Mid week checkin....

Monday we celebrated a birthday. Aidan turned 9.... how in the world did 9 years pass so quickly? Grandma got him roller skates - Emily asked for some at Christmas so he needed a pair. Holy cow - she had his feet measured last week to order the right size - he was in a 4.5 sneaker and now he is a 5.5 and in a 6 for the skates! That is MY shoe size!

 I cancelled girl scouts that night and we got to go out to eat as a family. He got to choose the restaurant.... since we had just gone out to Yamato's the Japanese Steak House for Greg's birthday last month.. he chose Golden Corral. His birthday present still isn't here (bad Mommy didn't order it until Friday - oops!). We got him some extras to go with the Dash and Dot robot that Santa delivered for Christmas. The Launcher and Xylophone should be interesting for them to program and play with once they arrive.

Yesterday the Guinea Pigs got their nails trimmed and got to feel the grass outside for the first time. A carrot from the garden and Aidan added spinach from the garden for the other one right after I shot this photo. The black and brown one is Jimmy Jr - Aidan's and the other is Flower - Emily's. Yes, despite the name they are both boys!

Today is a half day at school, again. Both kids get to go to Crayola today... assuming everyone is healthy. Emily has been battling a cold for a while now (almost 2 weeks?) and Aidan's legs have been achy and he is tired a lot - growing again I think. I swear this kid is going to be taller than me (5 feet 2 inches) by Christmas!

No sewing yet this month... other than hand work on the 1857 blocks (all those corner peels are onto the blocks I did last month). So.... what are my plans for the 17 in 2017? Continue with the 1857 blocks - 20 to make to 'catch up'..... I hope to get 4 or 5 done this month in the car line and at bowling.

Since Teal is the color for the RSC.... I am going to pull out the 12 - 8.5 inch cat blocks and sew them together. I found a mouse that I think will work as a cute block in the borders (surfing mouse coloring photo's while helping with homework!) ... thinking 3 on each side running around with a teal spool block in each of the 4 corners. Will see how I do with that =) The mice with be 2 shades of grey I think and will be appliqued.

I also pulled out the RSC 2015 quilt. I forgot how pretty this one is. I am extending my chains into the border so they 'finish'. I think I stopped because I was out of pink or red or brown or purple...but I think I found some so we will see if I have enough of the background white to finish it off for the blocks. This one is huge... so I am debating on how to put it together. It will finish too big to finish on my sewing machine. I don't want to hand quilt this one (have too many others in the queue). I am thinking maybe do sections (border + 2 columns; 3 columns; 2 columns +border) and quilt each section and then connect carefully the top together and then use a sashing on the back. It will be an experience to do it without a sash on the front but I think it will work. Worst case - I'd like to get this into the strips by the end of the month. Maybe to quilt it next month?

I also got my Thangles quilt to a little top last month - 33x43 I think. I pulled a backing and some strips of leftover batting to piece together to work for the middle. I hope to get this little one quilted and a scrappy binding onto it by the end of the month. Lofty plans... along with my normal RSC blocks for the challenge. If not... there is always next month!!!