Table Scrap Challenge - February

 

The Table Scrap Challenge for February was red and hearts! I had some mistake blocks that I managed to turn into a few hearts! 

I finally spent a little time and found a back and some leftover batting and got it machine quilted yesterday. I thought these fun polka dots from my mystery box a couple of years ago was perfect for this. Some red snowflakes for the binding that was hand stitched down last night.

Hanging in the entryway!

Linking up with the 2024 Table Scrap Challenge and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. That binding was hand stitched down!

Saturday RSC

 

It has been a week! I am so glad I had Monday off so I could get the Arkansas Traveller blocks completed for the month. I also got a couple more kite blocks added from last year's collection of blocks and got them sewn together. 

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.

Wednesday, we tried a new to us restaurant of Greek food. It was yummy! Then I headed over to a local high school to watch 6 middle and high school bands preform their symphonic band selections for the MPA. This was the Pre-MPA where judges give them some feedback on their performance before the actual MPA next week. 

Thursday it was drop the kids to school, walk the dog then a quick shower before bringing the car for a new tire. Seems there was a nail in the back tire, not surprising with all the construction house zones we drive through at least 4 times a day! Then it was off to the villages to get my FIL and take him to his doctors appointment and pick up a script for him. We did not have time to do the x-ray his doctor wrote a script for, as I had to get him home and pick up the kids from school. Friday, I took the day off. I got the kids to school and the dog walked and then headed with Greg to his appointment for an MRI of his back. We were halfway to his Dad's, so we continued on and I dropped Greg off and loaded his Dad into the car to bring him for the x-ray on his hip. I got home to drop Greg off about the time I normally leave to go pick up the kids, so I headed back out to get the kids.  I was in the car pretty much from 8-4 yesterday!

Today is a dog walk and then horses with Emily. I might need to grab a few things and pop over to my FIL's as well as he is low on the ensures and juice. So, another day in the car for me. It tends to be about 3 hours to go over to my FIL's and back. Horses is usually a good 3 hours as well in the other direction. 

I think I need a vacation!

Kites is a top

 

I got a little sewing time in Monday and made a couple more of the kites to get the number I needed for this top. Each block is 8 inches so it is currently 32x40 inches. I think I'll see if I have a fun border to make it a little bit bigger. Maybe some monkeys dancing on bright green? We will see what I can pull from the stash wall. 

Greg is a little better and can move pretty good once he is up. It is just the sitting down and getting up that is an issue and painful. A bulging disk will do that. I have a feeling I'll be doing the kid morning drop off and potentially his and his Dad's doctor appointments later this week. 

I had some baby bella mushrooms, half a bag of spinach and frozen chicken breasts. I entered that into the magic line on the internet and hit enter. I found this recipe and gave it a try. Not bad! I served it with angle hair pasta and a tossed salad. I defrost my chicken breasts in a big bowl of cold water in the microwave. They were huge, so I cut them into thinner pieces for the 5 minute cooking time on each side. My handy dandy thermometer verified they were up to 165 temp before I pulled them from the pan.

I'm off to ride as Aidan drives to his guitar lesson tonight and hopefully I can do my meeting at 7PM for the planning of the April encampment in Tampa on my phone while he is in his lesson. 

Weekend Wrap Up

 Well, for a 3 day weekend it has not gone to plan. Friday night, after getting the kids from school, Aidan decided to start hacking away at the 2 shrub roots that need to come out so I can pull the car into the car canopy nicely from the rocky parking area. It is a chore. Greg went out to put on my new wiper blades on the car and to twist in the 2 tie downs for the canopy. He managed to put his back out leaning down to put the first tie down into the ground! The man is in a world of hurt but would not go directly to quick care. Of course, it was evening, so the VA was closed. He decided to sleep on it, then wait until after we were back from horses on Saturday. So, a few hours at horses (it is 30 minutes away and tack up, barn time and they got a long lesson in the light drizzle then untacking), then a quick lunch and it was off to the Quick Care/ER for his back for a couple of hours. We were impressed with the doctor - who didn't even look at the computer but started asking questions to find the root cause. A CT scan later - and spinal stenosis (we knew), bulging disk (suspected) and a few other things we knew. A couple of shots and he was headed home. I did pick up a book to bring with me and I got a bit of progress on that!

Sunday - the kids headed to Grandma's, and I did a little cooking and some sewing. I made my Mom's tomato soup with 3 beefsteak tomato's sitting on the shelf going bad.  The tomato's with salt and pepper, then after warmed and breaking down a bit I added a little baking soda to bubble it up! (a half or tsp maybe?) then added the warmed milk and the cooked elbow macaroni. That's the soup I grew up with!

Then I really wanted cornbread, so I made that later in the afternoon with some chicken chili. I did head over to pick them up early for a little game playing. We did Domino's from double 6 to 12 and I managed to win one game. I think Emily kept going out on the other ones. 

For my time in the sewing room - I had picked out fabrics for my 3 red AT blocks. I managed to cut and sew 2 of them on Sunday. I think I will unpick the main seam and see if I can get the centers to match a little better today, before I cut and sew the 3rd block.

I had a few minutes before picking them up, so I started hand quilting the cats. I started with an arc fan in the bottom right, but took it out to do an outline inside first.

The rain stopped overnight after 2 days of pretty constant drizzle. The rain gauge indicates 2 inches, and it was empty on Friday night. Today is sunny and cooler for us - 50 degrees on our walk this morning with the dog. I had Emily walk him and I just went along. The first time he has been walked in a few days, so he is happy to get the exercise.

I have a feeling I will be driving the kids to school this week and Greg and his Dad both have previously scheduled doctor appointments. We will see if I am driving them both to those or not. 

Thursday already?

 Well, I of course did not listen to Diann when she said to rest my back. So, it still hurts a bit. I did not walk the dog Monday and Tuesday, and that helped but he really needed the exercise, so I walked him yesterday and this morning. Other than the initial pull from being excited for his walk, he has been good. I did call off horses this week and probably next as well to see if I can get it back to normal. 

Not much stitching has happened, I've been doing nice hot bubble baths at night instead! 

Meals (that ever troubling 'What's for dinner?')

I pulled out some pork chops from the freezer on Monday and had Greg bake those with roasted potato and green beans (rosemary herb on the chops, Montreal steak seasoning on the beans and salt and pepper and a drizzle of oil on the red potato's). I was picking up Emily from symphony band practice. His back is hurting after putting up the car canopy Sunday (aren't we a pair!), and his reasoning skills are off, so dinner was a little late. He read my instructions wrong. It was good when it was ready though! I had it all prepped on 2 sheet pans with notes written for times and what goes in when. 

The kids didn't want the Gordon's fish filets for dinner, so they got fresh salmon and Greg and I had the frozen fish. Spoiled kids. I emptied a couple of bags from the freezer with a little sweet potato fries and tater tots with veggies. 

Wednesday - I made a Mongolian beef and broccoli in the quick cooker served over rice. The kids finished their salmon (it was a Sam's club filet!) and then ate some of what I cooked. I was a little surprised there was only rice leftover! I guess they liked it. 

Today was going to be nachos and taco meat for taco's or salads... but then I remembered the chicken empanada's in the freezer and gave the kids the choice. Empanada's it is! Leftover rice and probably a salad for some veggies.

I did work on finishing the thread basting on the cat and mouse quilt and just took it off the frame! Lots of pins to remove it from both edges of the leaders. Now to decide where to place the hoop to continue hand quilting it!

A couple of the cat tears on the bottom edge of the quilt. I should be able to repair them up as they are small. I'll pin the back to the front, so the batting doesn't get torn while I am quilting it. I have the butterfly and cheese templates and my quilting thread and hoop. It's good to go!

Time to check the fryer - and get those empanada's cooking!

Slow Sunday Basting....

 I had great plans yesterday for yard work. Some got done and after 2 hours, my back was done. I might have added a little more this morning and helped Greg put the car canopy back up to protect my car from the unforgiving sun here in Florida. Let's just say, I know I have a back! It will be a bubble bath night again this evening, I think. 

Aidan was my helper yesterday and he did a great job weeding out back for me and moving some plants. He is helping Grandma today with hanging some things outside and I hear he will be raking up the mulch along one side of her house so she can have him put fresh down next weekend. 

I also had horses with Emily in the late morning and then Aidan drove me to the mall to return a sweatshirt he got last weekend with Grandma and to sniff all the candles at Yankee Candle and pick up his free birthday candle. I was impressed, we were only in that store for a little over 30 minutes! Aidan loves smelling candles! I picked up a couple that were half off - a spring meadow and a snowflake one for Christmas time. 

Today, I've got cocktail hotdogs and a handful of frozen meatballs in the crockpot with a jar of chili sauce and 8 ounces of grape jelly. It makes a yummy sauce for them! A dozen eggs got hard boiled as well, the ladies are providing 4-5 eggs a day now. We did send a dozen to Grandma as well. I think we all had eggs this morning too - I had a breakfast burrito and the other 3 made eggs with some kimchi. I made the mistake of taking the kids to Publix after school on Friday to pick up mozzarella and 2 pizza dough's for dinner that night. We had a lot of deli pepperoni since the boy used to put that and salami with provolone on a hoagie roll for lunch before the braces went on. They made a pizza and a stromboli that night for dinner. They got stuck in the international aisle for about 20 minutes. $50 later and I got out of the store. Seems all 3 of them like the kimchi, so I guess we will have to try and make it sometime. 

chickens in the shrubs.

colorful eggs - 2 lay green, the barred rocks lay the light brown and one rhode island red lays the dark brown one. 

The girls have been getting out of the run time this week. Well, today's was planned. They managed to escape a few times earlier this week. The zip ties we had disintegrated in the sun, and they had some openings in the wires. We have new zip ties and I think we have it secured again. We had fenced off an area by the master bedroom, since the dog used to get in there and terrorize the cats in the window and put holes in my screens. I decided to take the fence down yesterday - the dog seems to be a lot better now and it will let Aidan get in there to mow. It is a wee bit overgrown. The chickens love that area, so I am hoping they will scratch it all up for me. 

I'll be 'resting' the rest of the day and basting the cat and mouse quilt on the frame.  I think it will get done faster if I have it in a hoop in the living room. I am finding there are lots of cat nail marks and teeth marks, so I'll have a little fixing of some fabric to do. I'm hoping that washing it after quilting will close some of them up, but we will see.  The cats are very happy I am in there as their purring is extremely loud!

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers. Hopefully I'll make some progress on the hand quilting on this one for next Sunday!

RSC red hearts?

 I got a little play time in on Thursday and worked on making a few of these mistake blocks into hearts. Note to self, pay attention to where the bigger triangle is used because 2 matching square parts will not make a heart top! I have a hook up on the wall by the hutch near the entryway from Christmas decorations. It is empty right now, but I think this little heart hanging will look cute there. I hope to get this to a little quilt finish sometime this weekend, just in time to have up for Valentines Day. 

I did get the Harmony blocks completed and hand stitched together to form a top this week. I think I needed a few days off after getting that accomplished.

The boy is officially 16! He had wanted Bob Evans for his dinner out... until he got in the car after school and said he really wanted Mexican - fish taco's! Well, they don't have them on the Chili's menu anymore, so we tried a new to us Mexican place. Emily opted to stay home and have leftover spaghetti sauce. She is not a fan of Mexican restaurants, despite all those Chili's chips and salsa cravings while I was pregnant with her! Greg, Aidan and I had a nice meal out. I'll be going back there again... probably with just Aidan though! Since he did not get his learners permit until spring break last year, he can't get his license until he has had his permit for a year. 

This one for his height.

This one for the smile full of metal braces he got a week ago!

Linking up with the RSC today. 

The dog has been walked. The cats were exploring the house this morning, before the girl let the dog out of her room. Time for a shower and then shuttle the girl to horses. I hope to get some outside yard work done today. The flower beds need weeding (I am really good at growing weeds!), shrubs need trimming and the garden needs a till and the shade lining put back up for planting. I also need the guys to put the car canopy back up so my car can get a little protection from the sun before it gets crazy hot down here next month. We will see how much gets done. 

Harmony is a top!

 

It feels great to have this one to the top stage. Now the question is, hand quilt this one or the cat and mouse? 

RSC

 Well, I have not been very productive with the RSC so far this year. I guess I have been concentrating on finishing up some UFO's instead of starting new things. I did get the 3 green Arkansas Traveler blocks completed and plan to make 3 in red this month.

I did get these green scraps stitched up last month and it included a few reds for February.

I had prepped these peels for the string of beads block. I cut out the background at 13 inches.... but I think I am going to change that to a 14 inch background for a little more wiggle room. The pattern say's it ends up at 12.5 inches, but I find the needle turned applique sometimes shrinks a little. I might try at this size and see how it goes but might swap the next ones to 14 inch blocks. 

I might have made a mistake cutting my Harmony block and now have these 4.5 inch blocks. I am not sure if they will become a new project or some reverse image white stars with red surrounding it. We will see.

The big progress has been on the Harmony UFO block. I have one seam to go on the last block. Then I get to stitch the 4 blocks together for a 57 inch top. This one is hand pieced. The original Harmony sew along information can be found here.

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and the Slow Sunday Stitching on Sunday.