RSC dark green

I had to hunt for the dark greens as I have a lot of the sage greens but wanted these blocks darker.  I plan to make one more of the stars and nines blocks in these darks..... maybe later tonight. Aidan picked out the greens for the stashbuster block

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I'm excited to start playing with pink in June.

Sunday....

Kathy reminds us each Sunday to slow down and enjoy the relaxing properties of hand stitching. I did manage a little hand stitching (and prepping) this week and completed my last hand pieced block for Book Club, Elizabeth.

I have very little of my darker purple fabrics used in the blocks... but I do have enough of the light print to finish it off.

I am so happy I decided to do this sew along. I enjoyed doing last years and was so happy to learn tips and tricks on making templates and how to prep, mark and sew curves. That just opens the door to so many more projects and patterns I feel comfortable tackling now! A big thank you to Patty and Kristin for hosting and sharing your knowledge. These are my 9 hand pieced blocks that will finish off at 9 inches each. Everything needs another press and then I'll finalize the layout and decide if I put colorful cornerstones or just use the light fabric for sashing and cornerstone. I think I'll use it for the on point sides..... if I have enough of the light print. This will be all pieced by hand and hand quilted when done. Linking up with the Book Club - Hand Pieced QAL.

I have plenty of hearts prepped for hand applique sitting next to my recliner. I was not successful on one a day....it was a crazy month of May this year..... but I have them there and prepped and they will get worked through here and there in June.


Yesterday morning I had my first aid/CPR class - 3 of us in the class with 1 instructor. Socially distanced and wearing masks (except for cpr) after hand washing on entry and a temperature check 97 F for me! I was happy my co-leader chose this time slot too - so I got to spend time with her in the 4 hour class and chatting a bit by our cars after (socially distanced of course). I must say.... getting up with an alarm at 6:30 was difficult! It has been a couple of months since I have had to be up that early in the morning! With the standard guidelines for girl scouts (buddy system is girls always go places in pairs) and the current CDC guidelines.... I am not sure when we will be allowed to meet in person again. Sigh, I really dislike zoom (probably because I dislike seeing myself on camera!) but I guess I am going to have to figure out how to make it work if needed in the fall. I think the girls can work on their bronze award this summer and get it done, that is my goal with them.

Technically the kids are done school tomorrow. Aidan has 2 tests to complete - math is being put up tomorrow...yes, she taught new skills the last week of school and scheduled a test for the last day! He has a 20 question robotics test to complete as well but I believe he said everything else was done. There will be a science game - are you smarter than a 6th grader on zoom Monday afternoon that she invited the family's to attend and participate. We will also return books Wednesday and I'll have Emily pick up her summer reading material at that time.

Emily just has to do her PE today and I'll send the paper to her teacher and she is done 5th grade! Her awards were Thursday evening on Zoom after picking up the award packet that morning. Each of my kids has the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence hanging in their room now! Aidans is gold and Emily's is silver. I guess the difference was gold if you get a 5 on one of the 4th grade FSA testing. She was about 3 points from a 5 in math. The rating is 1-5 with 5 being excelling. She also got a leadership award and the coveted 'Golden Bear' from her teacher. One girl and one boy in each class gets it. She received the golden bear in grades 2,4 and 5.

We watched the Crew Dragon launch yesterday. The clouds blocked us from seeing the plume from our house in Ocala but we watched on tv. So exciting. The kids are planning to watch the docking at the ISS around 10:29AM EST. Will you be watching?

Linking up with Sunday Slow stitching and Book Club.

Book Club - Claire

Curves. This is the second block hand pieced with curves. Boy, it is not as difficult as I thought it would be but it does take time. Not too shabby for the first block like this I think.

Linking up with Patty and Kristin.

Slow Sunday...

No one has graced the rest of the house with their presence yet! It is a nice quiet morning, well, except for the loud Meow's of the various cats wanting food this morning!

I was able to stitch up my last prepped heart for my 'heart a day in May' in purple shades this year! I had a charm pack of purples.... so I will just make them all into hearts - 42 of them I think so this will probably go into June! The white is cut out at 5.5 inch square.

The finished heart. Those holes from the pin will smooth right out.

Well, it was nice while it lasted. The boy has wandered out and grabbed a cat to lay on his chest on the couch! 9AM... I guess it was good while it lasted!

It will be a prep morning! I need to prep more hearts, prep the Claire block for Book Club - essentially 4 orange peel blocks hand pieced! So nervous to make that one. Maybe prep an Ella Maria Deacon block or two - it has been a couple of months since I have worked on that one. 

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

Green progress.....

I had cut out the parts to make the Sweet Confetti blocks (Sunday Best Quilts)  earlier this week. Today was the afternoon to sew them up. The brights we have done so far (green, orange, teals and light blues) really needed some dark colors added to the mix.

Then I looked at the Stashbuster blocks. I had done a dark/light green one earlier this year instead of making the bright greens. I guess my plan changed in February when I made 2 orange blocks! I decided I needed 2 bright green blocks and I'll plan to make another dark green one... or two tomorrow. By making 4 of the blocks and putting them together I have 12 inch finished blocks to play with.... 2 each month for 10 months will give me a nice 4x5 layout (48x60).  

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday. Come back next week for the friendship stars and nine patches and some crumb/slab blocks in green!

Hearts....

It's purple heart show and tell day today! I'm a little behind on one per day... but a good amount have been made this month.

I'll make another today while in the car at the orthodontist. Emily has a check this afternoon. They really need dental appointments as well, I need to call and see how they have adjusted before I make that appointment.  I did mine the beginning of March before everything got shut down. The boys did hair cuts yesterday since Great Clips where we go opened up this week. They both look completely different with a lot less hair! I forgot how handsome they can be with a clean cut! Last night I told Emily it was a pool day... and I would go in! The pool water was around 83 degrees.... chilly to get in (air temps were much higher!) but felt good once in. The boy came out about 10 minutes after I got in..... (Em got in right off and was swimming around) I was in with them both for about 30 minutes and then they stayed in another 30 while I got dinner. I told them they need to be in the pool every day now to get some exercise and off the devices. Less than 2 weeks of school left. I just need to get (finally) some lounge chairs for the pool deck so I can relax out there.  I think that is tonight's task.

Emma - Book Club

Linking up with the Book Club link up for Emma. My first attempt at curves, it came out pretty good. Time to prep the next curved block.

Slow Sunday....

It actually will be a slow and relaxing Sunday for me! I prepped more hearts yesterday and was able to stitch 4 of them yesterday. I'll be prepping some more today and I might get all caught up and have 17 hearts done.... we will see how the day goes!

 I also prepped the Emma block for the Book Club. This one has curves... I have never really done curves before. We will see how it goes. The last 3 blocks are curves.... lets hope they are not too frustrating.

I noticed the kids have not been reading this past week, so instituted a family wide reading time starting yesterday. I pulled out this book. Greg is reading a book on chocolate making. Emily is reading Lilly's Story and Aidan is finishing the 4th and starting the 5th Narnia book.

Linking up with the other slow stitchers at Kathy's Quilts. I would have showed the crochet blanket..... but that is purple too and I figured this post had enough purple in it! Even in the book cover =)

RSC in dark and sage greens

I finally have some green sewing done for the RSC this month! 

2 - 16 patch blocks

14 cobblestones in a row, guarded by Ollie.

I was able to cut the parts out before dinner on Friday.... because it was order pizza night and I didn't have to do anything! Love when that happens. After dinner - I got in a nice long walk (over 9,000 steps each day since Tuesday!), multiple games of horse and cat with Aidan and then I got to sew! It was a wonderful Friday evening. Aidan even came in and when he asked if he could help.... he pressed things for me!

Linking up Saturday with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Friday...

My goodness, what a month of May it has been! Halfway through the month and not much to show for it at all!

Of those heart a day.... Well 5 are done and the 6th just needs a few more minutes for a finish. We'll call it 6 of 15! Sigh. At least these go quickly.... I hope to catch up a bit this weekend or maybe 2 a day instead of one!

One monthly goal - absolutely no work on this at all. I'm hopeful to get it pinned this weekend (assuming no one lands in the hospital again!).

Ella Maria Deacon - no work on this in a while... in fact I finally went out last night to purchase Month 8 which was released April 15! I also snagged Month 9 that was there to be released today and got a discount on both.... $4.00 for both sets.

RSC in greens.... I hope to at least get my 16 patches made this afternoon after work so I have something to show tomorrow.

Instead of sewing or hand work... it has been doing my current job, helping hubby with the pool cleaning business (so I lost my day off), shuttling one kid to horses as that has opened, keeping people fed and clothed. Nightly hoops with the boy and time with the girl. Game nights with the kids as well. Finance report and end of year eval for girl scouts and trying to keep up with the girls while socially separate. Helping with schoolwork, 2 weeks left of school for the kids! Still don't have a confirm of Emily for the Cambridge... just a voice confirm she is in from the director. Finding out how the return/retrieval of this will happen at the 2 schools and end of year awards for my 5th grader.

Of course... lots of research on backs to see what is happing with hubby. I keep annoying him by checking on him throughout the day too! He seems better in the morning and hurts more at night starting in the afternoon. Moving around more helps and the medicines. Nothing like the pain last week thank goodness. The log roll to get in and out of bed - recommended by my niece the PT is helping. Waiting on the June 9 appt with the pain management doctor and trying to get into the doctor the hospital released him to who does surgeries.

Can we just skip ahead to June?

Hopefully there will be photo's in the next post!

Mothers Day

Wishing all the Mom's out there a Happy Mothers Day.

I had decided to make some hearts in purple during the month of May. I think I made that decision on Tuesday, before life got crazy! I did manage to get 4 of the hearts needle turned applique before my week turned upside down! I have 2 more prepped and one in process.....

I hope to prep more today and relax in a comfy chair and stitch a few at some point today. I see lots of waiting time in my future so plenty of time to catch up for the month! I did finish this knitted dish cloth while waiting in the ER on Friday. Some stitching has happened this week!

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.


In other news... and that ER visit on Friday. Hubby was admitted to the hospital Friday afternoon being in extreme pain in the ER most of Friday. The pain was from his back... but he passed out from pain and hit his head on the wall so I called an ambulance to bring him to the ER Friday morning.  Lots of tests yesterday for a final diagnosis late last night. Since he can walk (but is still in a lot of pain) he opted to be released to home rather than transferred to Orlando for a neurosurgeon consult on his back. I see lots of appointments in our future for hand work time.

In sunnier news.... we picked the first green beans from the garden and I was enjoying some cherry tomato's from my plant this weekend.

Greg had started some sourdough starter last week and I took over the feeding of it this week and it is finally ready to make bread. The recipe is a long one..... lots of wait time. I think I should be baking a couple of loaves later today. With some of the starter you normally get rid of... we made soft pretzels last night. The kids said they came out really good. I have yet to try one!

cinnamon sugar

salt

Someone was missing Dad yesterday....

Seems the other one organizes when she is worried - she tacked the hall closet. It looks a lot better now. I tried to get her to head to the sewing room next but she is too smart for that!

Heart a day in May! 2020....

It was a tough decision... I did decided to work on a block a day in May again. I sifted through a few options - drunkard path, circles, hearts, orange peels, nine patches. I pulled different charm packs.... since the red one I was thinking I wanted to play with was not helping me make a decision. Hmmm. I got some from Bluprint a few months ago. One pack of 42 was various purple charms. What about a purple heart quilt? I like it!

Next decision.... the last ones I made were centered on the square. I think these will be set on the diagonal.

Then size.... I could not find the previous heart... in fact, I remember seeing it a few weeks ago and tossed it out! Thank goodness for blogs - I searched on Heart a Day and found where I had a link to the coloring pages. I printed out 2 options and went with a smaller one. This fits on a 5.5 inch background nicely for a 5 inch finished square. I had purchased a yard of a white flowered print a few months ago. I think it will work nicely with the purple.

All the decisions for today are made. Time to prep. I found a ruler with markings for 5.5 inches square and centered the heart and drew around it with a white board marker.

Next it was tracing the heart on the charm square with a chalk. Cut it out and place on the background. Check it with the ruler for placement.

 Remove the ruler and pin in place. Six blocks prepped. 

Florida relaxed the stay at home this week and Emily's horse academy where she rides opened up. There were just 2 people riding in the ring when Emily was there. She was so happy to get back to riding. The stay at home has kept the cases landing in hospitals low in our area. I think 26 total hospitalizations in our county over the last 2 months. The number of cases are going up still, as expected. We as a family plan to be thoughtful and still limit going out. We figured riding is low risk. I don't see us going shopping for anything other than grocery or Lowes for gardening things. We don't plan to eat in restaurants any time soon. Small calculated risks.  It was close to feeling like 90 degrees while she was riding. Thank goodness the arena and where the parents sit are in the shade.

I had today off from my 'normal' job and helped Greg with pool cleaning today. Then it was grab a shower and bring Emily to horses. Home to make Taco Salad for Emily and Taco meat for the rest of us for dinner. It finally cooled down so I got more of the driveway power washed.... this time it was about 1.5 hours. I figure I have about 45 minutes left for the very end of the driveway - we have a lot of concrete for our driveway and it is pretty long! At least it will look clean and bright for a little while before the mold and mildew settle in on it again. A never ending battle down her in Florida.

Must go stitch.

Do I or Don't I? One a Day in May.....

A couple of years ago I did a heart a day in the month of May. It is now the 4th of May... not too late to start a daily thing.... which I am thinking I need right now to help stay focused. So... do I..... or don't I? That is the question....

Do I do hearts again? They were fun. The quilt was gifted to my great niece so it is out of my house.
Do I try circles? I know people did a circle a day for a year a little while ago.
Do I make flowers? We did get rain in April and I hear that does bring May flowers.
Do I pick a block and hand piece it?

I guess I'll think on it a little more and decide later.

A day off to putter....

Ok, technically yesterday was a day off as well but other than power washing for a few hours and reading a book for a few hours I have no clue what happened to the rest of the day!

Today..... some reading has happened. Something about cats meowing for food relentlessly .... so I had to get up and feed them. It was reading time after that. I have to deliver one child to Grandma this morning and she will return 2. Emily needed a dog fix and asked for a sleepover which Grandma was oh too happy to have!

My plans today are to pin a quilt. Does that count at all as 'slow stitching'? I plan to machine quilt it but if the prep work is done it is so much easier to take some time here and there to get it quilted this week in bits of time.

I plan to read a little more on the back porch today and finally start hand quilting on the bumpershoots/umbrella quilt. I really need a name for this one. Any ideas for me? I'm going to outline the umbrellas and then do some 'falling rain' with raindrops. I have a picture in my head and we will see how it looks on the quilt today.

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.

RSC in dark greens....

I was kinda expecting purple or pink for May but Angela surprised us with dark and sage green.

That made my decision on my MAY One Monthly Goal easy.... get this quilt with sage green background quilted and bound this month!  I went searching and found a little over 2 yards of a 108 white flower print for the backing. No piecing needed! I have warm and natural on a roll. I was thinking a feather in those big areas... but I am not up to that on the machine so it will be straight lines in there instead!  Linking up with the OMG  at Elm Street Quilts for May.

I had made a green and cream scrappy log cabin last year and still have the bin of greens all set to play with this month.

I also checked the drawer for pre cut strips - found some of those as well.

Come back next week to see what I managed to get done with these scraps. Linking up with the RSC where no one seems to know what day of the week it is! All I know is Saturday is the only day I can sleep in and not really get dressed until close to noon.... and I kinda like that! I hear that the place where Emily rides is opening up on Tuesday following CDC guidelines. I will call today and get her in to ride - her on a horse in a big ring - pretty safe I think. The issue is where the parents sit. Last time I took her in March before we went on 'stay at home'  I took my own chair and sat far away from everyone so I will do that again this time.

Friday Emily had Art Specials due this week. Last week was music and the previous was PE. She had to make a 2 or 3 D mandella. We looked online and saw it was 3 circles inside each other. Similar to the adult coloring books with repeated patterns. This is what I came up with for mine. The teacher wanted it colorful.....

Mine

Emily's

Someone took over my sewing space... and used my chair as a foot rest!