Slow Sunday stitching...

Well, this 4 day weekend was not what I planned at all! Other than a very yummy and juicy Turkey Thursday with all the fixings, it was a putter around the house with a head cold type of weekend. Sigh. So far - the boy is fine. Emily had it last weekend and is all better. Greg and I are 'sharing' the head cold from Emily. 

I do have a memory quilt I have promised to have done for Christmas so I will be cutting out more squares and strips from clothing provided to prep for that. I have a plan and now that I made the initial cut I am more confident in it.

When I am resting from that.... I'll be adding some stitches to my quilt as you go hexagons in browns for November.

Then I'll start some hand quilting on the Endless Diamond quilt. I pinned it when I pinned something else last month and it has just been waiting patiently for me to finish off Snowman and Silent Night.  This one is completely hand pieced from a template I created based on a photo of a quilt I saw. You can read about my adventure with this quilt under the Endless Diamond Tab.

Linking up with the other slow stitchers on this sunny Sunday in Florida.

 

Table Scraps Challenge for November...

I checked Joy's blog this morning and yup - as it is the last weekend of the month it is time for the table scraps challenge link up! 

I had played with my crossed canoe die earlier this month thinking it would make a cute table runner. I still think that.... but maybe next month!

I was cleaning off the sewing table/cutting mat area and found a stack of these leftover scraps from my 5 inch charms I used to make my applique hearts.  

I had sewed 4 together to get a middle piece that was usable. Well, those got pressed and cut into 6 - 4.5 inch squares and there are 3 - 4 inch ones still to 'process'. I had some leftover 1.5 inch black ends of strips from the Snowman quilt I just finished.  That worked to attach them together. I didn't have enough to go around the outside. I decided to just finish it off with a little machine quilting. I pulled 2 little strips of leftover purple bindings in slightly different shades that got spliced together and finished this off with about 4 inches left over.  I'd say this truly is a 'scrap buster'! If you look close at the bottom you can see the 2 different color purple bindings =).

Linking up with the Table Scrap Challenge.

 

November OMG - completed!

My Snowman and Silent Night wall hanging was completed last night! This is machine pieced as a sew along with Jacquelynne Steves and then I hand quilted it. Excuse the cat hair - Peanut needed to test the softness for his nap yesterday. 36x36 inches.

Linking up with the November OMG.

 

Hand quilting done.... now to the binding.

With another 2 hour meeting this morning I was able to finish stitching the border on this wall hanging.

I just need to trim it up and make and attach a red binding. It is looking really good for meeting my November OMG goal. Here is a shot of the back where you can see the hand quilting a little bit better.
 

Emily is finishing my Mom's orange salad. She requested homemade chocolate cake for dessert tomorrow so we are on tap to make that next. 

Last night we did make a veggie lo mein recipe that the chef at school made the last block days before break. (both kids are in culinary this semester) It was mostly to demonstrate knife skills and different preps of food. Emily wrote down the recipe as he was cooking it and we tried it last night. A few went back for seconds and it was deemed 'add to rotation' by all of us! It took me about 50 minutes from start to finish making it in the wok. I did let the kids do a little of the cutting.

I added the recipe to my recipe tab at the bottom but here it is if you are looking for something different to try. I forgot to get zucchini and had to try 3 stores to find the bok choi. You really could adjust and modify the veggies as you see fit.

Chef's Lo Mein recipe: (He used this to demonstrate knife skills)

I medium onion - chopped.

2 carrots - cut on the diagonal in slices.

2 green peppers - julienned

2 zucchini - julienned and diced (1/2 and half)

8 -12 ounces of baby bella mushrooms - sliced

1/4 of a cabbage - (chopped like grass)

2-3 leaves of bok choi - dice the white part and chiffionade the green part

1 clove of garlic, minced

fresh ginger - diced (I did a little over a tablespoon)

2 eggs

1 pound spaghetti

Kosher salt

Canola oil

soy sauce

honey

saracha

sesame oil

Prep all veggies first (chef put them all on a baking sheet). I used our wok - on 375 for temp. Medium high heat if using a skillet.

Once heated - add some oil to the pan. Add a pinch of salt with each veggie addition! Add each of the veggies in this order one at a time - Onion, carrot, pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, cabbage, bok choi, then the garlic and ginger until fragrent. Add 2 eggs and toss everything around. Add the cooked spaghetti and separate it. Add soy sauce just until the pasta starts to turn a light brown. Add a little honey (a couple of tablespoons) and mix it. Add a little Saracha (the kids added a few tablespoons before I stopped them from adding more!), toss, then turn off heat and add a little sesame oil.

My birthday present arrived last week....

I got the companion sets to go with my 8 inch cube for the Accuquilt. I almost got a small hst die as well but took it out of the cart. When I snapped the photo of the dies - turns out there is a 1 inch finished hst in this set! I have a feeling I'll run a lot of my smaller scraps through with that die next year. 

I don't think I did any stitching at all yesterday. It was all about shopping after I finished working - Walmart and then Publix after dinner for the things I forgot (or someone did not put on the list). Still I managed to forget the soft Kleenex for my Rudolph nosed girl. Hubby is out this morning for a blood draw so he has been texted a list. I was thinking Monday late afternoon would be 'calmer' than Sunday afternoon.... nope! 

We did have the boy's catch for dinner last night. Greg cooked that up while I  made Rissotto for the girl since she refused to try it. I think it was redfish that they caught. She had a very small portion - which means she really is sick. Normally it is 2 big bowls full! The fish was not fishy at all - very light and was pretty good. There was a little left over and the boys will probably have fish taco's for lunch today.

I'd better get ready to log into work. I have a 2 hour whole company meeting and I plan to hand quilt my snowman quilt during it!

 

Slow Stitching progress on Snowmen....

This is the progress shot this morning - 3 of the 4 blocks are hand quilted! 

 I finished off this 3rd block last night. I decided to continue the X in the corners since I did that in all the other blocks... and had no clue what else to do there!

Block 2

The first block that I started on last weekend.

This is the one I will start working on shortly. First - I think I will make a batch of scones for breakfast. Everyone is sleeping in the house but I still wake up a bit after 7AM every day! I am wanting cranberry orange... but have no orange so I think I'll make my yogurt scones and do some with blueberries on top and some with dried cranberries. The recipe I use is in my recipe tab - I got it while up in Vermont from a bakery that used to be in Cabot. They are really yummy... and I happen to have plain yogurt in the fridge today!

I have been working away at my brown hexagons this month. I prepped a slew of them last weekend and will need to prep the last bunch later today. I have 2 in sets of 4 and 4 in sets of 2! These are a nice quick project once they are all prepped and ready to pick up by my recliner or in the car line or at horses with Emily. I have been making one per day this year (only a little behind this month!) in the color of the month going along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I decided November was brown for me and will hit black and grey next month.

After stitching the 'binding' down and doing a quilting stitch about 1/4 to 1/2 in from each edge, I am whip stitching them together. Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

The boys had an early morning yesterday and did a fishing charter out of Crystal River. They were to go out in the gulf but with the cool front going through and high winds, the guy called Friday night and asked if they wanted to reschedule or just stay in the rivers and catch and release. They opted to go and do the rivers. 5 hours on the boat and they had a great time! They were catching fish like crazy and did manage to catch a few to take home. The captain filleted them and put them on ice in the little cooler they took. They are in the fridge now - but might get frozen today for a meal later this week. Not sure what they caught - Greg has the few photo's on his phone but I think they were red grouper?  They saw lots of wildlife - pelicans and tons of birds and even a manatee or two! 

I spent the late afternoon working on the pantry! Emily came in from chicken duty and is very particular on how things should be so she ended up taking over but I was not allowed to leave the kitchen and was organizing things into groups as she took them out and then handed them back over as she decided where to put things. Someone might have dumped Hershey's cocoa powder in there so there was a bit of a mess to clean up - I got the sweeping and mopping duty.  Aidan looked in there last night and said there is nothing in there! Sigh - their 'snacks' for lunches were gone for the week.... so Em might have made a batch of brownies last night for their nighttime snack! Now I know what I have and what I need (heaven forbid there is only ONE can of corn in there.... but 6 chick peas!) Did I mention my girl loves corn? Someone figured baking would happen this month so Sam's size flour, sugar and powdered sugar are at the bottom and out of sight are the big bins where I keep the 'open' ones. I'm guessing about a week before it is all messed up!  

The kids are off school this week as we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the US. I took my 15 pound turkey out of the freezer and put him in the fridge on a platter Friday night. I hope he is not still frozen Thursday morning! Have a great stitching week everyone.

I'm going to try this Cinnamon Apple Cider Bread today too - I have cider in the fridge that is not going down so this might be a good place to use it! 

Full stop and more Hexagons in brown...

I did a little sewing to expand the rows on Full Stop. I think I 'might' grab the purple and red row and combine them into one - that's a lot of blank space in those rows!  I have the pink row at the bottom but moved it up a little.... now that I am thinking of changing the red/purple row... we will see how they look after that change. I hope I get a little time to play with that tonight. The kids will be officially on Thanksgiving break at 3:45 Friday and don't go back to school until the 29th. I hear Christmas decorating will be happening in and outside of the house! 

I have prepped oodles of brown hexagons and a few are into the light brown or beige category. I was surprised with the variety I had on hand. These are the first 8 sewn into their groups of four to add to the pile of over 300 of them. I should get a couple more of these sets completed at horses tomorrow with Emily. The boys are going out on a charter in the gulf to fish in the morning. We will see if they come home with anything!

I was asked how I was connecting them. I am just putting 2 right sides together and stitching them together. It looks a little messy on the back... but how often does anyone really look closely at the back? 

Excuse the cat hair - they need to 'test' the softness of everything in the house. 

Linking up Friday with the RSC

 

November OMG progress

I finished quilting the first block and moved onto the second one. Amazing that you can make progress if you put the phone down and stitch instead! I'm hoping to make more progress over the next week with less car time bringing the kids to and from school. They are off all next week for Thanksgiving holiday. 

 

Slow Stitching Sunday

Cooler temps in Florida this morning has me smiling at this snowman! He has not gotten much attention this week but if I can put my phone games down and pick up the needle and thread I should get progress on this guy this week.

Some of the brown hexagons I have been working on this week waiting to get their quilting stitches in them. 

 One down and 6 to go for this batch.

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

Full Stop

 These are the rows for my Full stop. I need to check and make sure they are all going the 'correct' way. Then.... since I did not use a consistent background I need to find some white on white fabrics and make them all the same size. My asterisks are the longest row so I think I'll add a little to each side of that one and then make all the others that size - maybe up to 56 inches across? That should be a good lap size I think.  I doubt this will be the final look but we will see how they look once I have added the white to lengthen each of the rows.  Maybe one more row with the letters Full Stop? Hmmmmm.

Linking up with the RSC. How are your projects coming along?

Crossed Canoe

 Sigh... I know I was to wait until I had a good start on that memory quilt.... but those fabrics just wanted to get run through the machine and cut! Who was I to tell them no?

I did 3 fabrics..... I wish I had just done 2 in hindsight but I will remember that for next year's RSC. I need to work on patience when sewing the blocks together as my centers are off and I don't feel like fixing them! I might have been sewing around a cat between me and the machine and holding his tail out of hte way of the needle while stitching these. They will be sewn together with a sashing I think and made into a runner for the table for Thanksgiving. Well, I might try and press the heck out of them or unpick and resew. We will see how I am feeling about it on Sunday. 

Saturday I get to pick up the nut and candy orders and sort them while Greg takes Em to horses. That gives me all afternoon to play with the 3 bins of clothes for the memory quilt. All sorts of materials so it should be interesting. I think I have an idea for a simple pattern so we will see how it goes tomorrow. 

I did get a lunchtime walk in yesterday and snapped this butterfly on the front bushes. They love the milkweed Aidan planted there.

I stopped at the Market of Marion after dropping the kids to school to check out the wing of venders selling produce. I got a bunch of things and will be seeing what the heck a Chayote squash is like! She told me it is meatier than a zucchini so we will see. I got 3 of them for $2. I also got some beets, zucchini, cabbage, kale, cukes, tomato, plums, blueberries, watermelon, and mushrooms.  No tomatillo's like I was looking for so no green salsa this weekend.  I still have jalepeno's  from a couple of weeks ago so regular salsa it will be! 

Bowl cozy!

 I have been meaning to make a bigger bowl cozy to fit the pasta bowl for a long time.... (over a year, shhh!). I finally decided to make it today. 

So I remember if I need to make another one - this is what I did!

I pulled some brown and cut a couple of 12.5 inch squares. A couple of the same size from the wrap and zap batting then stitched this up. An X was stitched to each section of fabric/wrap and zap. Then I folded in half and marked 1 inch x 2 inch (2 inch in to the middle) on each side and stitched to make that 'corner'. Folded the other way and did the same. Trimmed that off and also trimmed the corners and a little of the batting all around. I put them right sides together and stitched 1/4 inch all around leaving a bit of an opening on one side. A little trim again and then turned it right side out. Fold under the turning spot and stitch 1/4 inch all around the edges. 

After school the kids check on the animals...well Aidan finds the cats and tries to pick them up. LeeLee does not like to be picked up but occasionally tolerates it. After chasing the cats he heads out to see the girls. Now that Lily is not broody anymore she has gone back to being a Parrot on his shoulder! She will stay up there for a while happy as a clam. 

A little cleaning of the house and then back to the sewing room! I do love my day's off.

Crossed Canoe?

 When I was pulling browns to prep some Hexagons yesterday I was thinking this batch of fabrics with maybe some blues would make a really pretty crossed canoe quilt or table topper. I do have the Accuquilt die that has yet to be opened. I think this might be the month to give this one a try.

First I really need to make progress on a memory quilt I have said I would make.... so having this as my 'carrot' to play with after maybe I'll actually get moving on the memory quilt this week.

I'm thinking this will be a RSC quilt for next year. I just need to calculate how many blocks I will need each month in the various colors. 

Sunday....

 Well, nothing was accomplished for me yesterday except to bring Em to horses. A splitting headache required a nap all afternoon and I watched movies in bed last night.

Today, I have prepped some brown hexagons for the month of November and pinned 2 quilts for hand quilting. The Endless Diamond quilt and then my OMG for the month of the Snowmen Christmas wall hanging. I think I'll mop the floors and then relax with another movie and some hand quilting on the Snowman quilt. 

I have a feeling I am on the kid pick up today from Grandma's. Calculus and Physics are Greg's 2 classes for this 8 week period and it is quite a bit for him. The kids have not been over for a couple of weeks and for Em it has been 3 weeks since she has gone over for the day. Grandma is down to one Dog - She had to put Buttons, the old dog from her friend, down at the end of October. Scruffy will be happy to have her kids there to play with her today I think. 

I'd better sweep and mop so I can snuggle in and enjoy some hand quilting. Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

RSC - Hexagons

The leaning tower of hexagons has a count. These are my sets of 4 all sewn together.  I added 4 more sets to the top of this pile and that put it at 284 hexagons. I have 3 more in greens that will be added to the pile by the end of this weekend (I hope) so I can start in on the browns I plan to work on for November. For me - December will be black and grey! Once I get caught up a bit and have my browns prepped and started I think I'll start stitching these sets of 4 into sets of 8. 

 

After purchasing more muslin (how did I run out?!) I was able to prep the rest of the greens from October on Thursday. These are the ones still waiting to be stitched together. I found another set of twosies that will make the 3rd set of 4 for these green ones. It is a very rainy day again in Florida so we will see if I get the horses run or if Greg will take her this week. Depends on how much homework he has left for his 2 classes this week.

 Blueberry muffins are almost done baking in the oven. No one is awake and up and moving yet but me.  I am enjoying the peace and quiet!

Linking up with the RSC. Head over and see how others are working on finishing up their RSC projects from the year.

Out of muslin?

 How can that be? I have been using muslin as the backing of my hexagons all year (occasionally I use a color to mix things up a bit each month). 

I need to make about 7 or 8 more bright greens to finish off Octobers color and start on the browns I will be stitching in November but.... I seem to be out of muslin! Sigh. I guess I need to hit Joanns before or after my meeting tonight to pick some up so I can catch up and prep my hexagons.  I will also pick up some batting so I can pin my OMG for November as well. 

This is the leaning tower of my sets of 4 hexagons that are stitched together so far. Almost time to start making them into sets of 8!