New Years Eve

 Well, my parents have been fine this trip. But I got the covid bug! Sigh. Hopefully I feel better by Thursday. My sister is dropping a proper mask for me to wear. I'm shut up in my room away from everyone.

The kids did go ice skating. Aidan drove them and my brother met them there for the open skate yesterday. First time and I hear they both did great.

My brother David and Emily.

Aidan and Emily.

Family time

 We had a good flight to Vermont. A little delay but we got in 30 minutes late. No issues. Someone enjoyed the window seat.

We hit Als french frys for a late dinner. It is a diner in Burlington.

The first thing the kids did outside the airport was make snowballs and throw at each other.  Kept them entertained until I got the car started and scraped off. Temp was 7 degrees.

Friday, very cold but snow angels were made.

We went to see the lights at the Joseph Smith Memorial in south Royalton. I might have missed a turn, so we got a 6 mile scenic route in the dark!

First joint puzzle made Friday. 

Saturday was family gathering.  All grandkids but 1 in Colorado. The photo has 3 of my nephews 4 kids.

Emily taking photos of mountains and snow.

My nephew Ben was outside having a snowball fight with his littles, so mine went out too. They had a great time.

Not a single stitch taken. Maybe tonight.

Heading to my sister's after my parents get back from church. Will bring kids to an open ice skating tomorrow. 

The day after Christmas

 I forgot to get a photo on Christmas eve or Christmas day of everyone!

 Christmas eve after I logged off work, we headed over to Grandma's for games and dinner out at Outback. Christmas Day was my step FIL's birthday, and we had been going to Outback for his early birthday the last few years. Last Christmas he turned 91, but the heart finally gave out in April of this year. We had his favorite cake to remember him. Emily was needing to get driving time in with her permit, so she drove over to Grandma's and back that evening. She lives a good 45 minutes away.

They had to count and split it! 

Loved this plate shape for emilys ribs.

Another Emily drive earlier this week was to kohls, petsmart and lowes. She got an alien plant. A l o e. Seems a l o e changes to alien automatically. It's name is now alien!

Christmas day, my FIL agreed to come over to the house! He has not been here in ages, either not wanting to leave his house or being in hospital or rehab for the holidays. Emily drove over to get him and returned him with her Dad to get more driving hours in! He lives 45 minutes in a different direction. She got to drive through The Villages, but I hear there was little traffic yesterday. My MIL came over as well. I asked what he wanted - ham, sweet potato casserole and beans. We added rolls and he and Emily had her 'Taco Salad' as well. It was a good day and lots of old memories shared for the kids to hear of their great-great grandparents' lives. 

Aidan and Grandma. 

Today, will be a travel day. 10AM - neither kid is up. We are leaving the house to head to the airport between 11-11:30. Guess I better get showered and dressed! I packed last night. I have warm clothes up at my parents and we are only going for a week. Amazingly, I have room in the backpack personal bag so have the various projects I mentioned last post packed. I just read Joy's post, Rainbow Plus was the December challenge. Yikes, I was just thinking it was rainbow and missed the plus. I'm going to go cut a few scraps and see what I can come up with for hand work for that challenge. I think I have room to bring my personal computer as well, so I'll post a bit while away.

Sunday before Christmas.....

I've always wanted to see The Nutcracker. I asked hubby if he wanted to go. Nope. I figured the kids would not, especially the girl who wanted to get a last ride in for the year. So, I bought one ticket to a local production and went yesterday afternoon. It was a really neat performance, and I enjoyed it. I will make sure to go next year as well and maybe drag a kid or two. The girl Emily rides with expressed interest, so I said I'd take her next year too! 

I took Emily to her Winter Guard Christmas party at the guard director's house. She is a teacher at the school (has Aidan in her Psychology class) but is quite young. 24 maybe? A 2 hour party and we live 30 minutes away, so I went too. I chatted with another parent and the kids all had a great time with food and party games. Boy, was it loud during the games! There are 20 kids in the guard and most were able to attend.

Today, Emily and I will be going to see the movie Wicked in the theater. I need to do a little shopping as well, since I am now making dinner for Christmas and my FIL is coming over. I asked what he would like, and he said ham, sweet potato casserole and taco salad. So, I'm making a meal instead of appetizers this year. My MIL will come over as well. I'm surprised he agreed to come over. Greg will drive over and pick him up and then we'll return him home when he wants, probably after the meal. He is 89 and lives about 45 minutes away from us. I noticed Prime Rib is on sale this week so I might get one of those as well. The kids and I will be flying out on the 26th to Vermont to visit with my parents and family for a week. Greg will stay home and animal sit. Fingers crossed the roads are not too slippery while I am up there. It has been a while since I have done winter driving.

That leads to thinking what is small and can fit in my carry on with winter clothes. We are only there for a week, so just did a personal item and carry on for each of us on a direct flight to Plattsburgh, NY. I've got a rental car and will take the ferry across Lake Champlain and then will head to my parents' house to stay. As my kids say 'I reserved 3 rooms in the house for that week!'.  Emily is getting a ball of yarn and plans to make a hat in route. We will see how that goes. I've never made a hat so it will be interesting. She might be getting a wobble for Christmas too! MSQC had them half off so I added one to my bundle in November.

For me.... I have yet to start the pretty snowflake embroidery from my MSQC advent box, so I think that will go with me. 

Today's gift of embroidering on felt for a glasses case and book page holders.

 The felt birds from last years box. All are small and should be able to travel well. 

I did pull out my half done cross stitch I started in 1999 or 2000! I counted wrong on the hoop area somewhere lower right. I watched some 'how to fix' videos this week and once I find the error again, I will decide how to fix it (pull out or stitch over with the correct thread) and maybe get that piece moving again. I did 2 from the book, August month in 1998 and September in 1999. I think they took me a good 6 months each and that is all I worked on. The eyes were much better then, so the readers will be going with me!

This is January.

I also have 4 of these blocks kinda prepped. I need to find the peel and tuck it in with a pencil. The background and peels are cut for 3.5 blocks. Light pink, dark pink, light blue and dark blue. Small baggie so these could travel as well for needle turned applique.

Today, I'll be stitching a few QAYG hexagons and prepping more to add another column to my existing quilt to make it bigger. I have one column ready to add and need another 12 sets of 4 for the next one. Since the main quilt has been washed multiple times and is 'smaller', I will stitch all the columns I plan to add together first, wash a few times to see if they shrink like the main quilt and then will add them on.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. I posted a recap of the year yesterday. It is a great feeling to look back over the year and realize you did accomplish something in little bits of time here and there!

RSC and 2024 recap

 I had to go back to the January posts to see what I had planned for the RSC this year.

Arkansas Traveller blocks using my Accuquilt die. Check. I did 3 per month for 8 months. I selected 2 fabrics of a maroon/purple for the last block. I cut the parts this week. Just need to stitch them up. I hope to do that this weekend. 

I also wanted to make string of beads blocks. Well, I learned a bit with this one. Things come out much better if you trace the parts onto the background, so you know exactly where things go. Still learning over here! I did not do very well with this project this year. I do have a couple prepped in yellow and a red I think. These will be a carry over and hopefully will have more luck in 2025.

Chicken or sheep was the next dilemma. I went with chickens, but did not do a great follow through this year. Lets go see what we have for completed blocks, shall we? I notice 3 bigger purple ones. Note to self, have a block out by the machine as you sew it so you do the correct seams. I improvised and will make it work! This will also carry over to 2025.

I got a wee bit distracted and hopped onto the potato chip phase and went with a scrappy theme. I'm happy to say that one is a completed quilt! I did 12 inch blocks, so this quilt is 72x 84. 

I also cobbled together the back and look at all those Full Stop blocks! They were so happy to get out of the holding box and into a quilt along with various other extra blocks.

Some of the Table Scrap Challenge finishes for the year. I missed a few months but was happy to get some quick finishes.

I have been a part of the Ravelry UFO quarterly challenge, and it has really helped me to get a few UFO finishes this year. I create a big list of my projects (around 30!) and it helps me to stay focused and work on things to get them completed.

For the first quarter of the year, I had 3 finishes.

Scrappy tumbler quilt. This was hand pieced over a trip to VT but was machine quilted to finish it off.

Bear Paw - hand quilted.

Scrappy kites from last years RSC.

One finish from quarter 2.

One finish from quarter 3

Christmas Wreath top was machine quilted.

Four finishes from quarter 4!

The Potato Chip block and the Full Stop as a 2 sided quilt above.

Cat and mouse was hand quilted.

Hand pieced 2 inch trip quilt was machine quilted.

Progress was made with other block sets.

Harmony was hand pieced into a top in February. I believe it is 57 inches square.

1857 had borders added and is now in the hoop for hand quilting. 86 inches square.

The hexagon garden was stitched into a top and is ready to be loaded onto the frame once I get back from Vermont in January.

Ella Maria Deacon blocks were set and sewed together into a top. I believe it is around 60x60.

I'm sure I'm missing some things, but is was nice to look back and see I did get things accomplished this year. Things finished, moved forward and started. You know what those finishes mean.... I can start new things!!!!!!

Linking up with the RSC.

Slow Sunday

 

I have been working on making more hexagons to add to the QAYG Hexagon quilt I finished last year. It needed to be bigger. I just pulled it out of the dryer and laid the new row next to it. Ut Oh..... It shrunk in the wash/dry as it has been washed a few times. Sigh. I guess I'll stitch the last section on and then run it through the wash/dry and then add it and see if that helps. I want to add a few more sections to the side to make it wider for the bed. It was 68x88 originally. I also noticed 2 or 3 hexagons that need a little fix stitching. 

I did get the 1857 quilt from Sentimental Stitches pinned for quilting and it is in the hoop. I have been too busy (and tired at night) to stitch on this yet, but it is there when I am ready. 

This was one of the MSQC Jenny Christmas box gifts this week. It is an embroidery pattern that came with everything you need including the frame. I love it and will be putting some stitches into this today. I've never added beads before so that will be a new one for me. 

I think today will be a lazy day, watching Christmas movies and stitching. What is a must watch Christmas movie for you?

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Jenny's box 12+13

 I have to say, I LOVE day 12's embroidery project. It includes everything, including the frame to finish it off. Perfect project and I plan to start on it this weekend. 

Today we got 2 cute cutting mat scrubbers. A chuck the duck and a Missouri Star. It has a suction cup on the back. Jenny mentioned it helps to take the threads off clothing as well. That will be handy.

This was a project in the photo from the first 11 days. It is a cute little wall hanging of little houses and trees. It came with this cute panel of doors! I was thinking of making houses of some sort for 2025 and the RSC. The doors not used in this project might show up in those. It also has these two green fabrics that are perfect for the trees. Love how they think ahead like that. We got the wooden hangers the following day. Love how they do multiple days together to coordinate the gifts.

The cute wooden tray with the Missouri star on the top, came with 2 embroidery needles, a needle threader and a magnet that fits in one of the little containers. The day before that gift, we got the cute embroidery scissors with Chuck the Duck on it. These two things go perfect with the embroidery project. 

I have a quieter weekend, thank goodness! Both kids are late tonight, but one drives and will come home when Academic club is done. The other is doing their last marching band practice with the middle school before their last parade tomorrow in Ocala. That is a drop off at 2 for the 5:30 night time parade. They are somewhere in the middle so should be done and unpacked back to the school by 8:30. I just get to drop off and pick up =).

Plenty of time to putter around the house and finish decorating and then I'll be sewing houses or hand stitching the snowflake. I also need to cut the last Arkansas Traveller block and get that pieced to finish off that set from the RSC 2024.