Slow Sunday and a completed OMG goal!

 My goal for January was to make one hexagon quilt as you go a day. I decided to make one per day this year and coordinate it with the rainbow scrap challenge where you play with one color of scraps each month. January was pink so here are 31 pink hexagons! I am going to wait to put these together but will probably mix all the colors up at that point. February will be yellow, so I need to see if I can find 28 different yellows in the scrap bins and stash to play with. Linking up with the OMG Challenge for January. I was lucky enough to win a gift certificate from Fat Quarter Shop in December and decided to reward myself with a bundle of butter churn basics from Kim Diehl. I have been looking at this bundle for a while and figured I needed neutrals and it was the perfect opportunity to pick it up. Service was fast and I love the new fabrics.

I also started a new block this week in pink - Erins Butterfly is the pattern from Grandmothers Scrap Bag book. Page 34.

I need to hand stitch that curve, then hand applique it to the background and add the body and some embroidered antennae. 

I think I am done making the Endless Diamond blocks (those flowering snowballs are so much easier to hand piece!) so I will start hand piecing those 20 blocks together to make a quilt top here and there when I have time this week as well.

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

Wrapping up pink in the RSC

 My roundup of pink from the month.

I made 2 of these Flower Garden Path blocks. I am playing with the Accuquilt for these and making the hst using my 8 inch cube die. These finish at 12 inches.

I found this stack of 4 patches at the bottom of a basket and decided to sew them together. They also finish at 12 inches.

I made 2 of these blocks - they finish at 14 inches.

The Table Scraps challenge - I had these blocks hanging around and they decided to be unpicked into flying geese instead of square in a square and turned into this little runner. I'm linking up with the Table Scrap Runner/Topper Challenge

I added some plus blocks for the Full Stop! challenge.

I added a block this week..... because I remembered I meant to do it this year. It is called Erin's Butterfly and was found in the Great Scrap Bag Quilts where I found the Endless Diamond block. It is a mix of machine and hand piecing and will get finished off this weekend. 

Then there are the Hexagon Quilt as you go blocks. I have most of them completed and all are prepped to finish the full 31 this month in pink.  I see I have 4 left to do and will stitch those while Emily does a cookie booth on our lawn this afternoon.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge where we get to pull yellow for February. I think I need to enhance the pink, yellow and orange in my stash as those colors are lacking in variety!

Thursday....

I had big plans today.... but not too much of it actually happened! I did get a little sewing in, not exactly what I had planned to work on though. Oh well, progress was made. Some will wait for Saturday and the RSC but I will show a progress shot of a 'new' project.

I know, last week and you are adding another 'block' to the mix? Why yes, yes I am.  I had marked page 34 - Erin's Butterfly in the book that has hand drawn blocks where I found a version of my 'Endless Diamonds'. 

I had just enough template plastic to make the 3 parts needed. Must remember to get another sheet of that stuff! I cut out the 20 'fans' and then found a light pink fabric for the inner part of the wings. I machine stitched these fans, then hand pieced the curved portion on. Now I'll baste the drawn stitching line under so I can applique it to a background... then add the body in the middle and some embroidered antennae. 

I might have been sewing around this. It appears someone thought he needed to be sleeping on my lap and Mom was not sitting and allowing that. This was his response! Peanut, ever the helper in the sewing room. 

I added another of the flowering snowball block and have another in process. I had cut out more parts over the weekend and forgot to make more of the middle squares. A quick cut last night and I was good to go for another 4 blocks. 

I did manage to get this one pinned and then just did a machine line down the middle and made and attached the binding. I 'might' add hand quilting... I 'might' just add the eyes and call it done!

5:30 and I am guessing the kids are going to want dinner. I really wanted a burger for lunch.... so went out to Five Guys and got one. I am still full so will prep something for them and if I am hungry later I'll just have some strawberries and a salad.

After 2 months. I rearranged my living room (and vacuumed Mom!) so my recliner is back where it was closer to the sliding glass door rather than by the kitchen divider and facing it. It was nice where it was for Christmas so I could enjoy seeing the Christmas tree but it was time to get my stitching set up back to 'normal'. I may regret it later tonight as it is going to get cold (30's freeze warning) and the big glass window is not insulated. I guess it will be a quilt and 2 cat lap night!

 

Slowly on Sunday

I started off my morning with a little hand stitching today. I had finished the 4 sides yesterday on this #21 Endless Diamond block and stitched it together this morning while watching an episode of NCIS on Netflix.

I also stitched my hexagon QAYG for the day this morning and put a line of hand quilting in it around each side. I have quite the stack of finished ones building up - 24 for the first 24 days of this year =).  I prepped the rest needed through January 31 last Sunday so I am just waiting to see what color Angela will pull for February and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

I added another hand stitched Flowering snowball block yesterday as well. I have 6 done and another one all prepped. I think I am going to need to be creative to cut out more from the bits of FQ's I have left. No worries - I have a whole bunch of blues and greens hanging out on the fabric wall to pull from! I used the Accuquilt Go to cut these and I love how easy and quick it is to cut accurate curved parts. 

I took a break and was cleaning up the kitchen. I have been working through drawers and cleaning and wiping things down. Today was doing the vinegar cleaning of the coffee maker and the keurig machine. I need to sweep then actually pull out the fridge and vaccum the back. I hope that will cause the loud noises to stop. We have defrosted it and replaced the ice maker part in the door. Multiple replacement shelves for the door have been purchased over the years after first using lots of glue for repairs. I am not impressed with this Samsung purchase from Lowes 10 years ago at all. Let's hope the removal of dust will help. 

After that and a vaccum of the house while it is out I think it will be reward time to sew. I am going to have to piece a backing for the Stashbuster 2020 quilt top, cut the batting off the roll and then pin it for quilting. I think it will just be a minimal machine quilting on it as that is all that is needed with the warm and natural batting. I have been informed I am not allowed to add the binding (which I have not made yet) as Emily wants to press it for me once I have it made. That means binding will wait for another evening. 

So... later tonight after retrieving the kids from Grandma's I will add my first hand quilting stitches into this lovely hand pieced quilt along quilt from 2019. It finished about 29x38. The 3rd quilt along will be revealed tomorrow at Elmstreetquilts.com (Patty) and Kristinesser.com from Simple. Handmade. Everyday.  I'm sew excited to see what they have come up with this year. I have enjoyed learning from their sew alongs so much.

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

 

RSC in pink

 Good thing we still have a week of pink to sew this month. I have one more of the pink half square triangle blocks to sew up this weekend but I did manage to get a bunch of pink sewn this week.

I got my Hashtag blocks sewn for the RSC Sew Along.

I finished the second four patch and squares (I really need a name for this!) block to go with the one I showed last week.

I made my table scrap runner with some parts I had hanging around and it turned into this 10x15 little table runner that was hand quilted.

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge where we are playing with pinks this month.

SAHRR

I decided to join in on the virtual SAHRR (Say at Home Round Robin). I was thinking of an orphan block I know I saw of a castle back from a Vermont quilt I made with my guild many years ago. However... I am not sure where it ended up the last time I 'picked up' the sewing room so...... I found this single block that was hanging around and decided to use it for my middle. The first round was to add a piano key border.

I pulled some fabrics from scrap bins and found a 2 inch strip of this blue and some white. Sewed them together and cut 2 inch segments to make my first round. I guess it is more of a checkerboard than a piano key.. but it used up the fabric I pulled with an inch or two left of each to spare. 

My morning: I was logged into work but decided to take today off and will work tomorrow on my normal day off. I am lucky my workplace is flexible and lets me do that... a little distracted with wanting to watch the inauguration today.

This morning Aidan thought it was strange that his teachers didn't email him work on his last day of quarantine. So he checked and he was marked as absent! I got to call the school and see what was up. Turns out the FDOH (Florida dept of health) determined he was ok to go back today instead of tomorrow like he was told. She kindly marked him absent due to quarantine and he will go back tomorrow. That let us watch the inauguration today together.

Meals

I planned meals this week - well, most of the week so far. Sunday evening everyone was on their own after a very big breakfast of sausage and biscuits, eggs and hash browns.

Saturday night - was a Keto meal of spiced chicken thighs and roasted sweet potato's.  Aidan loves these and ate way more than his share!

Monday was Tater tot casserole.

Tuesday was Crack Slaw (aka egg roll in a bowl). Emily will have Chicken Kiev as she is nuts and turns up her nose at this one.... we don't mind as it is more for us to eat!

Wednesday will be a roasted whole chicken in the crock pot with steamed broccoli. ***Oops, must take the whole chicken out of the zero freeze freezer well before 5PM the night before if it needs to get defrosted! Swapping Thursday and Wednesday's meals!

Thursday will be baked fish with rosemary roasted potato and possible leftover broccoli.

Friday.... we will see what I feel like pulling out of the freezer. It might be a Papa Johns Pizza night - we have a robotics card that gives us B1G1 all school year and we have only used it once so far. The pizza place is 5 minutes from the kids school... so I order in car line and pick up after I get them. It makes for an early dinner.. but the kids are usually hungry with lunch at 11:30 and pick up between 3:45-4:10.

Audiobooks.

 I finished listening to an audiobook - The Anatomist's wife by Anna Lee Huber last night. I had curled up in bed to listen to the last 15% of the book and managed to get all 3 cats on the bed with me! I was surprised 16 year old Sophie could still jump up!  It took a bit to get into but was a good mystery if you like historical books. I did like the accent the book was read in. Before that I was listening to some Charlaine Harris books - Shakespear's Landlord, Shakespeare's Champion and Shakespeare's Christmas. It is a series. I tucked in Becoming - by Michelle Obama and read by her in between a few of the mysteries. It was a really interesting biography of her life. I use the Libby app on my phone and hooked it up to my local library card. Another one that was an interesting mystery was The President is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton. 

Hand Pieced Quilt Along....

 I have joined in on two hand pieced quilt alongs that Patty Dudek and Kristin Esser have hosted in 2019 and 2020. As you can tell by all the hand piecing I have been doing lately (endless diamonds and flowering snowball blocks) they might have created a monster! There are tutorials and videos on their blogs on how to hand piece if you are interested in learning a new skill. I will warn you, it is very portable and a wee bit addicting. 

This is the first quilt along in 2019. I chose to make 2 of each block and used blue and white scraps. These are smaller blocks finishing at 6 inches. The quilt is 28.5x38.5 and is now pinned for hand quilting. I'll fold the excess and pin it to the front of the quilt edges so the cat's won't tear it up while I am working on it.... and should give me enough room to work the edges in the hoop. I try to think ahead occasionally!

This was the 2020 quilt along - Book Club - where we learned template making and curved piecing. That bottom block in the middle was called 'Emma' and is also known as the Flowering Snowball block. I got the die to cut that one (so easy and quick to make all those parts perfectly!). I am working on a blue and green little throw right now... and will plan to cut some parts each month in the RSC color way to build up a nice scrappy quilt project to be pieced at a later date.

They will be announcing the 3rd sew along Monday January 25th. I can't wait to see what we will be learning this time!

Results from a relaxing day.

 I took a fairly lazy day yesterday. I did finally mop the kitchen floor.... it really needed it! Bathrooms today I think. 

A lot of time cutting and prepping the rest of the pink hexagons needed for January. These are so quick to stitch at night - maybe 10 minutes - once all that prep work is done. 

Then I settled in and watched some tv (ok, listened to tv) while adding some hand quilting to this little quilt. Just a little more time needed on it today and then I can find something for the binding and get it finished off. 

Slow Sunday stitching...

 It is a long weekend for my household. 

The kids got excited that Greg ordered a new table for the front room to move out the flying console and PC from his office to out there with the PS3. It is becoming a true game room and they are actually going through and have tossed or put things in the donate pile. I even heard the vacuum cleaner running! The big drapes that came with the house are down  and it really lightens up the room. I plan to repurpose that curtain rod to hang quilts! 

For hand work - I'll be adding some hand quilting to this little table runner. I had them as square in a square but they were never happy with how I wanted to put them together so they got unpicked yesterday into flying geese and seemed happy with this layout. It is 10x15 and will finish up perfect for the little side table in the front room.

I'll also be adding some more embroidery - buttonhole stitch around the fused applique on this cute little row by row runner. I have never done this stitch before but love how it makes the ducks look.

I'll make my Hexagon for the day... and will need to prep more for this week. 

Then there are the flowering snowball blocks. I did cut out another 4 blocks and figured out I only need to mark the stitching lines on the white peel part and the middle square! These are so fun to stitch with the gentle curve. I think just this block and die are so worth getting the Accuquilt GO! for my birthday. I have the 4 inch drunkard path die on my wishlist...... it comes in a few sizes but I think that one would work the best? Until then, I'll keep busy with this one and the 8 inch cube it came with.  I think I will cut out some parts each month in the color of the RSC Challenge and have the makings of a scrappy quilt later this year.

Head on over and see what everyone else is slow stitching this weekend over at Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching linkup.

Pinks!

 After not getting into the sewing room all week to use the machine..... I managed to sew up these two blocks this morning while Emily was playing with my Accuquilt cutter making more HST's for me.  I have a good amount in the bucket to select from now! I decided to do a neutral 4.5 inch square in the middle on these. This is a 12 inch block so I plan to make another one so I'll have 20 at the end of October.... and 25 or 25 if I continue and make brown and black ones for the last two months.

Another block is this one - which makes a 16 inch block.  This one turned out pretty light. I have the 4 patches sewn with a darker pink. I just need to pull and cut all the other parts and stitch it together.

I plan to be in my sewing room most of the day today... with a few breaks to make soft pretzels with the sourdough starter, and check on the chickens out back. No horses today - I told Emily despite being allowed to go to school still, we really should not be going places as Aidan is still in quarantine until Thursday. I plan to work on my pink table runner, sew some crumb blocks and pin the stashbuster quilt for machine quilting tomorrow. I also need to pull fabrics for the Plus blocks and stitch my Hexagon for the day.

We had a family game night last evening. The kids got a domino set and they taught us adults how to play. It involved trains! It was pretty neat and we played 3 rounds. Grandma's friend Betty has been going over for game day Sunday's and taught them how to play last year.

My Grammy Myott's Singer 501 machine in a treadle table was also moved into my sewing space last night by the kids. I have not used it in years, so I might pull it out and see if it needs oil -it was seized up when I tried it a few years ago and after lots of oil it was back and running.  Maybe I'll make the RSC Challenge quilt using this machine this year? We will see.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

Not much progress...

I have kept up with the hexagon QAYG and prepped a few more last night while watching the Lightning play their game opener. I have 13 completed so far this month. 

The last prepped snowball block was completed. I need to cut more parts out today with the Accuquilt die.

One kid dropped off for her last day of Q2 before a 4 day weekend. The other is doing his assignments in his room for the day. I'll plan to log into work for a couple of hours, I have a first production run of data this morning that involves a major programming change I implemented in October. Just to check and make sure it went smoothly.

One thing we have learned from the chickens is that they produce a variety of shades to their eggs. Once they lay a color- that is the color they will continue to lay. We have figured out Fred lays the darkest brown ones while Molly lays the lightest of the large eggs. Emma and Lily lay the shades in between but their shapes are a little different. These are from the Sex Link chickens - which are a cross breed of Rhode Island Red and White. They lay large brown eggs.

This bucket is the smaller eggs - small to medium light brown from the Plymouth Rocks and Rosie is doing a light pinkish shade as an Easter Egger. We are waiting for the last Plymouth - DC to start laying as well as Poppy the last Easter Egger. I hope hers is green or blue but we will have to wait and see. We are getting 7 eggs a day right now - 4 large and 3 small. I used up 2 of the small for my breakfast this morning - thanks to Myrtle and Maple for providing me my breakfast!

I hope to get some prep work and sewing accomplished today. I think it will be a pink sewing day for me and maybe I can finish up the last bit of clue #4 of the mystery. We will see.  

Snowballs are growing....

 

I got some time on Sunday after really picking up and condensing storage boxes of holiday things into controlled chaos. It turns out I have a floor in the garage area where my office and sewing area is along with all the storage! Greg went and retrieved the kids from Grandma's and that allowed me some relaxing stitching time to almost stitch 2 blocks! I still need to piece the three parts together - hopefully today.

Monday was a birthday in the house - hubby gained another year! I also had a girl scout meeting for cookie training that night and had to submit my initial cookie order. Just because that was not enough for the day.... the boy got sent home around noon from school for 10 days due to close contact with a Covid-19 person in one of his classes. They do wear masks on campus except for lunch. I still think it is strange that the girl is still allowed to go to school! We called all in contact the last bit and I let the AC company know what was happening as they were scheduled to come to the house today to do annual cleaning. They opted to reschedule and thanked me for letting them know. He is fine.....just trying to figure out what to do with his time. Sounds like he is going to learn German! He was a bit surprised when his Dad was tucking him in last night and was speaking German to him. Something about growing up near Cincy and a German grandmother! 

Slow stitching?

 I hope to get a little slow stitching in today. I do have some other things that I keep putting off that need to get completed today first. I need to log into work and move something into production this morning. I need to log into the girl scout cookie site and prep my initial cookie order for tomorrow and set up Emily's online order site. I need to prep training for the troop and parents tomorrow night. Then.... I need to finish tucking away the Christmas stuff, repackage the fall stuff into an empty Christmas big container from the cardboard box it is spilling out of, and pick up a bit for the AC guy to clean the unit on Tuesday. I figured he probably needs to be able to actually get in there and clean!

I do plan to do a little machine sewing, a little prep work on Hexagons and Endless Diamonds, and then some slow stitching to finish off the Endless Diamond block in process.

I need to cut out the white wings for the corners.

I have hand stitched a couple of Flowering snowball blocks this week and cut more parts out with my Accuquilt. I found I really only need to mark the white round half peel parts and the middle square. 

Dinner is in the crock pot - Carnitas. I'll probably just have mine with some pico, avacado and black beans. Yummy. I love having a freezer bag of this ready to pull out and crisp up in the oven for meals later.

The chickens. Em is cleaning out their coop and they are free ranging in the back yard. We have 6 or 7 of the 9 laying eggs right now. I think DC (Daisy Chickalotta) and Poppy are the two not laying. So far - Rosie's eggs appears small and white! She is an easter egger so we were not sure what color egg it would be. Lets hope Poppy's is a fun color.

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers.

Saturday in Pink

While looking for a missing part for the mystery clue #3 (no clue where those 2 parts went!), I found these parts and pieces at the bottom of a basket. They are pink... with limey green. I remember purchasing these two fabrics at a going out of business sale in Burlington VT in the late 90's. I had taken a hand quilting class there once. I see some flying geese big parts, some small hst's and the bigger ones were sewn into these 6 blocks. I think this will be the basis of a table topper this month. No clue where it is going but it is time to get them sewn and into a completed project.

I have really not sewn this week other than to make a couple of masks and then have to rework them to make them smaller from the complaints I got. These are the parts for one of the RSC blocks I am planning to make. I don't have as much variety with pinks (my daughter liked red and purple instead of pink!) so it was slim pickings. 

I have 9 of the Hexagon QAYG blocks completed. 

Last night was homemade pizza followed by watching Miracle on Ice. Aidan had selected a quote for a school project last month and it was one from Herb Brooks. I figured he should watch the movie, too. Nice to watch a feel good movie to end the turbulent week.

Emily is insisting I get dressed as she needs to head to horses shortly. It is chilly out.... high 40's. I am not looking forward to sitting outside for over an hour today. It is still much better than feels like 100+ though!

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

 

Flowering snowball

 This morning I have a headache and am very tired from the stress of watching the chaos unfold yesterday. I stayed up until 1AM... when they protested Pennsylvania's electoral college. Thankfully, they did their job and certified the results of the fair election and President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will be given their Oath to uphold the constitution of the United States on January 20th at noon.

Other than saying I was appalled watching fellow Americans become terrorists by breaking into the sacred house of democracy attempting to overthrow our government, I sincerely hope that peace and common sense will prevail and that the Constitution of the United States will be maintained and the will of the people and democracy will prevail. It is a sad state in the world where this happens anywhere, but especially in your own country. I am writing this for me, for my feelings. This has been building for the last 4 years and no one should be surprised by it, but I sincerely hope that cooler heads will prevail and that they will finally do what is right and remove all the elected officials that are not doing their duty to country in the Oath they took to Uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. 

I had made a new meal in the crock pot last night - Greek Chicken. (It was OK. If I make it again less olives and don't forget the feta cheese!) I put placemats out on the table and told everyone the rice and meal was ready. The tv was on in the living room and the kids and I were watching the chaos. I left to go get them around 3:10 so was offline until 4ish when I picked them up and got off the school campus where I had internet access again. I handed the phone to Aidan in the back seat and said check CNN and see what is going on. I had asked if they were aware of the riot, they were not. We listened to Biden's speech - very Presidential according to the kids. When everyone filled their plate.... they all looked at me then wandered into the living room to watch the events unfolding on tv. History was happening. 

I pieced this flowering snowball last night once the congress was back in session. It was very soothing to stitch. I need to prep more parts today with the cutter. Emily draped them over Peanut who took over my chair when I got up to get the photo's.

I had logged off work early yesterday as I wanted to watch the joint session of congress and knew I was too distracted to work around 2PM. I'll need to make up that time.... but not today. Today will be sewing therapy, chatting with the chickens, petting the cats and working in the garden to till it one last time, put up a fence to keep the chickens out and start planting it.