Graduation quilt.....

Another year, another graduation quilt needed. This year Sally graduates from high school so she is needing a quilt for her graduation present. The good news..... I am almost out of nieces and nephews... just her younger brother is left to graduate in 2 years! Then my 2... but that is a long way off, thank goodness!

Sally has selected blue and yellows.... and a simple zig zag type pattern. She is a no frills type of person. I'll have to get out some paper and colored pencils and see what I can come up with ..... I was thinking of having the values go from light to dark.... but we will see what the paper drawings come up with. I grabbed this lot of fabrics to play with (70% off at Joann's on Sunday!) along with what I have in my stash for her quilt. I think I got 2 yards of each....the yellows are different values even though it did not show in the photo. I know I have another light and medium yellow in my stash to go with this light and dark yellow.

Wish me luck!

Some links for ideas for this quilt... so I have them in one place!
Rachelmhayes easy quilt for beginners.
blue zig zag - looks like easy half square triangles.
quilting cubby - like how this one looks.
Fons and porter version.
Super Zig pattern.
Chevron quilt.

Slow Sunday Stitching....

I have finally been making progress on the baby heart quilt. I figured out a solution that works for me in quilting the edges.... without getting frustrated. I had to switch to my pvc square lap hoop and then use a couple of big safety pins to hold the edges of my 6 inch block down by the edge.

Of the 63 blocks in this quilt, I have 17 left to go!

I got a couple of them quilted yesterday while taking breaks from working outside in the garden. I am happy to say the kids have it planted..... we will see if anything comes up! It is way too hot to grow or be out to tend to it in the summer in Florida (for me anyway!). We have beans and peas, swiss chard, beets, carrots, summer squash, red leaf lettuce and radishes. I think Aidan planted some peppers as well. They will grow for him... he has the green thumb in the family.

I am done trying to baby this cold and fear I will overdo today... but it must be done. Seems they are not good at 'putting away'. I need to find a path through the sewing area and office and put all the xmas boxes away, clean up the kitchen (which I have not really gone in since Thursday other than to make turkey noodle soup yesterday) and dig out the master closet.... which had the top rack pull out last night with a huge noise as it came down with everything on it. We were a little concerned as Ollie has been sleeping in there and we could not find him... a bit of frantic digging to try and make sure he was not smushed and then Aidan found him in back of the couch. 3 cats accounted for and I left the mess (at 8:15 last night) until today to deal with. Which reminds me I think the board on my sewing wall is pulling away a bit... so I need to pull some weight off that before it does the same thing in there!
Sigh...... my breaks will be relaxing with some slow stitching. So nice to have something around to work on to relax with.

I'll pop out first thing to pick up supplies to make unicorn ornaments at scouts tomorrow. Then we go over the packing list..... drive in campout is Saturday and we sold out the drive in! Looks like 78 for high that day and low in the 50's. Over 500 scouts closed it to the outside for a girl scout only event - movies, fun, bonfire and smores, tenting and then breakfast and clean up. We have 10 going with 4 adults. Wish us luck!


Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers today.

Friday.... finishing Xmas decorating

The kids put out a bunch of Christmas stuff a few weeks ago. Chilly the elf arrived this morning  in the manger scene the kids put on top of the bookcase in the dining room. The outside lights are in process with Greg and  the kids. They are on a break.... so the Christmas tree is getting decorated now by the kids.

I am resting and relaxing in my recliner supervising while getting a little hand quilting in on the baby hearts quilt. I am working on the bottom edge row. I am trying to not do anything today so I feel better tomorrow.

The kids did good at the drive in last night. The grinch movie was ok - I prefer the original. The nutcracker movie was great. I'd see it again in a heartbeat. Great message and a good feel good movie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Waking up with a head cold on Thanksgiving is never fun. Turkey is in the oven, potato are ready to be cooked, stuffing is ready to go in the oven and the rest will arrive with Grandma! Emily is all set to make the taco salad for the appetizer. 

Tonight I had promised a drive in double feature for the kids - the grinch and the nutcracker! We were going to go last night... but I figured I didn't want cranky kids today... I'll deal with them tomorrow! They won't get home and into bed until after 11 tonight. 

May you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving with Family and Friends today.

Two post Sunday????

I made the two light pink blocks I had prepped and then dug into the scrap bin and found a brighter pink... just what I needed to make the last pink block.

I laid them out on the diagonal and needed 2 more blocks... I needed darker ones and decided to switch things up a bit with the last alternate block by doing purple and bright green and a red and dark blue block. It needed a little more of the dark to make the quilt happy. Not sure the blocks will end up in these exact spots... but I am happy with having all 32 of the Squared Away blocks completed. I have plenty of the white for the setting triangles so this might actually become a top sometime this week!

It seems since Emily has a sleepover scheduled with a friend on Monday night (after returning from Grandma's) Aidan might just stay with Grandma another night (Mom is boring by herself especially when she is working at home...... according to Aidan). No meals to plan.... no kids to entertain..... do you hear sewing time? Maybe I can get more parts and pieces of Aidan's quilt sewn while the kids are away.

Slow Sunday... and figured out a fix for not being able to leave comments!

First off - Happy Sunday!

I think I'll try and add a few leaves to block 1 of the Save the Bees sew along.

 I also hope to put a few stitches into the sadly neglected baby heart quilt that really needs to get finished and shipped to it's new owner who is almost 5 months old! This corner heart will get finished today...

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

Oh - I have not been able to leave comments on blogs since about mid October. (sorry about that, I have been reading just not able to comment using Safari when the only option is google account). I found this morning that if I use a different browser (I am on a mac so went with Opera) I am able to leave comments! Yea. I will try and visit blogs later today and actually be able to leave some comments again.

Saturday was our Light up Ocala Parade and my girl scout troop walked in it yesterday afternoon. We combined the two troops (my co-leader has a daisy troop with a few younger sisters) for making the banner and walking.
I'm so happy our girls got a first place ribbon! That was  a first for us... they tend to judge 3 banners at a time for 1,2,3 place. We usually get 3rd since we let the girls do the banner. One of our juniors (4th grade) came up with the idea and they all worked on it this year (Kg-4th grade). The theme was G.I. R. L. - Go Getter, Innovator, Risk Taker and Leader. They decided THEY were the G. I. R. L. and I printed out photo's of things we have done in the last year.  I am so proud of them. We had 15 walking in the parade in our troops and 216 girl scouts from our area. Emily and I ended up going out to eat after at the Golden Corral with my co-leaders family for dinner.

Today, they are headed to Grandma's for an overnight (they are off school this week) and I'm taking the hubby to the movies to see the newest Harry Potter film. I will also have plenty of time to play with my sewing machine and get some slow stitching in. As Kathy reminds us, even just a few stitches will help to relieve stress, remind us to breathe and slow down and appreciate all we have and our talents of what we are able to do. After all, it is Thanksgiving week here in the USA and we do have a lot to be thankful for.

Saturday....

I am attempting to get my quilting mojo back. That feeling of being overwhelmed has hit the last few months and the effort to try and do creative things has left me. I am trying to change that.... by pulling fabrics to finish the last 3 pink Squared away blocks today. Well, you can see the trouble I ran into. The helper is holding down the fabric! I confess, I am getting frustrated with the new ruler. It is 6.5 instead of the 6 inches wide I was used to. Let's just say there have been quite a few miss cuts! I know I will get used to it eventually but the learning curve is frustrating.

I am finding it tough to pick the pinks....but will go with what I have as this is a scrappy quilt. My pink stash is lacking........ I guess I have a daughter that prefers red and purple! I'm going to try the magic 8 method to make the half square triangles since I need 8 of the same for this block. Always good to try new things. Here is a shot of the blocks so far.

I have a little time before heading out to walk in the local light up Ocala parade with the girl scout troop. There is no rain in the forecast and the temps are in the 70's so it will be comfortable. I let the boys know they are in charge of dinner tonight. We had pizza last night so we will see what they come up with!
Linking up with the RSC Quilters. See how others are coming along with finishing up some scrappy quilts they have been working on this year.

Where did the weekend go?

Well, I was to be at Camp Wildwood all this weekend but one of the two things fell through. That left me on Saturday to whip the house into shape a bit and after a few hours of everyone pitching in, it looks much better. We took a break for lunch and then a Grandpa A visit. I asked if anyone wanted to head out to the trails for a walk - Aidan said yes, so we asked Dad and Emily. It was a family walk! We took a trail that led over and around and who know's where, and after a long time we met up with the paved trail they added last year. It was about a mile back to the car... much shorter that way! I figure in all we did about 5 miles as I was at around 6000 steps when we left and was at around 16,000 when we got home. It was a good time in the woods with the temps finally where they should be in the mid 70's. A few of the photo's I took along the walk.

Aidan and 'his' tree. 

I love how this tree looks with all the branches.

Emily, Aidan and Hubby

Palm bushes

Mom and Aidan... with real trees in the background! Aidan said it looked like a photo shopped background!

The kids think this looked like a frog last year... so needed a photo with it this year too!

I did it again in a different wood today. I was at Camp Wildwood in Wildwood, FL  for a 6 hour training session at the nature center. Takes about 20-25 minutes to walk there from the parking lot, and we did Project Wild and Aquatica Wild training which had us getting up and playing various games and exploring the outdoors around us, including the lake they are reclaiming and the marsh land for animals and habitat.  It is teaching a program for K-12  lots of different things in all areas of habitat, conservation and forestry. Great for home schooling, regular schooling and scouting. For $10, I decided to take it with 3 of my co-leaders in the 2 troops we have (my daisy, brownie, junior) and my co-leader's daisy troop for a few of the younger sisters in our troop and a couple of extras. I hit my 10,000 steps a little bit before I made it to my car after the training. It was a good weekend for hitting my daily step goal of 10,000.

I got home in time to drop Emily to a friends birthday party. Then was eating dinner when the boy got returned by Grandma. Aidan wanted to play a game - so we did the updated Monopoly version where it uses a scanner to keep track of things.... I believe money bags Dad won the game. We had to put it on hold to go gather Emily (about 18 streets up the road) and then it was time to settle in for a last week of school before the week of Thanksgiving break for them. Last night I read to Emily while she was in the bath and tonight it was Aidan's turn. Reading Homeland to Emily and a Geronimo Stilton book to Aidan. We finally finished our last Upside Down Magic book last week and Friday were reading a new book we got from the Scholastic book fair Thursday night before we hit the STEM night put on by the Orlando Science Museum. It is a scary (but funny) take on the fairy tales... the belly laughs from the boy were hilarious. Unfortunately I had the Peace Porridge song in my head... all day long....from a retelling of the Princess and the Pea... or in this book pee.

As for hand work..I have been too tuckered out to do much of anything at night....
I did try a new crochet stitch called Trinity stitch for a dish cloth. Aidan requested one in blue and green.. you know, so he can do dishes! I'll believe it when I see it but I am trying to make one. I need to remember to keep it loose or I have trouble with it being too tight. A pretty stitch though and I think I am getting the hang of it. Maybe I'll add a row or two tonight before I turn in. I need to do 16 rows of blue then 8 of green. Good thing it is just a dish cloth so it doesn't have to be perfect.

Another weekend in the books and a start of a new work week tomorrow. I have blood work for my annual physical tomorrow morning after I drop the kids to school. Let's hope I remember no coffee in the morning! For now, I'm enjoying the smell of the night blooming Jasmine outside the bedroom window as I wind down for the night.

Voting Day in the USA!

Today is voting day - Please exercise your right and duty as a citizen and go out and vote today! I voted on Friday - as we had early voting at my library and we had lots of things on our ballot. Do your research - the ad's are all conflicting so do the research and find out the facts.  Vote for what you feel is the best option. Let your voice be heard.


And hopefully we can go back to the nice normal advertisements for food in the evenings! =)



Also -be careful driving out there. I witnessed another accident in front of my kids elementary school this morning. I stayed (well, came back after dropping kids off) and shared what I saw with the officer. The young lady - 7 months pregnant who was run into on her drivers side door kept thanking me for staying to share what I saw and checking to make sure she was ok. The other person who hit her didn't get out of her vehicle until a friend of hers stopped to see what happened. Very scary - the kids were in the back seat as I was waiting to turn into the school to drop them off. A few weeks ago a car was pushed onto it's side and the parent had to be excavated from the vehicle. All in a 20 MPH zone.....

Any progress on Sunday?

Well, Emily decided to stay home with me instead of going to Grandma's with Aidan cause it was my birthday. I did not get my full day in the sewing room but did get a little progress on Aidan's Hopscotch quilt. The star points are all made, pressed and trimmed. I have lots of teal and grey triangles..... and no I did not think to sew them before trimming them.
I also cut the strips to make the 128 - 4 patches of grey and orange. Now to sub cut and sew them all... then add the 2 grey blocks to them and those 64 parts will be all done - hopefully this week.
Assembly time comes after that. I am hoping his will be a top by Thanksgiving week and then if I have patience - I'm going to let each of them pin and machine quilt their quilts on my little domestic sewing machine. Send me patience please! They are off school the week but I still have to work from home... which is always fun.

RSC Saturday

I got a little sewing time last weekend. I did manage to get the 3 green challenge blocks done. I do see that I need to find that seam ripper and make a fix to one of these guys. Can you find the mistake?
Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

I have to say.... I am so happy this week is done. I really dislike halloween. It was a crazy week...

Monday - IEP with Emily for speech at school. Keeping her at 2 - 30 minute group speech sessions a week during the school year. No walk in the morning so I could make up the time needed to go to school. That night was  scouts with a potluck party and trick or treating in the room.

Tuesday the kids had their honor awards at school. Both kids sent home an invite for me to go to their awards. Emily got AB and Aidan got all A honor roll. After school was guitar and then the rescheduled safe halloween at school Emily wanted to help work at.

Wednesday was trick or treating about 13 streets down - they walked around the block and got their pumpkins 3/4 full!

Thursday.... was bowling for me while the kids were at school then that night I should have gone to a school choice seminar.... but I didn't. Sometimes you just need a night at home. Looks like the info is all online - we just need to schedule a walk through at a program at a middle school Aidan got invited to apply to. We did go to Taco bell after school and got our free Taco - thanks Mookie for stealing a base in the World Series!

Then I took the kids to Aldi because I needed peppers for chicken tortilla soup that night. Yup - $88 dollars later they are not allowed to go with me anymore! I did get a large trunk organizer and jumper cables.

Friday I voted early at the library after picking up the kids and then we had a family monopoly game in the evening.
On top of that.... deadlines at work got all moved up to testing for the business users on Wednesday ... 50 programs changed for a federal requirement done by 2 programmers,

over the last 2 months. Yikes! The other one got moved to production Monday by a coworker who kindly took it over for me so I could concentrate on the other one. Yup - I work 20 hours a week while the kids are in school..... or try anyway!

Today... temps in the mid 50's right now will rise to just the 70's today, so after I finish supervising the guinea pigs while Aidan cleans the cage (the cats have stuck a paw or two into the play yard with the new bottom protection for my floors) I will get dressed and head out to try and find soil in the overgrown garden area! It is too hot to plant in the summer in Florida and it is finally cooler so I will try a winter garden again which I have had luck with in the past. Getting it to that point..... Sigh. It will be a lot of work today to try and get a start on it.

Hand piecing quilt along in 2019

I saw this yesterday and signed up! Kristin at kristinesser.com from Simple. Handmade. Everyday and Patty Dude from Elm Street Quilts are hosting a hand piecing sew along starting in January.

Just passing it along in case anyone else wants to join in.

For information click here.