A small finish.

 

I got this 24x24 small quilt quilted and bound this week. It feels so good to have a finish... and there is even orange in the quilt! 

My niece sent me a photo of Owen on his quilt Friday. He sure looks like a happy baby. His Momma sure was a happy one, I got to baby sit her a lot when she was little. Sigh, she's 31 now! My how time fly's. Both parents are red heads, so we will see what color pops out! Love how you can see the orange. I saw a First Dinosaur book when I was packing it up for shipping so I popped that in with the quilt. It went well with the dino quilt I think. 

I finally got my stand up popcorn popper (8 ounce bucket) sold and off to it's new owner today. Out of my house makes me so happy. I had to figure out Venmo and load it on my phone. All set and time to go take photo's of the next things to get rid of. Futon, Emily's old desk and a couple of tables. As more houses are being purchased and torn down along our stretch of road, I am getting more serious about clearing out and tossing things that don't need to be moved once we finally get an offer on the house (new road will be going through our house) so I have less to pack and move. Sewing room is excluded of course!

Baskets for Table Scrap Challenge in Orange...

 I kept thinking of a basket quilt block... until I read Diann's post and thought of an actual basket! The microwave ones I have are very dirty and well used, I could use some new ones. I knew I had some of the special cotton batting - Wrap and Zap and checked a few spots for it... then remembered it was in the chest drawer. Orange. Going into the fall season I have some fun orange web fabrics. Let's use that (my son hates spiders, so I had to do it!). These use 10 inch pieces of fabric and I knew I had some various packs of that and pulled 2 brownish ones for the other side. 

10 inch of 2 fabrics and 2 of the wrap and zap. I stitched an X through each of these fabric,batting sections.

I might have made a mistake marking the darts... and so the first one does not have pointy edges. Note to self, when marking 1 inch by 2inch on the sides make sure it is not on the sewn X side! Oops. Once I had that corrected put them right sides together and stitch around with an opening to pull it through.

It never fails, I always miss one little section on the edge with the sewing on the point so, put it back and resewed that area. Pulled it out and smoothed it for the closing top stitch.

See the oopsie rounded corners? It will still work to keep my hands safe when warming up things like soups in the microwave, as a cushion for the silicone popcorn maker that gets hot or for cold ice cream. They all fit perfectly in here.

Side 1

Side 2

Then I did the other one and you can see the difference on the corners. Much better on this one.

That is my interpretation of table scrap challenge of baskets in orange. I'll link up on Friday with Joy and Saturday with the RSC.

Hexagons in orange?

 This was my view this morning while working. Bear likes to take a nap here in the morning next to my office chair. After lunch he heads into the dining room with me and then spends the afternoon with Greg. Today's lunch was a bit of leftovers from last night. Carnita meat, rice, pinto beans and some avacado, tomato and cilantro with lime over all of it. Yummy. 

I had about half an hour left, so I went and cut out some parts for hexagons. I did 12 - 3 sets of 4 in pink, yellow and orange. I started with the orange after work and got one done.

See the egg holder? I think 3 of them are laying each day. I've gotten a nice brown one so far - from Buttercup. I'll check later to see if DC and Eggnog have laid yet. That would be a light brown and green one. Fresh eggs have a natural seal and are safe to be kept at room temperature. 

I should seal a meal a couple of packets of the carnitas for the freezer with one bit left out for my lunch tomorrow. Tonight will be a mongolean beef with broccoli made in my insta pot. It is a recipe the Greg found and got a thumbs up from everyone. Emily actually asked for this... and she dislikes broccoli! 

Hexagons...

 I changed the sheets and put a new quilt onto the bed yesterday. It appears this hexagon one is just a wee bit small for the bed! Since this is a quilt as you go finished hexagon quilt, I think I will be adding some more hexagons to it. I did these are sets of 4 colors together so I'll continue with that pattern. Anyone else find a 'finished' quilt needs to be just a little bit bigger? 

I pulled out the templates and I know I have 'extra' batting pieces hanging around. This is a great way to use those up. I use the 3 inch template for the background and the 2 inch template for the 'top' and the batting. The bigger piece folds over the front and then I did some simple outline quilting on it. 

Aldi had boston pork butt on sale this week, so I grabbed a package and popped it into the crock pot overnight to make some carnita's. Today, I opened the can of pinto beans and did 2 cups of them in the insta pot over lunchtime. So, dinner tonight will be carnita meat, beans and I'll make some cilantro lime rice as well. I might try a cilantro lime apple slaw for a little greenery to go with it. 

Emily has marching band after school and then a parent meeting after. I think Aidan has Academic club after school today. He went to the first meeting on Friday and had a great time. He knows a lot about a variety of things and was able to answer a lot of the questions. I think he found his niche on that one.

Slow Sunday

 Yesterday I drew the pattern for Melissa's Hearts pattern for January onto some fabric. The free pattern is found here. Today will be the day to give it a start. Threads are picked but I am debating tracing over it a little darker? We will see how well I can see the lines when I start stitching it tonight. I did this one with pencil but the March one with my green marking pen. I will plan to use some crayons on it to shade things in after I am done stitching it. It will be a new technique for me.

Friday after running errands, I popped a headache which had me 'resting' in bed with this guy for the afternoon. I did watch a few YouTube videos from Kathy and others with counted cross stitch. Peanut was ok with it, as long as it did not disturb his nap on me.

Saturday was much better (well, Friday night actually and I did the girl pick up from the football game at 10:45 - they ran late and got trounced but the band had fun!)

Saturday, was horses after a couple of weeks off while the trainer went to visit her kids in Boston. Emily was happy to be back in the barn and on a horse, despite Doc acting like a brat. She got a workout with him but by the end he was behaving again.

Emily and Kyra after turning out their horses to the pasture. Yes, both are soaked after hosing down the horses. Seems the hose was spraying so Kyra got soaked. They fixed it a bit before Emily hosed down Doc, but then she handed the hose to Kyra and she got her! It was very hot and humid out, so I don't think either girl minded!

While away, the boys did a run to get rid of another truck load of brush, then got some fire starter and Aidan took care of the heap in the back yard. Much better now! He also mowed the lawn and finally edged the driveway.... in the rain. Silly boy. It does look a lot better though. He is off to Grandma's today.

I think this is the first stitching I have done on this quilt since before I left for Vermont! It is time to get this one moving and done! I have other things I want to hand quilt. I got a few mice and this spool block stitched while watching F1 this morning. The 'boys' were on the couch. Greg and Aidan on each side in their recliners, with a dog spread out between them on a pile of quilts with his belly exposed for belly rubs. No spoiled animals in this house =)

Sometime this week, I'll open this package of chop sticks and get out the glue gun and make some wands for the Harry Potter event. We do different designs with hot glue, and then hand them back for someone else to spray them with various colors. Everyone at the event gets a wand and we are all out!

I think today will be a cleaning day and change over to fall. I need a mood boost and my fall things always make me smile. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow Sunday Stitchers.

Baby quilt finish.

 I can't remember if I ever posted the final photo of the baby dinosaur quilt. I finally made and attached the label and will ship it out to it's new owner this morning. The quilt is 60x60. After finishing the label, I pressed a lightweight interfacing to the area I embroidered. I figured that should help it stick and not pull out. 

I've got a yard waste trip to the waste center to drop off shrub clippings from last weekend's work, lots of boxes to drop to recycling and then the UPS store to drop off Amazon returns and ship out this quilt. Then I need to tackle the front room and see about clearing it out. I had hoped to paint it today, but after a trip to visit my FIL yesterday, and finishing the label I have no clue what else I did! It was one of those days. 

Tuesday.

 I keep avoiding doing that embroidery for the label. Sigh. Monday I made bread (6 grain bread cereal bread) using this recipe. It tastes good but was a very wet dough. It made yummy toast this morning.

Then I made some magic cookie bars. Less than 24 hours later and this is all that is left!

I mixed up the meals a bit this week from what I was planning and swapped things around. Aidan and I had the brussel sprout and squash meal tonight - here are all the parts right before I put them together into the pan. I made noodles out of the squash and roasted them for 20 minutes at 400 degrees with a little salt, pepper and vegetable oil. The sliced brussel sprouts are cooked in the bacon grease (that's what makes it yummy!). A little sage and a splash of chicken broth and yummy. 

I finally bit the bullet and wrote out the label and popped it into a hoop and was embroidering it before I started dinner. I'll finish it up tonight and then attach it to the quilt. I might iron on some interfacing to the back so the floss doesn't unravel before I stitch it to the quilt. Emily just did an hour of driving in our neighborhood with me. Might I need a glass of wine as I stitch the rest of this? Maybe. No, she did good but needs to get out on the road in traffic the next time she drives. I'd like to get this attached tonight so I can hit the UPS store tomorrow and return 2 things to Amazon and get this shipped to it's new owner. 

The beauty berries are starting to bloom. I love the bright purple color.

The chickens in their coop. There are 5 in there. 3 are doing a molting so only the 2 young ones are giving eggs right now. Eggnog with the green eggs and Buttercup (the red one) gives brown eggs. The 2 black and white ones (Maple and DC) will give light brown eggs and Poppy, the other Americana gives green eggs. The black and white ones are without tail feathers right now. We will see if it is a total molt of all feathers (which looks terrible!) or just the tail feathers and a few underneath. The last one was a total molt in the fall, so we will see. I'd better get back to stitching....

Busy weekend

We got a 'cool front' in Florida this weekend. The temps were only around 90 (heat index was under 100 or slightly over I think! No heat warnings for 2 days now.) and the humidity was a lot lower than it normally is. That meant.... those outside chores that have been waiting and waiting got done this weekend. Aidan and I spent a few hours yesterday working on the front of the house and found windows! 

Those shrubs (3 layers - what was the model home builder thinking?) were up near the roof for 2 of them and the other was intruding on the walkway. The side area got a little work but needs more. After 3+ hours in the heat we loaded up the truck with one load and got that to the waste recycle area for yard scraps. The rest got pulled to the burn pile. Ok, I left a bunch laying around out front and pulled the last 3 buggy's this morning after walking Bear when it was cooler. Around 10, I headed out back to tackle the bushes by the master bedroom. Again, very overgrown and the crape myrtle needed some trimming as well. Emily came out with me and helped out and then Aidan wandered out. 

By the master bedroom - there was no sunlight getting through that area it was all trees and shrubs grown up into the tree! It is much lighter in the bedroom now.

Burn pile out by the shed in the back yard. 

One truck load was loaded and I took it to the overflowing yard waste area this afternoon before hitting the grocery store. As you can see, there are probably 2-3 more truck loads to take but we are limited to 1 per day.... and honestly it is way too hot for me to do anything at 4PM and they close at 5. 

I did get into the pool after yard work yesterday and this afternoon. I remembered to add sunscreen today. I might have picked up some after sun while I was out today as well. I might look a little like a lobster. Lots more work to do, but the house is a little more presentable now. I worked all week last week so I'm taking Thursday and Friday off this week. Painting the front rooms is on my agenda for those days.

While shopping, I needed to figure out meals. I had picked up a butternut squash Friday at the farmers market so I got brussel sprouts and bacon for a Monday night meal for me and Aidan. I was thinking brats and coleslaw and potato salad for dinner... but I picked up a pork loin and asked Emily if she wanted brats or pork schnitzel for dinner tonight. She said 'obviously the one that takes more work' - meaning the schnitzel. I'll roast up some cauliflower to go with it. She and Greg can do those leftovers tomorrow night for dinner since they dislike the yummy Brussel sprout meal. Tuesday will be Brats and coleslaw and roasted sweet potato. I think a sheet pan meal on Wednesday - Chicken, red potato and green beans and then a baked fish Thursday - salmon for them and cod for me. There, now I don't need to think too much, and I have everything I need except the salmon. 

I think I'll make some magic cookie bars (I think I have graham crackers... I know I have butter, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, walnuts and coconut.). Then relax with a movie and some hand work. 

A label for the baby quilt and attaching it so I can get that into the mail Monday or Tuesday.  I gave it a wash a few days ago and have the book all set to go. I love this book and her shower asked to gift a book for the baby's library. I hope Owen loves this one as much as my kids did.

Then maybe some hand quilting into the cat and mice quilt? We will see.

A quick little quilt?

 So, you ever just need to make something new? I've had this charm pack of Breakfast at Tiffany's for ages. I flipped through Back to Charm School and decided to make this cover quilt with it. I had the squares all paired off on Monday, sewed them a little on Thursday and then got it to a top today. I hope to finish it off with a little machine quilting and binding this weekend. It has shades of orange in it! I had snitched a couple of fabrics from it, so I added a few browns and a couple of lights.

I finally figured out why I have not been reading actual books... because I need to wear some 'helper' glasses when I do! Sigh. I finally put them by my recliner and read this book over the last couple of days. It was really interesting, and I'll try a few of the tricks and see if it helps with energy, mood and maybe loose a few pounds? One can hope. I have to thank Jocelyn at Canadian Needle Nana for mentioning it in one or her posts this spring.

Linking up on Saturday with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

RSC Saturday

 Well, it is very scrappy and there is orange in each block. I added 4 more of these potato chip blocks this week. I think I'll do 3 more for a 4x5 setting. I'm planning to add some extra backing to the sides and top and bottom to make it a backing size for the Christmas Cactus Wreath quilt (60x60).  I seem to have used that prepped backing for the baby quilt that I did finish hand stitching the binding on. I just need to make and attach the label and ship it out to it's new 3 old owner next week. Some of the dinosaurs and solid blue, red, orange and green landed in my scrap piles for the blocks I added this week. I'm thinking by finishing up these blocks into a backing, and getting the Christmas Cactus Quilt quilted, I can knock off 2 finishes for my quarterly UFO list. I have not done much sewing the last few months (life) so it will be nice to cross a couple things off the list.

The girl has had band camp in the evenings this week. They did a little show of what they have been working on for the last 2 weeks with their music for the half time show, some marching steps and then some stand music for playing at the football games. They did 8 hour day's last week and 3 hour evenings this week. Still a wee bit hot out - as it is 87 degrees at almost 9PM tonight. Thankfully we were mostly in the cafeteria, which had the AC working. 

Their orientation at school was Thursday evening and I walked through with Aidan this year and met his teachers. I went with Emily last year... and she was an early drop off so the band could play at the earlier Freshman orientation, and she did not want Mom going around with her this year. Ms. Independent. I did get to meet a few of her teachers, as both kids have 3 teachers in common this year. Aidan only has 1 new teacher that he has never had with his 7 classes. He was quite pleased with his schedule and has friends in a bunch of his classes. He has assured Emily she has a good schedule with the good teachers. We will go gather the school supplies they need tomorrow and new lunch bags. They each already got their new backpacks. They were both due for new ones as it had been a few years. We just need to fill out the parking permit and then pay the fee and Aidan will be driving them both to school in the mornings. They both have a zero period class this year - so their start time is one hour earlier at 7:30. I don't think Greg will miss doing the early morning drop to school this year! 

I saw this pretty butterfly in the back yard and snapped a photo since it is an orange month.

There was a beautiful sunset one of the evenings on the way home from band practice, so I had Emily use my phone to snap some photo's as I drove. These have orange in them as well! 

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday. Hopefully I can get a little orange sewing in on my RSC monthly blocks today since there is no horses for a couple of weeks.

Slow cooking and sewing Sunday

 We are waiting on lots of rain to happen in Florida with the storm coming. Good thing we are sandy soil and where our house is, it is not prone to flooding. We should be fine. We are inland by a bunch in SW Ocala.

I asked everyone in the house if they preferred french dips or chuck roast or corned beef and cabbage. Both boys didn't say anything and Emily wanted the yummy cabbage one. OK, Corned Beef and Cabbage it is! It is in the crock pot working away for dinner and I'll put the cabbage into the pressure cooker closer to dinner time. I'll have to make an irish soda bread as well.

I had bought a huge Sam's size bag of onions before I went to Vermont... and those onions are huge. Bigger than a softball! I have one and a half of them cut up and cooking on the stovetop for french onion soup for lunch. I got a baguette and Fontina cheese at the store yesterday for it. Yummy.

Since no one cooked while I was away for a week, they insisted I cook when I got home! Spoiled kids. 

Thursday, I made lemon chicken with capers over angel hair pasta. I had a big veggie filled salad for lunch to get my veggies in.

Friday, instead of the normal pizza, we made Chicken Tikka Masala over rice.

Saturday, we stopped at Moes for a late lunch after horses and picked up burrito's for the boys, a burrito bowl for me and nacho's for Emily. They got to choose their leftovers for dinner! 

I'll be adding some slow stitches into a few projects today.

I have one side of the baby quilt bound and have 2.5 sides to go.

Then I'll move onto the cat and mouse quilt. Time to spray out the blue lines for the sashings and then start quilting around the mice and the spools on the edges.

Bear posing on the quilt after he sniffed it. 

Emily was happy riding a challenging horse yesterday. Doc has not been ridden much so needs some training on not running into the fence and not getting spooked. Emily is good at handling him and getting him to do what she wants. 

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Photo's from Vermont

 I got home around 12:20 AM with no issues. There were severe storms predicted in Vermont but the areas where my family lives were spared this time. They have been getting hit repeatedly with lots of rain and it is taking out roads and bridges all over the state. Monday was the St. Johnsbury and Lyndon areas in the northeast kingdom of Vermont. Thankfully my sister was able to get to me at camp and deliver me to the airport just fine yesterday afternoon. The car temp read 86 degrees at 11PM when I found it in the lot. Welcome back to Florida with that temp!

Emily had gone in early to band camp this morning so the woodwinds could practice outside before it got sweltering, so Greg was home before 8AM. The dog was whining at my door at 7AM wanting a walk. He was a happy camper when I got up and dressed and took him. The cats were happy I was home with Ollie sleeping on the end of the bed and Peanut was curled up next to me all night (once I kicked him off me!)

I did not bring my personal computer with me this time, so I only had my phone. This is a photo heavy post as it is much easier to do on the computer!

I did finish the second towel top in blue and knitted a dish cloth. I forgot to get photos though. I left knitting needles and the big cone of sugar n cream yarn up there with towels and crochet hook and yarn for those as well. We are flying up next time I think so I figured it would be easier to leave stuff there. I also left a small cutting mat and a sewing kit with all the necessary things that I got at Aldi this year for $5. threads, pins, needles, threader, thimble, pin cushion, scissors, seam ripper and pins and buttons. 

Sunday my sisters were out at camp and we went on a boat ride. This is my older sisters - Joanne sitting and me in the middle and Terri. They are 6 and 7 years older than me.

My sister got this great photo of one of the loons. I decided my phone (camera) really needed updating after seeing her great shot. Mine was blurry and could not get this detail being 6 years old. I mentioned the phone to Greg, and it was by my recliner when I got home! =) he is a keeper. I had a Galaxy 9 and now have a Galaxy 22 Ultra. (well, once I swap the SIM card.)

This is the ladies. Joanne, Terri, Mom and me. I guess I should get a hair cut and maybe color some of that grey as I look older than them!

On a walk last week I was snapping some pretty flower photo's along the roadside. It is on a dirt road and so pretty. I love seeing the wildflowers in the summer.

These have a pod that when you press it, it pops. We called them Johnny jump ups? Not sure of their real name.

bee on a clover. The state flower.

It was an overcast day, this is looking back at the mountain at my turn around point.

Apples!

Love these pretty bright yellow flowers.

Taken yesterday afternoon on my last paddle before I got picked up for the airport. 

When I left, my parents were doing well. Dad's bleeding had been stopped for 2 nights and they were both back to a normal routine for them. So glad I was up there to help out with all the night time issues and cleaning up all the blood from the pillows, pillow cases, towels and sheets from his uncontrolled mouth bleeding. Oxyclean spray is an amazing thing! The Plavix must be out of his system now and things are back to normal. 

I suppose I need to check and see what things are in the house for meals and restock as needed.

A little hand stitching on the baby quilt and maybe some RSC sewing will happen. I am a few months behind on things.