Thursday

 I ordered this dr seuss panel for a baby quilt. Emilys music teacher is due the end of November.  Gender neutral as they are not sharing that info.

I think I will cut them and plan something around them. I'm hoping for a completion by Nov 1. I have 2 yards of music note fabrics for the back.

The girls

All 5 laid on Tuesday!  One egg Wednesday.  Wonder how many today?

I posted a photo with batting on top on celebrate hand quilting. Seems the batting should go on the top rail with the top! That was not in the video I watched! Another 2 hours fiddling with it yesterday and it is loaded. Hopefully it is good enough. I'll start hand quilting on it tonight. I had a girl scout planning meeting last night.

Another block added to the pile.

Errands for my FIL this morning. Prepping walls and moving stuff in this front room this afternoon.  Hoping to paint Saturday, and yes the frame will be moved out of there when we paint.

Friday evening I have an awards banquet for volunteering with girl scouts.

Tuesday progress

 Sunday did not progress with lots done but things moved forward. 

I moved my EZ3 hand quilting frame from my bedroom (where the cats would shred the batting if it was loaded) to the front room. I got rid of the futon and coffee table that were in this spot. The dog crate was also moved to the dining room (about 6 feet away) for a bit until I figure out how that room will be set up. 

Then I sewed the last seam after pressing the top and had to remember how to load it on the frame. Lots of youtube videos to watch. I had to cut the backing and missed by an inch or two. Sigh, I just rolled one side over that extra inch and called it good. It is not in the hand quilting area - although it is quite tight. For a 90x90 quilt, I think the frame says it is 96 but is more like 95 inches across. I might have put some extra leaders in on the backing 2 poles so it is long enough. 

I looked through the batting options and will try this wool batting. I just need to remember to wash it in cold water and not agitate it much in the washer. I pulled it out of the bag, but I've got a few hours on the final decision on this. Anyone else use wool batting? Do you like it or not? It feels soft so I'm hoping the needle will pull through it well.  The backing is a 108 - 3 yard cut in blue from Missouri Star Co. I got last year. 

I just took it out of the package at lunch to relax it. It will need to get trimmed to fit on the frame better. I hate cutting batting, especially when it is going on the frame and a tight fit.

I made a bit of progress on the cross stitch. The green parts were finished, and the outlining began. I need to add the words as well.

Yesterday was a Sam's run after my work day got done at 2. I had dinner planned and the chicken marinating for Chicken Tikka Masala. I finished the prep work and got that cooked and on the table by 5:45. Aidan had guitar and Emily was late with marching practice. I picked up their grilled herbed chicken in the meals section. I got 5 - 4 ounce portions and add one to my lunch salad. My Noom app tells me I need more protein and to do more strength exercises. I do like their sitting stretching videos - it has helped ease my neck pain this week. I also got a roaster chicken, which will be tonight's meal I can't pass up a $5 chicken that I can make stock with for a soup later this week. I think they get leftovers Wednesday to clean out the fridge. Em and I have a GS planning meeting Wednesday night. I made my Mon's spaghetti meat sauce Sunday to go with Emily's homemade pasta, so a few things to clear out by then. 

The temps are in the 80's with feels like right below 90 - so I'm hoping to play with weeds in the garden this evening and finish getting that cleared out for tilling. I do notice there is tons of sand rather than dirt, always a challenge here in Florida. I'll have to go get bags of moo doo on Thursday and get that tilled in so I can plant it up soon. I had gotten a couple cukes, but since I did not put the fence back up the bunny must have munched it. At least the basil plant is still intact.

Sunday stitching

 I've been making good progress on this stitchery this week. I just have a few more of the sea green to stitch above the peach shell, and then the backstitching and words will be the last steps. I forgot how fun it is to cross stitch - I think the last time I did was around 2005.

I'm still adding blocks to the flying snowball quilt. I'm in the final stretch on this one and have hand pieced over 40 blocks. The final count is 49, so a few more to go. They did all get marked for stitching during a staff meeting this week, so that task is completed.

Today, I'll be deciding if I hand quilt or machine quilt my BITA quilt. It is 90x90 and I'm not sure I'm up to trying to machine quilt that on my machine. I am planning to move my quilting frame (which will fit this!) into the front room that I have cleared out this week of the futon, coffee table, extra boxes. I'm hoping to finish clearing out in there this week and get it painted, so I can move my office in there along with the quilting frame and maybe throw a tv on the wall in there as well. I've also got some more weeding to do in the garden, so that can get tilled and planted soon for fall. Slow progress all around, but progress is happening. 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Thursday

The girls enjoyed some outside time Tuesday. I let them out right before it rained. They stayed out and enjoyed pecking for bugs in the rain. It is so funny to watch them shake off the water in the rain. I'll try and grab a video next time. These are our five girls. Maple, Poppy, DC, Buttercup and Nutmeg.  Poppy and Nutmeg give me the pretty green shelled eggs.

Another pretty sunrise this morning on my walk with bear a little after 7AM.

I've added a couple of the shoo fly blocks to the completed pile. I also got the rest of the parts marked for hand piecing during a quarterly staff meeting at work on Tuesday. 

No photo - but I also spent a slew of time looking for a specific green print fabric in the sewing room to fix the quilt I made for hubby 17 years ago. Seems there was a rip (dog nails I assume) on one triangle block. I never did find the exact fabric, so I went with a similar color. The tear was in the triangle part of the block, so I cut it a bit bigger, and appliqued it down on top of the original. It worked and is back on the bed.  This is a photo of the quilt from when I pulled the machine quilting out and then hand quilted it last year I think. The pattern is from the Nickle Quilts book.

I'm hoping to get the BITA pressed and sewn together today. We will go visit my FIL. Hubby needs to do some banking for him and has to go to his bank in Lady Lake for the file transfer, since he can't do it online for some reason. Since he mentioned it last night, I assume he wants me to go with as he has had all week to do it but waited for today, my day off. Sigh. 

I did get my package from Missouri Star in the mail Tuesday night. lots of pretty things in my bundle  =).

These were all daily deals, except the 50 clips which were a weekly special... but I somehow got them for $4 instead of $10! 2 jelly rolls and a 2 yard cut of a green leaf print on tan. 

Tuesday already?

 This was my view as I took Bear for a walk this morning around 7AM. The sun was just starting to come up. One kid had left for school 20 minutes before, and the other was moving around and getting up to leave in about 15 minutes. Bear was waiting patiently for Mom to walk him since 6:30. I'm going to need to get a reflective vest soon for these morning walks. I do wear a bright t-shirt but we have little traffic on the streets I walk.

The next street over explained all the sniffing. 5 turkeys on this neighbors lot. 

Across the street from this is the trailhead/nature preserve area. It's about 2.5 miles from the greenway that crosses over I75 in Ocala

This shoo fly got hand stitched yesterday after work. I tried to tackle weeding of the garden, but it started raining with thunder.

While stitching the BITA blocks together, I had a stack of 2.5 inch squares that turned into this 20x20 little quilt. I pulled 2 of the original colors out and replaced them with similar hues from stash. The black and white (four patches on the side) will go on the back I think. 

String of beads

 

I got one teal block completed last night  (top row 3rd from left) while watching a new to me series, The Librarians on Amazon prime. I guess it was a TNT series back in 2014. I'm 2 episodes in and one block to go hopefully tonight!

 Then I need to decide what color circle for the centers, a yellow for all or different? Something to ponder today. I'll have to learn how to use my applipops circles now! Someone tell the voice in my head it does not need a border with more green peels. It really wants to be done like this. Thanks!

Aidan has an ear infection but the drum has not burst. Got meds last evening. She said it will get worse before better  in a few days.  He asked that we cancel guitar tonight. We will see if he stays after school for academic club or not. 

Slow Sunday Stitching.

I'll be picking up some stitching after I finish this post. I will probably add some applique to the sting of beads blocks in teal/aqua as they are the last 2 needed for that project. 

I have a feeling they will go with me to the quick care later this afternoon with 1 or 2 kids for ear checks. Aidan can't hear out of one ear now and knows when the 4 hour Advil wears off. He does have a movie with friends at noon, so I'll take him after that, if he can stand it. He might opt to reschedule that and do the quick care. It took a while to figure out what quick care or ER is on my insurance plan. Ridiculous. 

Emily said her ear hurt before leaving at 4AM on her 18 hour day to FSU  yesterday.  She has a high tolerance for pain and gets them a lot. If hers is still bothering, I'll pull her with us as well. I think they are both day 3 or 4 of ear pain, but told me late Friday for both. Sigh. They are both doing Advil and swimmers ear drops.... but it's not helping so must be an inner ear one.

Progress on the cross stitch. I forgot how long these guys take! The starfish is now done and below is a clam shell that will be outlined later. 

 

I have one long seam to sew for this to become a top. I need to press it first, as a set of 8 rows and a set of 7 rows will be easier to press than the whole 15 rows. This one is a big one - 90x90. I got the last 7 rows stitched together yesterday - 105 blocks.

A couple of flowering snowball blocks got hand stitched the last few days as well. 11 more of these blocks to go to reach the 49 needed for that quilt.

 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Progress on the BITA assembly

 When you have 15 in a row of 6 inch blocks, it takes a wee bit of time to get them all stitched together!

I laid out the next set of 4 rows with my first pieced 4 rows up above. I just wanted to make sure no like colors were together or the same fabrics anyway. I did snap a different photo of this first but noticed too many darks together so did a little moving of blocks. I took a break for lunch at this point!

Lots of sewing (and getting my steps as this is laid out in the living room and my sewing area is in the 'garage area'. It should be a garage, but the model home had it as it's office area and it was never converted back when we got the house from the bank on foreclosure back in 2011 from the builder.

Of course, the last 3 columns somehow ended up looking like that! Sigh. Well, I had to mess it up at some point! A little unpicking and I swapped those 4 in the bottom left around, and got it all sorted out.

The second set of 4 rows is all together as one unit. 8 of 15 rows done, 7 to go! 

Dinner last night was beef stroganoff. I use this recipe from the Tast of Home Magazine. I used to make it with the steak, but have switched to using ground beef. I use less butter, just a Tbsp or two to cook the onions (I use a whole one) and mushrooms. Very different from the one my Mom made growing up with the condensed soup. My Dad always requests this when I go up to Vermont. 

Tonight, I was thinking fish taco's but the girl was not in the mood for it and is home late tonight (6:40ish after marching practice). The boy is late with Academic club - so around 5:30ish. School is out at 3PM. I figured everyone likes pizza. I was thinking to order it, but hubby immediately said Publix dough? Sigh, I need to go get more Power Zero's for Emily anyway, so I guess I'll make a sheet pan pizza with one dough and a stromboli with the other. Picky people don't like my homemade quick dough, so I'll go grab the $3 dough from the store.

I've got some zucchini that needs to get used.... so it will either become zucchini bread or zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting. I'm leaning towards the bread since Emily made no bake chocolate cookies last night. She goes through the cocoa powder pretty quickly. I have looked at Sams the last couple of times to get the big container of Hershey's Cocoa. They have been out. Went looking online and OMG, the price for cocoa is ridiculous! Surprisingly, the King Arthur Flour Cocoa was not too bad and is double dutch processed, so I ordered 2 bags of that a few weeks ago. 

I should have a quiet weekend. Emily is away all day Saturday (4:30AM-11PM) is the away time for the football game day at FSU. Aidan has testing for ACT in the morning. Sunday he has a F1 race then is seeing Hamilton in the theater with his friends. Emily I'm sure will be sleeping, horses and then doing homework.  Aidan has said he'll help get the 2 big screens on the porch done Saturday for me. It is starting to not be as sticky and hot at night so I'm 'hoping' to sit out there a bit in the evenings and stitch listening to my audiobooks. If the screens are fixed, I plan to let the cats join me! I purchased the latest Jennifer Chaverini book to listen to next. I had read all the Elm Creek series, years ago, but it appears there might be 2 at the end that have come out in the last few years that I have not read yet.  From the 2012 last book I had read, some new ones were released in 2019 - The Christmas Boutique, 2024 -The Museum of Lost Quilts and 2025- The World's Fair Quilt.  I think I purchased the Museum of Lost Quilts as an audiobook. I'll have to check Libby and Audible for The Christmas Boutique as well as the latest one. 

Hoping to get another set of 4 rows stitched together this weekend, get the garden all weeded and planted for fall. I'll worry about tackling the front room next week, once the futon is gone. I've been wanting to get those 2 rooms (dining and front room) and the entry way painted for over a year and I'm going to get it done this month... I hope. I'm shooting for next weekend so I have tall people to help with the tall parts I can't reach. (I dislike heights and ladders). My goal is to move my work computer and desk into that area along with my quilting frame. I'll relocate Aidan's computer games (flying and his F1 racing chair) to my office area in the garage.... with a door I can shut while he is racing! Greg's drum set will also go in there and Emily will probably put her music stand in that area as well since she goes in there with doors shut to practice her clarinet and sax now. The office area is a 10x10 room with 3/4 cement walls. That's my plan anyway. We will see what happens. 

 

What I've been doing....

 Not too much but some progress.

All the original 36 flowering snowball and shoo fly blocks are pieced. Time to dig into the next pile to get to the 49 block total I think this quilt wanted. Stubborn thing! At least the next set are all cut and most are marked for hand piecing.

I've also been adding thread to the cross stitch. 

On tap today - the dog has been walked. Big thanks to the neighbor driving by and warning me of the bear in the area headed our way. We modified our route a bit this morning to avoid it and thankfully did not see him. I have a feeling my Bear dog is about the same size as that bear would be. (just under 90 pounds) Grateful we did not meet up with it! Note to self, bring phone with me, cued up to a loud horn sound.

I'll make breakfast and then we will head over to visit my FIL. Hopefully all the things he requested have arrived for delivery to him. When home, I'm going to sew! I have 4 rows of 15 sewn together for the birds in the air quilt. Time to add another 4 rows. I'm hopeful for more, but will be happy with that amount.

I got a bite on the futon in the front room. I put it and the mattress up for sale again a few weeks ago and someone bought the mattress with the pretty cover. She did not want the futon and said I could relist as she would just bring it to the trash. I said, OK. Relisted it Saturday and got a bite last night. Hope that is out of the house this weekend! I think no rain Saturday, so I'll put a coffee table and an extra tv (that was given to us as MIL thinks we are the place to gift all old things, grrr) out by the end of the driveway with a free sign. We live on a busy road, so they should go fast. 

Saturday should be a quiet day - Emily is gone all day to a game up at FSU with the band. Aidan has a ACT test in the morning and will probably go to lunch with buddies after. He is getting pretty independent so should be fine next year at college. 

Lets see, I asked hubby for ideas for dinner. He listed the ones he liked and since the kids say 'whatever', I went with his ideas!

Monday -(this was my addition) French Dips with baked sweet potato fries. I saw a digital coupon at Publix for $11+ off a beef shoulder in the bag, which was also on sale at 6.99 a pound (was in the $8 range) I had to look up the cut, more beefy flavor than a chuck roast but needs slow cooking. I called and verified then went to the store and got one. A little over 7 pounds came down to $37 after the coupons. Not bad. I did the work to cut off a bunch of the fat and silver skin. One cut went into the crock pot for french dips - and I should have cut it bigger as Emily ate most of it! Another is a 2.25 pound roast that is seal a mealed in the freezer. Another is 2.5 pound of chunks for stew beef. Not bad with the price of things now a days.

Tuesday - hubby requested meatloaf. I had picked up a big bag of russets, so did 4 baked potato and also made mashed potato and a bag of frozen peas with it. Hubby and kids like mashed and peas together. They are weird!

Wednesday - I had chicken fajitas down, but needed to cook up some brussel sprouts. I made 2 meals. Aidan and I like a brussel sprout, butternut squash and bacon dish, while the other 2 like a mexican skillet meal with chicken and minute rice with onion, peppers, corn, salsa and cheese on top. It is quick - takes about 20 minutes to make.

The kids take leftovers for lunches, especially when they like the meals. I'm down to 1 baked potato - I think Aidan was taking those for lunches. 

Tonight he wanted beef stroganoff which I serve over egg noodles. I'll have a salad on the side with it.

Friday, I have fish taco's on the menu, but we will see how many leftovers we have left. Emily is late that day and I think Aidan is as well now that Academic club started. The sponsor asked him to be captain of the Varsity team as he is the geography guy, so will be up on the panel the most for questions. He was quite pleased. 

Wow, this is quite the rambling post! Another update is we got new internet. They came last week and instead of fiber that they said was available (it's not) they have a cable modem. Hmmm. It is 1GB.  They came again on Tuesday and pulled the cable (it took forever for them to get it to the house from the box by the road. Lots of roots!). They got it hooked up inside to the existing cable in the house. Fast, but not as expected. We had DISH at one time and Greg asked if I remembered if we have multiple tv's on it (so we had a splitter). Yup. The guy went up in the attic and pulled that off. Boom, 1GB! Greg already had a mesh network installed in the house (cement walls do not work well with wifi), so he hooked it to that. Much faster and no drops at work for me! We will keep the other for a month in tandem just to make sure the new one is stable. Aidan should be much happier playing his games on the computer - especially his F1 driving one. 

OMG for September

 Since my August goal was completed, I'm back again to see if I can repeat!

This month, I'd love to get my birds in the air blocks (to be set 15x15 with 6 inch finished blocks) into a quilt top, get it machine quilted and bound before the end of the month.

There is less car time fetching children this year, as both are now driving to school. 

The first 4 rows are sewn together.

Just this stack of blocks to go!

Linking up with Stories from the Sewing room and OMG for September.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 It has been a productive week. Progress was made on the cross stitch, although I realized I had used the wrong color for the ocean area, so that had to get taken out and restitched with the light blue. Oops! 

The project was at this stage last Sunday.

It is now at this stage today. Yesterday was the fix day of pulling out the blue and replacing it with the correct light blue.

This is the difference in the blues. I had fixed and redone the top grouping here so you can see the difference.

Today I'm heading to the new barn with Emily to watch her ride. It is about 50 minutes away now but has more challenging horses for her. No cover on this one, so back to sweating in the full sun. Let's hope the rain holds off until after her ride. When we are home, Grandma is coming up for her delayed birthday lunch with us a restaurant of her choice. Then, I hope to have the family finish the screen fixing on the back porch. Yesterday, we got it a little cleaned (that bottom part gets so moldy and dirty and yucky in Florida and I don't sit out there in the heat!). The screen on the door got fixed and one of the windows in my bedroom that the dog ripped up years ago. After watching Aidan learn, I did the other 2 inside in my sewing area. It was dripping sweat hot out. Hopefully we can get the 2 big screens finished off later today. He has one cut out, so we will see how that goes. Maybe one today and one tomorrow? The kids and I are off school and work for Labor Day tomorrow. We will see.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

A few photo's from this mornings routine. My morning walk with bear - right as the sun was coming up. The clouds make a pretty picture with the pinks and orange on them.

After sniffing up our normal route, he added an extra bit this morning and I let him. 

After we get home, we walk out back and check on the girls and give them a scoop of treats. They are laying between 3-5 eggs a day for us. All are happy and they got some run around outside and get bugs yesterday afternoon after a rain. Perfect time for them to go explore.

Seems the girls alarm did not go off, so good thing I woke her up 20 minutes before she wanted to leave!

RSC - piecing the top

 Since the Arkansas Traveller quilt is finished, it was time to grab another collection of blocks and work on getting them to a top stage. These are the second set of Birds in the Air blocks that I made with the RSC. I made the first set around the 2012 range and it was a 2015 wedding present quilt for my nephew.

I really did not want to see this one go... so I made another set of blocks for a quilt for me. I decided I wanted it bigger, so added 27 more blocks this year and now have enough for the 15x15 setting of 6 inch blocks. This first 4 rows are now a single unit. I snapped the photo while it was set out in case things got turned. Yikes, I see a mistake in the photo - bottom right. I'll have to double check that. Strange how you see things in the photo but not in person! 

*** I verified they are correct in the row that I sewed together.

All of them laid out earlier this year.

I have these two packs of 25 - 2.5 inch squares that I picked up at my local quilt shop before they closed. I keep moving them around from place to place. I decided to find a cream/tan neutral and cut out 50 2.5 inch squares. These are sitting by my machine. I lay out the blocks in the living room... walk thorugh the hallway, laundry room and into the finished garage area that is my sewing area/office and storage. I'll be making four patches with them as leaders and enders as I stitch this quilt top together. The pack has a range of colors and I've got about 4 of the four patches stitched together so far.

I do still have my last 2 teal/aqua string of beads blocks to applique down. They are the last 2 blocks, so I have no clue why I am avoiding finishing them off. I hope to get those 2 blocks finished this long weekend.

I think we are celebrating my MIL's birthday from last week today at a restaurant near us. I also want screens fixed around the house today, so Emily scheduled a text to hit everyone's phones today at 11AM to work on that. I believe we have the stuff and Greg has the knowledge. I'm getting my 3 screens in the bedroom fixed and hopefully the back porch screen door and one big screen wall, or 2 or 3. We will see how much screening we have. I figure it is a good skill for all of us to get. 

Linking up with the RSC.

Table Scrap Challenge

 Teal hot flash. That was the challenge this month.

Lets spin this! The color of the month is teal, so there is a little teal in the butterfly fabric and one of the hand areas is teal. The hot flash... that come in when you open the oven and use the oven mitts to retrieve what's in there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Also - the old ones are falling apart ( or leaned it on the hot stoneware for way too long) so it was a great excuse to make some new ones. I used a version of this pattern, and cut around 8 inches since that was the extra from the last time I cut into the special heat resistant batting. Free pattern I used.

The old one.

Front 

Back

This is the front of the teal one - I love the little pocket for your hand - that part is just batting. The batting and heat resistant is in the black butterfly part.

This is the back. This one got the loop, as I used leftover binding from the last quilt and had just enough for the second one. So, a great use of that leftover binding fabric. 

That's my entry this month for the Table Scrap Challenge. Head on over to the link and see how others did with this challenge. Also linking up with the RSC.