Hand Pieced Quilt Along..... Block #2

I was able to stitch block #2 last night as the kids were working on their science projects. One is due Friday... one on Monday. Someone is just like his Mom and procrastinates..... then got frustrated when word would not do what he wanted. He has one more day to finish up his board... and hopefully we are both still alive when it is done!

Block #2

I am going to make 2 of each block so the little quilt will be a little bit bigger! 

Linking up with Elm street Quilts and Simple.Handmade. Everyday. 

Tiny Tuesday

I got an umbrella done today! This is the last one in red. I was planning to take a photo of all 5 for the month of January..... but..... did I mention I picked up the sewing area since the AC guy came today to clean.... and for the life of me I can't figure out where the first 2 ended up? I'll find them.... eventually!

Looks like the color selected for February is yellow! I get to sew some yellow umbrella's next.

Slow Sunday....

 Well, not really.

There will be some breaks from cleaning (something about the AC guy coming for the twice a year cleaning on Tuesday... so I should clean up the sewing area/office so he can get into the closet where the unit is in the garage. Including finishing putting away xmas stuff boxes and all the **** all over the place that gets shoved in there. Sigh....

I will piece the backing for Aidan's quilt as well today and cut his batting. He gets to pin it this week.

I already logged into work once and moved something to production. I should also log in and finish getting something tested so I can promote that to test.... the joys of programming with the flexibility to work when I can. I am making up some time since Monday was a holiday, the kids had early release on Wednesday and Friday I was in and out with a Mammogram in the morning (all is well!) and kid pick up in the afternoon. Still 4 hours short for my 20 hour week.....

Excuse the foot!

There is always some hand work by my recliner to pick up in the little bits of time. I currently have the purple hexagon flowers out for basting.... and have been plugging away at them 1-2 at a time here and there. The following color sets are all basted and ready for their color month to arrive when they will get hand appliquéd to the black background.... pink, orange, yellow, bright greens. A little bit of time here and there (and that 20 minutes of car line time 5 days a week!) is getting them prepped. Left to do - about half the purples, light blues, dark blue, teals, brown and dark green.

Not too bad! I do wonder what color will be hand appliquéd to the black in February..... but I'll have to wait for Angela to announce it later this week.

For the hand pieced quilt along.... I made my blue and white block this week.

I found one of my girls liked hand piecing the flag for France at girl scouts  (my one who doesn't like to try anything and changed her mine and really liked it!). I sent the hand pieced quilt along link to her family and asked if she wanted to do it I'd be happy to cut things out for her from my stash. She accepted - so I need to cut some white, black and blue fabrics and fill a little hand stitching holder I have with what she needs to hand off to her tomorrow night. Emily decided to do it too... and has been picking pinks and teals....we will see what she decides to stitch. I pulled some shades of pink while clearing off the  floor (who knew - it is a beige carpet in there!).  I suppose that since the lunch break is over (I made corn chowder with 2 leftover corn on the cobbs from dinner last night) it is time to head back in and finish picking up/sorting and vacuuming the garage area a.k.a my office and sewing area. Well, maybe I'll stitch a purple hexagon or two first.... and run out and pick up photo's for the kids science project due in the next week.

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers. I promise... I will be sitting and stitching something by this evening. I'll need to rest and relaxing with my feet up and a needle in my hand!

Umbrella Thursday?

It was raining this morning as the cool front went through. Good thing I finished this umbrella last night!

This one is for you Mom! I might cut out and add the circular emblem from this fabric onto the red umbrella part.... maybe.

I also got another 8 yellow hexagon flowers basted last night. I'll have to restock the baggie with purples or blues for today. I have awards ceremonies at school for both kids this morning and then will arrive to bowling a little bit late today...but should be able to bowl game 2+3. Plenty of time to baste a few more of these guys.

Well, they are tiny....

Instead of working on the umbrella last night I basted 11 orange hexagon flowers. I have 8 of the bright greens basted and all 21 pinks I did over the weekend. Anyone else get that urge to just continue on with one project and get it moving? I have yellow in the baggie next to the chair for tonight. Then... all the blues - light, dark, teals and dark green and browns. Hey, they might all be basted (or most of them) by the end of the month at the rate I am going on them! It will make it that much easier when their colors come up in the RSC Challenge....... or you know... for me to just go ahead and applique them to the black background!

I decided to join the Hand Pieced Quilt along over at Elm Street Quilts and Simple. Handmade. Everyday. I was thinking a gray background.... but there was not enough contrast so went with white on white and that part will probably be scrappy..... just like the pulling random blues from the stash for the colors. 

It is slightly off the 6.5 inches so I'll have to fix that bottom right corner and get him all happy.

Now.... to resist the urge to pull the leftover Kansas Troubles Fabrics from the bottom drawer and make a few blocks in those fabrics...... 

This one will be one 6.5 inch block a week for 9 weeks released each Monday. It does make a small quilt..... so I might need to add blocks. We will see. 

Tiny Tuesday will become Oops Wednesday.....

Cause I don't have an umbrella done this week! I will work on it tonight for a post tomorrow.... after I take the girl to horses of course.

Dinner is easy - corned beef with carrot, potato, onion and some cabbage in the crock pot with an Irish soda bread in the oven right now. I hope there is some left when I get home!

I did do some sewing on Monday I can show. Aidan's quilt is now a top! The pattern is from Kim Diehl's book and is called Twilight Hopscotch. It measures 60x60. He also picked out a backing fabric - a blueish teal polka dot. Hopefully we can get it pinned this weekend.

Sunday.... a change of plans....

 Well, I had great ideas but ended up lazing away in the recliner after making a batch of beef barley soup and popovers for lunch. I got a nice stack of pink hexagon flowers basted so they will be ready when their color is called for the RSC Challenge.

I managed to get all 21 of the pink flowers basted today. It seems I have various numbers of colors.... based on what ever fabrics/scraps I had in my stash at the time. It should make a nice big quilt.

The unpicking on Aidan's quilt got done too.... those are the other half of what I showed earlier.

I just reminded the boys about the lunar eclipse tonight. They are setting up the telescope out back for it as it is a nice and clear and chilly night in Florida. Good thing no school tomorrow - they will miss a bit of sleep to watch a bit of it tonight.

Slow Sunday.....

It is a slow start to this Sunday. Emily made some cinnamon rolls from the can for breakfast. They opted not to go to Grandma's for the day. Aidan is still recovering from his flu like bug last week and Emily has some homework that needs working on. You can tell he is better cause he is driving me nuts!

A cold front will be going through today in Florida... the temps around upper 70's of yesterday are long gone with highs in the mid 50's and dropping today into the 30's. Still better than the bitter cold wind and snow and freezing rain most of the northern part of the country is getting today. Hope the power stays on for all of you.

I think it is a good soup day (beef barley?)... with maybe some popovers or home made bread to go with it? Maybe lasagna for dinner tonight....I have not had that in ages... we will see.

Today will be the day to  finish the last 2 strands of thread into the orange, piece the kitty ripped batting and then ROLL the quilt on the frame! I can get about 4 or 5 of the squares done each roll

The culprit... I need to find a small pvc pipe to roll that on and then  find some s hooks to pop onto the top bar... think that might work for a solution.

Sew exciting. I hope I remember how to do it as it has been almost a year since I was able to roll the quilt!

I also need to unpick some long rows of sewing on Aidan's quilt and resew it so I can get his quilt to a top stage. I sewed half of it together yesterday but need to undo what Aidan did last week before he got frustrated. There is a pieced outer border to go still but the end is in sight!

Cooking, baking bread, hand and machine sewing... sounds like a wonderful day!

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.

Saturday... Reds and a Horse Show!

For the RSC Challenge - I got all 17 of the red hexagon flowers basted and hand appliquéd onto the 6.5 inch black background. I just need to cut away the black background from the back of the flower and pick out one of the basting stitches.

I hope to pop into the sewing room shortly and work on something.... just not sure what yet. Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

It has been a long week. Aidan was home sick from school Wed-Fri with flu like symptoms. He was better today and went with us to Emily's horse show. He is resting now in his room. Good thing we have a long weekend so he has a couple more days to fully recover before school on Tuesday.

Horse Show - Emily was at her first horse show today. She did good on Prince.... who really wanted to go fast today. She did showmanship first - led him around the ring, then lined up. Walked a straight line to the judges, stopped. The judge walked around her and the horse. Then a 180 degree turn and stop. Then walk a straight line back to the line up. Somehow she placed 1st!

Then  it was wait a couple of hours watching all the others before she did the riding part of the show with her group. Again... Prince wanted to go fast today. She did 3 groups on the horse and placed 3rd, 4th and finished with a 1st place. Not bad for her first horse show.

She enjoyed herself and these red roses were waiting for her when she got home.

Tiny Tuesday Week 3

Coming to you a wee bit late today but it is still Tuesday! I did this in the car line. I think it looks more like a mushroom than an umbrella this week!

My troop chose France for Thinking Day. We have been learning a bit about girl scouting in France. We needed to have a Flag for the event.... I cut out a 12x24 of blue, white and red right before the meeting. Drew a 1/4 line on each side of the white and took it with me with my hand stitching coin purse. 

I asked my juniors (4th graders) if they wanted to hand stitch it after I got the rest working on making a few more croissant swaps and attaching our label. (which they corrected me as I put 2018 instead of 2019!) Oops! Anyway.... I had two say sure, and another 2 with no... but one changed her mind and ended up really enjoying it! Her cousin got a photo and I let Grandma know! hehehe... I'm going to convert these girls... they just don't know it yet! They did a great job too!

Slow Down Sunday.

Progress has been made on the frame - I kinda like hand quilting at night while Emily reads to me! I will be piecing some batting this week so I can roll it. Amazing how quickly it goes when you actually work on it! =) I'll be working on this upper left hand part of the orange this evening.... and then will need to piece that batting the cats got into before I can roll it to the next part. 

Linking up with the other Slow stitchers today.

First up today,  I am helping out at a girl scout event for the afternoon - Smores and Swaps at our local Camp Wildwood about 20 minutes from me. It is to show the girls and their parents around camp and make a SWAP at each 'area' of camp. Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere) The idea is to get the parents and girls comfortable going for encampments with their troops or for a week in the summer. I'm not sure what I'll be helping with but I will bring some hand work with me... there are always some red hexagon flowers ready to attach to the black background or the rest of the color of flowers to get basted for applique. I have a baggie of light and bright greens ready to baste down in the car.  Nice and portable to fit in my backpack with my water and power zero and a snack. Looks like highs around 77 today.

The grumpy kids are off to Grandma's for the day. I had to wake Aidan in the night to grab the humidifier from his room to put it in Emily's... who could not sleep with a stuffed up/runny nose. Some vicks on her chest and the humidifier and she slept from 3-8 with no issues. I see an early bedtime for them tonight....

RSC in red.... week 2

Well, it doesn't seem like much but progress has been made with the red hexagon flowers. I have ten all completed - they are appliquéd down on to the black background. I need to cut some more squares out to finish off the rest this week. I have seven to go.

I also cut out some 2 inch squares to make 9 patches. Why I made sure there were FIVE in each pile.... for a nine patch..... I am not quite sure! I had to grab a few more strips from the bin and cut a few more for each of them. Little nines.... not sure what they will become... maybe set with white and black like Angela, little stars.... I'll just make some each month and see what they decide to become.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

Hubby's birthday was Friday. He took the day off work and relaxed. We went out to Yamata's for dinner with the kids then headed over to where the scoop shop is to see what older model cars were out for their monthly meet.

Aidan loves cars..... and Emily was enjoying seeing the clean engines and the different models. This one arrived right before we left and the couple said the kids could sit in the car! It had a rumble seat!

Today... Emily had a 1 hour lesson with a bunch of the other kids in the show next Saturday. She wants to work with them on what they will need to do. They were practicing circles with the horses on Tuesday so I assume that is one of the tasks.

The garden got weeded, tilled and parts replanted. I pulled the radishes (yummy) and replanted for you Mom. The scallions are up... we'll throw a few more in of those as well. Now if I remember to water them we might have progress this time with the beans, peas and beets. The swiss chard is little but hopefully regular watering will help it along. Aidan has squash and peppers planted as well. I need to grab some herbs and lettuce to add to the mix too.

Scrappy Log Cabin in Greens.....

I made a little more progress and got all the logs I had started finished off. I think they came out pretty good! They remind me of the trees popping out their leaves in the spring up in the green mountains of Vermont. Lots of shades of green can be seen in the mountains. No clue how this one will end up being set... but I laid them out like this for a photo.

The blocks are very scrappy and just sewn along - any width scrap that I grab from the floor. I have a pile of greens and creams next to each other. So fun to make. No thinking, just grab a scrap and sew it on. Press and trim and repeat. The final blocks are trimmed to 12.5 inches. This will end up being a queen size quilt when done......  Time to start another set of 10-14 logs for the next set.

Tiny Tuesday....

No rain in the forecast but I have a nice little umbrella just in case! Sophie let me pose it with her.

Slow Sunday... new projects....

After a slew of binding finishes this week (baby hearts and 16 patch, Emily's quilt) it is time for some 'new' hand work projects. 

This is Emily's quilt as of last night. 

The baby hearts quilt is done so I get to put the little basket quilt into the hoop for hand quilting. This is 32x32 and was hand appliquéd in the summer of 2017. 

I pulled out my hand pieced hexagons from 2014 and will be basting them for applique onto 6.5 inch black background in accordance with the rainbow scrap challenge this year. Red is the color for January and I got all 17 of these basted and one prepped for applique onto the background. I hope to prep the other 16 today so I can just leave them in the car with supplies for car line this week.

It was also time to give some attention to the trip quilt on the frame in my bedroom. I had avoided it as the kittens did some damage to the batting and I was too afraid to look and figure out a plan. I dared to look last week and will be doing some batting stitching once I am ready to roll this.... but that means I have some quilting to do before I have to deal with that. I think I will be doing this in the evenings while Emily reads to me for her 20 minutes of reading per day. It is a good goal for both of us! I did the top section in purple on Thursday evening while she was reading.

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers. A big thank you to Kathy and all who have encouraged me in my hand work endeavors over the years.

I am signed up to start a hand pieced quilt along starting tomorrow over at Elm Street Quilts and Simple. Everyday. Handmade. Take a look and if you want a fun little quilt along to start the year this might be the one for you!

Happy Sunday Everyone!

RSC Saturday..... 2019!

So happy to be participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again this year! I have loads of block collections still... but will start a new one or two as well. The plan for this year... I think!

I pulled out this bunch of hand pieced (not english paper piecing or EPP) hexagon flowers I made back in 2014 with this challenge. Time to dust them off and move them along!

I kept pulling out handfuls of them from the drawer...and would check and find more! I sorted them into colors for the year to work on. Looks like the blue and green months will be busy... despite there being 4 of them (aqua, light blue, dark blue, green). I counted 17 reds. I was consistent with a yellow center on these and had planned to make a black hexagon around each to join them together..... well, 5 years later and nothing so a new plan was needed! I was looking through a quilting book (admit it, you do that at the end of each year too for inspiration!) and saw this one in the Sylvia Bridal Sampler book. Page 36 - so I remember later!

I just need to decide what size background block to make and then cut a slew of them from this nice long piece of black that has been waiting for years to be used with this project.  I'm not sure if I want a finished 5 inch, 5.5 inch, 6 inch or 6.5 inch. I'm thinking finished 6 inch right now.  Just had an idea pop into my head.... Add a hexie on each joined block point.... either quilted in a pretty color or an actual fabric and appliquéd down..... just a thought!

It is so nice having a plan....and built in easy hand work to take with me! I'll have to make sure to pop the flowers into a baggie with the necessary supplies (thread, needle, scissors) so I'll have it ready to grab..... or just leave in the car for car line or appointments.

I took the 17 reds with me on Thursday - bowling, dentist appointment for the kids and waiting to go to the dentist appointment. All 17 got basted and are ready for applique!

This year I am also doing a 'Tiny Tuesday' post each week and it will coordinate with the RSC Challenge. I'm planning to make a little hand applique umbrella block each week this year. This was my first one I made for Tuesday in red. I have not decided if they will all be the same design or not... they have not told me yet!

I'm also back working on the hand quilting of another RSC Challenge quilt - my hand pieced trip around with colorful world which is on my quilting frame. Read my last post for info on that one. This is what it looked like as a top back in 2015 - hand pieced with 2.5 inch squares.

I guess I am moving along a couple of 'old' ones and starting a new one... so far!

We will see what the scrap pile of reds comes up with next week!

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2019 on Saturday.  A big thank you to Angela for hosting this fun challenge again this year! Hard to believe this is the 9th year I have participated as I have posts back to the year 2011 for this challenge!

Quilting frame...

I have the 90x90 trip around the world quilt on the hand quilting frame. It has been sitting there for a very long time, poor thing. It seems when the kittens arrived back in February .... they kinda had fun playing on and in it. I have been avoiding checking to see the real damage.... but today I took a look.

This is the result. Lots of rips in the batting. Sigh..... Looks like I will need to do some stitch piecing of it before I roll the quilt. For now... I'll just continue the hand quilting and deal with the 'fixing' of the batting when I get to the turn.

Ongoing solutions? Hmmmmm. I might find a long PVC pipe or see if there is a cardboard roll in the middle of my warm and natural batting roll to maybe roll the remaining batting onto... and then cover it with something  when not in use so the cats don't get to it again. I just pull it to the front and put on top of the quilt and then cover it with another finished quilt. Keeps the cats off from it for now.

I have 'stolen' my quilting chair back and will go put a few stitches in while the house is fairly quiet.

Kids had their first day back to school today - all went well. They got their teeth cleaned and no cavities. Dinner was ready in the crock pot when we got home - chuck roast with potato, carrot and onion in a yummy sauce (cream of mushroom soup, lipton onion soup mix, brown gravy mix and a little water). Time to relax. I have been doing hand work all day - and 17 red hexagon flowers are all basted and ready to get appliquéd onto a black background! But that is for another day.

Mom - Since Aidan had his growth spurt last week he has been a little accident prone. Well, Sunday..... he was bugging Em at bedtime and she slammed the bathroom door on his toe. I nicely hollered for Greg to tend him (there might have been blood and you know me!) and I dealt with the door slammer. Tuesday he slammed his left thumb in the car door at Grandma's house and Wednesday evening he took a spill on the scooter and got a nice big bloody scrape right below his knee and on his foot where the leg meets it and then scraped the middle part of his leg.  Hopefully that was the last of the incidents after this growth spurt.... it usually take a week or two for him to get his balance back.

New Years Day sewing....

Lots of progress on the sewing front. Does that mean I will have a good year of crafting? Time will tell.

 I officially finished the binding on the Baby Hearts quilt on New Years Eve. Emily needs to tack down the label triangle, a quick check of the applique then a wash and dry before shipping off to it's owner..... who was born last July! Just a wee bit late! Sorry Ari.

 New Years Day - I finished the binding on the 16 patch quilt. Peanut was scared of all the fireworks on Monday night and decided he needed to be on my chest for comfort so no stitching on my movie marathon. Ollie was with Greg. Sophie....she just goes with the flow and sleeps through it all!

 I got 2 sides of Emily's binding stitched while watching a movie with them once they got home yesterday afternoon.

For the machine...... After unpicking a bunch of wrong parts on NYE, I got all 16 blocks of Aidan's quilt sewn together! Woo Hoo! I hear we will get a little more progress in today after I finish working at 1:30 while Emily is off to a play date. We will have a couple of hours before his guitar lesson to make the sashing parts and start putting it together.

Tiny Tuesday post #1

It's a new year and time for something NEW!

It rains most every day (just for a little bit) for about half the year down here in Florida. You know, that late afternoon shower when the high humid temps from the atlantic hit the ones from the gulf and drop rain on my part of the state to cool it down slightly before all that water gets absorbed into the air and makes it extra hot and sticky.

All of that to let you know I am making cute little umbrellas this year for my tiny tuesday posts. I think I will try a few different applique methods and see what works better for them. I did back basting on this block yesterday and I need practice on it as I have not done it in a while... and forgot about the proper order! I'm also going to go with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for the month through October and then will fill in with whatever color needs to be added.

In the past I have done Tiny Tuesday posts with Midget Blocks, Midget Applique Blocks, Civil War Diary Blocks.... I took a break but really missed it so I decided to bring it back. If you'd like to join in with your own Tiny Tuesday post, please link up and tell us about your project. None of the above sets of blocks are finished quilts.... I guess I just like to make blocks!

I looked at coloring pages to download but I didn't see any the size I wanted, so while on the phone with Mom yesterday I measured a 5.5 inch square on paper and drew an umbrella based on some photo's I liked. I cut a 6 inch square and drew the umbrella onto the back of my background fabric (remembering to turn the photo over so it would not be backwards.... although some will be turning the opposite way I think). Then I place the underside of the umbrella fabric (yellow this time) facing out on the front of the fabric and from the back did a loose stitch on the line. I used needle turn applique to turn it. Next was the top nobin in yellow, then it should be the handle then the umbrella.... which is not the order I did it in but will next time!

I think it came out cute and goes with the RED RSC color for January. I'll just trim it to 5.5 inches and it will wait for the rest of the 51 at the end of the year. I decided to do it on point... cause I think they will look cute in a final setting that way. Hmmm. I think I will add some blue embroidery to make some 'sections' on this umbrella. The best part is I pulled all these parts from the scrap bins!