OMG - progress

 Progress was made on my One Monthly Goal, but it is not a quilt yet. Good thing there are a few more days in the month. Might there be more progress made before December? We will see. 

The tree also got trimmed on Saturday evening. We got a new tree this year, as my last one was over 20 years old and needed to be retired. This one is 9 feet tall, and yes the angel is leaning. I can't reach up there to fix it so we will just assume she is a little tipsy and landed a little off kilter!

November Table Scrap Challenge

 I went into the sewing room planning to finish off the black star block. Alas, I left the black fabrics on the cutting table 3 weeks ago and 'someone' showed his displeasure with my lack of sewing time this month on it. It has now been through the wash twice and dried... so I cut and made the brown star block I needed.

While there, I had these bits of Kansas Troubles fabrics on the cutting board, so I sewed them together and got this 6 x 6.5 inch little mug rug. Instead of a binding, I did the easy turn method.

Emily got me this mug for Christmas a couple of years ago. 

Linking up with Angela and the RSC and Joy and the Table Scrap Challenge. 

Chilhowie begins.

The first clue of the Quiltville mystery Chilhowie has been released!

Let the sewing begin.

Tuesday....

 I did add a little stitching to this on Sunday. I did not pick it up last night at all. 

Greg has been doing the running this week and took Emily to school to feed the animals Monday and Tuesday morning, then took the dog to get his nails trimmed Monday and took Aidan for his first cavity (filling) at age 14 and some sealants added to his back teeth on Tuesday.  I got the guitar lesson trip Monday night and might do the animal feeding driving Tuesday afternoon. We will see. It is nice to not be running here and there all the time! 

With F1 racing done for the season, Aidan and I were chatting about his F1 subscription on the way home last night. Turns out, they have the old races available for watching so he pulled up a race at Spa from 1998 I think. Lots of crashes and only 6 or 7 finished the race! Lots of comments on the lack of safety measures and the picture quality. Was it really that bad... I guess we have improved things a lot in the last 25 years!

My way to get the house cleaned - tell the kids they can change over Fall to Christmas! They did get a start and Emily put up the new tree this year. It didn't look this big as a 9 foot tree at the store! It is nice looking though. The lights have different options and can be multicolored, white, switch between the two and a few other options. I do like having my Christmas things out, as seeing them always makes me smile. 

Hopefully I can spend some time in the sewing area tonight and work on the OMG quilt. It is nearing the end of the month and I have not made much progress on it yet.

The last run to the grocery store has been done and the turkey is defrosting in the fridge for Thursday. I might have purchased a few extra stollen while at Aldi's. I did not grow up with it but decided to try one last year. I really liked it. I have a Cherry one which is yummy and grabbed one more of those and a Butter Almond one. We will see how that one tastes in a few weeks. I did the marzipan one last year, so it is fun to try the different types. 

 

A lazy Sunday

 It is a rainy cool day today. I am being a wee bit lazy today and resting. I did get up and watch the last F1 race of the year this morning. Grandma came and picked up Emily for the day. Seems Aidan was up chatting with a friend online until 3AM and is quite tired today! 

I should go sew the last 2 16 patch stars in the sewing room... but I think I'll put on a movie and do some hand quilting on the Bear Paw quilt today instead!

I did make some progress on EPP and Brimfield Awakening this week. I need to prep some more fabrics to keep moving on this as well. I'm planning to try this flat back stitching when I put them together.

I'm recovering a bit from my adventures yesterday helping out at a girl scout encampment. You can read about that here.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. She has been a little under the weather and showed her medicines to get her through. My whole house is sniffling with all the colds going around right now or allergies. Emily likes the humidifier in her room to add moist air to help her breath at night and I'll mention for them to add vicks rub on the chest to help clear out the airways with that strong menthol scent. I got more Sudafed, that works great to dry out a nose for a good 4-6 hours and she took one this morning before heading to Grandma's. We are out of my favorite Cloverine salve to add to the outside of the nose to help sooth from all the blowing, so are using Vaseline instead. Lots of tea drinking and spoonfuls of honey are happening around here as well. The kids are off school this week for the Thanksgiving holiday so plenty of time to rest up and feel better.

A day in the woods at Girl Scout Camp

I spent Saturday helping at a Girl Scout Encampment at our local property about 25 minutes from my house. I had 2 girls attending for the day from my old troop and the new leader was there as well. I was in charge of planning one of the activities in the rotation. We had an Outer Space rotation where for 30 minutes they constructed a rocket and then got to set them off using air and a pvc pipe. They did it last year and with some lessons learned it went much smoother this year. The other half of that rotation was my planning. There is a space science explorer badge. I came up with some activities that kept them occupied for the other half of the time. They all got to do Oreo phases of the moon, made a box constellation by using pins to prick the constellations and then added a little light so it will light up tonight for them. The littles were going to do shadow drawings of toys, but the sun did not cooperate. The juniors did a giant walk to Mars to see the distance of the planets from the sun. I had 4 'helpers' in high school that I explained things to and they handled that half hour. I got to relax and help with the rockets, chat with the adults and play with the catapult - and I got the tennis ball into the bucket!

Some of the other rotations were a Pirate Hike searching for clues and treasure throughout the camp ('our' troop found the gold coin and won a $50 ice cream party!), Dinosaur dig where they hammered into dinosaur eggs and got to keep the egg and the little dino piece. Not sure if they had the discover the bones dig or not. With a Magic School Bus theme, they did some science experiments and made volcano's. The pool time was cancelled due to cool weather (it was 50's to low 60's) and they did an under the sea adventure - but I'm not sure what that one ended up being. They enjoyed a bonfire and smores and camp songs tonight before bed.

It was a very relaxing day! I also got to take a little exploring hike with 2 of the older girls to the Ampitheater. I had been to the Nature Center on the other side of the property and out to the Hammocks and the Homestead area by the lake but did not know about this theater!  I snapped some photos along the way of the camp's nearly 600 acres. 

BeautyBerry bush.

The natural amphitheater. I was standing on the platform.

looking down the trail.

One of the trees - crazy branches!

pine tree.

the little pond at the theater.

We heard donkey's braying and got to see these 4 on our walk back.

Two paths - reminds me of the Robert Frost poem - The Road Less Travelled.

This was one of the higher awards a troop did in 2020. 

After 12,000 steps on my Fitbit today, I enjoyed a nice hot soak in the tub tonight and will enjoy my nice soft and warm bed at my house. I do not miss sleeping in the cabins at all this weekend!

 

Mail call!

 I've eagerly been awaiting a Mystery bundle from Missouri Star Quilts to arrive. I figured a variety of fabrics would be a fun way to spend my birthday $ this year.

 I was very happy with the bundle and Emily was kind enough to lay them all out. Quite a variety of fabrics, batiks, some cute chickadee and snowmen and a lovely Dr. Seuss in the kitchen. It will be fun to add these into scrappy projects. Quite a few are half a yard or more. Only one is a 4 inch WOF.

I also got my fabric bundles I ordered for the Bonnie Hunter mystery this year from Cotton to Quilts. I'll add a bit from my stash as well, but this will help to add some variety in the purple, light teal and oranges.  The orange and purple really needed some enhancement! There is an adorable orange with white spider webs from the above mystery bundle that will get added to the quilt too! 

Brimfield Awakening

 I had cut out parts for this project a while ago and yesterday was the day to start in on them. I need to prep a bunch more and figure out how I will lay them out in their blocks. I am using a few charm packs for these, so they are on the purple to blue spectrum. I also have 2 of them in pinks, purple and blues that should coordinate well.  

Just laying them out to see how the block could look scrappy. I think I will keep the similar hues together but we will see. For now, I'll prep more and worry about assembling them in a bit.

We got a glorious cold front move into Florida and I am enjoying the cooler weather. 50 degrees for the morning dog walk was wonderful. All the animals are enjoying the cooler temps and have quite the energy to burn off!

I see horse riding and garden play in my future with a little last minute planning for the girl scout event on Saturday. 

Slow Stitching Sunday

I decided to bring some crochet with me to horses while Emily was riding yesterday. It was pleasant in the 80's and sunny. I'm missing the covered arena from the last place, but she built a nice seating area for the parents that is under cover. 

This week has mostly been adding granny squares to the pile. 

I do hope to add some stitches today during the F1 race to either the Bear Paw quilt 

or EPP on Brimfield Awakening. I really want to get this one started this month.

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers.

I need to get dressed and pop to get groceries before the race starts. The garden will get tilled after the race. Emily is letting me have a little bit of the garden and I'll plant green beans and peas, which I know will grow for me. We will see what she decides on. I can't get the turkey yet, since the frozen cheesecake and cookie dough is arriving sometime this week and I need room to house the goodies until I can get them distributed. 

 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

 November and December are finish up months. I made a couple of black 16 patches this week and hope to make a couple of brown ones tomorrow. Then one each will get some flying geese added to make them into the final 2 stars I need to finish off this quilt.

The morning started with me opting out of walking the dog like I have all week. I need to start in again on that tomorrow. Em and Greg took him to the trailhead near us for a nice walk this morning and he enjoyed sniffing all the new scents. Then I took Emily to horses for her riding lesson and the barn was a madhouse! Lots of people practicing for the upcoming show over Thanksgiving week. A quick stop at Culvers for lunch and then a little sewing time before the F1 sprint race. After posting and linking up to the RSC with the rest of the group - I'm headed out to tackle the garden and get the tall grasses up and out and get it tilled for planting. Yes, our growing season is a wee bit strange down in Florida. Too hot where I put the garden for the late spring, summer and early fall. It should work well for my winter garden though now. I'm off to play in the dirt and hope to visit the linkup's later tonight.

No issues from TS Nicole at my place

 Not too much happened on Thursday at our house. I watched a few movies on DVD in the afternoon and evening. We did play a few rounds of domino's. Notice no one helped me start my train before Emily went out? Good thing for the community train.

Someone was napping under the table while we were playing. Aidan was in the other room driving his F1 game.

Since my MIL dropped off a cake last Sunday from Publix, we popped the unfrosted cakes Emily made Saturday night into the freezer. They came out Wednesday night and she did a great job frosting and piping the whipped oreo cream and decorating with chocolate she made. There were chocolate hearts around the edges.

This morning the kids are at school and it is a multi pickup. I'll grab Aidan at normal time but Emily has first marching parade practice after school with the high school. Greg will go collect her a couple hours after school gets out. I'm off today, so spent the morning figuring out how to keep K-5 girls busy for 30 minutes at a station next weekend at their encampment. The other 30 minutes they will be building rockets to launch from soda bottle rockets. I'm covering the outer space parts - thinking drawing shadows onto paper with toys for the really littles explaining sun,moon and stars. Phases of the moon with either oreo's or felt for the brownies and then learning of the planets and distance with the juniors.  We will see how it goes!

This was Bear yesterday. He would not go outside for Emily in the morning so he kept wining until I got up, put on a coat and went out with him. Zoomies and running ensued and then he did his business. Later that morning, Em went out to check the chickens. He went out...

and yes, the spoiled brat had me go out and play with him too, in the rain! 

TS Nicole

The kids are off school today due to potential wind gusts over the bus road limit (35 or 40 mph). It looks like a rainy day for us.

Turns out the dog was not too excited to go outside in the rain.... until I put my rain coat on and went out with him. He did doggie zoomies, galloped around the yard, checked on the chickens and then finally did his business. We took him to the pet store last night and got him a new bone, which he is busy chewing on right now. That should keep him busy.

Today will be a game playing day with the kids I think. Domino's and Rumicube will get some attention. Maybe a puzzle will come out of a box as well. Hopefully the power stays on, but I did fill up water containers just in case and still have frozen blocks of ice in the freezer still from Ian. We have a well that runs on electricity. I am enjoying the cooler temps.... it was still in the mid to upper 80's until the storm came through and dropped to the high 60's and low 70's. 

Might there be some sewing as well? We will see.

Have a great Thursday everyone.

Monday

 Another week has started but what progress was made over the weekend?

I did get a little time to play on Saturday and have 10 of the star blocks made. I'd like to add a black and a brown to the mix, so I can have a little more dark in the quilt to balance out all the bright colors. That is the goal this week - to get those last 2 blocks made.

While I was away yesterday and Hubby was shuttling Em, Rosie the chicken went missing. She was not around last night and didn't show up in the evening to put herself to bed. We think a hawk must have gotten her since she always came running when we went out the back door to greet us. Poppy is starting to look better as her feathers are coming in and one of the Barred Rocks is getting a red crown so hopefully one of them will start laying eggs again. I've had to buy eggs the last 2 weeks from the store!

Hubby is under the weather today with a bad sore throat and has been napping. I heard an awful crow ruckus outside so went out to investigate. They were going nuts and being loud in the back woods by us and our neighbor. I checked and the chickens -the last 4 - were hiding under the coop in their run, so I closed them in there for safety. I have a feeling the crows were warning of the hawk. I have seen them shoo it away before so hopefully if we keep the girls in for a few days the hawks will find another area to hang out.

We have our normal Monday of scouts and guitar lessons. Tuesday is normal pick up. Wednesday is late pick up for both - book club and volunteering. (Aidan volunteers to help out at the After School Program at the middle school - they help pick up the cafeteria after snack, grab attendance from the teachers rooms that have clubs or tutoring and then do any other tasks that are needed. After they hang out in the Robotics lab with their teacher through middle school who runs a robotics club and helps him out. ) Thursday is Emily early for horse evaluation practice and late for chapter animal meeting and Aidan will probably volunteer that day as well. Friday - I actually have the day off, so a 4 day weekend for me! Might I be able to sew? I had planned to prep the garden for winter planting but the temps have not gone down yet and it was too much with the sickness in the house. Let's hope the latest hurricane track doesn't give us 2 rainy days and maybe I can get it tilled and ready for planting this weekend? 

My goal is to get a little hand stitching in each day - either crochet, quilting or EPP. We will see if there is any progress!

Slow Sunday..... or not!

 I have been doing a little hand work this week but not much. I added a few of the granny squares to the pile and I decided to lay them out and see how they look. Still not sure how they will be put together, but it is coming along. Peanut likes to chew yarn, so it has been much easier leaving things out in the living room while working on them since he refuses to go out there now with the dog. I should have laid these out there instead of in my sewing room where he likes to hang out. 

Not much progress has been made on quilting the Bear Paw, but I am hopeful that will change this week. I need to trace the feathered circle in the other big open space today, so it is ready to stitch next.

I learned that having it in the hoop with animals, it helps to pin the backing over to the top so the batting does not get 'played with'. Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

I am heading off soon to go help set up and work a Harry Potter event for girl scouts this afternoon. One kid is headed to Grandma's and the other will be shuttled by her Dad over to her friends house this afternoon to work on a study guide for a couple of hours. They just got back from her turn to feed the chapter animals and exercise them at the school. There is a chapter pig - Tootsie and a chapter lamb - Stetson. The chapter cow that she will be showing with another schoolmate will be arriving soon. She was born last Christmas and comes with the name Noel but the girls might change it.

RSC - time to wrap things up!

 

Always nice when your quilts are appreciated! Bear likes to make a pile and pop a pillow on top to get some doggie ZZZ's.  The pillow says, 'Reserved for the Dog'. He is a wee bit spoiled!

I had planned to make more of these blocks this week, but it didn't happen. I'm hoping to remedy that today. Greg took Emily to horses so I need to pop into the sewing room and cut out my parts so they are ready to sew. I want to add a brown and a black 16 pach so there are 12 blocks to make a nice size quilt. It should measure 48x64 with a 3x4 setting. The goal in November is to get the blocks finished, assembled and quilted and bound. 

Linking up with the RSC and One Monthly Goal for November.

My daughter is all recovered from her cold with just a little cough still. She did manage to share a bit of her bug with us as the other 3 in the house have been having sore throats this week - the boy first but he is all better, then hubby who is feeling better today. Mine is a little worse today but not bad with a bit of a cough.  Hubby took Emily to horses today as he is feeling bad since he mixed up my birthday =) He thought it is tomorrow, but it was yesterday! He normally is spot on remembering things, so I am finding it amusing he messed up the dates! Just another day as far as I am concerned.... but my oldest sibling was happy to welcome me into the 50 range with the rest of them!