Magic Stars.....

I took some time on Sunday to finally play with a free tutorial over at Joyfulquilting's blog. It took 2 10 inch squares to make the blocks. I cut 4 and this is what happened!

Light and dark blue. Hmmmm what if I made some more?

I had played with the blocks in the corners... but I didn't like how they looked. I had to piece the light blue to make the block big enough.

I had it laid out after sewing it together. Someone came in to the sewing area and asked - Did you make that today? Yes, was my reply. A little grin and she swooped down and grabbed it and ran off. After I tidied up a bit I checked in her room to see this..... I did warn her it is not hers......

These two fabrics were leftover from Sally's graduation quilt. A light sky blue and a dark blue that I use in a lot of things.

Eventually it will get pressed and trimmed. It should be around 35 or 36 inches... so I'll have to figure out how to make it a wee bit bigger for a lap quilt. Maybe a pretty floral blue and yellow print all around the outside?

Sunday stitching and chicks?

Today I will be joining the Slow Sunday Stitchers while adding some raindrops to the umbrella quilt. I finished outlining quilting the umbrella's last night. I'll use my newly purchased hera marker (nope, never did find my original one!) and a ruler to mark my stitching lines today.

I also plan to finish the last three hearts in purple. Of course, then I need to figure out what I will do with all of them! I believe there are about 40 of them.

Thursday we got an addition to the household. Well, 4 of them actually. Greg and Emily were busy dismantling the play area earlier this week as they no longer use it. It would be a great spot to put a chicken coop and run as it is mostly in the shade and in the back of the property. Greg has mentioned getting some chickens over the last couple of years with the issues with the eggs and chicken production in the US. Emily is going into middle school and wants to do agriculture as her elective. She is horse crazy and has always loved animals. I won't get her a goat.... like she wants.... or a horse.... but maybe some chicks to watch grow and give us eggs?

Greg and Em went to tractor supply on Thursday to get the supplies needed for chicks. They had placed an on-line order and were going to arrive July 6th. Suddenly, a text photo of baby chicks with a ?. Sigh.... they did not come back with any.... but they both went to the computer and did research on the kinds of chicks they had at the store. They decided on the heat tolerant and quiet chicks that I took both kids to the store and got later that day. They each picked 2 chicks. 

Gold Sex Link chickens are a cross breed utilizing the Rhode Island White Female and the Rhode Island Red male. The result is a hardy and robust dual purpose breed with superior egg laying capabilities as well as substantial size for meat.

We repurposed the guinea pig cage to house the chicks while they are inside the house. Jimmy Jr, the last pig passed last month. We added a 1/2 inch square wire around the cage so little cat paws could not reach in and get them!

The popular thing in my house now is watching the chicks. Kids, adults and cats!

Finishing up pink.....

I realized when I posted my 2 pink stash buster blocks I didn't do a layout of them all so far... and since I knew I was going to do another post today.... I laid them out for a photo op!

I managed to cut out and sew my 10 sweet confetti blocks (Sunday Best Quilts) today! It was fun laying out the colors so far - bright green, orange, teal, light blues, dark green and pink. I can't wait to see the red, purple, dark blue and yellows added to the mix in the next few months.

Linking up with the RSC.

Pink....

I pulled some pink on the weekend and sewed up these 2 stashbuster blocks for June. 

I then moved on and made one of the stars and nines blocks using 2.5 inch squares. Later in the week I made a couple more and added them to the other blocks I have made so far this year. 

Thank goodness there are a few more days in the month for me to sew up the sweet confetti blocks. Linking up on Saturday with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Thursday update....

Well, Thursdays are my day off. I have yet to do what I really want to do... but will pop to the sewing room to play after I write this post.

I was good and did my walk this morning and after breakfast (homemade oat bread yummy!) I headed out and attempted to weed a bit. A little bit got done before the temps did me in. A shower and some blog hopping and then I made a Sams club list. Why in the world was EVERYONE at Sams today? About 3/4 did have masks on though. It took me an extra 20 minutes.... as I waited for the rotisserie chickens to come out of the ovens and get packaged. I was melting after I put things into the cooler bags and carry bags in the back of the car! Thank goodness when I got home I had 3 helpers unload for me!

Then Greg and Em headed to Tractor Supply to get chicken supplies. They had ordered 6 baby chicks online yesterday and they would ship out on July 6th. Lets just say I got a photo text of baby chicks with a ?.  They came home without chicks but with all the supplies needed to convert the guinea pig cage to a heated area for the chicks and feeders and food. They did the research on the 2 sets of hens there and decided on the Golden Sex Link Pullets. They are a dual purpose bird, producing large to x-large brown eggs. It is a cross between a Rhode Island White female and the Rhode Island Red male. We were able to cancel the on-line order no problem and avoided the extra $35 in shipping and got 4 instead of 6. A little more manageable to start with.

Both kids and Greg are pretty excited..... They have dismantled the play area Monday and Tuesday. Found a design for the coop and we have the spot to put it in the back yard in a mostly shady area with a big run. They will work on building that over the next month. In the mean time.... we have 4 quiet chicks sleeping

happily in the cage under the heat lamp! We each got to name one.... so far there is Emma (Emily's), Molly (me), Fred (Greg!), and little sleepy ostrich (Aidan). The names might change.... that was just the initial thoughts. That should keep them occupied for a little bit.

Book Club and OMG Flimsy Finish...

My OMG goal for June was to hand stitch all 9 of my book club blocks into a quilt top. I really liked Diann's top with sashing and cornerstones in red so I decided to do that with my purple ones! I cut the leftover fabrics up into the 2.5 inch blocks for the cornerstones. My little hand pieced quilt is finishing as a top at 35 inches square. 

This will be next on the list for hand quilting once my umbrella quilt is completed. I still need to quilt last year's Hand Pieced Quilt Along as well. 

Linking up with Book Club Flimsy finish and OMG - both over at Elm Street Quilts. 

Tuesday....

No, I am not sitting in feels like over 100 degree weather watching Em ride today! Thank goodness Greg is not working today.... so I tapped him to take her. I was on an on-line seminar for a couple of hours and managed my time well! 

I got some hearts appliqued. I finished off one of my spools of silk thread. I had stopped last week and purchased a similar blender color but.... I decided to check my guitterman supply for purple. I found 3 spools - one was too light but the other 2 worked. After working with the silk for applique... I have to say I think I prefer the cotton. It just seemed to work better on the needle turn for me today. Not perfect (as nothing I ever do is!) but I am down to 4 hearts left to stitch. These got added to the finished pile today.

Now to prep dinner and get it in the oven. Not the best for a hot day.... but it's what I took out so I'm going with it. Chuck roast (cream of mushroom soup and an onion soup mix) over carrots, potato, onion and I might throw some mushrooms in.  

Happy Fathers Day.... and Slow Stitching...

Just wanted to wish my Dad a Happy Fathers Day. We wish we were going up to see you this summer in Vermont. 

One of my favorite photo's of him with Peanut!

Finding a good photo of Greg was difficult! I found this family one from when we got the monsters... I mean cats a few years ago. You are a great Dad to our kiddo's. (Hehehe.. this was when Aidan was shorter than me!) 

My kids were up early this morning making their Dad some things. Aidan made him a felt bookmark and Emily got her pencil and paper out and made him a really neat heart surrounded by puffy clouds. She plans to color it in later.

I was stitching on this umbrella last night before I had to set it down to play a game of scrabble with the kids. I plan to finish this one off today and work on the 15 umbrellas waiting for their outline stitching. I also need to pull out my first attempt at raindrops in the middle area. 

This is a photo of the whole little quilt. It is amazing how progress happens when you actually pick it up and work on it!

Linking up with the other Slow Stitchers.

Saturday in pink....

I had to search for some pink! Remember these umbrella's from last year's RSC? They are getting some outline quilting on them right now. I'll go back and figure out how to add some rain drops after they are all outlined. I am about halfway done.... due to a 1.5 hour town hall virtual meeting at work where I was able to hand quilt while listening in! Now that was fun! This pink one got stitched during the meeting.

I moved the hoop last night and this one is next. I stitched up some more while watching the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory last night during the t-storm. I had just started Air Force One on Netflix.... but figured I'd have a kid out as soon as the thunder started so Aidan watched Willy Wonka with me. I was not in the mood to discuss the world at the time that Air Force One was made so swapped what I was watching. Lots of questions.... which is good, except when you are tired and 'done for the day' as the back and forth goes on and on. The drawbacks of having a very inquisitive kid.... it is sometimes mentally exhausting! Now I can just have him do research and look things up but he likes to discuss.

I wanted to try a new mask pattern... the pink is the inside and the green print is the outside. I need elastic....not sure I have any so I might have to either order some or be creative. It was a free pattern off BluPrint but she has the youtube video available as well. Just added it so I can find it again!

Last Sunday I found a stack of these little squares at the bottom of a basket. They were leftovers that I just sewed together. I trimmed them to 2.5 inches on Sunday. There were 15. What do you do with only 15? Use 13 to make this with some leftover black hanging out next to it on the cutting table! The other 2 will get framed in black and put on the back. This is about 9 inches now... It might get turned into a hot mat? I think I saw some insulbrite when I was moving things around in the sewing room. 

I had a little sewing this week with bits and pieces to make a 12.5 inch crumb block to add to the stack. 

I still have nine patches and stars, stashbuster blocks and the sweet confetti blocks to make in pink. I guess I know what I will be working on this weekend!

Linking up with the RSC Challenge. Head on over and see what everyone else has been stitching.

Friday....

1.5 hour town hall video meeting at work this morning. What's a girl to do? 7.5 of the umbrellas got outline quilting. Geez, I guess I really should get off the computer at night and stitch instead.... I have 24 umbrella's left to go, so about half done.  Lunch break is over (carnita meat with refried beans and rice on a tostada with pico - So yummy!). Time to get back to work.

Thursday

Dinner is in the crock pot. Trying a new recipe - Carnitas! I'll let you know how it comes out!
***Edited - this meal was a hit. Both kids kept eating it off the pan as I was pulling it and each had seconds (they put theirs on a burger bun - silly kids!). I had mine with rice, refried beans and pico. Very yummy and both kids added the recipe to the rotation. I have a spicier for pulled pork and this is a mild one with a nice flavor.... love the sauce. ***

I have a 5 pound bone in pork shoulder so we will see. I got a bottle of coke at the store yesterday as she said to get the one with cane sugar if you can. I should have enough left for a couple of freezer meals.  I have some corn flour in the pantry so I might try and make corn tortillas.... we will see how the day goes!

My day off today. Emily is being dropped to horse camp today by Dad right now. I'll pick her up at 3. So, the boy was looking to see what we could do. With things being closed, the heat for the outside stuff and nothing jumping out at us.... we are heading to Lowes - with masks on - to get mulch and home defense spray. Maybe if he gets out of bed sometime soon, we can trim some bushes out front before it gets too hot? Afternoon might be some sewing on his apron and pool time? 

I found these at the bottom of a basket on Sunday and trimmed them to 2.5 inches. I have 15 of them. No, I can't find an extra one and don't have more of those fabrics to make another..... So instead of a 16 patch block with them..... I set them on the diagonal. Hmmm that leaves me with 2 extra - for the back maybe? I have some black scraps hanging around near them.... maybe I'll get to play with this little guy today? 

Sunday Slow Stitching....

I have been adding some stitches around the umbrella's this week. It is amazing that progress happens when you actually pick it up and work on it! 

Linking up with the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.

disclaimer- the rest of this post is about COVID in my state of Florida....

Florida moved to phase 2 a couple of weeks ago and the governor is insisting traditional schools will be open full capacity in August when schools are slated to begin around August 10th. I do not see how this could possibly work at all! There are 1800 kids in the middle school my kids will attend. Changing classes and buildings with 4 minutes between classes...there is no way that will work unless everyone has to wear masks on campus. It will be interesting to see what plan is created by the districts and each school. I know not all kids have access to the internet and that makes virtual learning impossible in this day and age. I just hope those tasked with this are able to think outside the box for a solution. We do have the option of virtual school in Florida... however both my kids are in a Cambridge program (advanced learning classes) and I want them to be challenged.

 It is a couple of weeks after our memorial day weekend and our numbers of new cases in Florida are rising...as expected once people are starting to go out more. We have a dashboard for Florida that shows the numbers by state and by county. There was an issue back in May...the main person who oversaw the dashboard disagreed with her supervisors on how the data was presented. She was fired for insubordination.... and has started her own dashboard here. I find this dashboard to be a better presentation of the data. I like that it includes ICU beds available, and beds by hospital by county. It does make me wonder what the government is presenting in the US and that is never a good thing. It is a fine line between keeping the economy going and keeping people safe. I am glad I am not the one making those decisions! I so wish there was a united front having people wear masks in enclosed areas for safety using science rather than making this a political issue. There are still a large number of people not wearing masks in grocery stores. No one wears a mask when we are at horses...Emily and I social distance. I have my mask with me but sit away from everyone and we are outside in the open air. When we visited the ruins - we were the only people there and at the zoo - it was outside and few people so we were able to socially distance. It felt like we had the zoo to ourselves almost all the time! Again, we had our masks with us just in case.  There are no easy answers, but I am alarmed at the number of people that still believe this is just a 'flu' or a hoax and that it is blown out of proportion.  Ok, off my rant now. 

Have a wonderful Sunday and be safe.

RSC in pink......

It is June (how did that happen?). Mid way through the year so this month the blocks get set with their siblings for display to see how things are coming along.

First we have the 16 patches using 2.5 inch blocks. There seems to have been a couple purple and a white leftover from last year! I'm making two of these per month. I have no clue how these will land in a quilt..... but they are very versatile so I'm sure I will come up with something.

The cobblestone blocks - I put a yardstick in for a visual to see how big these are! I am using 2 inch strips to make 14 of these guys and making a row of each color. Right now, I am thinking there will be a strip of grey in between each one. We will see what happens to them in November! Someone might have 'claimed' this so it might need to be longer. 😲 (Ok, I'm playing with some new options in blogger. Everything seems visual now and is similar to my phone for the icons so I have been able to figure it out..... so far!)

Linking up with the RSC Challenge on Saturday. 

Book Club - is a Top!

I finished hand stitching this together last night. After a night of sleep I decided it is done as is. It is about 35 inches square. I can use a yard of fabric for the backing and batting.

Today - Thursday is my 'day off'. Aidan and I were planning to go see the ruins of a Sugar Cane Plantation in Homosassa back on Spring Break.... but then COVID happened. We ventured out today to investigate that historic park. I thought it would be bigger.... it was just a little picnic area with maybe 6 parking spaces on one side and on the other was what was left of the processing area. We walked around and read the plaques. 

It was early still so Aidan checked my phone for what was nearby. Homosassa Wildlife Park was right up the road and it opened to the public yesterday! There were under 10 cars in the parking lot. We decided to check it out. It had been a few years since we had been. There is a nice display around Christmas with lights and music. We went when we first moved here and the kids were 3 or 4 a few times. It was nice to see the manatees and we watched the crazy fish jump up in the air! It was HOT and humid. We were done by 11:30 - I needed AC and the kids were hungry. We decided to eat there then headed home. Here are a few of the animals we got to see. 

Tuesday.....

I switched over my blog to the new blogger so we will see how it goes! 

Sunday was a lot of stitching progress with a little bit yesterday afternoon after I logged off work. I have the 3 rows of blocks each sewn to a sashing and cornerstone row. Just have to attach the last cornerstone/sashing row to the bottom and then hand stitch all three rows together.  I think it might need a small background color border then a wider one of a purple. I'll have to look and see what I have in my stash that might work for it. 

I did a little sewing after work yesterday on the machine. I added a 12 inch finished dark green crumb block. I seem to have 2 different sizes of these in my pile of blocks.

The top ones are 12.5 and the bottom 7 are 11.5 inches! Yes, I will add a little to 2 sides of those to make them reach the 12.5 inches.

Last night the headache that was threatening all afternoon decided to hit with a vengeance. Dare I say it was similar to a migraine? I usually don't get those and boy, will I be ever so happy if I don't get one again. Much better this morning, thank goodness.

Must finish up work, then I have to bring Emily to horses. Greg has his pain management doctor appointment this afternoon. Hopefully we get a plan and some relief for him on his back pain. He is back to work this week - yesterday was day one. So far so good. We will see how he is come Friday!