Sunday funday

 At some point today, I'll add a few lengths of thread into the binding on this BITA quilt. It is a big one and will take a while to get hand stitched down. The quilt is at least 90x90, and our temps are now in the 90's during the day. Thank goodness for the AC house unit!

I realized I had not worked on the cross stitch at all this week, so added some threads to it yesterday. I started with the light parts of the last 'quilt block' and will add the maple leaf colors to it next. 

Today will be spent in the sewing room for a while, cutting and making more bear paw blocks for the Graduation boy's requested quilt. Bear Paw pattern. Civil war type prints in green and blue. I have 8 of each color so far and hope to add another 4 today. 

While cutting out more of the Bear Paw blocks this morning, it was time to figure out how many I needed for a double size bed. I'm thinking 80x80? I looked in a few quilting books, then remembered that Bonnie Hunter had some math graphs on her blog under tips and techniques. I looked at a few on-point links and found this one. Very helpful. My blocks are 14 inches finished. That means just under 20 inches on the diagonal. So, a 4x4 setting looks like I need 25 blocks. I have 16 made and just did the initial rough strip cuts for another 4. I'm making two blocks with each of the strip of blue and green. I'll go back and make 5 more blocks from already used fabrics. I think after the setting triangle, I'll add a border on the outside to make it a wee bit bigger to allow for the quilting on it.  The graduate will get a box of the blocks (most of them anyway) on Saturday after his graduation from High School. I've got until the end of August to get it completed! The next few months will be very busy, so we will see. A trip to Alaska, one to Vermont, a visit to Tennessee for a college visit with Emily, and I'm busy at work. Life is never dull!

Good news, my Dad is being released from the hospital today. They think it was not a heart attack but rather a buildup of fluid in the body got into the heart. They have it under control for now and are upping his water pill dosage. Big shout out to my 4 siblings who are all handling that with my parents.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Rsc in orange

 

I added a couple of houses to the collection this week. The spider web house just makes me smile.

That means the chicken blocks are next. 

Linking up with the RSC.

Both kids have things to do today - one has a graduation party at a friends house and the other is having a study date to review for their AICE exams next week. The silly girl had her Math exam yesterday and came home smiling and said that was really easy. I reminded her that was the one her brother struggled with. Her words 'I read problem one, thought oh, that's easy', and repeat through the exam. Next week is her Chemistry, Physics, History and English. She said Global Perspectives and Math are done. I know Aidan has his Calculus exam Thursday and he has a couple more as well. His last day of school is technically Tuesday with Graduation Saturday. He has 2 more exams Thursday and one in June. 

Seems there was a manufacturing backlog of the Progesterone pill nationwide. Mine ran out this week and it was out of stock everywhere. I was surprised I got a text that it was finally in at Publix last night. I scooted right over and picked it up. I ran out earlier this week. I slept pretty good last night! Might have been because I was very tired from siblings text messages from the previous night. My Dad has a mild heart attack early Friday morning. He is at the hospital and under observation and doing well. The four siblings were handling things and helping my Mom. I'll call today and see how they are doing.

 

Little House block 8

 I think this one took longer to pick fabrics than to sew it up! I debated on making the heart light but went with the purples.  This heart was fun to stitch. I could see this as a future Rainbow Scrap Challenge block =). 

Eight blocks down, one to go!

L

Linking up with Melva and Block 8 of the Little House Sew Along.

Binding time!

 I finally got back to the sewing room last evening and finished the machine quilting on this big BITA quilt. I did need to do some fixing, where the batting and backing were not big enough. Thankfully this was a big backing and I was able to cut off on one side and 'add' it to the other side. There was enough backing to make the binding. I did my math and was less than an inch off at the end. I just made it work. Very tiny seam to merge it and stitched it down. 

I brought it out and put it on the floor by my recliner last night. The dog came right over, sniffed it, looked at me with a smile, and promptly laid down on it and turned and gave me a grin with teeth! Silly boy, he was on a part of this all last night until I went to bed. So, only one strand of thread was used to start stitching it down before we snuggled up and watched episode 2 of Midsummer Mysteries on Roku. I'll be stitching on this in the evenings for a bit and should get it completed before the end of the month.

The kids are off to school, the dog has been walked and I made some french toast with old sourdough bread that needed using. Time to grab a shower and go visit my FIL, who does know how to use a phone! He called Greg Monday night and asked if the house sale went through ok. First time he has called us since being in his assisted living facility. Yes, the sale is through and Greg and I had a nice late lunch out after. Tuesday afternoon we had a social security office meeting. Today is a quick visit to see my FIL and then I'll be in the sewing room making the next block on the Little House Sew Along, then prepping the last 2 orange houses for the RSC to sew up while adding more Bear Paw blocks to the Graduation quilt. 

Happy Mothers Day

 Just another Sunday but I did get to go out for lunch with hubby and the kids. Grandma was not feeling well - low energy and begged off yesterday.  While out for the morning walk with Bear, I met up with a neighbor on the next street with 2 little dogs. We were chatting about vices (She likes BMW fast cars and I like fabric and quilting and crafts). She said, you want a sewing machine? I have an old one from when I was flipping houses. She gave it to me free! It is a Singer and I still need to see if it works. She was happy to get it out of the house as they are making room for one of their kids and their wife to move in for a year while he finishes his degree. I'm hoping to get it working and then it can become one of the kids machines for if they ever want to have one on hand after they finish school.

I've made progress on the cross stitch. I'm almost done with this page and can start on the next one once I stitch the last 'block' in the quilt and the pumpkin on the bottom left. Then the wagon extends to the left for the first page of the pattern.

This finally arrived in the mail yesterday. The Senior photo for the yearbook I finally ordered and got a yard sign as well. Just in time for Graduation in a couple of weeks. 

A little progress in the sewing room

I was able to finish another 2 bear paw blocks for Aidan's graduation quilt. I need to make a bunch more. I'll try and prep another 2 blocks tonight to sew up this weekend. He chose civil war style greens and blues with a darker creamy background. Each block is 14 inches finished, so I need to figure out how many I need. I'm thinking 30+ for a double bed size and this makes 12 I think. I'll start having to reuse fabrics after the next 2 blocks. I kinda went crazy when a site was closing down last year with all their fabrics like this.

While sewing the above I added a couple of orange houses. I'll add the last two when I do another set of bear paws.

I pinned this RSC quilt of Bird in the Air blocks that was sitting on my frame and not moving with any progress. It is now being machine quilted and I'm less than half way done on this 90x90 quilt. I like to think I learned my lesson and am taking breaks and not doing it all in one go this time. I should have pinned it better, I was so used to warm and natural batting that doesn't need much pinning to this Tuscany Wool that needed more. I'm doing a squiggle walking foot stitch every 3 inches or so down the quilt.  I'll work some more on this one this weekend. It is a lot of fun to see some old favorites of my fabrics pop up as I am sewing. 

I'll link up with Angela and the RSC on Saturday.

I'm going to try canning beans tomorrow. I have a pressure canner and have a 32 ounce bag of black beans and Great Northern beans. I'm going to soak them overnight in a couple of pans, boil for a bit in the morning and then pack them into pint jars and see how it goes with pressure canning. They should be done well before the time we leave for the Band Banquet at the school in the evening. Greg found a few boxes of mason jars in the shed when he was clearing out. I'll get them cleaned and run through the dishwasher tonight. I believe the boy is late today, with his Academic Club Banquet. 

Progress

 Since this quilt was just sitting on the frame and not getting worked on... I decided to pin it for machine quilting. Note to self... this actually worked great to pin a quilt. Must remember that. I plan to start working on a nice and easy walking foot wavy line down every 4-6 inches of the quilt. Each block is 6 inches so I believe this one is 90x90. I think I might search for leftover binding and see if I have enough to do a scrappy one. This is Thursday afternoons project. I might see if I can make the frame a little smaller and throw the string of beads on there, or put the 1857 quilt on there and have string of beads in a hoop. Still pondering that decision.

Last night was the last symphonic spring concert of the year. These are well attended by parents and friends. She broke up the Jazz Big Band this year to a separate concert an hour earlier. Since it is the Seniors last concert, she gives the ones moving onto a music degree an opportunity to select a piece and conduct it. There were 3 this year of the 5 pieces played. Each did a great job. The director actually plays their parts with their instrument for them. She has her own mouthpiece. I believe she played French horn, bassoon and trumpet last night!

Aidan actually went with us to the concert along with Grandma. I guess he figured he should go see one of them! He knows a couple of the seniors in the band as well.