What have I been doing?

 That is a great question! I did not work on my May OMG at all, other than purchasing the backing fabric for it. Technically I guess that is progress.

Instead, I got a little bit of startitis. I started an EPP project - well things are cut and I am still debating if I will glue baste or thread baste them. I did one as thread baste and it was sliding on me so I need to rewatch a video and give it another try. 

I also started a crochet project of granny squares using some leftover yarns from another project. If I count across the top I have 7 'openings' which is how big I am making them. I really should count the rounds but it is easier to just count the spaces across to see when I am done for now.

Another project is the Masala baby quilt in purples. I really need to knock off those final blocks and get this to a top soon. I hope to bring it with me to VT later in June.

Hand quilting on the Endless Diamond quilt is progressing. I have started quilting block 9 of 20 so getting close to half way. It appears all animals like to pose on quilts! As soon as I put it down for a photo, Bear came out to investigate and snuggled down on it.

We have been working on the new fence and have half of it to go. Maybe Greg and I can get a little work in on it tonight if I don't have to go pick up the kids from Grandma's. She is collecting them in a bit and taking them to lunch and then out to a movie near her house to watch the new Top Gun in the theater. I guess Tuesday is senior half off day for the ticket price and at the snack stand. 

I'd better get back to work as my lunch is almost over! Leftover steak on a garden salad, yum!

RSC in green

 Part of the RSC is the Table Scrap Challenge. This month squares were added to the color of dark green. I had all kinds of ideas, alas my supply of green scraps was tossed last year and there were few scraps left in that color range. I was thinking of making a shamrock runner using squares and triangles. Not enough scraps in the colors I wanted. Another idea was four patches surrounded to make a square. 

When I looked around and pulled the little bits of dark green I found these squares that I pulled off the hand pieced trip quilt from a few years ago.

I spent Thursday morning unpicking all 4 sets and then ironed the 2.5 inch squares to be flat. I managed to reuse them in a couple of ways! I made a few 16 patch blocks to add to the pile.

 Then with the rest I made this place mat! It feels good to have those extra bits of fabric repurposed into something usable.

I decided to do some straight line quilting through the squares. I used some brown for the binding.

The back is a sage green light print. It measures 18x12 for a small placemat. Linking up with the Table Scrap Challenge and the RSC Challenge on Saturday.

I still need to make the crossed canoe blocks so it is a good thing we sill have a few mores days of May!

I guess they don't do 8th grade graduation down here in Florida but Greg and I thought we should recognize it so we got Aidan a cake on his last day of Middle School Thursday. The last day of school was Hat day... and his robotics team of 3 decided to wear their purple cowboy hats from the tournament in February. He actually wore it all day long... and his 3 block teachers got a kick out of it. His gifted teacher said  - 'a quiet kid for 3 years and then the last day of school wears a light up purple cowboy hat!', Robotics teacher just smiled when they all wore it in his class, his science teacher had 2 of them in class and asked what the light up purple hats were about so they explained it. It was a good day and it only took 7 minutes in the car ride home to start worrying about High School!

Tonight - the dog managed to get into the chicken run! Emily was a little traumatized and got Maple - a barred rock chicken out of his mouth and got Bear out and into the house. Lily  - the one who plays a parrot on our shoulder was hurt under the coop. We put her in the safety of the coop and will see how she does. We think she has a leg injury but will check on her in a few hours. The others (Molly, Poppy, Myrtle, DC and Rosie) seem ok physically. I guess the new fencing to go around the coop is first on the list tomorrow morning. Maple seemed ok - was eating seed out of Emily's hand and getting around the run ok after an hour. **Update this morning. Maple seems fine but Lily is still in the coop laying down.

Never a dull moment at my house.

Scattered brain and something new...

Something mindless. Granny squares. Crochet. Extra yarn from a crochet sew along I did not finish back in 2015....  I did some Youtube video's. Granny to infinity. This one caught my eye. But the question of do I do the infinity one or just do squares and then crochet them together? Hmmmm.

I have a couple skeins of medium country blue, one and a partial of dark country blue and one of the light country blue. I have a cream and a grey as well. Nice colors that would work together. Being in Florida.... I am thinking the individual ones might be the way to go and then crochet them together. I could do rows of colors or diagonal rows of colors. Maybe connect with the white or the grey. Plenty of options but I think this will be a nice non thinking project to pick up here and there. I am doing the flip over each round to keep it square and it really seems to help!

Monday night was awards at school for the 7th graders. Emily got an award for 4.0+ all year, culinary, math and over 200 AR points.  Tuesday night was awards for the 8th graders. Aidan got an award for 4.0+ all year, science and inducted into the Ben Franklin Honor Society for Social Studies. Their last day of school is tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a safe end to the school year. My heart goes out to those effected by all the senseless shootings happening around the country. Something needs to change - it appears it is not 'safe' to go anywhere anymore. School, shopping, church. What is this country coming to?

Sunday...

Another week has flown by. The kids have 4 more days of school and each has an award ceremony they are invited to attend so that will be our Monday and Tuesday evenings. Friday, the 8th graders headed to Universal Studios in the afternoon where they close down the park and let the Middle School 8th graders take over the 2 parks until midnight. It sounds like they stayed with their adult for the first hour or two for dinner and then were released in their groups of kids for the rest of the night. Unfortunately - there was plenty of rain and thunder storms so all the outside rides (rollercoasters) were closed. The boys did have a good time though and were exhausted when the busses pulled into the school at 2AM Saturday. I think it is the first time I went below the speed limit on those roads to  school and back - rain puddling on roads and very dark.  My splitting headache started about then and finally went away around 3 the next afternoon. Greg took Em to horses and I took a nap in the morning. Turns out... our AC went out sometime Friday night and we had a service call to come take a look. The AC was fixed (wired rubbed together for a short) by mid afternoon and the blessed AC was running again. We are in Florida where the humidity and temps are now 'summer' so in the 90's F.

Saturday evening was a little more stitching on Endless Diamonds while watching the movie The Great Outdoors. I love John Candy movies. 

The back shows the quilting really well.  So far the double meds (advil and tylenol) are working to keep the headache in check today. This is month 3 of it happening.... so time to ask the OB about things to mitigate the headaches.  Any advise on the pre-menopause headaches? Must be a major change in hormones somehow causing it. The joys of getting older!

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

 

The baby quilt....

I got a little time to sew today before heading over to visit with my FIL in rehab. This pattern is Masala by SewPreetiQuilts. This does sew up really easily. Bear had to inspect them. The cats have not adjusted to him yet and are still hiding in the master bedroom closet and bathroom during the day and the bedroom at night. 

I still need to add my background flower print to each side of the block.

But I am wondering if it might be a tad too busy with the purple flowered print. Hmmmm. I might have to swap that out and maybe just use it on the back? I'll sleep on it and see how it looks tomorrow.

 

Sunday

 Another week flew right by! I really need to pick up some hand work at night instead of playing on my phone. I finally did last night and got some hand quilting in on my Endless Diamond quilt while I was watching 'You've Got Mail'. It was nice after a long day of running errands in the car Saturday. Linking up with The Slow Sunday Stitchers.

First it was off to Wildwood Girl Scout Store to pick up the badges needed for the end of year party Monday night (about 25 minutes away). Then.... the kids and Greg wanted Carvers for lunch. Greg is behind on his schoolwork classes so I agreed to go order and pick up since it would be 45 minutes to an hour.  A little cleaning in the kitchen in the hour I had before we headed to PetCo for our Private Lesson with Bear. We learned a lot and he is a really smart Dog! Very protective of Emily and me. This is hubby working with him on wait.

 When I got home... it was time to figure out my Finance report for the troop. I was missing one bank statement but managed to get it tied back with the receipts and everything put into their slots in under 2 hours this year! Ok, it was more like 90 minutes. The last ACH pull of cookies was the month after we tie to so that had to be accounted for. I'll have to print off all the expenses for April and May and hand off to my co-leader as she is being placed onto the bank account and I'll be taken off soon! We have lots of spending the last 2 months with renewals, painting, food for painting, and I got them some camping bracelets with a whistle, fire started and compass to finish their outdoor journey. My leader self eval was also done and emailed in.  I just need to sort the badges into baggies, grab a few party things and clean the house. Seems they wanted to come over here for their party tomorrow night.... something about seeing the chickens and the new dog.... and the cats. Hitting 90's tomorrow so I need to have the option of inside if it is way too hot and humid out.

Grandma was not feeling well so called to cancel the kids heading over today... that let Emily get  a horse riding lesson scheduled for this afternoon that I'll bring her to. They were at a show and did not have lessons yesterday. Greg will pop over to see his Dad in the rehab facility around doing homework today. The boy is on mowing the lawn duty.  The girl is on chicken coop cleaning. Not sure if we will get more of the posts put in for the new chicken run today or not. Busy as always around here. Now if this head cold will let me get everything done today, I'll be a happy camper! First up is shredding some zucchini to make zucchini bread. Yummy. 

Green RSC

 I managed to go into the sewing area this morning and pulled some greens and sorted. It appears my big pile of green scraps was tossed late last year or earlier this year when the cat decided he was unhappy with something. Good thing I have a nice stack on the shelves and I'm sure there are some scraps hanging around in various bins... that someday might get sorted again!

I found this selection of sage greens for a 16 patch that I hope to sew later today. I think the crossed canoe will be done in one of these more solid colors before I pull the darker greens out for their 16 patch and crossed canoe block.  I appear to have more bright green than dark green now with all those scraps tossed! Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

First - it is girl scout errands. I need to head to the GS store and pick up badges for the final meeting Monday night. Then the financial report is due tomorrow so I should probably start that today as well. We do have doggie training this afternoon with Bear. Greg found a harness that arrived Sunday and walking him is oh so much easier now. He does like chasing the chickens in their run but we are in process of fencing in a bigger area for them so they can roam a bit more than the area they have now.  It will be a fenced in 60x30 area when it is done. Emily dug the deep holes for the big wood posts that will hold the gate. We started putting in the fence posts but that will be continued later today I think when it cools down again. That will open up the woods area for the dog to roam around in. We currently have a chicken fence keeping animals out of that area. We just need to fix the chain link fence that a tree took out last year before we open it up to the dog! 

The end of year school events are happening. Thursday was the FFA banquet and Emily got a horse pin for participating in the horse evaluation contest with the other 3 ladies in the middle.

For a little green outside - these are the pretty purple flowers out front. They are a Mexican Petunia and multiply like crazy but they are pretty. They are busy filling in a triangle bed I have in the front.

A couple of trips over to the Rehab facility to visit my FIL also happened this week. He is doing much better and just building up his strength. We will see if he will be able to live alone again after this. This time (he was in hospital fall of 2019 and rehab for a couple of months) he is willing to do the LifeAlert check in when he is released. We also floated an option of moving him in with us or doing a RV home in our big back yard. He didn't flat out say no like last time. I think he has been waiting for the road project that will be going through my house to hurry up so he can sell his place and we would do a FIL living area off our new home. We did get some things in the mail that looks like the project is moving again with plans going to the board for approval so we may be a year or two out for that. Things tend to move slowly around here.

A new project

 

It seems I have a brand new grand niece (thanks nephew - his #4). He now has 3 girls and one boy. They chose to be surprised so I waited on making the new baby quilt.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! I knew that Preeti's Masala quilt was one I wanted to make. It would work well for a boy or a girl.  Diann is making a rainbow one that is beautiful. I headed to the store looking for a white background with colorful bits for a colorful quilt. Nothing jumped out at me so I walked down the wall of bolts. This pretty purple print called to me and after walking by it 3 times.... I kept coming back to it. A girl.... a pretty purple quilt will work. It seems the FQ's were $1 each (10 for $10) so I grabbed a few that went with it and knew I had a nice stack of purples at home as well. I think I'll pull a couple more darker purples and it should work well.  The photo does not show the color well but they do pull out the flowers on the main floral well. 

Mothers Day and some quilting...

 It has been a crazy week with no sewing or quilting. Today I have settled in with an F1 race (Aidan is a big fan) and some hand quilting. It feels good to sit and relax for a bit. My MIL just headed home. She came over for lunch of brats on the grill, potato salad and baked beans. Each of the kids made me a cake. Emily made a chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting. It is yummy. Aidan made a Victorian sponge with strawberry jam and butter cream frosting. That one is pretty yummy too!

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers. Wishing everyone a very Happy Mothers Day. 

OMG May- RSC21 Squares

This one is telling me it is time to finish it. Right now it is a 64x64 top. I think I need a backing and I already have warm and natural batting on a roll. I have plans for this one - it will go to my last girl in the troop that has not received a quilt yet. She did not attend the encampment when I handed out the other quilts last fall. She loves blue so I'll try and get a blue backing and will bind it in blue as well. My goal is to get this quilt completed and with a label for Nadia by the end of the month.

Linking up with One Monthly Goal. 

What a start to the week!

Sunday the troop and the Mom's all did a painting party. All were unique and I think everyone had a good time. 

This was my painting. 

Monday while bringing the kids to school we saw this site! It was a standard pick up truck with 3 sofa's on the back all buckled in and THERE WAS A PERSON SITTING on the sofa! We followed it a bit on a 45 mph road and then.... they turned onto I75! The speed limit is 70 mph! Crazy Florida Man for sure.

While in line picking up the kids from school I got a call from Greg. He got a call from his Dad's neighbor who had just dropped him off to the ER! What? Turns out he was very dehydrated, frail and pain in his kidneys. They are very understaffed at the hospital and I would say terrible service. After some pushing over an hour after saying they would admit him with no info, Greg asked the triage nurse if he could have liquids. Nothing given - no IV or water the whole 8 hours he had been there.... and he was still in the ER waiting room as 'there were no beds in the er'. Well, no beds on the floor so they amazingly turned on some room lights and put a few patients into the ER rooms for the night. Greg just headed over to check and see what the status is. First they wanted to release him to Rehab - which he refused. Then the Dr. was waiting on a bed on the floor he was covering. Sigh. Hopefully something will get straightened out and I know the administration was going to get a complaint while he is over there today. Our service in 2019 there was awesome the 2 weeks he was there in ICU and then 1 week on the floor before the 2 months of rehab. I guess the last 2 years has really decimated the nursing staffing at the hospital. 

I did bring the cats into the office/sewing area (aka the garage!) yesterday while I was working. I think they were people petting starved! Peanut ended up sleeping on the laptop and Ollie was curled up in my lap. I did manage to work on the keyboard and monitor around them.

I am in dire need of some relaxing hand quilting tonight I think. Back to work for me for a few hours before I need to pick the kids up from school.

 

Sunday... a new addition to the family.

Emily started asking about a dog last week again. Greg has been wanting a dog for a long time... he is a dog person. I am a cat person - and we have 2 indoor cats. We looked at the shelter dogs available and figured we would go take a look on Saturday. The one Emily wanted was gone. Her second choice they pulled the tag and there were some red flags they made us aware of. Positive for heart worm but being treated but she climbs fences. We live on a busy street but have a fenced in back yard. We decided to  walk through the kennels and look at all of them. The fence climber was very shy and would not even come out to greet.  Very loud barking and tons of dogs - over 200!. I think we were all overwhelmed. We walked down the second section. There was one Emily liked. It was there for a little over a month and they had observed it was Shy. 

I can say... this dog is not shy! He is a people person, friendly and we both need to do a little training. He is extremely strong!  He does sit, down and a few other commands but it is a learning experience for both. He did good on his walk this morning and did not pull so that is a good thing. We think he might be named Bear. He came with the name Dasani but they just gave it to him for something to identify him since he was found wandering around. I think he was a family dog since he is always where the people are.  

He is 60 pounds of energy and love!

All tuckered out last night on the couch. He did look at me when he got up there and I told him it was ok. 

I never showed the label I made for the Memory quilt. I decided to try and embroider it and it did hold up in the washing!

Aidan needed to process our getting a dog (he did not think we needed one!) by baking. He made Mary Barry's Victorian Sponge with a red raspberry and grapefruit jam. It was extremely yummy and we requested he make it weekly!

This afternoon I finally got the Girl Scout troop scheduled for their Painting and they let their Mom's join in the fun! A mother daughter event for 12. Aidan headed to Grandma's for the day and Dad will be on dog and animal duty for the afternoon. The cats are hiding out in the master closet area - once we got Ollie back in there. He escaped last night and was hiding in the front room under the Victrola for about 10 hours. Aidan got him out and into the master bedroom. Kitty doors are arriving Tuesday and will be added to the master bedroom door and the laundry room door so they have 2 areas free of the dog for safety.  I will probably be on Aidan pick up tonight - Greg is feeling his back with all the doggie play. Hopefully I will have a little energy tonight to add some stitches to the Endless Diamon quilt. A little bit of quilting here and there is adding up to more blocks quilted.

Linking up with the other Slow Stitchers over at Kathys Quilts.