Hand quilting progress....

 Well, it seems the hair place near us closes at 6PM right now..... so it was closed. Aidan actually asked if it was too dark to take a walk instead... so the kids and I got a walk in last night instead! We enjoyed seeing the Christmas lights and decorations around the neighborhood.

I have managed to get 5 of 9 Book Club blocks hand quilted! I need to start on the 6th one tonight.

There have been 3 eggs so far this morning... and it is early! Maybe we will get 4 today? One egg was on the bottom of the coop and 2 were in the nesting boxes. We have 14 eggs in the holder... guess the kids really need to make those merangue cookies this weekend! I see more quiche on the menu at our house! This was the basic recipe.... I added a couple handfuls of wilted kale instead of spinach last night and chopped up some deli ham into it as well. I also cook some onions in butter and add those in. We tend to go crustless so I just make sure to spray the pie plate before adding in the egg mixture.

A Fall 2020 finish.....

 Sophie did not want to cooperate for the photo! This one got machine quilted this afternoon and I even made and attached the binding (machine front, hand back) before I had to get the kids! It is about all I got done today with fabric. I did run to the DMV/tax collector and get the yearly tags for the vehicles after dropping kids to school. Then came home and made some cuban black beans for my lunch. Then it was trying to figure out insurance for next year..... 3 hours later I think we have a plan selected. Lets hope no one lands in the hospital because the picking was slim and the deductible is ridiculous- in the 17K range if you would believe it! I miss having health insurance through a company....

After that I deserved some sewing time so instead of playing with the new Accuquilt GO! that arrived last night ( I have run 2 sets through to see how it works) I opted to finally finish this little quilt and get it quilted. Something checked off my list! Sounds like since our temps will only be in the 50's tonight..... the kids and I will go get much needed hair cuts after dinner.

Tonights dinner is quiche - with some ham, onion, kale cheddar cheese with leftover roasted potato and sweet potato. Em is having a chicken kiev since she turned up her nose at my offering. Still getting 2 eggs a day.... must have a chat with the other 2 ladies and see why they are not laying. 

Traditions....

 I am prepping for a girl scout meeting next week where we are discussing Christmas (holiday) traditions and I wanted to throw in how some things might be different this year with COVID-19. 

Would any of my readers care to share some of your family holiday traditions and how they might be different this year? Maybe starting new traditions? 

I know around the world things are different with various restrictions as they are between states here in the USA. I know in Florida, where we are we are still in Phase 3 which is no restrictions on gathering size and no mask mandate due to our governor. Our numbers are steadily rising as you can imagine. 

I know my family is up in Vermont - where my employer is and they are under a mandate of no gathering of more than one household, unless a single person then can do one other, no sports, no gatherings and limited on eating out with a mask mandate in place through December 15. It does clearly state in the ordinance if you are in an unsafe environment - you can leave to go to another household no questions asked and that household can take you in with no issues. They have a quarantine in place for travel as well. Two extremely different approaches to the pandemic (both are republican governors by the way!) and obviously it changes traditions. They also encouraged towns and communities to decorate for the holidays so everyone can enjoy the holiday safely through driving to see the decorations and have done virtual 'lighting up' ceremonies. 

Yesterday I had plans to sew in the evening. After dinner (popcorn shrimp and chicken with roasted potato and sweet potato and pickled beets)... the kids really wanted to head to Bells and do some Christmas shopping. I was told I needed to not see what they were doing so wandered around the store for over an hour while they shopped. As we were leaving... we were approached by a lady that I had seen in the store earlier. She asked if we had jumper cables. I had gotten a pair after having my battery die in the car line a couple of years ago, so I said yes, but I was not positive how to use them. She said she knew how so I handed her the bag and pulled my car up to give a jump. Another couple I had seen in the store was coming out and he offered to help and got mine attached while she did hers and we got juice into her vehicle! The kids felt pretty good about helping someone out...and were so excited to tell their Dad all about it when we got home.... before they shuttered themselves into the bedroom and wrapped up their gifts. 

No progress photo's so I'll share what the kids did with Chilly the elf this morning while I was in the shower. Since the note is legible... Emily must have written it!

December OMG

 My goal this December is to finish the Book Club quilt that I hand pieced earlier this year. The goal is to get it quilted and bound in 2020! So far I have 3 of the 9 blocks hand quilted and started on the 4th block.

Linking up with ElmStreetQuilts and One Monthly Goal.

Monday!

 I did spend time in the sewing room yesterday and instead of picking up I sewed!

All the millions of half square triangles for clue 1 of the Grassy Creek Mystery are sewn and trimmed. My 'grey' fabric is blue for a lake so mine are blue and yellow/gold.

I also sewed the stashbuster blocks together into a top. This one measures 48x60. A good snuggle size. Now to get it quilted.

Kids are dropped off to school and I need to get to work. Lets hope the attitude from the boy improves because he needed an attitude adjustment really bad this morning. His sister was all set to go 15 minutes early and just waited for him... who was 5-10 minutes late! Back to the grind after a week off.

Sunday stitching

 Sunday is for some slow turtle stitching. I guess I have not touched this one since Thanksgiving day...this is the 4th block of my hand pieced Book Club sew along quilt from earlier this year. Some stitches should happen on it tonight.

The Endless Diamond block is ready to assemble. I am cutting these out using templates and hand piecing them. This will look like the blocks in the header. I'll need to prep some more of these today at some point.

This afghan I started last year in November for Emily. I think it is long enough... wish I had made it a little wider... but maybe a few rows of edging will help? This is a crochet blanket stitch pattern from Mama in a stitch. Peanut approves... but I had to quickly put it back in it's container as someone loves to eat yarn! I hope to finish this one off then pull out the knitting on the sheep pillow for Aidan. My thought was maybe wrapping them up for Christmas..... but we will see how the month goes! 

Linking up with the other turtle stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.

Last night was another bonfire night. We burned part of a big tree that fell down when Eta went through. 

The kids put lights on the chicken coop and run yesterday. I snapped a photo while I was sitting watching the bonfire last night. 

Today is a very special day in our family. My Dad's birthday! This photo was from a few years ago out at the camp in Vermont when we were up there in the summer. Hopefully we can go up next summer and enjoy some rides on the lake with our favorite Pontoon Boat Captain. Happy Birthday Dad.

A present for me....

 I might have hit enter on a Ready. Set GO! Ultimate Fabric Cutting System from Accuquilt  this morning with a bunch of versatile dies included. Happy late birthday to me!  It seems to have also come with the GO! Me one as well which has another 2 sizes of dies.... and an additional 15% off being a first time customer. Not too shabby. I only had it in the cart for 1.5 hours before I hit enter.... and an e-mail to Karen for a final 'push'. Thanks Karen!

Emily 'made me' sort one of the buckets of scraps yesterday. Amazing how much fabric this 73 quart container held! Keep in mind, Emily stepped on all the buckets to squish things down so I could fit more fabrics in there =)  Only 2 or 3  bigger buckets of scraps like this to sort.

So far - trip to Wally world to get jeans and a belt for the boy - going to be in the 30's Monday night! They didn't have the needed fish medicine.... so after we got home and unloaded and I had lunch, I shuttled the boy to PetCo to get the fish meds. He has one fish seperated with fin or tail rot. Everyone got a dose of meds in their tank. I think the blue tailed one is having the issue.