Last Saturday in Pink....

I had to do some sewing this week so I set up my table and machine with the cutting mat and made some birds in the air blocks in pink. These 12 will join the others I made a few years ago with this challenge.

I think this might end up in a 10x14 setting for a 60x 84 size throw quilt. That leaves me some extra blocks..... so I think I'll continue making them 12 a month this year with the challenge so I can have a quilt of these! These blocks will be made into a quilt for a wedding gift in September for my nephew Ben and his finance Becca.

I can't forget my scrappy strip in pink. I did see the neatest thing last week - a crayon top added to a colored strip. Hmmmm maybe I'll have a box of crayons at the end of the year =). Plenty of time to sew this afternoon to get that strip made with my scraps.

Head on over to SoScrappy and see how others finished up their pinks as we start a new color for March.

A little progress....

Ok Joanne, I didn't listen and I am paying now! I twisted wrong right off yesterday morning reaching down to put some fabric up and felt my back. Continued on all morning and made friends with the heating pad in the afternoon. Felt better this morning so I moved the bookcase. In hindsight - not the smartest thing I should have done. Oh well, I'll wait for Greg to get home tonight and move the rest of the big things around for me. I really felt my back getting into the car to head into work for a couple of hours this morning..... I'll find the heating pad again this afternoon and take it easy again. I really want to get my room all set but I'll be smarter and wait this time. The bottom shelf of fabric is going to move up 3 slats and that big white shelf will replace where that was to hold my computer and little baskets of things. I am making progress and I'm very happy with this slat wall. Think I can get him to put two more up on the right wall? Hehehehe.

I got home from work and sat on the couch to eat lunch and find out some info from one friend to help out another concerning speech for a 2 year old.  I looked up and the Sophie (white one) was beside me wanting petting and then I saw a black tail and realized Maxie was asleep above my shoulder on the couch! My two trusty companions.

Yikes 1:50 must go get the kiddo's.

Progress..... on the sewing area

No tiny Tuesday again this week. But...... I have slat walls up and my shelves arrived last evening. I go to put them up but then had to take the kids to scouts.

 I know what I am doing today....filling them up and maybe getting one more set of boards for the bottom left side after I have lunch with Emily. Those will all be fabric. The top will be my lighthouses and the second row will be storage. Still working it out but the wall is very flexible. I have hooks to put in to hang all my rulers and templates as well. Yesterday morning I went though boxes and condensed a bit and found a bunch of things! Now to find a new home for everything....in all this mess! (Before I started yesterday and some things landed in the kids playroom)

Hopefully there will be an after picture tomorrow! The couch is being moved out eventually but it needs to get uncovered first! See... I have lots of 'stuff'!

Slow stitching Sunday

Today will be a long day of settling into new rooms. That includes settling into my new sewing area! We need to do some moving of things in the shed to get to the slat boards that will be put up on my back wall. That should make shelving and hooks easy to put up and rearrange as I want.

I finished the last step of my crochet along last night.

I also added the last set of squares to my trip around the world block in pink.

That leaves me with  some hand appliqué  - back basting  - on my Midget blocks this evening. Nice and relaxing after a long day.

Head on over and see what others are working on today for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Saturday in Pink

I didn't have any pink to show last week but I have oodles this week!
I had to sew on Wednesday so I set up a temporary sewing area until I can get into my new sewing space next week.

I made my two Sampler blocks. Don't look too closely on the points on Marley - it got picked out once and then I figured it would not show too much in the finished quilt!

I also got my pink Dresden plate done this week. I hope to find the template I made when I put my room back together. I did find the paper I had cut it out of and used that to draw my line on top of a few of them to cut them all out.

My hand work project has been making some progress. I got the rest cut out on Wednesday and the lines drawn at bowling on Thursday. A few people come up each week to see what I am doing and to ohhh and awe over this block I am making. It also got worked on in the car line and at soccer practice last night in the low 40 temps. I was the Mom in the car to keep warm while my kiddo's were bundled in sweaters, winter coats, hats and mittens. The coach asked if I had another hat in the car for him! Hard to believe in a month or two I'll be wishing for cool temps as it will be in the mid 90's and 90+ percent humidity.

Time to cut cat nails and then grab a shower. This is Sophie with her 'you think you are going to cut my nails' look.

Hopefully it warms up from the 21 degrees with a hard frost here in Florida so I can grab a walk before I go and drop off some girl scout cookies to the kids PreK teacher and see her baby boy who was born a couple of weeks ago. He was not due until March but Mom was having some high blood pressure issues so they delivered him. He and Mom and doing great.

Busy afternoon as Emily is selling cookies from 4-6 today with her troop leader so I'll take Aidan back in front of Publix and see if we can sell the last 9 Boy Scout camp cards. Tomorrow is a working  day for me but head on over Saturday morning and see what other great projects are being worked on for the RSC Challenge in pink.

Temporary sewing room....

I decided it wouldn't be too difficult to get my big table set up in the 'spare' room yesterday. Well, it was a little tricky but I got it in there and a nice little area set up.

I worked on a bunch of pinks that I'll show tomorrow when I finish the dresden plate... but my leader and ender is adding a sashing to one side of my Civil War blocks from last year. I had cut a bunch of 6.5 x 2 inch strips for a different sashing and then decided it was too light for that quilt. I am making it work for this one just to use them up and get that one finished. I'm thinking a solid blue cornerstone will be added to one other side and then they should go together nicely into a top.

I also got 16 of my crochet blocks done yesterday. I just need to weave in ends and finish those four stragglers that popped up after I was putting them into a pile last night.

It was a little breezy yesterday before bringing in the cooler weather so it was a perfect afternoon for flying a kite. The bug guys are  coming today for the annual spray inside the house so I'll wait until after before I steam clean the carpets in Emily's old room. That should give it a day to dry before Greg moves his office in there on Saturday.

Clue #2 of the crochet mystery.

Ok, I looked at part of the video yesterday but decided I had to try one of these before my walk this morning (and hopefully it gets into the higher 40's before I head out to walk!). Without the video tutorial I would have been hopelessly lost! With the video - it was actually pretty easy. I need to review the stitches and made sure I am doing my single crochet and half double crochet correctly but I learned how to do a single front post crochet.... which I know I have seen in some patterns that I have been wanting to try. I was thinking I would use the cream all of yesterday but this morning I laid the yarns out over the first clue and the light blue got grabbed for this clue.

My first X. 19 more to go!

It was a lovely relaxing day yesterday watching a few episodes of Downtown Abbey and finishing the last side of binding on my 2014 RSC Sampler and the Goodnight Irene quilt. They both need a spin in the washer and dryer and then maybe some pictures of the finished quilts will appear later this week. I'm off to walk and then clean in Emily's old room.... and maybe my sewing table might be put up in there so I can sew a bit today! Being in limbo with rooms is not fun. Having the area cleaned will let Greg move in there on Saturday... the the kids stuff goes into his old space and then..... I get to  figure out my space. I think someone will be doing some shelf building for me this weekend so I am all set to put things away starting on Monday. I can't wait.

Stay warm wherever you are.

Tiny Tuesday....

I did not make my appliqué block this week so I'll show my 20 granny squares for clue one of the mystery crochet along.

I finished the last two and all the tails this morning in time for clue #2 to come out here. The video to the next clue is here. It looks like we add an X on top of this using one of the contrast yarns. Time to make some decisions.....

I should be back to the normal Tiny Tuesday blocks next week and I'll make the missed one up sometime this year.

Now to try and organize my crafting and sewing things a bit so I'll be all set to set up my new area by the end of next week after we swap a few more rooms around. It seems someone wants Emily's old room for his office so a little more time before I am all settled in. Time to get out the pencil and paper and figure out some storage space.

Monday, Monday....

After over 5 hours clearing out the sewing room and closet, then cleaning the area and then moving little Miss Em into her new room, I was a wee bit tired. Notice there is no before picture =)

Cleared out room and she started moving in before I was done!

From the doorway

I already miss my closet and those shelves!

Since they had the day off school today for Presidents Day, I took them to Disney Hollywood Studios. After a late start I had to reschedule our fast passes but we got to see all three. The Little Mermaid Voyage, Beauty and the Beast and Disney Jr. Live. We also did a little of the imagination and met Sorcerer Mickey and then the Walt Disney Tribute and a movie on his life. Not bad for getting there after 10 to the parking lot and leaving at 4 with two children. I think the line for the food took the longest.

2/16/15 Aidan and Emily with Mickey

Deb, Aidan and Emily with Mickey

Slow Sunday Stitching.....

Lots of plans today..... emptying my sewing room and closet is first up on the list! I am swapping rooms with Emily today finally. The AC is right outside her window and it is getting louder and disrupting her sleep so we'll swap rooms (sorry Mom and Dad!).

In between I'll take some breaks and do a little crochet on my mystery afghan by making some granny squares. I have five made and need twenty done by Tuesday for the next clue. This is my first time making them and they are pretty fun to make. I'll also use the darning needle to work those strings in before putting them in their box to wait for the next clue.

After those are done I'll snuggle up tonight and finish the last side of the binding on the Goodnight Irene quilt. One side and one corner to go on this one.

What are you working on today? Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and get inspired with some great hand work projects.

A finish (almost) and a Disney afternoon.

I made the backing, pinned and did some walking foot quilting on this on Monday. I also made the binding and attached it. The rest of the week was finishing up the hand stitching on the binding.

Goodnight Irene - scrappy blue by VTQuilter

Goodnight Irene - blue backing.

My first almost finish for 2015. I was too tired last night to get the last side of the binding sewn down. Maybe tonight.


The reason for being too tired.... the kids had a half day of school yesterday so I took them to Magic Kingdom. They did good (and yes, all by myself Mom). We did some things they had not done yet - the train ride, saw the afternoon parade and the evening one, Country Bear Jamboree, Swiss Family tree house and the Magic Carpet ride. Throw in dinner and ice cream for dessert and some shopping by the kids and we had a full afternoon. They used their gift cards from Aunt Terri's family and Emily has Elsa (she would love Anna for her birthday?) and Aidan got Sven.

Emily with Elsa

Aidan with Sven

Watching the parade at Magic Kingdom

Tiny Tuesday....

This week's block is called Flower #8. Not very original but that is the name. I did mine in pink to follow the picture. I used back basting and then needle turn appliqué to make this one. The dark pink is one piece and I added the petals onto it. Then made the yellow center circle and added it on.

Easy peasy lemon squeezie as my kids would say.

These are from the midget appliqué blocks found at sentimentalstitches.com. Each block will finish at 4.5 inches. Here are the blocks I have made so far this year. There are 52 blocks in this series so I should have all 52 completed by the end of the year.

Monday..... All ready for the crochet mystery to begin!

I got this package in the mail on Friday. I completely forgot about it. I had ordered some yarn for the crochet mystery last week and it arrived in plenty of time.

I did manage to find two dark country blue yarns at Joann's last weekend so now the decisions.

Country blue, dark country blue, light country blue and grey 

or

Country blue, light country blue, cream and grey

or
country blue, dark country blue, light country blue and cream

Hmmmmm. I think we'll see what the first clue is on Tuesday and then decide. Are you joining in?

This is the cat cake I made for Aidan yesterday. Vanilla cake with vanilla frosting to look like our Sophie. I had to raid the kids Halloween candy to get the twizlers for the coller and whiskers. M&M's for the eyes and red sugar sprinkles for the ears.

Mom, I left the package of kids pictures in the truck on Saturday so I'll pop them in the mail this afternoon once Greg gets home from work. Scouts tonight. Heading to Disney Wednesday after the kids early release.

Slow stitching Sunday...

I have not made any progress on the hugs and kisses quilt this week.  Instead... I got a wee bit sidetracked with hand piecing my trip around the world block in pink. It looked like this to start...

but I did not like the lack of contrast so that middle got picked out and resewn (note to self - don't do that again!) and then I cut and prepped more squares to add to it. Lets just say it was a slow day at work on Friday at the store (pool store in the off season) so I got a lot of hand sewing in on this.

and I got the last four pinks I needed cut and added with the rest of the white last night.

Today I get to make a cat cake and decorate it for Aidan's birthday with family. He turned 7 on Friday and got his tiger badge from boy scouts at their red and gold ceremony that evening.

Dad pinning on the tiger badge

Aidan and his Tiger troop.

He picked an easy meal of hot dogs on the grill for lunch with his grandparents (we'll add brats and burgers to the mix with some sides). He loves his birthday guitar... and hopefully he does not drive me too nuts with it! I see some relaxing later this evening with some needle and thread. Head on over and see the other slow stitching at Kathy's Quilts on Sunday.

First Saturday in Pink

I made the 25 patch star in pink this week.

I also started on the Trip Around the World block in pinks. It has been challenging with the values but  I think I will get it to work. I did swap out the first round to a lighter pink and I like it a lot better now.

I'll be linking up with Angela over at SoScrappy for the RSC Challenge . I have to pop into work for a bit in the morning but then I'm leaving at eleven to take the kids to a birthday party at the park this afternoon. Sunday we'll celebrate Aidan's 7th birthday with the grandparents at our house.

Someone turns 7 years old today!

Happy Birthday Aidan. It seems like just yesterday you were born and we were taking you home from the hospital.

Aidan 1 day old Feb 8, 2008.

Climbing the slide in Vermont 1.5 years.

Always wear eye protection - age 2

Age 3 Santas village before moving to Florida

Age 3 at camp

Age 4 at the Citrus County Fair.

Age 5 at Old MacDonolds Farm

Age 6 walking Buddy Grandma's dog.

Reading his book last night almost age 7.

Busy day today. I am working since Aidan wanted Daddy to have lunch with him at school today and has requested Taco Bell for his lunch. He'll also bring in some cupcakes for his class to have after lunch. Tonight is the Boy Scouts Blue and Gold Banquet. He will get his official Tiger Badge tonight. It should be a lot of fun for the boys. He has said he likes it so it sounds like we will be doing scouts again next year for both of them. Next week adds soccer to the mix with free play starting on the 12th and games starting next month. This weekend is attending a friends birthday party on Saturday ( I managed to avoid a friend party for another year =). and then a cookout and cake and ice cream with the grandparents at our house on Sunday. Sure do hope he likes his presents this year - a guitar and some comfy, cuddly pajamas (he asked for the jimmies!).

Come back tomorrow for my first week of playing with Pink scraps.