Sunday sewing

 I finished the last of the 25 bear paw blocks for the Graduation quilt this week. I pinned the boy down Saturday before he attended the last graduation party, and we tried out some different design layouts. 

Scattered around.

Dark blue, light blue, light green, dark green. He liked this one.

I think this one was light backgrounds to darker backgrounds but ended up in blue/green rows, which he did not like. Bear thought it was comfy though. 

He had options of the setting triangles. I don't have enough of the ones I used in the blocks to make them, so found a dark beige in the stash and purchased a lighter one at Hobby Lobby when I finally got the correct last embroidery floss I needed for my current project. He liked the lighter one we placed the blocks on.  I'll be cutting those big blocks today and begin getting this one to a top. It should be about 80 inches square, but I want to add a border around it as a frame. Not sure on the darker beige, or a green or blue yet. We will see how it looks.

A little stitching was added to the embroidery this week. 

I have a new trip planned for mid week up to Vermont to see my parents and help out for a week. Dad landed in the hospital again Tuesday and was released yesterday. Fluid buildup in his heart. They did some scans and found things, so he has a biopsy on his kidney scheduled for next Friday. I'll be up there to bring them to that and help out a little before and after. My siblings have been doing a great job, but I figured I needed to go up and help. My kids are self-sufficient at 17+18 and have their plans in place for the next couple of weeks. Their Dad is here too, and they all should be fine while I am gone.

I'll bring the embroidery and Brimfield with me for hand work. I'm also considering breaking into a quilt kit of blue batiks that I might change into a drunkards path block and play with them. I do have that as an Accuquilt die... and have a bunch of travel opportunities to hand stitch it.  I found 2 options in the kit bucket. I'll probably use the teeter totter batiks....and remember that pattern for a RSC quilt in the future.

I also found this cross stitch! This is from the early 90's!

Some pastel colors... if I want to play with RSC things this month. They look pastel like to me. Maybe some nine patches? Four patches? 

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

BITA is completed! 2nd UFO finish of the quarter

 This is my 3rd finish this year. Not bad for the end of May. Much better than last year.  This Birds in the Air quilt is the second one I've made scrappy with this pattern. One was gifted to my nephew and his wife when they got married in 2015. I always wanted one for me... so started making the blocks again with the RSC and eventually it got done. It sat on the quilt frame for hand quilting for a long time with no progress.... so I pinned it and pulled it off and did a walking foot wiggle every 3-4 inches or so across the quilt. The was enough backing to cut off for the binding in blue to finish it off. 

I'm very happy with how this turned out and love the light yet warm wool batting so far. I'll try and get a better photo of it later tonight.

Little House Sew along block 9

 This is my version of the block. The medium purple is my green. 

I looked at the original quilt and swapped two blocks to alternate the log cabin strips so two same fabrics were not touching. The middle and the one on the right of it.

A fun squishy in the mail. Thank you Melva. I do love blue!

Linking up with block 9 of little house sew along.

Memorial Day

 After a graduation Saturday I was ill Sunday. Much better today, thank goodness.

I really like this shot of the kids.

My family 

Me, Aidan and Greg

I got the main stitching done on this page of the chart.  I think I just have 5 stitches and the half pumpkin then all of page one. 

One last shot of the boy with his graduation cheesecake with raspberries.  Gregs specialty. 

RSC Saturday in orange.

I made some orange chickens last weekend to add to the collection. They are happily laying me eggs =)

Linking up on Saturday with the RSC.

I've not made much progress on the binding, since as soon as I touch this BITA quilt, someone lays on it! I put it on the floor last night to find where I had clipped for hand stitching, and he laid down on it immediately. I might have told him he could have part of it on the couch if he moved so I could find the edge I wanted. He looked at me, got up, waited while I settled it on me and the couch and promptly jumped up and laid down on it curled up beside me. I got a little stitching in, so one side is done. I hope to add some more tonight before an early to bed for me. I've got a 5AM alarm set for Graduation.

I has been a long week! Tuesday night was awards night for Juniors and Seniors. It lasted a little over 2 hours with scholarships and various awards handed out. The Cambridge Aice medals and sashes were handed out. The Valedictorian sash and awards were handed out - 8 this year with 5.0 GPA all four years. My guy is one of those. His Psych teacher sent me this, his buddy Issiac and Aidan with her after the ceremony. Emily got recognized for 4.0 or better in her class.  Emily was anxious to get moving as we were going out to dinner (almost 8ish by the time he came out) and she had 2 big tests the next day. 

Wednesday night was a Girl Scout planning meeting. Thursday was a parent meeting for Band after their icebreaker for incoming 8th graders. They are making some changes next year and wanted all to be aware. Tonight, trying to clean up the house a bit and figure out what to have ready to munch on after Graduation tomorrow morning. It starts at 8AM promptly, and with new security measures in place this year we are getting to the school 1.5 hours before that to hopefully get through and settled before the ceremony. Over 400 graduates. I'm thinking just some breakfasty type things made in advance - like scones and muffins. I've got watermelon and pineapple to cut up for a fruit salad. We can cook up eggs and sausage or bacon if anyone wants. 

The boy requested cheesecake with raspberries so his Dad is making that for him now. I also have lunch things I can put out and make later that morning. It will just be us, Grandma and I think my brother and SIL will pop by after the ceremony for a little bit. They moved down to Florida this week, arrived Tuesday with 2 cats and purchased a house today! We welcomed them with a 6:30 AM call time at the kids school =) .

 

Graduation quilt

I added the above four blocks on Sunday.  That gives me 20. I need 5 more blocks. 

 Progress. 

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.