Random number generator....

 When you have lots of UFO's on the list and have no clue what to work on next.... you find the random number generator online - enter 1 to 30 and hit the button!

#25 came up!

25.) Blue and Purple 9 patch with muslin top Made in the 90's. Have a back for this 50x60.

I guess this will become my September OMG! Get this quilt completed - quilted, bound and a label attached.

Flowering Snowball quilt is completed!

After being at horses with Emily in the feels like 100 degrees for a couple of hours this morning.... I'm usually toast the rest of the day! So.... today I decided to finish the quilting on the last 4 parts and hand stitch the binding down on this quilt while listening to my audio book The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell. I'm happy to say my OMG for August is complete!

The back to school shopping included a package of binder clips... that were perfect for binding! 

My trusty helpers - Sophie the white cat who is almost 17 and Peanut. I know Ollie was on the floor somewhere in the room with us. I tend to have 2-3 cats in whatever room I am in!

Flowering Snowball quilt. Hand pieced, hand quilting and I did use the machine to add the binding to the top but hand stitched it to the pretty teal backing.

A shot of the back. Bands of rain going through so no outside shots, sorry.

A close up of some of the quilting. I used my blue YLI hand quilting thread. 

Linking up with August OMG and Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

 

Teal Table Scrap Topper!

I saw Joy had put up the link this morning and here I was with no completed runner to post about! Well, good thing I had a couple of hours before picking up the kids. I was able to find a batting and backing and play with the walking foot for some quilting. Some cut off backing sides from trimming another quilt  worked into a perfect binding for this. 

A little hand stitching of the binding down to the back - isn't it cute with the little colorful bugs and butterflies? 

 

This will be my placemat tonight for corned beef, cabbage, potato, onion and carrots with some Irish Soda Bread. The crock pot has been busy working on it all day long.

Linking up with the Table Scrap Challenge and Saturday's RSC.

The second kid got called to the quarantine room this week - Day 12 but was sent back to class as he is vaccinated and they have his card on file. Seems like Em also has another exposure as a friend she sits by in 2 classes and lunch has been out all week. She had texted another friend indicating she was a positive. Both kids are fine, thank goodness. As long as they are symptom free and vaccinated they can stay in school.

Wednesday....

 Four parts left to hand quilt on this quilt! I hope to get this finished tonight and maybe make the binding.

The back shows the stitching better. Love this teal leaf print on the back.

I snapped this butterfly yesterday on my way to pick up the kids. I loved the blue at the bottom. Not sure what type it is but it sure was pretty.

Monday - a new week.

 After the kids made sushi on Saturday I took them to Germany with some pork schnitzel and roasted herbed potato wedges for dinner on Sunday. Greg might have been sent to Publix to get deli meat and lunch things for the kids. Seems he hit the BOGO sales and in the meat section got 2 pork roasts and 2 packages of pork chops. One package ended up as dinner the rest are in the freezer. I guess it reminded him of meals when he was growing up with a German Grandma! 

I got a little sewing machine time in and made 4 blocks to expand Aidan's quilt. I think I am going to make 4 more so it will be closer to 90 inches long. The boy is going to be tall! It is 60 inches long now.  Pattern is Twilight Hopscotch by Kim Diehl in her Simple Comforts book.

Slow stitching Sunday

 There has been a lot of slow stitching this week! This is the parts department of stitching my Hexagon QAYGs together into pairs, then four patches. My little tin has singles to stitch together. This has been my pick up line project this school year. I do need to prep the rest of my aqua ones today for the month so I don't fall behind.

A shot of the sets of 4 that have been hand stitched together.

Hand quilting progress. This little flowering snowball is 36x48 and has 96 parts - not including the tiny square in the middle of the block. I have 16 parts left to stitch around the top edge! I found a dark blue that will become the binding when done. I have enjoyed stitching these gentle curves by hand and then quilting around them. Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers. I'll be adding some more stitches into this quilt and hopefully will be working on binding by mid week!

Last evening the kids and Greg made sushi - california rolls! They did a great job and I hear they tasted just like the ones we buy. They had fun making them and Dad did all the prep work and clean up! 

Saturday morning was horses. Emily was grooming Lance before she rode. He had just been rolling in the hay so lots of cleaning and attention was needed! I think she was riding him for at least an hour while Mom wilted in the heat! 

Not a great shot of the chickens but Em was out with them one day this week.   As soon as we go out back they all come running/flying to see us! They do love to hang out with their people....especially when we feed them! 

Full Stop

 

Question? Lots of questions with the start of school this year. Linking up with the RSC.

Marion county Florida did put a mask request in with a parent opt out effective Thursday Aug 19th.  I am waiting to see what the numbers are on Monday in our schools for this past week. According to the district 3300 of 42,000 children are opted out of wearing one but the kids say it is about 50% wearing/not wearing in their classes. Our open house has been rescheduled from Aug 26 to September 16th. Hopefully our local numbers are in control at that point and the hospitals are not overrun. In January.... 170 patients in the 3 Ocala hospitals for COVID was overwhelming staff. It has been over 300 all this week. I hear ER room waits are currently 12+ hours to be seen. Things are not good down here in Florida.

Emily and I did mask up and attend her beginning band meeting last night and we came home with a clarinet! I get 3 concerts this year. We will see how she does. I played clarinet from 5-12th grade in school! Aidan plays guitar but does his lessons through Guitar Center. 

Our plans for today.... or rather the other 3 in this household will be making California Rolls for dinner - sushi! Greg saw a kit for about $10 and ordered some of the supplies. I had cucumber, avocado and picked up imitation crab for the inside. I wonder what I will find for dinner tonight as the three others will be having the above!

Slow progress

 I have been doing a bunch of slow stitching so there is not too much progress. I have been hand stitching my hexagons into sets of 4. I can get them into sets of two waiting in the car line then finish the sets into a foursome in the evenings. The pile is growing but I need to prep more teal and catch up for the month of August. I think November and December are going to be black, grey and browns.

I also pulled these extra bits from Emilys 60 degree triangle quilt and had stitched them into these kites. I grabbed two and attempted to get them into a rectangle shape to make a placemat. Lets just say it took a lot longer than I thought it would. I need to measure and see if it needs a little expanding or not. Then a backing, batting and some quilting and a teal binding will finish it off I think.

There has been hand quilting as well but no photo of that progress today. I counted 36 'parts' to quilt of the 96 yesterday morning. I think I did 6 or 8 yesterday around the edge so I am still plugging away at that and a finished quilt is still possible for the end of this month!

Linking up with the RSC this week.

Sunday Slow Stitching

The sight this morning when I looked out back and saw a few chickens roosting under the tree! They like to hang out in this area near the house where there is shade, water and they get to watch the people walk around in the house! 

I hand stitched a couple more sets of 4 together last night. I think this will be a good way to start putting this one together. I have been making one hexagon QAYG in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month this year. Teal/Aqua was chosen for August.

I had a roaster chicken that Aidan used for ceasar chicken wraps for school lunches a couple of days and I turned the rest into Chicken enchilada soup. It was oh so yummy and then we let the chickens have the carcass. Now that was entertainment watching them!

I have been hand quilting as well and for my 12 blocks with 8 parts in each block - not including that little center part - gives me 96 parts to hand quilt. I counted last night and was at 56. Mostly I have the edge ones to go at this point... any advise? I need to mark my 1/4 inch for the binding so I don't stitch too close to the edge. I know some attach a piece of fabric or tea towel. I'm feeling pretty good about getting this quilt finished this month for my August OMG.

 

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers. 

I'll be playing in the sewing room a bit. The boy and I made a quilt for him that ended up around 60x60. At the time, I mentioned he might need it bigger. No, this size is fine Mom. Well, that was 2 years ago and the boy is now 5 feet 8 and still growing at age 13. I think he will be 6 feet at a minimum when done growing! I will be making 4 more blocks with the edging and attempting to 'add it' to the existing quilt. I am thinking I will make a panel for the bottom and bind it, then whip stitch the two together. Does that sound like it should work? This is his quilt. 

Friday catch up.

I did a little whip stitching of these sets of 4 Hexagon QAYG's together this week. I need to get back to stitching my individual teal hexagons but I wanted to play with getting a few sets of 4 together to see how it would work. I tried the way Daisy and Grace recommended to stitch it together but I found there were gaps when I did it and whip stitching them together works better for me - faster and more secure.

I got out the Accuquilt Go and cut parts for a scrappy Flowering Snowball kit. I have been adding some from each color selected each month from my scraps. I see I really missed on the purple month of June! I cut dark blue and teal yesterday and I'll pull purple later today and add those to the pile since it is still out.

I also pulled my #5 HST from my 8 inch cube and cut out half square triangles to make one teal block in the bottom corner. Seems I missed Purple and Dark Blue with this set of Garden Path blocks. I need to make another teal then the purple and dark blues this month. Once cut out, they do go together really nice. 

Thursday was my day off and I was in the mood to bake! I made some back of the bag Honey Oat Bread - recipe from King Arthur Flour and some Sourdough Soft Pretzels since the sourdough starter needed attention. It makes 8 - I had one, Greg had 2 and each of the kids had one at car pick up for their snack. I popped these three in the freezer and we will see how they heat up.

I'll link up Saturday with the RSC where we are playing with teal/aqua.

***Edited - right after this post I got a call from school. Em was close contact to a positive case Thursday. When I mentioned she was vaccinated they actually SENT HER BACK TO CLASS! It makes no sense! We cancelled horses, grandma and scouts as it is safest to assume it was transferred. Knowing our hospitals are overrun in Marion County right now (over 270+COVID patients) we are hunkering down. Thankfully we are all vaccinated. I see lots of sewing in my future today! 

 

Mid week.....

 Well, both kids had a good first day of school about 30% had masks on. I have a feeling it will be less today but we will see.

Emily has band and culinary, Aidan has Robotics and culinary this semester.  I get 3 concerts this year! We will see what instrument she wants to try. The first 2 weeks they try them all to see what they want to do for the year.

The pick up line was horrible as expected. I get to avoid it today as the kids will be pulled early for Dr. appointments for yearly physicals. Drop off today was smooth so hopefully pick up tomorrow is a lot smoother than yesterday.

I did manage to get these guys stitched together while waiting. A few sets of two that need to be stitched into sets of four. 

I'm shooting for a bunch like this teal set of 4. Groups of color in the eventual finished quilt. It may be all grouped like this or little splashes with all colors, not sure yet. 

1st day of school.

 Drop off was backed up this morning so I can only imagine what pick up will be! This will be in the car with me as options while I wait in my AC this afternoon. There are sets of 4 of a few different colors to whip stitch together. (yellow, red, purple, dark blue and green I think)

This one is starting 7th grade!

This one is starting 8th grade!

Seems like just yesterday we were dropping off for VPK before Kindergarten!

Weekend wrap up

 Since teal or aqua is the color for August, and so far my sewing projects have been by hand I'm combining my RSC Saturday and Slow Sunday Stitching posts this weekend!

I had pulled and cut out these aqua/teal fabrics for my Hexagon QAYG. This should cover the first half of the month before I need to dig for more variety. I was pleased with this array I found on the shelf - at least 12 different ones.

This is all the prep work - bigger muslin hexagon squares, my smaller colored hexagons and the batting with my handy dandy pins, scissors and thread.

Edited: Saturday nights progress. This is the other cat that does not get photo's much - Oliver/Ollie or LeeLee as we all call him now.

The back of the flowering snowball quilt is teal and shows the hand quilting better. I am just following the shapes as I quilt. I have about 4 blocks quilted of the 12 so pretty good progress so far this month. 

Time to move the hoop!

I'm writing this on Saturday afternoon so it is almost time to dry off the eggplant and bake it a bit before we bread it and bake it again. Eggplant Parm is on the menu tonight with a salad. I'll be prepping those hexagons in between dinner prep steps.

Friday - returning home from a quick trip to the beach!

Not a single stitch was taken. We did play one hand of Monopoly cards. I think the Ocean and the sun tired everyone out and we were too exhausted to do much of anything in the evenings!  The sound and sight of the waves of the Ocean was the perfect end of summer for us before the kids head back to school next week. I really did not get too many photo's. I was too busy soaking in the sun, sand and the restorative sound of the ocean.

I think this one is my favorite photo from this morning. We were walking back to the room (to go grab my purse and hit Dunkin for my coffee fix!) and I turned around and snapped it.

These were on the walk from the hotel to the ocean so we passed by them a lot.

There was a flock of birds on the sand and they all flew up when we approached this morning before the sun came up. 

The kids on the boogie boards yesterday. Wednesday it was red and purple flag with a good rip current but it was a yellow Thursday and they spent the morning and first half of the afternoon in the water. We grabbed subs from Publix for lunch and I might have sent Greg and Em back into the store to get a sand kit for making sand castles.... ok, so I'm an almost 50 year old kid! I love playing in the sand on the beach. Em and I started playing with them then both kids were building so I settled in my chair in my tent to read my book. Kept them entertained for over an hour before they went back out for the waves when their Dad came down to the beach.

After a 2 hour drive home this morning, a stock up on groceries and checking in on all the animals I am ready to relax a bit. A couple of loads of laundry are spinning and dinners are planned for the next few days. I pulled Carnita meat from the freezer and will make some fresh salsa, guac, rice and black beans for dinner tonight. Tomorrow is eggplant parmesan since the eggplant looked great. Em gets roasted cauliflower instead =). Sunday is sheet pan chicken with potato and fresh green beans. I enjoyed eating out for a few days but it is nice to get back to cooking. 

August OMG

Since July was to get this hand pieced I think August will be to hand quilt my flowering snowball quilt. It is fairly small at 36x48 so hopefully it is a reachable goal. Linking up with Elmstreetquilts and OMG for August.