Rsc in blue

The chickens are finally all doing their job and we are getting 4-5 eggs a day! We are making sure that my MIL's friend is kept in stock with eggs as she is on a tight budget and goes through a lot of eggs. I did a couple of egg dishes for dinner on Monday night. I need to hard boil some tonight for deviled eggs. Greg used a few today making the birthday cheesecake with raspberries for the birthday boy.

Today, (Thursday) Aidan turned 17! How did that happen? We went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Wednesday evening for his birthday. I was surprised how busy it was around 7PM mid week. He has had a great week, with a 2nd place Academic Team win at Regionals on Tuesday (North Central Florida). Not too shabby after the surprise County win last month. 2 Nice trophies for the School case.

My FIL was finally moved to rehab on Tuesday. He is doing much better today when we visited after getting a good nights sleep. He has quite the cold, but it appears they are doing a good job with medicines for it. He was taken off to PT as we were getting ready to leave today. 

That gave me the afternoon to do a little sewing. I had planned to make the 'alternate' bird in the air blocks in blue, but I guess I made the actual BITA blocks by mistake! Oh well, 4 less to make. I think I am down to needing 17 now. 

I made one 16 patch with 2.5 inch blocks. I dug deep into the blue bin and found some fun prints I had forgotten I had. 

I'll link up Saturday with the RSC.

Weekend roundup

 I'll start off with the crafty things. I attached two butterfly's to a 13 inch background fabric- buttercup Kona I believe. I used interfacing on the pink and tried to wing it on the light blue. I know to use the interfacing for the rest of them! I'm going to use the cut outs of the black hexagons for the bodies of them and then will embroider the antenna on. Hopefully that will be today's project.

I forgot to grab a photo of where I started this granny square yesterday. I had a little time between sessions and stitched this on the porch of the store at camp in a comfy rocking chair, listening to the birds tweet and the sounds of nature all around me. I'll finish this one off today and add it to the pile.

Linking up with the RSC and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

I was going to spend the whole weekend at Sisters Retreat this weekend - Friday night until Sunday morning, but I opted for the day only on Saturday. I'm so glad I did but it was a long day. I live about 25 minutes from camp, and got there a bit before 8AM. I left a bit after 8PM last night. I just got up for the day around 3PM Sunday! I did get out of bed a few times but managed to go right back. I know I drank a lot of water and some electrolytes but a headache started this morning, and I probably just overdid it after being sick all month! It is a good day to rest!

This was the group photo taken right after opening ceremony on Saturday. That is the porch where I sat in one of the rocking chairs and got some crochet stitches in. 

We were split into 3 groups to go around and attend the sessions. Unlike an encampment with the girls, as adults we have options to skip sessions if we want and walk around camp or have turtle time. I believe it is around 600 acres. 

 I started the morning at the big firepit where we learned some camp songs. The minions (teenage girl scouts that volunteered to help out this weekend) led us in some songs. We noticed that some from different areas of the country have slightly different wording in their songs. 

We moved onto a newer event we provide for the girls they called a courage quest. We got a little plastic container with a lid and decorated it up as we wanted with scrapbook papers, stickers and whatever else we wanted. With the little kids, the idea is to write something good that happened to you each day. You can share with your family once a week or month and just find the positive. For the older girls, they can write down a worry/issue and then at the end of the year or month, they can choose to revisit or just have a burning party with their family and get rid of those worries. 

Then we moved outside the lodge and to the Pixie Habitat. We made terrariums. Using plastic containers (like large chinese take out soups come in) and made our own to take home. The girls had made these in November at the Harry Potter event, and we adults wanted to play too!

Things fell over in transit. The elephant is taking a nap and the light post needs to be reset along with all the animals.

We had a little store time/wandering time built in and then had some table talk discussions. That was when I visited the store and got Emily's badges and had some peaceful crochet time.

Lunch - our cook is the greatest! Lynne does a wonderful job feeding us. It was potato bar, and the potato was huge! Some were the size of a dinner plate! Your choice of toppings, broccoli, melted cheese, chili, beans, peppers and onion and of course sour cream, butter and bacon bits. Lots of fresh fruit was out as well - apples, oranges and banana. 

The afternoon activities were hour long sessions instead of 30 minutes. We started with the Pheonix Fire Circle. Each of us gathered twigs and made a fire starter and then used a match to light our fire. We each got to roast a marshmallow over our fire to make a smore.  Perfectly cooked!

We next headed to the archery range and did some shooting at targets. I did hit it once! I guess I need more practice but that is always a fun one. 

Then we headed back to the lodge and did some enchanted pages. The older girls had done this a couple of years ago at the Harry Potter event with the word Always and we adults wanted to do it. We got to use the cutting tools, so I think ours was a little easier. It involves marking pages at certain parameters, cutting a little notch and then folding it back. This is the one we are making, and one person has finished theirs already! They worked on it a lot yesterday. I am at the beginning of the g in girl scouts!

Then we had dinner - pasta bar. Three kinds of pasta choices, choice of meatballs, sausage, chicken and then a white or red sauce, garlic bread and salad. Desert was cupcakes! Did I mention our chef's camp name is cupcake? She makes great ones. 

I had the chocolate raspberry one. Delicious!

After dinner we did a weaving your story session. It was 15 prompts to journal a bit and then turn it into a painting. I was too tired to think, but painting is fun! I'm too lazy to go out to the car and get it for a photo, but I was thinking a yellow sun, for a positive vibe. Well, it turned into a sunflower with a bright blue background on the top and some darker blue (water maybe, as I am a water sign, and it is my calming thing) at the bottom. Simple and easy. 

After helping to put tables and chairs away, I checked out with the lead person at camp and headed home a little after 8PM.

The dog was very excited I was home. I left before he woke up for the day so I guess he missed me! The cats were oh so happy Mom had a long sleeping time as well, and were cuddled up to me. 

Table Scrap Challenge January

 

I'm happy to report that my 'cozy' sweater quilt was completed this month for the challenge and that middle sweater is pink with cats to fit the RSC pink January theme. The charm pack was on my sewing table and I pulled out the template and fusible and pattern that came with it last year in the 2023 Christmas box.

I cut the fusible and ironed it to the back of 9 charms. Then traced and cut out the sweaters. 

I used a zigzag stitch from my machine and stitched around the sweater. 

Stitched them together into this top.

Then did a little machine quilting around each sweater and added a binding for my completed project.

On the Facebook group of the Jenny's MSQC 2023 box, someone used the cast off fabrics to make reversible sweaters. So, I cut some plain 5 inch squares and ironed the remaining fabrics to create these fun blocks. 

Linking up on Friday with Joy at TheJoyfulQuilter. 

Tuesday

 I used to have a Tiny Tuesday post which forced... I mean nudged me to make the block so I could post about it. I think I need to go back to that so that I will get off my phone and do something productive.

Since I have only done some crochet, I guess Tuesday will be the crochet update on the granny squares.

I have added a couple to the mix and started another one with the dark blue last night. I am changing the colors up to keep things interesting for me. 

I am really not sure how I will be 'finishing' these off. I know I read a blog where she did 16 patches, like a quilt to get hers combined. I like the concept, but I was thinking making different nine patches might be fun with the 3 colors I am playing with. I am leaning towards using the grey to crochet them together with. This is 5 country blue and 4 light blue. I have more of the country blue so will plan to use 5 of those in the blocks and alternate with the light and dark blue. 

Other news... the ear infection is still bothering me one week after drops and antibiotics, so I guess it is time to contact the doctor again. I'd really like to go back in time to 2024. 2025 has been filled with feeling poorly and I am ready to turn the page on it!

Slow Sunday Stitching.

 I really like Kathy's idea of 'touching' multiple projects to keep them moving. I think I'll give that a try today!

I will add a few threads into this fun Snowflake embroidery from my 2024 MSQC Jenny box.

I'll add one granny square to the pile. I made two in the light blue last night.

I'll layer this little quilt for hand quilting around the sweaters or around the blocks. Probably around the blocks, I think.

Then I'll grab the seam ripper and remove these two hand appliqued butterflies from their current background. I'll plan to do all 8 of them at once with the same background. I just need to make one more for the set for a nice nine patch setting. Getting them off this background is step one.

I'll be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. What will you be working on today?

RSC round 2 for the day!

 I was thinking of riding today, but Lori figured it was pretty cold out and offered me a pass this morning. Emily and Kyra went early to give the horses some pampering before and after their 11AM lesson. She asked to be picked up around 2PM. So... I got to sew!

Those mistake Birds in the Air blocks were asking for one more set to be created in pink, so I obliged! 

I do think I will like these blocks. I'm not sure if they will get mixed up with other colors or will stay in groups of one set of 4 colors. I guess I am adding these to the mix for the RSC 2025! While making these I am cutting some 2.5 inch strips from the scraps and wall of fabrics. They are used to make these, the bird in the air blocks and the 16 patch blocks. My little pile of them was gone, so it was time to build it up again for quick pulls for projects.

I made another 16 patch block while sewing the above two blocks. A couple of these a month will be fun to play with at the end of the year. 

While in the sewing room.... I played with the cast off cuts of the sweaters and ironed them to a 5 inch background. I got a bolt of Kona from MSQC last month in navy and eggshell. 10 yards each, so I used the eggshell for the cozy sweater quilt and again for these fun blocks. I saw on the Facebook group of the 2023 Christmas box last year someone who did this and alternated them with the sweater blocks. I thought it was a neat idea. I do have quite a few charms left and did get another charm bundle when they were on sale this year. These are 5 inches.

Next on my list of things are the Erin's butterfly parts I made years ago with the RSC. I started with hand applique of the red and teal, but I don't have more of that dotted background. I spent about 30 minutes searching for it yesterday. I also did not like how the placement shifted as I worked on them.  I think I'll pull them off and instead use one of these three bolts for the background instead. (Ivory, eggshell, navy) Now that I have used interfacing, I think I'll machine applique them to the background and then will finish them off with embroidery for the middle body and the antenna. I have 8 of them, so I might need to add one more to make a nice 9 patch with them.

Linking up with the RSC.

RSC in pink

 I tried the birds in the air blocks again this week and made sure to have a completed block nearby while sewing these together.

These turned out correct....

as opposed to the ones I did for last week!

I also did a 16 patch block as a leader and ender while working on my Table Scrap Challenge for the month.

Here is a sneak peak - notice the pink cozy sweater in the middle!

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.