Slow stitching Sunday...

I have one side plus half of another of binding to finish off tonight on the Celtic Solstice Quilt. I hope to get a little quilting time in tonight as well - I have two stars left to machine outline and all the side partial stars to outline on the Hunter Star graduation quilt. Progress....with hopes to mail it out later this week. That June 13th deadline is coming up quickly!

Yesterday afternoon my employee was going to take something out to the dumpster and opened the door and saw this! Only in Florida. The nice police officers came about 15 minutes after we closed and captured him and relocated it. I hope we don't find any more of them out there today when I head into work.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.

Oh, I tried a new recipe this morning. It was for a chocolate cake donut - without a donut pan I made muffins. They baked for 9 minutes at 450 degrees in the muffin pan. I had to save off two to bring into work for Gail and Dustin... since I mentioned I was planning to make them this morning. Nice and easy and oh so yummy! Here is the link.

http://www.somethingswanky.com/baked-chocolate-cake-donuts/

One whole week!

One whole week with no post and one more week of school and the kids are off for the summer. Yikes! Where has the time gone this year?

I have been avoiding the sewing room... since I have been trying to avoid some quilting. But... it needs to get done so today is the day to start. I have three stars outlined on the Hunter Star quilt... and lots to go. So if you hear a lot of muttering today and tomorrow - that is me pulling and tugging the twin size quilt around and under my little sewing machine.

Yesterday was spent attending an awards ceremony at school. Aidan made all E honor roll (exceeds expectation) and was awarded the Golden Bear award for the male in his classroom by his teacher. Quite an honor. Tomorrow night is Emily's bridging ceremony to 1st grade.... and we will be missing the kids soccer awards ceremony to attend the school function. Yesterday after awards and then a quick shopping trip I got wrapped up in resting with lots of water while watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. Too much sun Monday and not enough liquids although it seemed like I was drinking enough water. The Florida sun and humidity does not mix well with me! I started watching Greys last week and I'm almost through season 2. I swear - it is addicting and I really need to go to sleep before midnight tonight =). Time to take the garbage and recycling out and then back to tugging and pulling that quilt under the machine.

Busy, busy, busy....

Mom called me today to check on me..... something about not posting on Tuesday or today. I have the Tiny Tuesday appliqué prepped but have not started it so no post.
 It has been a busy week. Normal girl/boy scouts on Monday with the last soccer practice last night and their last game Thursday. I'm swapping with their Dad at work on Thursday so he can see them play again this week. I hope to work on the appliqué in the down time on Thursday at the store... if there is downtime. They had their scholastic book fair at school and after helping Aidan's class pick their books Monday morning it seemed like they needed a little help with volunteers. I went back in for a few hours Monday around lunchtime, a couple of hours Tuesday and all morning today and helped pack it up. As I was leaving.... Aidan was headed to lunch so I got to have lunch with him. Ok - I asked him if he wanted to eat lunch with me or his friends... he was thinking and his teacher just looked at him and said 'I can't believe you have to think about that!'. Yes, he decided to eat lunch with me. =)

I ran a couple of errands  and then I picked the kiddo's up at school. I did manage to pin the Hunter Star quilt yesterday morning and made this RSC Sampler block. I selected and cut the next three rows for the Trip Around the World block as well.

I love the double pinwheel - it would make a great scrappy quilt..... but I have to really finish off some of my tops into quilts before I start anything new. Here is all the RSC Sampler 2015 blocks so far this year.

Hopefully I can get a start on quilting the Hunter Star on Friday despite the kids being off school that day. I am thinking of outlining the stars.... we'll see how much trouble that becomes on my little machine! I hope to finish off the quilting Monday and get it bound and shipped off by the end of next week.
I'll link this post up on Saturday morning with The RSC Challenge. The next two tops that need to get quilted are from the 2014 RSC Challenge - churn dash and the 16 patch stars. After those are quilted..... maybe I can play with some pinwheels =)

Slow Sunday stitching.....

After a trip to Tampa yesterday afternoon to see a night show of Disney's Frozen on Ice with Ms. Emily and her Daisy troop, I plan to settle in with some slow stitching this evening. First I have to do a short day at work but then I plan to settle in with some binding on the Celtic Solstice quilt this evening.

Zonked out on the ride to Tampa after a morning of pool time with Grandma H. Yes Mom, I was stopped at a stop light when I took this!

Celtic Solstice - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Fall 2013

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what others are working on today.

RSC in Green....

I got a little sewing time in this morning and was able to make my Dresden plate in dark green. Sorry the photo's are all washed out. They are more vibrant in person.

I cut the rest of these scraps into strips last week. They are sitting in piles of 1.5,2 and 2.5 on the edge of my ironing surface. I pulled a few of the 2.5 inch strips and cut them into 12.5 inch strips. I sewed them together and now have a front for a place mat. I had a bunch of 5 inch squares of light greens left over from Greg's quilt.....7 years ago! I sewed a few of them together and have a backing. I should be able to finish this one off tomorrow before I start quilting the Hunter Star graduation quilt on Saturday. It will be a nice little practice piece for that.

I've also made progress on the trip around the world block. I need to prep some more squares starting with a white round so I can finish this one off in the car line next week.

I just got back from helping Emily's class select their books from the scholastic book fair. It was fun watching them search for books. When I got home I picked a few things for my lunch - lettuce, cherry tomato's, a scallion and a small cucumber! I added some cheese, ham and turkey then made a new to me Italian dressing a la Ree Drummond - The Pioneer Woman. Very yummy. I know what I'm having for lunches the next few days!

Head on over Saturday morning and see what other green scraps are being used up this week. I hear thunder..... so I'd better go cut and draw lines on some white squares for the car line today. One line pick up when it rains means if I get there at 1:30 for the 2:05 pick up I am just inside the fence and not out on the road waiting.

Wednesday - leader and ender sewing....

While sewing the Hunters Star quilt together I have a  basket of 2 inch squares next to the sewing machine. Here and there I put two together and then make a four patch. I had a little pile of four patches so I started putting them together. The thinking is a very scrappy Irish chain quilt.... as a very long term project. The middle square on each of the outside rows is a 'light'. Hopefully it will show up OK in the final quilt.... if not..... oh well, it will be a very scrap happy quilt.

This is the Hunter Star quilt assembled as a top. The points all match - hooray! It fits well on Emily's twin size bed so I don't think I'll make it bigger with borders. The 64x80 size will have to do for Alex's graduation quilt. Now to find backing fabric tomorrow and pin on Friday and start quilting it Saturday.

Time for lunch, then garbage and recycle run and then I suppose I should run the vacuum around the house a bit before picking up the kiddo's from school.

Tiny Tuesday...

I finished off the yellow in the middle of this one last night! Finally a midget block done before a Tuesday. I am showing this ruffle flower off next to my awesome smelling flowers by my back patio.

This is a shot of the double rainbow after the thunder storm went through last night. It dropped the temp from 92 to 70 very quickly. 

Looks like another hot one today.... must bring lots of water to soccer practice this evening. I'm off to trim up the hunter star blocks for a bit and then I need to go pick up lunch from Wendy's for my lunch with Aidan at school today. Emily had a subway sub yesterday when I went in to have lunch with her. This is the last time that will happen this year as they are out of school in just a few weeks.

Design Wall Monday

This is what I have been working on the last few weeks. It is not sewn together yet but all the blocks are made. They just need to be trimmed down to 8.5 inches. I hope to have this as a top this week so I can quilt it next week, get the binding on and ship it out the beginning of June.

I'm linking up with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

Happy Mothers Day and Slow Stitching Sunday...

I just want to wish my Mom Arlene a very happy Mothers Day. You are my hero and role model. I can only hope that I am half a good as Mom to my kids as you were to your five very lucky kids. Love you.

I was woken up at 7AM this morning with breakfast in bed by my son! He had a bag he made at school with a muffin and an instant coffee packet in it for my breakfast in bed. Very sweet. Then I was gifted a lovely vase he decorated himself with sticker beads and a bouquet of flowers (Thanks Grandma H - my new photo import is being finicky and after 30 minutes I gave up trying to find the flower photo!). I also got some lovely drawings and a card made just for me.

I had already dug into the cake he decorated at school on Friday - the local Public grocery store brings heart shaped cakes and decorating supplies for the kids to work on the Friday before Mothers Day. I had sent in the money a few weeks ago for each of them to decorate one. Emily would not show me anything she has made so I'll get her things later this afternoon when Grandma returns her home from a sleepover this afternoon.

After a short day of work today I'll enjoy some ribs and whatever sides the boys come up with. Aidan was watching an irish cooking show this morning and I have a feeling we might have an orzo risotto for dinner this evening.

Later this evening I'll enjoy some slow stitching on the back porch, smelling the gardenia's and relaxing while watching my kiddo's play in the pool. I have a feeling my appliqué flower will get finished off and then maybe some slow stitching on my hand pieced trip around the world block in greens.

I hope whatever you are doing today you find some time for a little slow stitching. Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other projects are being worked on today.

RSC Green....

I missed last Saturday as I had not pulled out any green to play with. I had to remedy that situation this Friday as I took a break from the Hunter star blocks in blue and white to work on some green. I did notice I tend to have more of the sage greens in my stash rather than the deep forest greens. I guess my tastes have changed over the years....

My twinkle scrappy star decided to have a friend in a 16 patch block this month. I also made my sampler star in a star with the Vicki Welsh fabrics. While I was cutting some 2.5 inch blocks for these I was prepping my scrappy trip around the world blocks. I have them all cut for the first six rows.... now to mark them so I can get stitching. I am going to miss my bowling time to work on these now that the season is done until August.

Head on over to the RSC Challenge on Saturday morning to see what other deep green projects are being worked on this week.

Mom - just had a salad for lunch with my lettuce picked from out front and a handful of cherry tomato's from my plant. I'll be able to add cucumbers from the garden next week - five are started =). Will try and Skype this afternoon as I am working all weekend.

More Blueberries picked and a recipe!

The kids had an early release today so after I picked them up and homework was done, we headed to pick some blueberries.

Aidan on the other side of the blueberry bush.

Emily with her berries.

All done picking - they each picked over a pound of blueberries.

We then headed to the store to see Daddy and see if he wanted us to pop out and pick up a late lunch for him. Since we were there..... we got him some lunch and a small mocha shake for him and Gail. The kids and I had a small frosty from Wendy's to cool us down after being outside picking.

They cleaned up the store - with the duster and the broom and each got fifty cents and a big noodle for the pool. 

Veggies and sausage went into the oven to roast while some pasta was set to boil. Dinner got pulled together and then the kids wanted to make something with Blueberries. Aidan wanted 'that cake thing'  Mom..... Blueberry Buckle Cake it is! The house smells wonderful with blueberry and cinnamon baking in the oven. Here is the recipe - we originally got it from the Betty Crocker cookbook - coffee cakes and the blueberry variation.

BlueBerry Buckle Cake

3/4 cup sugar.

1/4 cup shortening

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups blueberries

topping

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

Mix sugar, shortening and egg; Stir in milk. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Add blueberries. Mix top mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Spread blueberry mixture in a greased and floured 9 inch pan. Sprinkle the top with the topping. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

Makes 9 servings. 

Monday = Blueberry picking!

I decided to try picking blueberries down here this morning. I went over to Bellieview at Abshier Blueberry Farm and boy what a nice morning I had picking lots of ripe blueberries. 4.5 pounds later (Under $16!) I have two full half sheet pans in the freezer and two containers of berries in the fridge for snacking on. I'll transfer the berries into quart ziplock bags for the freezer once they are individually frozen. The kids have a  half day of school on Wednesday..... I think I might take them to pick some blueberries if it is not too hot =) I see lots of blueberry muffins and bread all year long!

Abshier Blueberry Farm

My bucket of blueberries.

Slow stitching Sunday.....

Kathy reminds us each Sunday to slow down and relax with some slow stitching. I plan to snuggle up in my recliner later this evening and work on block number 39 out of 49 on my Hugs and Kisses quilt. I am down to the last 10 blocks in the center section! I'll have to start thinking of what quilting pattern will go in the first plain border but I have plenty of time to think on that while running some slow stitches into this quilt.

Head on over and see what other turtle stitching is going on today around blog land. This is one of my plants as of Friday. Some pretty flowers on a Sunday morning.