home!!!!! Arrrggghhhh.

The man is not able to put full weight on his foot, is not able to bathe himself, walk by himself, etc. We asked if he was walking to rehab, he said no they bring me in a wheelchair.  His house is not wheelchair accessible for bathrooms. He also agreed to this in his care meeting a couple of weeks ago and agreed to have us put his house on the market. I'm sure he had a bad night that night. It was a long day, and we got home around 8PM Thursday night and I was exhausted.

Friday was a long day at work but a productive one. I finally figured something out that was not working so that is a positive. Finding a good place for Tom, is a positive. We dropped the receipt for his last purchase of clothes for reimbursement Thursday, so that should be resolved with a check for the lost clothing at rehab. I'm working to find the positives. 

Today, one kid is off for her riding lesson (it is crazy hot and humid out, so I opted to stay home!), the other just headed out to brunch with some buddies - seems they called him around midnight last night while he was watching the hockey game in overtime (I went to bed after the 2nd period exhausted). Greg and I will head over to see Tom after I get moving and shower. 

While all this was going on this week - I've been getting texts from my siblings on the things happening up in Vermont. After my parents hired a roofer a few years ago, he did a horrible job and there has been leaking ever since. He has since stopped responding (over a year ago now) and my sister has been trying to get people out to get a quote on redoing the roof and fixing the damage for about 2 years. No luck. Last week they finally got someone to actually go out, he gave a quote on all of it and said he has a 2-3 week window before starting a new house build and could squeeze it in. Got his credentials, the quote and a signed off contract and he started the next day. He gives photo's and daily updates on progress - it was to take about a week. Scaffolding is up and the metal roof was taken off and will be reused, the 3 layers of shingles were scraped off. He'll check for soft boards and fix then put the proper things down with good seals around the chimney and sky lights that were leaking, then reapply the metal roof with proper edge sealed this time.  It should all be done by the time we get up there. He is also going to fix the damage inside where mold started, replace and then it should be all set. 

Alas, no sewing has happened, but I am hopeful that after visiting Tom today, I might manage to go play a little bit in the sewing room. I'd like to at least make the last birds in the air block and then add the green triangle to the alternate blocks that are almost done from last month. 

Must get moving, as the sooner we leave the sooner I get back home to relax.