Embroidery Wednesday - Frost McChill

I finished the 4th Frosty in this series by Melisa over at Pinker N Pumpkin Quilting

He joins the first three laid out here on my recliner.

 

I have the 5th one all traced out and ready to go. I had a company meeting on Zoom this morning, so I got a good chunk of this completed when the cat was not demanding I pet him. It has been a few weeks since I have brought him into my office while I am working. I transferred him back to the bedroom tonight and when the dog went crazy an hour later, I had Emily check to see if he scooted back to the office. Yup, he did! I guess he figured the dog can't get to him in there.

ABC Scrap Challenge.

 This year Joy over at The Joyful Quilter modified the Table Scrap Challenge into an ABC Scrap Challenge. I figured I'd combine a few things like the UFO Challenge and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge of Blues in January into the ABC Scrap Challenge this month. After all, I did make this quilt with lots of scraps! Don't look at the floor, it needs a deep clean very badly!

Hoarfrost is #20 on my Winter UFO 2023 Challenge and it is a blue and white quilt which ties into the Blue month of the RSC. Joy picked the letters C,R and J for the month of January. Let's see how creative I can be to tie this in! 

Hoarfrost reminds me of Snow Crystals in January. As for the R - Well, if it is not cold enough... those little fellas fall as Rain! I know... quite a stretch but I'm going with it! ;)

RSC in blues.

I made another set of 4 of these this week. The dinosaur fabric from when Aidan was little makes me smile.

I have another side of binding to stitch down on Hoarfrost and hope to have that completed this weekend.

It was a frosty start to the day in Florida. Emily needed to scrape the windshield before we headed out for the early feed at school of the animals.

 A quick stop at Dunkin on the way home and a quilt on my feet to warm them up, before we head out for her horse riding lesson. Her fellow Cadets in her girl scout troup are coming over this afternoon to work on building their free library house for their Silver Award. Greg is helping the girls to build it. He'll do the circular saw, but the girls will be using the hand saw, drills and hammers to build it. 

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Thank goodness we will have other blue/teal months. Not many scraps were played with in January.

Frosty McChill

 The third frosty is completed. 

Hoarfrost - binding time...

 Hoarfrost is #20 on my Winter 2023 UFO list. I was able to get it pinned and quilted last weekend. I finally trimmed it on Thursday and cut some blue strips to make the binding. I need to sew the strips together today and then press it and attach to the top of this quilt so I can hand stitch it to the back. It is a cloudy and dreary day in Florida. I think it might be a movie and binding afternoon.

Since this is blue... I'm linking up to the RSC. I hope to play with some blues this weekend. Maybe some crumb blocks? Scrappy log cabins. We will see what the fabrics decide they want to become!

Wednesday Embroidery - Frosty McChill #2 is done!

 I was busy stitching away Tuesday night listening to my audiobook as I finished the stitching on this little guy. I am not happy with the snowflakes, but I figure I'll get better at them by the time I am working on the last one!

#1 was Let it Snow.

#2 is Sled Time.

I have the 3rd one traced and ready to go!

 

Quiltfiction quilt along.

I enjoyed doing the Hand Pieced Quilt Along with Patty Dudek and Kristin Esser in the past. There is not a stitch along with them this year, but Patty is doing one with Frances O'roark Dowell called Loves Me, Loves Me Not over at QuiltFiction.com. 

 

Breadmaking and books

 I tried a new multigrain bread recipe yesterday and it came out wonderfully! Very yummy and used up some grains we had in the house that I didn't know how to use! We have a 48 ounce can of 6 grain rolled cereal. It contains red wheat, rye, oats, barley, triticale and white wheat. I used 1/2 a cup of it along with 4 cups of flour to make this bread. I'll have to try it as a hot cereal and see how it is.

Sorry, we kinda cut into it before I got a photo! This is my second slice =) 

I was not ready in time for the clean out the crisper spring minestrone soup I made for lunch Sunday. Instead of butternut squash in the autumn recipe, I used zucchini, so I call it a spring soup. I have my lunches for the week and I'll make another batch of this bread mid week or when it is close to being gone. It will be interesting to see if the kids will eat it. They are a wee bit picky! I just need to remember to use the proofing button on the oven for the rising.

I've listened to a few audiobooks the last week or two. I listen to them in the car while driving to get the kids or while waiting. If the book is really good, I have my ear buds in listening while I make dinner and sometimes while stitching at night. I usually have it playing on my phone while quilting as well. 

I started off the year with 'The Last Thing He Told Me' by Laura Dave. This was a really good book. I didn't want to stop listening to it and finished it in 2 days! 

I have been listening to the coffeehouse mystery series by Cleo Coyle. I read Shot in the Dark and currently am halfway through Dead Cold Brew.  

I listened to Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley - the Kat Holloway series. I love this series and wish they had more books available on my Libby app. I might have to switch to another audio app to 'read' the newer books in the series. This one is located in historical England.

Another author is Anna Lee Huber - who has a mystery series in England featuring Verity Kent, around the end of the first world war. 'This Side of Murder' was the first book and 'Treacherous is the Night' is the second book. I am waiting for the 3rd book to become available. 

The kids noted that I tend to call the dog 'laddie' when I am listening to the british books! 

Slow Sunday Snowmen

It is a very chilly start to the morning here in Florida. Both cats were snuggling up around my stomach. Yesterday was a hip day! It was 29 degrees F when I got up this morning. I forgot to bring in the herbs. Oops. The thyme will come back but the basil and parsley are gone. One more day of freezing temps overnight before we warm up to the 80's by mid week.

I finally finished the knitted dish cloth. Yes, it looks wonky, and you can tell where I had the needles poked through. It will be washing dishes... so it really does not matter how it looks! 

I am going to try and get out of my comfort zone and crochet a few of these this year. I am thinking trying one new pattern each month. I have a pretty skein of green to try this Farm House Washcloth by Mama in a Stitch. She calls this a crocheted spider stitch.

 I finished off the first Frosty McChill offered for free by Melisa at Pinker and Punkin Quilting. He is so darn cute! I will start stitching on the second one today.

Yesterday was a sit and do not much of anything day! I took Emily to horses and I had plans to prep and pin my Hoarfrost quilt for quilting. Somehow, I ended up in my recliner with a dog holding me down (keeping me warm) for most of the afternoon! It was chilly.... the car said 48 degrees at 12:30 after horses! Grandma is picking up the kids today and then taking them to see the new Avatar movie that is out. I asked if they had seen the first one.... nope! Emily watched it Saturday after lunch in her room on her phone with Disney +. Silly girl came out and asked if I wanted to watch a good but long movie. Sure... she put it on and I asked her to let her brother know. He came out of his room and watched it with me. 2h41 minutes later - a really good movie! He then put on a F1 race from the 2021 season. It was at Sochi where Hamilton won his 100th race!  Teenagers - occasionally come out of their rooms to interact with the rest of the family!

Today, I plan to try a new bread recipe. Hubby had purchased some staples years ago from a long term storage type company. I took an inventory of the boxes of #10 cans a few weeks ago. I have used some of them. The cornmeal is used when I make cornbread. I have gone through the rolled oats and white rice. I was surprised there was one more rice can in there! I pulled the pinto beans and tried them in my insta pot. They turned out pretty good. Can't say I have ever had pinto beans before .... other than already prepped as refried beans! I tossed the black beans. They had been opened for a long time and did not soften when cooked. I have an unopened can of 16 beans... that was good with soups. I went through the other can already. I guess I had 2 cans of that. This one is unopened. We have ground some wheat to make flour. I found some 'rolled' 6 and 9 grain cracked cereals. I am going to pull the 6 grain one and try making this bread today. We will see how it turns out!

 I asked Emily to help plan the meals this week since no one ate what I cooked last week! They make their own things! Sigh. Those pinto beans made into a version of refried beans were ok with my taco meat and salads during the week. This is what she came up with.

Monday is steaks on the grill with grilled veggies. I pulled steak from the freezer yesterday so it would be thawed. It was in the Zero freeze one. Aidan will be my griller.

Tuesday when the kids are back to school, it will be chicken enchillada's and rice. This will use the sour cream that needs to be used!

Wednesday is 'Emily's Favorite' - which is a roasted veggie pasta with italian sausage. We roast zucchini, mushrooms, peppers and onion in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes, turning halfway.

Thursday will be meatloaf and potato and a veggie. Unless there are lots of leftovers! 

Fridays tend to be pizza. 

I'll pop out and grab the veggies at Aldi's later today or tomorrow. Since we are all off work - I am hoping to get Hoarfrost pinned today and machine quilting tomorrow. We will see how that goes!

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers.

RSC in blues

 I got a little time to sew this week! I have seen lots of pretty split nine patch blocks over the years and decided to make some this year. I think I'll dig a little farther into the blue box and make some more of these.

I sewed up the kites from last week and might make a couple more of these as well. I do love how easy these are to make with the dies.

I have had these extra quarter square triangles leftover from the Sweet Confetti blocks just sitting around and waiting in a basket next to my sewing machine. I was able to use some 2 inch white strips to make the flying geese wings with my ruler. I sewed these together, but I might take them apart and pop them into groups of 2 instead and see what will happen to them once all of them are sewn into geese. I'm thinking a nice little wall hanging or some placemats?

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday.

Wednesday Embroidery

 I have made progress on Frosty McChill #1 but he is not quite finished yet. I have been working on him at car line the last 2 days. Thanks for the tip on the Frixion pen - I had one in green that worked to trace it out. I have the next 2 all set to start once this one is finished. 

Monday night was scouts/guitar for the kids and some shopping after scouts was done. Tuesday night was a high school orientation, and we all went to check out the electives at the high school Emily was interested in. The dog did good alone last night. We fed him at 3PM when we went to get the kids and got home around 7PM. He was happy to go out back and run around a bit with the kids when we got home. Today hubby has a birthday. Kids both have after school activities so a later pickup. Just a typical Wednesday around here!

Slow Sunday Stitching on Frosty McChill

I am only a little over a year late in starting on the Frosty McChill stitch along Melisa created in November 2021. I am using different thread for me - a DMC 5M in blue # 312. I was thinking of using 2 strands but found that one is fine. It has a nobby texture rather than the standard DMC floss. I am working on getting better at the stitching, but I do love how he is looking so far!

After sleeping in until 9AM! I plan to putter around the house today. I think the kids are headed to Grandma's house for the day so I'll have to make the 45 minute trip to pick them up later tonight. I'm sure some more stitches will be added to Frosty after I get home tonight. 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

 

RSC 2023!

 It is always fun to start a new year of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Since the scraps are still overtaking the sewing area, I'm joining in again this year. 

With a RSC 16 patch stars finish this week, I feel good starting some new projects this year. Everything is subject to change... you know, as life and what you feel like sewing tends to interfere occasionally!

I want to play with my Accuquilt Dies a bit more this year. I might make some one or two color quilts in certain months. I may play with some all year long! 

The first ones I want to start with are the kite dies from the 8 inch Cube companion angles - die #14 and #15. I reached into the blue bin and pulled out this pretty blue and since I have this bin unsorted, there was also 2 pieces of this white dotted print in there too. A quick press and they went through the die and cut out these parts for me. I'll plan to sew them up later today. I might mix things up and have some in the reverse with the background as the kite. We will see what happens!

Since it is the blue month, I also plan to work on quilting this blue and white UFO called Hoarfrost. Pattern is from Joanne at Canuckquilter, although I did modify 2 of the snowflakes a bit. Foundation piecing and I don't mix well. I appliqued the last 2 snowflakes!

Linking up with Angela and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023. 

Emily and her Dad headed to school for morning feeding of the animals in a chilly start to the morning in Florida at 35 degrees!  I'll jump in the shower and be ready to take her to her horse riding lesson mid morning and then she also has the afternoon feeding. I see a bit of driving time in my life today. Horses is about 30 minutes away and school is about 20 minutes in the other direction.

Embroidery Wednesdays!

Long ago I did 'Tiny Tuesday' posts when I was working on the midget blocks. I liked the idea of having a consistent day to post about something during the week. It forces me to work on it, so I have something for the post! Saturdays are the RSC and Sundays are Slow Stitching with Kathy. This year I think I'll add Embroidery Wednesdays. 

Melisa at Pinker n Punkin Quilting & Stitching offered a fun free Frosty McChill stitch along back in November 2021. I am finally joining in to make my own Frosty's. I have the first one cut and traced with pencil. I might have to change that as it is pretty light. I'm going to be doing mine in blue. I have this pretty thread but I know I also have another blue in the top drawer that I originally was planning to use. I think I'll pull that out and see how different they are. I know I have more of the other one so that might be the color I use. I have embroidery needles and found a little hoop to use. I should have some progress to show next week. I have the first 3 printed out and the first 8 backgrounds cut out.

Advise on tracing tools? 

I would have been stitching this last night, but I was watching a few episodes of the new Disney series National Treasure: Edge of History, before the next episode came out today. I put it on late last week and watched the first one with Emily. She binge watched the other 4 that night after I went to bed. I figured I'd better catch up, so I pulled the knitting of the dishcloth to work on while watching it. If you like mysteries - it is a pretty well written series so far. I love the historical information they add to the stories. 

 

First finish of the year! 16 Patch Stars

 I am so happy to call this quilt completed! I machine quilted around all the stars. Then outlining on the white parts a / through the square area and outlining around the white box between the stars. A simple squiggle line in the border all around. It should hold the quilting enough for plenty of washings with the warm and natural batting. I used the backing for the binding. It is a galaxy type print with splashes of pink, purple, blue and green. I just need to finish trimming a few stray ends from quilting and get it washed and ready for gifting. This is #14 on my Winter 2023 UFO list. 

Feels good to get that first finish out of the way! I'm using this as my December 2022 Table Scrap Challenge with the rainbow stars... a bit bigger than normal but.... it is a finish!

Winter 2023 UFO Challenge

I seem to have lost the quilting mojo for a bit the end of 2022. Life is settling down a little and new projects and old UFO's are calling my name. I went back and looked over my previous lists for the last year or two. I'm impressed with how many on the lists have actually been finished! Alas, there are still plenty of UFO's in the sewing area that need some attention.

1.) I know I have at least one more cut somewhere to fill that open spot for a 7x6 setting. These are hand pieced.... and might need a little fixing along the way on some of those middle joins. Just ordered some kona solids for an alternate block for these to become a quilt.

 2.) Hexagon flowers on a black background. These are a stack of blocks I hand pieced a few years ago then hand appliqued to the black background a couple years after that!  Not sure if they will become one or two quilts....

3.) Midget Applique quilt from Sentimental Stitches. I need to add more flowers and leaves and the vines... and the bottom yellow border. This one is completely hand pieced.

4.) Ella Maria Deacon blocks - make a few more and finish them off into a top. I believe I was making these by hand. Patterns from Sentimental Stitches.

5.) Purple applique hearts... need to figure out how they want to be set. They think they want a nine patch alternate block in a white and solid purple. I'm not sure if I should listen to them?

6.) Midget block collection - I started these in Vermont in 2010! I have a light blue for sashing.

7.) Civil War Blocks

8.) Birds in the Air block collection

9.) Harmony - hand pieced project started March 2021- one 28 inch block completed - 3 to go.

10.) Erin's Butterfly - I made the wings in 2021.  Need to add one more set of wings... thinking 9 is a nice number?

11.) Garden Path blocks - a few more got added last quarter. missing light green. I made 2 orange during the orange month. I need a couple of bright greens to round this one out.

12.) Full Stop Sew along.... 2021 . Re thinking this one - might eliminate some of the white space and make a few more of some.....????

13) extra strips from a quilt that might become a mini 'coin' type quilt? Or placemats? *completed 2/16/23. 3 placemats.

14.) ** From some of the 16 patch blocks in #15 - I made this quilt that needs quilting.  Finished 1/2/2022. 56x73 quilt for Holly.

15.) 16 patch blocks from RSC2022

16.) Brimfield Awakening EPP. I did start this and have the first fabric thread basted in purple!

Quilt Tops: 

17.) Cat and mouse is on the frame in process of hand quilting but has been sadly neglected.

18.) Vermont Quilt Festival Booth Hop from either 2008 or 2009.  it is 71x71.

19.) Green Tumblers - a hand pieced top. 

20.) Hoarfrost - top is done ** Completed 1/28/2023.

**21.) Baby Bear Paw quilt top. Made back from a class in 1999 I think from Yankee Pride.  Hand quilting started 9/27/22.

22.) Trip around the World - 2 inches hand pieced. 60x60.

23.) Y2K Joann's BOM - quilt top

24.) 1857 Quilt Along Top

25.) Spring Hexagons - not sure if this wants to be bigger or not.... 

26.) Triple Irish Chain - green. 80x80 I think. I did find both fabrics extra with it... Might need a green or cream border first or both... Made in the early 2000's. circular feathers in open spaces.

27.) mostly cut out and some 9 patches are made. Hehe... from the first quilting book I had and made a quilt from. Introduction to Quilting 101 - the basics by Sharon Hultgren. I think this was Sunrise Surprise! The four patch from this book is at my Mom's hanging over a crib still!

28.) I forgot I had this. It is a cute birdhouse wall hanging but is foundation pieced, which I dislike. Maybe I can deal with it enough to get this done? Or rework it?

29.) This is a kit I purchased mid-90s - butterfly's. I think all the parts are there and I did start arranging them.

30.) Quilters Patch. A sew along that I completely did not meet my goals on in 2022. One block is done.

31.) Scrappy Flowering Snowball - I started cutting these with my accuquilt from scraps with the color of the month in 2020. I think it is time to start stitching them together. I see I need some orange added and purple and lots of lights!

 

32.) Bittersweet Briar