I won!

I was the lucky winner over at Kathy's Quilts with the Happy Little Things Blog hop this month! The prize arrived today. I am sew excited! I got the Sunday Best Quilts book by Sherri McConnell and Corey Yoder. I just took a quick page through and the quilts are beautiful (I see some future RSC projects in there!) and I can't wait to read the beginning part to learn more about these wonderful quilters. I think it will go in the car with me for pick up of kid #2 today.

The kids carved their pumpkins yesterday afternoon ... in the hot and humid Florida air. It was feels like 97 leaving horses yesterday at 6PM. We can't carve them too soon down here... they rot fast in the heat.

Aidans - pumpkin

Emily's pumpkin cat

Aidan's gourd

Sunday....

Slow stitching finally got to happen this afternoon. I started in on the orange today.

I see a few things I need to stitch up with some orange thread - the joys of hand piecing (a few years ago - I have learned a lot since then!) and being left on this frame forever with a cat that thinks it is his personal hammock bed! A few stitches to tack it back together in a couple of spots and then more hand quilting tonight I think.
I finally played with the different angles the EZ3 can do. Flat and all the way up were not comfortable. I liked the angle of the second slot from the top. Just right for me.

Yesterday Emily got dropped to camp with our troop. I got to go home and spend the rest of the day with the boy - he had a science experiment to do and needed some Mom boy time without sister. He got his meal request - shrimp lo mien made for dinner. Lots of game time and just hanging out time.
Today I had to pick up the girl while the boy was shuttled to Grandma. I then headed over to visit my father in law with Emily and fed her lunch before coming home. She got a shower (did I mention it was 100% humid yesterday and it rained and the temps were in the upper 80's with no AC at camp?... and this morning they cleaned their cabin and then picked up the trails from any stray wrappers from the trick or treat event they worked yesterday?) and has been relaxing after researching the snake she spotted on the trail this morning. I hear every one's lungs worked great to scare it off!
Emily wants breakfast for dinner - and she and Dad are great at making eggs, hash browns and sausage so I think I'll let them have some time together in the kitchen while I stitch on the frame in the bedroom while watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Linking up with the other slow stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.

FNSI

I'm going to join Wendy at Sugarlane Designs on the Friday Night Sew In tonight...... (at least during car lines if I can't manage some sewing tonight!)

I know I will be stitching a little on my #6 block for the Ella Marie Deacon Quilt Along over at Sentimental Stitches. I chose to hand piece mine and this applique block is being back basted and then needle turn applique. 16 baby peels in a pretty design. I just need to back baste the 8 light blue and then needle turn the 10 of them.

I have lots of bins of scraps... overflowing that need some attention. I am tempted to START something new..... that crooked courthouse steps block that Bonnie Hunter and Jo Kramer were playing with the last few weeks. It would be a great use of scraps....and not much thinking involved. Bonus.... it could be completely scrappy in color - just pull and sew! My kind of mindless sewing that is needed in my life right now.

Tomorrow we drop the girl to Girl Scout Camp for an overnight with my other leader. I am not going this time! They are decorating the front of a cabin and then handing out goodies to trick or treaters at an event, then spending the night and helping to clean up the trails at the camp the next morning. I get to supervise a science project - Aidan is baking a Vanilla Crazy Cake and determining if baking soda or baking powder will rise a cake better. We will be doing 3 cakes - one each with soda, powder and no leavening agent. I had to laugh when I wrote up how we would dispose of the experiment! Why, taste test it of course! Hehehe....
He got his choice of meal since sister is away. He chose shrimp lo mein. We will see what other things he decides to do on his Mom and boy day tomorrow.

Umbrella Wednesday

I was able to finish stitching this last night in an air conditioned house (it was feels like 95 yesterday and humid before a cool front went through last night). I get to work in my office again today and the cats are happy to be back to the normal routine - one sleeping in his bed beside my laptop on the desk and the other on top of the cat tree supervising, while Sophie has the rest of the house to herself for a few hours! I really need to count and see how many more of there I need to make. I am thinking 7..... but should lay them out and see sometime soon. One more in 'dark' colors for the month of October. I wonder if it will be black, brown or grey?

Sunday Stitching....

Love being the first one up! A nice quiet house (well, the road noise is picking up and getting to me but it will be time to close up the house soon to try and keep it cool with the AC not working today - temps will be sunny and 86!)

I knitted a few rows on my yellow dish cloth. I have a feeling this one may be a colorful one as I don't think there is enough yellow to finish it. I did spy some pink that will fill in or the huge cone of cream may get started off. Knitting is such a great - keep hands busy while the mind works - task with this particular pattern.

Aidan and I were in the sewing room for a bit yesterday while Emily was giving a couple of horses a spa day. I was able to prep an umbrella block and pull fabrics for block 6 of the Ella Marie Deacon quilt along.

 This weeks block for me is orange peels in a neat pattern. I had fun picking out my 3 fabrics to use on them. That should keep me busy in car lines this week. 16 little tiny orange peels (under 3 inches long) to stitch onto my 9.5 inch block.

No progress on the trip quilt on the frame. Maybe I'll get a little stitching in on it tonight? The teal is done for this turn - onto the orange.

We will see how tired I am after a Wizzarding event with my troop this afternoon. 3 hours of fun with 7 of the girls! I do love my Harry Potter and they do such a great job with this event. It was offered 2 years ago and the girls had a blast. Some changes have been made...and I got to see some of the wands made and chocolate frogs that will be in the 'store'. I'm looking forward to watching the quiddich game!

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

Friday....

This was the gorgeous beginning of the sunrise this morning after dropping Emily to school at 7:15. Yes Mom, I pulled over onto the grass on the back way home to snap this photo out of my car window. A beautiful reminder to be thankful for what we have.

Yesterday was my bowling day. I had to drop both kids to school before as Greg headed over to his Dad's rehab center for a shuttle to an early doctor appt. It was nice to see the ladies again - I missed last week as I was with Mom and Terri in Lakeland at the hospital with my uncle. He passed on Monday and is now in the arms of his wife up in heaven. 

I picked up Emily and walked into a hot house! It is still warm in Florida although we had a cool day yesterday thank goodness - high of 81. It was cooler outside than in the house. A call to the AC people and they sent someone out late afternoon. Great service - love our AC folks. The bad news... need a new compressor. The good news..... it was finally cool last night in the 60's and we got to sleep with windows open! It was cooler out on the porch last night at 68 degrees so game night was held there and we also  had dinner there (home made Chinese - the kids first time seeing the Wok used - Moo Goo Gai Pan and Beef with Snow Peas - both kids want this added to the rotation!) 

The next set of 4 blocks were released for the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt Along. Block #5 was hand pieced this week - the ohio star. I am regretting not making it with the dark blue I have used in all the other blocks... but there are 84 blocks total and it will be all kinds of blues so I think in the end it will be fine. I'm excited there is a peel applique block this month. I have been wanting to make some peels....hopefully this will hit that wish and I'll be able to stop! I really don't need a new project. I get to make another of the 1st block this month too - I think I'll swap the light and darks in those triangles.

The estimate on the new compressor for the AC came in this morning. It is on order and hopefully we will be up and running by Monday evening. Unfortunately it is not cooling down more than 70 at nights over the weekend with 80's for highs. Better than summer temps in the feels like 100+ though!

As for me - working in the garage office (no window and no air) is out - so I'll be working on the back porch today!

Umbrella and a perfect timing finish!

I managed to stitch up this umbrella yesterday.

I also knitted the second half of my purple dish cloth at a meeting last night and just finished it off at home .... with just that little bit left of the yarn at the top! Sophie was an unwilling photo prop - you should have seen the look she gave me after I took the photo!

Perfect amount to finish with! I used the crochet hook and weaved in the ends and added a pink and purple dish cloth to the drawer. So nice to open it and have some nice pretty colors peeking out at you.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge on Saturday - that umbrella is brown with blue flowers!

A day of stitching.....

I only made it into the sewing room to draw my stitching lines today. It has been a wonderful relaxing day of stitching.

Ella Marie Deacon block #4 is completed. I'm all set for the next release of 4 blocks on Tuesday. Doing one per week by hand is working out well!

Happy Little Things block #2 is completed. I guess I should go draw #3's embroidery onto the fabric so it is ready for stitching this week.

Hand quilting - the teal portion of this is finished and I'm moving onto the orange part. I noticed a little more batting fixing will need to take place before the next roll... which should be later tonight or tomorrow! I will officially be half way through on the next turn. Sew exciting!

A nice dinner out with hubby using some gift cards and back to a nice quiet kid free house =) We don't get this very often and are enjoying the peace and quiet! (No, she's looking at me, he hit me, make him go away, leave me alone.... etc!) Peace and quiet .... until the cats decide to start chasing each other around the house and wrestling on the living room floor. Here is an innocent photo of them - Ollie on the left and Peanut on the right.

Slow Sunday Stitching....

I am so looking forward to a day of rest and working on whatever I feel like doing.... or nothing at all! It has been crazy busy the last couple of weeks. The kids are headed to Grandma's and will be there overnight as they are off school tomorrow. Did I mention I just love my MIL who takes them during the day Sunday and overnights sometimes?

I'll be doing some nice relaxing stitching today on a few projects. It is nice to have options as I never know 'what I am in the mood for'!

The 4th Ella Maria Deacon block will get finished today. All the parts are made. I just need to draw my stitching lines and put it together. The next set of blocks are released Tuesday! It is so fun to pick from my stash of blues for these.

 

The 2nd Happy Little Things block is waiting for lines to be drawn on the borders so they can be attached. I'll also draw the 3rd embroidery pattern onto the fabric and maybe start that today.... or in car lines this week. I think I might pencil draw the 4.5 inch square around it before I even stitch it to see if that will help center the block better when it is time to trim it down.

I'll uncover the frame and get some hand quilting in on the trip quilt today. Peanut was caught sleeping on it this morning... which is why I cover it with quilts. I really need to remember to put it in an upright position so the cat's can't sleep on it! I did a little research and realized... when I rolled it onto the frame... I was to have done the batting and top onto the same rod... rather than what I did - just the top! Lesson learned, if only I can remember when I put the next one on! I get to play with happy looking teals today!

I have 2 more umbrella's prepped I just need to pull fabrics so those are ready to pop into the 'to go' bag for car line waits and horse riding lesson waits. Em missed riding last week but I have her scheduled for Wednesday this week.... and I hear she might be trying to canter on Prism! We will see how that goes!

The last knitted dish cloth in pink was completed in the ICU on Thursday sitting with my Uncle. Time to find the next little ball of yarn and start another one - I believe I have purple, yellow and some light and bright pink balls along with a huge cone of cream. I'll use the parts first for some colorful kitchen dish cloths. I just have to remember to zip these into the bag so the cats can't get in and eat my yarn.

Linking up with the other Slow Sunday Stitchers. Head on over and get inspired.

RSC in the dark mode....

These are the two umbrellas I was able to do this week. Both with the black. Ollie was not happy when I placed that umbrella on him for the photo! His brother Peanut is much happier to pose with quilt blocks.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge today.

Emily is over at VOCAL for some community service with animals this morning. I need to go pick her up shortly so need to grab a shower. The boys are mowing the lawn. Then we'll head over to visit my FIL in rehab today. The kids have not seen him in over a month! Maybe I'll get a little sewing room time later to play with some browns.

Umbrella Wednesday

Another umbrella added to the collection. This one has paw prints on it.

Happy Little Things....

I made a little progress on block #2..... and block #3 was released yesterday!

I just need to find and cut and mark the 'log cabin type' borders for this little guy. I should have time to do that today before picking up the kids from school. Emily has her first volleyball practice after school today - 60 people tried out for the team and 16 made it. She was tickled pink!

Slow Sunday Stitching....

There will be slow stitching today! I am up early (hey - when you fall asleep before 8PM then wake up for an hour around 11:30 then go back to sleep till 6:30 you must have been tired!) and ready to do a little slow stitching while listening to the news in a nice quiet house.

I did not get much sleep Friday night - we had a sleepover and the girls were in a tent set up in the living room and they did not settle down until after 11PM... giggling and chatting and we were up early to meet the troop for a walk to search for a geocache on the trails for 9AM. We found one..... and decided we will wait for it to cool down before doing that again! It was feels like 90 degrees at 10AM yesterday. I spent the day cleaning the house (between breaks to stitch up block #3 for Ella Marie Deacon Quilt Along) which explains the tired. This does need a press but it was fun to stitch together.

Today... slow stitching, grocery shopping and a visit to my fil in the hospital is on tap for me. He is better and they are talking release to rehab early this week. It will be 2 weeks on Monday he has been in there. Very weak but on the road to recovery.

Today will be slow stitching the Happy Little Things block (next one is released tomorrow!). Anyone have tips on how to center properly and cut the embroidery block to size? I thought I had a good plan... but it is not going to be centered well.

Prepping Block #4 for EMD quilt along and prepping 2 umbrella's to stitch this week in the car lines will happen.

I hope to also put some thread into the TATW quilt on the frame this afternoon/evening. Lofty goals, so I'd better log off, take a sip of coffee and get stitching on HLT's!

Ella Marie Deacon Quilt along......

I was able to finish off block #2 today in the car line. I think I have pulled fabrics for block #3 - just need to cut and prep it for hand piecing.