Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Tiny Tuesday....


This orange umbrella got completed this weekend. I may have had a pj day with lots of hand work on Sunday!

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Slow Sunday.....

Well, not really but it should be a quiet day as the kids are now headed to Grandma's and silly woman offered to keep them overnight! We will get them tomorrow after we go over for a BBQ for the memorial day holiday in the US. Please remember all those who served in the military and made the greatest sacrifice. A big thank you to them and their families for their service.
Injured bald Eagle at the zoo yesterday
Since it is crazy busy the last couple weeks of school.... the house really needs a thorough pick up and cleaning..... the kids are out of clean clothes (yup - lots of laundry today and tomorrow) and heck, if I clean it today it will actually stay clean for a whole day until the kids get home tomorrow night! I might have gotten a wee bit teary eyed in the last car line pick up Friday - as I watched the 5th graders line up for the traditional last walk through the school. I saw Aidan go in... and yes the tears dropped. First time I have been teary eyed with a school drop off or finish or anything! He will be heading to middle school in August and Em has one last year at her elementary school.


My table next to my recliner - an orange umbrella is prepped, Tons of badges that need to be added to a girl scout vest and my quilting thread for the basket quilt. Now that things are finished up and evenings are FREE.... I should have energy to actually stitch to my hearts content and make some progress on projects. Yes Mom... I plan to sew on the graduation quilt today as well...... tick, tock on that deadline!

Linking up with the Slow Stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts. I do see breaks all day today after 20-30 minutes of 'working' to sit and stitch a bit. I require small rewards to do housework! =)

The temps are indicating summer in central Florida ... mid 90's yesterday not including the heat index. We did a trip to Gainesville in the morning with the girl scout troop to see the Planetarium - Florida Spring skies to finish off their badge and then walked over to the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo for a pet encounter experience and then a self guided tour of the zoo.



This guy was just hanging around on the wall and let a few of us take a photo. I do love butterfly's.

I was tired from being out in the heat for a few hours...... so rested a bit before dropping the boy to a friends pool party/graduation party. It was to get done at 6... but someone was still in the pool having fun so I headed back at 7:30. He was exhausted when he got home and after a shower went right to bed and slept for 12 hours! Emily took a nap after we got home at 2:30 from the zoo.....

In between all that (and a dip in the pool for an hour with Emily last night) I managed to finally get all my backings cut out from behind the hexagon flowers this month! Quite a stack of them and all those cut out parts to find something to do with!


I might have gone ahead of the RSC and stitched a bunch of pink already...... there are more to go though with some pink, purple, light and dark blue and brown!


For now.... black beans soaked over night and are now simmering on the stove. Guess that means the kitchen should be tackled first... since they kinda boiled over on me already! With no kids around to turn up their nose..... I'm planning fajita's and black beans and rice for a meal today! Yummy.




Thursday, May 23, 2019

Yellow and blue - graduation quilt.


I got a little sewing in this morning after a nice long walk (no working today so I could do a good walk!). A lunch date with the hubby and then met up with someone who gifted me some batting she was getting rid of.




I did have some initial issues laying things out.... I had 3 rows of the dark blue and gold first and realized...ut oh.... this is not going to work! 30-40 minutes later with pencil and paper and photo's .... I decided as long as the blues look like a chevron with the same fabrics the yellows 'don't' have to be as they are similar. Yup, that is what I am going with! The graduate likes yellow...and asked for a yellow and blue chevron quilt. Simple and not busy. 

I might lay it out and see how 2 rows of each blue together look. I have enough done for 3 rows of each color blue. I will need 6  more rows to get it to be a little over 80 inches long for a twin size. I think the sides will be at least 60 inches.... if my math is correct. A little more cutting and sewing and pressing to do before I can make a final decision and start sewing these together this weekend. 

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Tiny Tuesday Umbrella anyone?

I started this guy in the car line today. I used back basting and got a start on it. I finished it up while Emily read to me this afternoon. 




A shot of the umbrella's that I have made so far this year! 


It has been awards week. Aidan's was yesterday for his last time at Elementary School. He got the Presidents Award and a Leadership Award. His good friend won the $4,000 scholarship to UCF after he graduated HS! He was so excited for him! 
Emily's awards ceremony was this morning and she got the Math Award and the coveted Golden Bear Award from her teacher. One boy and girl from each class get selected by their teacher for that award. They look at how they exemplify the rules of the school - Be your best, Everyone Safe, Active Learner, Respectful and Responsible - in and outside of the classroom. Her teacher got a little teary eyed when she handed it out to her and mentioned she wanted to keep her! They both were very proud of their awards.





Sunday, May 19, 2019

Sunday baskets

It was a slow Saturday for me yesterday and I made a little progress on the hand quilting of the baskets. Linking up with the other slow stitchers at Kathy's Quilts today.


While watching my favorite fall back movie yesterday - Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone..... I had too many questions from Aidan and he finally listened to me and went and grabbed the book and started reading it! For years..... he was not interested at all. He read 3 chapters in between a headache at the back of his head when he moves. He was a lot better yesterday but no where near 100% yet. Another day of rest for him and hopefully he will be ok for Monday. Em has a afternoon birthday party for a friend today. Hopefully I can just drop her after meeting the parents so I can come home and sew!

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Orange Umbrella's anyone?

I managed to finish stitching this orange umbrella this morning while at Emily's Nail Salon.. which was open at my recliner this morning!

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

The boy has been sick and was better this morning for a while but is still not his normal self. He is at least sitting up on the couch (was laying for the little bits of time he came out of his room the last 2 days) and watched a soccer match and now the food network. He came home from school Thursday with a bad sore throat, fever and had not been hungry or eating that day. He missed his last soccer game that night... and was sleeping when I got home before 7PM with Emily. He missed Friday - school trip to Busch Gardens... he was not happy.....  Some of it passed to me as I crawled into bed around 7:30 last night and guess I fell asleep as I woke up this morning! I was going to take Em to an open house and bbq this morning ... but sweeping the floor did me in and decided I needed to take it easy today instead. That's how Emily's nail salon opened! She picked blue as you can see my foot in the photo.


One week of school left! 5th grade awards are Monday morning... hopefully Aidan is better by then. 4th grade awards are Tuesday morning. We already got invited as she is getting 2 awards... I could guess math or science for one of them. She worked so hard and got 3 A's - math, science and Social Studies..... Fingers crossed the teacher puts in the final grade for Language Arts and it does bump it up to a B.... 

Hopefully I'll get in and cut and stitch some more parts for the graduation quilt today as well..... 


Sunday, May 12, 2019

Slowing down.....

I plan to spend a relaxing few minutes stitching on my basket quilt tonight. I took this one apart last Sunday and cut out the backing of each of the baskets as I wrote about here on Monday. I finally put the 3 parts together today and began the stitching. So much easier stitching those baskets now with 3 layers instead of 4, I am very glad I decided to start this one over again. Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

It has been busy as usual. I took both kids to my cooking club on Friday night - Emily played with her friends (the hosts girls) and Aidan helped cook as there were only a few of us. He made Touchdown Taco Dip - and it was yummy!

This morning -well most of the day really - was spent making sure everything is all set for my last scout meeting until August. We have bridging tomorrow and lots of badges to hand out. Balloons and fixings to make ice cream in a bag after our ceremony were purchased. I'll pick up the pizza's on the way to the meeting tomorrow night. Wish me luck!

 



Friday, May 10, 2019

Log cabin Finished!

I had to wait for the kids to get home so they could hold the quilt for the photo shoot!This quilt reminds me of the mountains in Vermont in the spring with all the colors of greens opening up after a dark winter.

 I couldn't decide which photo showed the quilt better..... so you got both. I pulled the blocks with lots of brights out as it was not working and made more with the darker fabrics with just a touch of bright thrown in here and there. Surprisingly... I still have tons of green scraps! I do like how this one turned out. A power session of hand stitching binding one day through 2 movies got a little over half of it done for the finish.


This finished at 94x94 with minimal straight line quilting. I used a warm and natural batting and the backing is a nice soft cream with a pretty vine on it. Hopefully it will raise some money for the Lake Elmore Lake Association's funding to help with the milfoil in the lake.

It just needs a wash and dry, label writing and then mailing it off to them.


Orange you glad it is the weekend?

Well, my weekend starts Friday at 1:30 PM when I get off work!

It is orange this month at the RSC and I had 11 orange hexagon flowers that needed to get hand appliqued to their black background. I'm happy to say all 11 were completed and the back was cut out. I seemed to have slept wrong Wednesday night and on Thursday for my day off I spent it with the heating pad on my shoulder and stitching in my hand. Not exactly how I planned to spend my day (I even weeded out front since that didn't hurt) but I woke up Friday with it not hurting so that is a good thing!

I'll be linking up Saturday with the other orange posts at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I have pulled some completed ones to take with me to car line with my trusty scissors.... so I can cut out the backing of a few while waiting on the kids. I need to have them hold my completed log cabin quilt for me when we get home..... so I can do a Friday Finish post.

Monday, May 6, 2019

Regrouping and restarting....

Sometimes... you just have to start again!

A couple weeks ago I finally started hand quilting the basket quilt.


I neglected to cut away the back part of the applique. Trying to hand quilt that basket.... 4 layers... was rough. After a 2 week time out where I knew I needed to pull that out and unpin and cut out the backing...... I finally did it yesterday!

All 25 baskets are now down to 1 layer of fabric.


Tonight, it will get repined and the hand quilting will commence..... just like De Ja Vu!


Saturday was a tea party with Emily put on by another troop raising money to travel to Georgia to visit Juliette Gordon Lowe's birthplace - the birthplace of Girl Scouts!


Today.... we tested a recipe we will try next week at our final scout meeting until August. Ice Cream in a bag! We tested it in 4 trys at home this afternoon with one bag letting in some salt on Aidan's first try. The second try worked better. We will try it again Wednesday with a double bag of the ice cream part and see if we have a fully successful try.
Recipe is found here . I'll hit the big walmart (or send the boys tonight) and pick up Lactaid free half and half... so Emily can enjoy it. They didn't have that kind at the neighborhood walmart we went to this weekend.

I put mine in a round container and rolled it for 6-7 minutes.

 The things I sacrifice and do for these girls =) Hehehehe..... I added mini chocolate chips. Yummy!


Come back tomorrow for a Finish! Not of the ice cream.... that is already in my belly!

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Sunday....

Another week has flown by! The kids have 3 weeks of school left... just 3 weeks! How is that possible?
Things are starting to wrap up and the end of school year crazy is happening. Scouts has 2 weeks left... guess I really need to sort badges and plan the bridging ceremony for next week. This week they are learning about Autism (one of the younger sisters in our troop who is now in the Daisy troop that meets with us has autism) and will make a swap and write a letter to a girl in a sister troop in Ohio... and give some input on their end of year ceremony next week.

Soccer has 2 more weeks. Awards ceremonies are the last week of school and an orientation to Aidan's new middle school next year is also that last week of school. 2 summer camps are scheduled and paid for (camp invention for both and horse day camp for Emily one week). I work from home about 20 hours a week...yup, summers are interesting but the kids are older now and more self sufficient so it should be ok. ( humor me with that thought anyway!)

Kids are being shuttled to Grandma's by Dad today. I hear he might have some project to do there today as well. I plan to take 1.5 hours and attempt to pick up and clean the house. Note to self.... smaller house next time!

Then it will be lunchtime and the afternoon is all for sewing today! I will be working on the graduation quilt - chevron in yellow and blue. I hope to get all the strips sewn and cut today to play with the layout. Tonight..... I'll curl up in my recliner with the binding stitching on the huge log cabin quilt. I have 2 sides done.... 2 sides to go (188 inches of binding)!

I might also pull out the hand quilting on my first basket on my quilt... unpin and cut out the basket backing on all of them. It is a wall hanging size so not too big. Lesson learned... always cut out behind if you plan to hand quilt! 


Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers..... as I will get some slow stitching in today eventually!

Just rubbing it in a little for Mom - some photo's of the tomato plants overflowing with roma and cherry tomato's! I might have been having tomato with fresh basil and mozzarella the last few days =)



This one got planted out by the kids play area.


The angel trumpets are in bloom. This is the one by the tree through the fence. The one by the shed is also in bloom. 

Time to get dressed and start cleaning.



Saturday, May 4, 2019

RSC in Orange!


I pulled out the orange hexagon flowers yesterday and got the first one attached and sewn down at car line. I even cut out the back so it will be all set for piecing come November. I guess I did the second one waiting for someone to get dressed for riding. I need to pull the basting thread out and cut out the back on that one still. Only 11 orange flowers this month!

I was debating on cutting out the back fabric but since I plan to hand quilt this.... and on those hexagons I really don't want that extra layer of fabric in the mix. I had started hand quilting my baskets where I did not cut out the back..... big mistake! I will definitely be cutting the background fabric out on these flowers! So.... I have a lot of black backings to cut out .... in red, yellow, green and teal! It is an overwhelming task.... so I think I'll just plan to do one or two of the finished ones each day (are you laughing? Cause every time I make a plan like this it lasts maybe one or two days lately!) 

Linking up with the RSC Challenge in orange.

Yesterday was an adventure. Emily's horse riding academy moved this week! She cancelled the lesson last Friday to prep for the move and yesterday we got to see the new place. The arena is now outside! It was a lovely day and the grounds are very nice. 







Four more horses were being transported after Em's lesson and her Prince was one of them. She rode Prism yesterday. It takes us about 30-35 minutes to get there now instead of 25 depending on traffic. I75 is now involved.... but I'll have to take a look and see if I can get there without that .... I really hate that interstate and avoid it at all costs. I did get on to come home and immediately saw red lights on all 3 lanes. I thankfully was in the right hand lane still and the next exit was right there. Yup, I got off and took back roads home. Much faster.

Then it was game night. We were all close - within $300 of each other. Mom won =)


Today.... Hubby is working (which means I just plan on a 12+ hour day and don't expect him home for dinner..... the kids are not liking this new job at all). Emily and I have a Mother/Daughter tea party with girl scouts. Unfortunately the boy will be home for a couple of hours....and he is already in a mood this morning. I'll try and entice him with helping plan and cook dinner and see if we can turn around the mood.... maybe I'll even get the front bed weeded this morning and then we can shop for flowers for it this afternoon.... that usually turns him around too!
 Hopefully I'll get a little sewing time in.... but we will see how the day goes!

Friday, May 3, 2019

Umbrella's needed....

Well, I did finish off the last teal/aqua umbrella yesterday afternoon and boy, we did need an umbrella last night at soccer! Thank goodness the rain stopped right before the games began so we were dry for both games. You can tell they are getting to the end of the season (2 more weeks) as the teams are much more aggressive going for the ball. Aidan and I did move half way through Emily's game (the second game that night).... parents on our team (2 Dad's) and one parent from the other team were extremely loud and disagreeing with the ref calls..... a wee bit too close to the boy's ears. We moved to the middle of the field to get away from it as someone was getting a headache.  His schedule also got messed up yesterday (he plans his days and does not do well when things change!) when a friend of his dropped in after school for a visit with his Mom and little brother.


Time to prep some orange umbrella's for the RSC Challenge for the month of May.
Not today though.... our horse academy moved locations this week. We will now travel up to Reddick (north of Ocala) for Emily's lessons. We will see how my gps works to find the new place today! It will take about 30 minutes instead of 25 to get there with the new address.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge on Saturday.

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Chevron Graduation quilt.....

 I guess I should probably start on the graduation quilt needed for next month! I have been collecting fabrics for this quilt over the last few months. The requested colors are yellow/gold with blue.... yellow/gold is the favorite color. She likes simple.... so the chevron pattern it is. I figured I'd do it in gradation and it will probably be a couple of strips of all these colors. I'm planning a twin size and will use the strip piecing on point layout rather than the half square triangles. Wish me luck! Of course..... I might switch it up and put a light yellow by a darker yellow for a couple too.... we will see what happens in the sewing room!


Someone was 'helping' me work yesterday.... Peanut cat.


Speaking of the cats... they truly are spoiled! They got a new climbing tree this week that the kids assembled for me. I was going to have it out on the back screened in porch.... but decided to put the 14 year old one out there and this one outside my office area. The cats tend to come and play for a few hours while I start my day then retire to the bedroom for their naps! We have another big one in the living room about twice this size the cats enjoy playing on as well. See, spoiled cats!