Thursday

 Not much to post about this week. It appears I either sew or bake/cook when I am stressed (USA and crazy right now). It was a kitchen kind of week.

I did stitch 4 orange hexagons and finished the quilting on the other yellow ones. The girls are laying 4-5 eggs a day. 

Monday - we had leftover roaster chicken that needed using. Emily made Chicken enchiladas. I was at the honors ceremony when she asked for the recipe! I typed up what I do. Can of cream of mushroom soup, about a cup of sour cream and some shredded or cut chicken to mix together. Can of refried beans. Shredded cheddar. Enchilada sauce. 13x9 pan - add a little sauce to the bottom. In the tortilla - add some refried beans, chicken mix and a little cheese and roll up. Add to pan. Add sauce on top of all and then add cheese. Bake 350 for about 30 minutes. She served it with white rice. It came out really good and was gone by Wednesday noon. The kids both took it for lunch on Tuesday.

Tuesday - still had some chicken (the leg and thigh and bits of white meat), so I made chicken and sausage gumbo. This one turned out really good! Served with rice in the bowl. I also got out the sourdough starter from the fridge and made a sandwich loaf of bread. I used the oven proof setting to hurry things along and it turned out great. 

Wednesday - after work (yea - finally got a couple things crossed off my list!), I had to go pick up Emily. Aidan has chess club after school. Since she needed Electrolyte drinks, we stopped at Publix. It is $5 sushi day (10 in the box). Yuck. She got 3 - one for Greg, and one for her dinner and one for lunch today. Aidan saw I had hard boiled eggs, so had some on toast for dinner. I had gumbo. Happy Birthday to my Mom who turned 86 today! 

Thursday - I plan to be in the sewing room today and sewing the Arkansas Traveller together into a top. The dog needs a walk first and he is waiting patiently for me to get dressed. I think I'll also try either a sourdough apple and cinnamon scone and/or a chocolate chip bar. I want to get my started down to a more manageable level to pop back in the fridge. Mushrooms were a good price this week, so dinner will be a hamburger stroganoff over noodles with a salad. That will use up the sour cream in the fridge as well. 

This is telling me to get dressed and take him for a walk.

What a Monday....

 It was a nice weekend with Aidan in St. Pete for the Indy Car Race Weekend. The tickets were his Christmas gift and we did both Saturday and Sunday. They renewed our tickets with the Paddock
pass at no extra charge. That let us see the cars up close before they pull them up to the track. We also got to see the teams and drives scoot past. Aidan got Marckus Erickson's autograph on Sunday Morning in the Paddock. We had a great time and were not as sunburned this year as last year. The cooler temps (in the 70's) were much better than the hot and humid last year. We got lunch both days from a Latin Food Truck and the food was awesome. Saturday night the hotel worked out well and we went to a local Thai place for dinner. It was so yummy. I was exhausted by the time we got home Sunday night. All day in the stands and then a 2 hour drive home. Yes, he is that much taller than me.

I did check in on the girl and watched the video of her Winter Guard Competition. They placed 2nd and increased their competition totals. They were quite pleased. We also found out their Symphonic Band got straight Superior ratings as well. Superior is the highest rating. Their band director said it was the first time since the 1990's that they have gotten Superior ratings in all groups - Marching, Symphonic, Jazz and Choir in a single school year! 

Tonight I'll be going with Aidan to see him get inducted into the National Honor Society. 

Unfortunately, Greg is staying home as he is having some low blood pressure issues today. He scared the dickens out of me this morning when he went in to get his coffee. Thankfully he was able to grab the shelf and did not topple over. I got to him to steady him but that was a scary moment. He seems a bit better now, but he'll stay home with Emily.

She made dinner. Chicken enchiladas with rice. It was yummy when I got home. 

One Monthly Goal for March

 I'm joining in on the one monthly goal this month. It is nearly the end of the UFO winter quarter and I have no finishes. I hope to remedy that this month by Finishing my Arkansas Traveller blocks into a finished quilt.

I have decided on the setting triangle color and have them cut and sewn onto half the quilt. These rows do not have them yet.... as you can see someone was taking a nap.

Hopefully I can find time to get this to a top and then machine quilted and bound by the end of the month. I'm linking up with the March One Monthly Goal.

February Table Scrap Challenge

 The theme for February was blue and Neon/Anything bright.

While I was digging in the blue bin, I pulled out a little strip of a sparkly blue with neon bright dragonfly's on it. My brain said - that'd be perfect for the challenge this month, so I hung it over the rungs on the wall and it sat. I had some time this week and took a look at it. Hmmm. Maybe 16 inches long and not too wide. 2 inches at the biggest point. Let's pull some brights - neon means highlighter colors in my head. Yellow, green, orange. All three colors are in the blue print. I cut a few strips about 5 inches long and sewed them together. I pulled a blue flowered print for the back and did a little walking foot quilting. I cheated and pulled the backing to the front and tacked it down with a zig zag stitch. With a matching color, that might be an option for a binding in the future. It was fun to give it a try.

 Note to self, when done with this stitch, after changing back to the 1/4 foot.... remember to switch to a straight stitch so the needle doesn't break, and need to get dug out of the bobbin area of the machine with a pipe cleaner. Scared me to death hearing that snap. 

Linking up with TheJoyfulQuilter for the TSC.

I had prepped some yellow hexagons for QAYG last week and stitched them up since March is all about yellow. I need to hand quilt 3 of these still. Maybe Sunday when I am back home. Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.

Friday night, I headed to a local high school to watch my daughter and her symphonic band perform at their Music Performance Assessment. They did a great job, despite arriving a little late due to traffic. I got there expecting to hear them, but got to hear their middle school band play first. considering they are 2+3 years in they sounded great. I listened to the high school and then parents could go into the room for their sight reading assessment. They had 2 pieces to play with a 3 minute then 5 minute time before playing each piece. I always struggled with sight reading music, but these kids sounded awesome! 

Saturday is a busy day. Emily is headed to Fleming Island for a Winter Guard Competition (2 hours away) and will be gone all day with the squad. Greg gets to shuttle her to school and do the pick up late Saturday night. 

Aidan and I are headed the other direction to St. Pete for the weekend to watch Indy Cars go around the track. They threw in a Paddock Pass when I renewed the tickets from last year and Aidan is excited to go see them race. I finally booked a hotel for us for Saturday night, since I forgot to do it when I got the tickets in November. Crazy prices for hotels and with the taxes sometimes more than the hotel price for the night getting close to $500-$1000 dollars! For a place to sleep. Crazy. I found something under $300 total with a breakfast and free parking. Less than last year's hotel so I'm calling it a win. Lets hope the great ratings are correct. (St. Pete is a good 2 hours away without any traffic.) 

Arkansas Traveller assembly.

 I had finished making the last block needed this month and laid them out this afternoon. I sewed them into diagonal rows. 

Then I pulled the 3 bolts of fabric I had - the same as the background, a soft yellow and a navy blue. I consulted with the boy, who was silly enough to ask if I wanted it to be a light or dark quilt. After I rolled my eye's at him, he said to keep it the same as the background. I looked up the cutting chart for a 12 inch block. I cut the amount based on a 12.5 finished block for a little wiggle room. I did 3-19 inch blocks to make the 12 side triangles. I cut a 2- 9 3/4 squares for the corners. I got this far before I had to stop. Someone was taking a nap and did not want to get disturbed. The other parts picked up have their side triangles and corner triangles on them but the rows are not sewn to each other yet.

Emily drove me around for some errands last night. We renewed our library card at the library. Went to refill the cat litter box at Petco and then headed to Joann's to see what was happening. All the batting was gone, lots of the yarn was picked over and a bunch of things were just gone. Quilting rulers, templates, quilting templates.  The yarn was 25% off. Emily found some she liked and got 16 skeins for a new afghan, along with a set of bigger crochet hooks for them. She also plans to make a t-shirt quilt in a couple years with her marching band and winter guard t-shirts. She found a thick flannel that she liked and we picked up 4 yards of a 59 inch wide fabric, just to make sure we had enough. The fabric was only 20% off from original prices. The staff was pretty teary eyed, as they are all losing their jobs sometime in May. Sigh, a sad time all around. 

Hexagon parade

 I stitched these four hexagons in green last night.

I need 12 sets of 4, for each column to add to the quilt to make it bigger. I have 1 column done. This makes 3 sets done for the second column.  I have another 3 sets prepped with clips and 2 more sets cut out. Progress.

Slow Sunday prep

 Darn, I had this all written and then added a photo from my phone and lost it all! Bummer.

I had pulled out and stitched 8 of the hexagon QAYG blocks that were prepped on Friday night. That means I needed to pull things to prep some more. I use the batting cut offs for these.

Then cut 4 sets of the backing fabrics and 4 of colored fabrics.

Time to get them ready for folding the binding on and clip it. 

I am using the clips I got on sale from Missouri Quilt Company in December for $5. One down, 19 to go. These will be added to the original quilt to make it a little bigger on my bed. 

I have also been adding crochet granny squares. I started adding the grey border around them. I am still not sure how I will lay them out. I'm thinking I might find a paw print pattern and add a few of those in. We do have some cats and a dog in the household after all.

I started a sourdough starter back in January and it finally behaved a couple of weeks ago. I made a sourdough bread which was yummy. I then found the website amybakesbread. I made a batch of chocolate chip scones, and Aidan requested I make them again! I did this morning. I also have a dough for focaccia in process. Aidan requested a garlic one, I might add some grape tomato's to a small section and some herbs over all of it. We will see how it turns out.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Hexagons

 I had 4 purple hexagons prepped and stitched them up on Friday. Then I cut out 4 more to prep the pretty blue/greens and got them stitched up as well.

RSC in Blue

 I got a little sewing time in and was able to correctly make the alternate BITA blocks in blue today.

Well, this set of 4 is correct. The 16 patch looks good. 

I see an oops in this one. Top left block needs a little fix. Out comes the seam ripper.

Wednesday night was the bands Pre-MPA. We did a quick run to Kohls for black dress pants after Guard practice Tuesday night. They did well and will work on what the judges recommended on their 2 pieces. Next Friday night is their MPA.

I had found a good recipe site - Amybakesbread. There was a yummy looking cinnamon focaccia recipe that looked good. I decided to try the chocolate chip scones instead this time. I am waiting for them to cool a bit before I try them.  

I'll link up on Saturday with the RSC.

Crochet

 

I knew I wanted to bring some grey into this project. After finishing off the dark granny, I pulled out the grey and added a round to each of the colors.

I think it will work, but I'm still in the deciding mode. I do have cream as an option as well. 

My sister is on her way home today. The kids are at school. Aidan has chess club after school and Emily has their pre-mpa music performance assessment for symphonic band tonight. They are grouped with 4 middle and 4 high schools tonight to each play 2 of their 3 pieces. Judges will give feedback for the actual MPA which is next week.

I've got normal work. 

My FIL was released from rehab Monday. Horrible communication as we had a meeting scheduled for Tuesday at 3pm. The phone call Monday morning saying he was waiting for a ride home was not expected. Sigh. 

Beach

 No tiny Midget progress, but I did get flower inspiration this week for my borders. The beach and walking in Shalom Park near my house gave me lots of ideas.

89 degrees last Thursday.  Terri and me. No, we are not twins. She is 7 years older than me.

A weekend at the beach

 My sister Terri is down visiting and we escaped to St. Augustine for the weekend. A little windy and overcast but it was lovely.

Yesterday was a few nature walks, beach time in the afternoon and mini golf and a soft serve in the evening. Lots of pretty flowers.

This was our balcony view.

A little crochet and reading got done as well.

Wacky Wednesday crochet?

 Ok, I'll work on a title for that one. 

I added 4 granny squares last week and I did the same since Sunday's post. It was a crochet type of week I guess. I did one in country blue, which is my medium and 3 lights. 

I was very excited this morning when I woke up and saw the sourdough starter finally behaved and rose last night and fell a bit this morning. I decided to try making a bread. It is in the oven right now. I'm just so excited it finally rose. Not sure if it was the warmer temps (it's been in the 80's all week) or that I switched to a bottle of water a few days ago when feeding it, or the new flour from Sams's club I just got into. Anyway... baking bread smells yummy.

I just need to find a recipe where the Dutch oven is not in the oven at 500 degrees for an hour. I pulled it out when the smell bugged me with 20 minutes to go. It was still plenty hot when I added the bread on the parchment paper to bake. I think the next batch will be in my Stonewear bread pans. 

We will see how it tastes for breakfast with some eggs.

Bringing back Tiny Tuesday.....

 In this case, I pulled out the midget applique that I hand pieced and hand appliqued into a quilt top. The borders need more flowers added to it.... and maybe some leaves?  I made these while sitting in the car line at the kids elementary school. It looks like I started it back in January 2015!  Probably time to get the top finished this year since they are in high school! Who knows, maybe I'll get it hand quilted before both are out of college? He he he

These blocks are so vibrant! Some of my favorites are in this photo.