Slow Sunday in Vermont

 Sunny and zero degrees, feels like zero! A big change from76 degrees when we entered the airport in Sanford yesterday.  

The kids were actually reading books in the airport.

My view this morning out the back window of my parents house.

Family gathering today at my brother's house before a wintery mix takes over tonight into tomorrow.  I fear the snow will disappear.  

I packed light, and brought 2 hand work projects with me. 

Epp brimfield with fabric and papers.

Instead of finishing my January cross stitch,  I'm starting a new one! I like the November wagon so will start that project later today. I pulled some floss from the January bag and started a new one. 

Linking up with Kathy and the slow Sunday Stitchers.

Merry Christmas

 Since people are not up yet, I have not opened my final MSQC box present but I have watched the video!

Excuse the stuffing on the floor... someone has not picked up the dog's latest crime scene yet.

We had a nice evening with my MIL last night with dinner out at Outback and then Christmas games and gifts. Today will be a laid back day with grazing of food and just hanging out with some board games. I might even get some stitching time in!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Day 24 of MSQC Jennys box

 Today we got this cute little hand made woven bowl from Rwanda. Such a pretty design. Jenny opened the gift today in Africa and mentioned they got the bowls from 6 different villages to fill their order for the boxes, I do love how they find such treasures and share them with us and help those people in the villages as well. 

I think this will be a thread catcher by my recliner.

I have yet to wrap presents, good thing there are not too many. I'll handle that after I finish working today. Then we are headed to my MIL's house for dinner out tonight and then Christmas eve at her house. She is continuing the tradition of eating out at Outback as this was Papa Andy's early Birthday dinner out the last 6 years. This is year 2 of doing this in his memory.

I ran out later last evening to Aldi and Publix to get a few things needed for Christmas nibbles. 

I think this is what we will have around the house that day....

Fried raviolli with marinara sauce

taco salad with chips (cream cheese/sour cream bottom, salsa,onion,tomato,lettuce.mozzarella)

pigs in a blanket

veggie platter (cause we need something healthy!)

orange salad 

salami roll ups with cream cheese

cheese ball with crackers.

cheese.pepperoni,olives

Seems someone got into the chips I had bought, and the kids added the orange salad (orange jello,cool whip, cottage cheese, pineapple and mandarin oranges) which I did not have things for. Greg added the salami roll ups as well. At least the stores were not crazy at 7PM!

Day 22+23 of MSQC Jenny's box

 Day 22 was the book Handmade Mysteries by Hillary Doan Sperry. I got one of her books in a previous box. This one has a QR code which allows us to listen to Jenny reading it! I started listening to it at lunch, but popped out so hopefully it will pick up where I left off. We also got a flat Chuck as a bookmark.

Day 23 is a composition book cover pattern with a composition book. I've not done journaling really, but maybe I should start? Maybe a book of projects and status? I did find a list of projects I had written out back in 2023. It was nice to see that I have actually finished things off the list! Not so much this year, but a few things have been completed.

The Christmas box is down to 2 lonely gifts. 

At the end of my doggie walk today (he gets a 30 minute meeting in the morning if I'm not too busy and I take a shorter lunch). This squirrel had me cracking up. He stared at the dog from the top of our fence, then jumped to the tree and stood frozen, upside down. He is right above the leaves and blends right into the tree trunk. 

The dog headed into Emily's room again after his walk and has been with her since. I guess I am just the food and walk me person.... and someone to snuggle with from 6-9 at night on the couch. Did I mention he is spoiled? Emily had her Winter Guard Christmas party at the teachers house last night. I opted not to go, since the boy was feeling slighted, I have not cooked for the last few days! I made him lemon chicken over pasta with prosciutto wrapped asparagus for dinner. Well, I did cook a huge beef rib roast Sunday, but it was done around 4PM and I might not have told people it was done! I had a great meal though, and seal-a-mealed a bunch so Emily will pull them from the freezer for her meals the next few months. Not as low a price as last year, but lower than normal. 

Day 19-21 of MSQC Jenny's Box and a project completed!

 Sorry. Had a power blip Friday around 1:36PM which fried our modem. We have horrible cell service at our house, and tend to use our WIFI for phone in the house. Lets just say, we figured out Saturday morning it was just us and not an actual outage like the message said when we called. They did send someone out fairly quickly - within 4 hours. It was back online before 1PM Saturday.

So - I got off work a little early since I need internet to work. The kids were not happy once they got home.... so Aidan decided it was game night. He and I played backgammon. Had to remember how to play but it came back pretty well. We should be set to play my Dad when back home next week. Then we moved onto Rack-0. Aidan and I played a few games, then he asked Greg and Em if they wanted to play. Greg was a no, but Emily joined us. Did I mention, Aidan got out the record player and pulled out the Christmas records we grabbed from Tom's house. I think we listened to all the 'Readers Digest records' of Christmas music in the set. Then Emily pulled out another record with about 6 songs for each year - the 50-60s. We ended up playing until about 11:30PM! Saturday, as it was still down, the kids headed to Grandma's house. Aidan had a 5PM timeline to sign up for the Senior trip to NY,PA and DC. It sold out in 2 minutes! He did get in as did his friends. 

So, Friday was the 19th and the gift was a mini version of the Embroidery box. I almost ordered the Bee box on the daily deal the previous day. I guess I should have done it. Emily seemed interested in it, so I'll wrap it up for her for Christmas!

Saturday was a panel with these colorful squares, and the rest of the panel has blue, cream, green and brown on it. They mentioned there will be something to go with it on Sunday.

Sunday was a pattern for this bag, interfacing and the hardware for the purse.

Back on day 13, I think was a snappy purse pattern and the snaps. I finally gave it a shot today. I messed it up, had to undo seams, take out the snappy parts and turn them over, then redo it from that point on. Not perfect, but I know how to make it now. I have enough to make 2 more. It finishes about 8x6 I think.

Day 17 & 18 msqc Jenny's box

 Day 17 is this MSQC string of lights. It is battery operated and super cute.

Day 18, is a pattern and puzzle. I love puzzles but rarely do them anymore. I do envision working this on the new printer table (old library table from my FIL's house) in my office room. The puzzle is 20x20 and looks challenging. They did say there will be a tutorial on the pattern released tomorrow. 

It is called Winter Stardust. I 'might' have peeked at day 19 to see if it was fabric for the pattern, alas it was not. It was something I have been looking at getting on their site though, but have not pulled the trigger to get. 😁

Last night was a GS planning wrap up meeting and Christmas gift exchange. Ornaments was the gift exchange.  I got #1, so had the final 'steal', which I did to get Waldo! 

I've got a dermatologist body check today (just annual check, no worries). They ran the new insurance and got the right amounts, so I guess it is all working! We will see how it goes. I got 2 forms notarized last night from a GS friend for Aidan's 2 overnight trips - the senior trip to PA,NY,DC the end of next month and his Skills USA for a few days up in Jacksonville in April. Waiting on the Dr to fill out the form needed to try for the Tennis team next quarter. Hopefully that is completed for pick up today, so he can turn it in tomorrow, their last day until January 7. I ordered them a couple stocking stuffers - warm hats for both and gloves for Emily. Grandma gave a pair to Aidan a couple of weeks ago that she had from LLBean - leather ones with fuzzy inside. That reminds me... I really need to wash my winter coat and find my hat and gloves. It will be chilly up in Vermont after Christmas.

Day 15+16 of MSQC Jennys box

 I forgot to post day 15, so here it is. A tin that looks like a thread with a needle attached.

Inside were these packages. I had to google them to see what they were. One is silicone thimbles. The others are all versions of bobbin thing or to wrap around thread. Do any of you use things like this? I've never seen them before!

Day 16 is this set of magnets. A slap bracelet, that says 'Sew along with me, the best is yet to be'. A little cat face magnet with a suction cup on the other end. 

Yesterday was a day of phone calls and tasks after work. I need a physical form for Aidan so messaged his doctor through his portal. I need to double check on that status. I had to call the VA - they had denied my mail scripts when I changed them over. Guess they thought I still had my other insurance so a form needed to be filled out. I did the call me back when I got to the front of the line (1 hour and 25 minutes later) and she was wonderful and filled out the needed form for me and the kids so hopefully that will ship in the next week or so. I returned a book to the library for Em, ordered something for my parents I had put off and finished the last 2 Christmas cards. It was a productive day! 

I stitched up this guy after dinner before heading out to the Winter concert at school.

The music director is out on maternity leave and she got a retired music teacher from another county to cover for her while she was out. She attended the concerts (chorus was at 6, symphonic and jazz band was at 7). Her sub was very charismatic and was very pleased with the environment she created in her classes and the leadership and talent she has created. The kids are lucky he stepped in to lead them until she returns.  Of course I missed the one little smirk smile when she saw her Dad and I in the audience. next to her is her co-leader on the JV Winter guard team. She is a senior, but opted for JV to help with the rookies and get a few extra hours a week so she can work a job as well. Crazy the amount of things these kids manage.

Harmony is finished!

 My third finish for the UFO Fall quarter. 

This is Harmony from a Hand pieced quilt along with Kristin Esser and Patty Dudek. I attempted to quilt mine like Patty did with circles going out from the center. 

This finished at 59x59.

Day 14 MSQC Jennys box

 Day 14 of the box is this cute set of 2 ornaments. They match the red and dark teal one I got last year. I put them right on the tree, then had to take them off again for the photo.

I was just working on the binding of Harmony, which I machine quilted on Thursday. Bear was supervising.

I've got about one and a half sides to go. This will be today's task to get the binding finished. Some Christmas baking needs to start as well. 

The kids have one more week of school, and tomorrow is Emily's Symphonic band concert. Wednesday is my Big Cheese meeting (girl scout planning meeting for our county with 2 service units). I suppose I should send some Christmas cards out today as well. 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Day 13 of MSQC Jennys Christmas box.... and the results of Academic team county meet!

 First off.... I got a text from Aidan yesterday just after 1:30PM.  'Back-to-back', followed by a board - Belleview 196, Westport 195, then a photo of him holding the trophy! They won last year, his first on the team going in with a losing record and won the county. They went in with a winning record and beat the one team they lost to this season by 1 point! Let's just say he was very happy when he got home! The regional match is mid-January. Last year they came in second in that one. He is the captain of the team this year. 

This is my senior in HS. He is waiting to hear from his top 2 schools he would like to attend - Dartmouth in NH is a early binding, will find out Monday evening. Second is UF in Gainesville for a mid-January timeframe. He has been accepted to the other 2 Florida schools he applied to. 

The Jenny box - I opened it yesterday! I enjoyed the tutorial that Courtenay gives on how to make it. The Snappy Pouch.  This one looks like a really easy and quick one to make. It comes with 6 of the snaps.... so I guess you can make at least 3 bags. Might be a good use for those Tula FQ's I got in the mystery box over the last couple of years. I think that box is on sale - under 100 and you get such a great and fun variety of fabrics in all sorts of sizes. Maybe the snowflake batiks in blue and white...

I found a similar red that had enough for the whole binding. The quilt is 59x59. I got it made and attached the front by machine. I started hand stitching the back, until the dog decided it was cold and he needed my lap to keep warm while we watched Red 1 last night. Yes, he is a spoiled dog. I'll work on getting more stitching done on this the next few nights. 

Day 12 of MSQC Jenny's Box.... and some machine quilting...

 Day 12 is this little pouch with 3 separate compartments with zippers. One has a rotary cutter photo on cardboard and one has a scissors photo on cardboard, indicating you can put those tools in there. The middle part is bigger for other things - thread, needles, fabrics, etc.

It has a cute star as the middle zipper with MSQC on it. 

My plan Thursday was to get Harmony quilted. I started the day off browsing blogs and the news online. Then after a shower we headed to visit my FIL at his place. He was a little less energy and occasionally was struggling to find a word. Turns out he is only going down for breakfast and lunch now... which when you don't move much, I guess not much appetite. We do have Ensure/Boosts in his Fridge that he drinks if he wants something. I had one stop on the way home to grab something and then it was time to walk the dog. A quick lunch and off to the sewing room I went around 1:30. I grabbed Harmony out of the drawer and a backing and got them pressed. Cut off some batting and laid things out for a quick pinning on the living room floor. I did have to work around the dog at the end, as he was helping to 'hold the quilt down'. I tried playing with the accessory that goes onto the walking foot to regulate the spacing... but could not figure it out. I will play with that in the future with my actually quilting card of stitches, if I can find it! Instead I went with my eye on making the circles and some are closer/farther apart and that is perfectly ok with me! I did get all the quilting on it done, got it trimmed and then had to think of binding. I did decide on a binding and had enough of it to cut strips, but have not sewn them together, pressed and attached to the quilt yet. That is a Friday task after I finish working I think. 

Aidan got home and it was around 4:30 and I said I had no thoughts for dinner. He came back into the sewing room about 5:15 and said, Publix subs? He would go get them.... that works. We all ordered, and I got Emily's usual and he picked it up and was home a little after 6PM. That gave me time to finish up and trim the quilt before I called it a night.

Emily has her last marching practice tonight for the season with the final parade in Ocala tomorrow evening. Aidan has the county Academic team meet today. Fingers crossed they do well. Last year they won as a surprise since they were 1-5 (win-loss) going into the day. This year they are 5-1. 

Amazingly.... the dishes in the sink did not get done at all yesterday! We will see if it bugs Greg enough to do them this morning while I am working or if I get to do them at lunch. 

Day 11 MSQC Jennys box

I peeked at today's gift yesterday.... and looked at day 12 this morning! 

Today's gift is a tiny one - a booklet of little labels.

All a little different but cute! I love the little scissors.

I get a day off today.... and since Aidan opened the 2 boxes I had not done yet and put decorations up high for me.... I'm going to sew today! Well, I will walk the dog when it gets a little warmer.... and he gets up again! He gets up with Emily at 6:30 and I put him out and feed him... but if it is cold (and still dark) he went in to snuggle with Greg for a couple of hours! Aidan comes out a little after 7 and leaves the house by 7:20. Emily leaves by 6:43. We will go visit my FIL this morning and I have an errand to run on the way home from that. Then it is quilting time.

I'm pulling out Harmony and will pull a back, cut batting off the roll and get it pinned for quilting. I hope to get it quilted as well, but that might be pushing it. We will see. I'm going to do machine quilted circle echo's on it, like I did on the Christmas Cactus. I remembered it worked ok on that and I like the effect, so hopefully that top will be finished off this month! I'll have to see if I have enough of one red to bind it or not. This one was stuck on the quilting decision. I'd like it done to hang in February, so done is best! I currently have Christmas Cactus hanging on the kitchen/living room wall now. Next month is the blue snowflake one. 

 

Day 10 of MSQC Jennys box

 

A charcuterie board! Biggest part measures 12 in x 12 in.

Optional hanger on the back.

 This is the card they included.

I guess I need to add a food grade oil to it to season it now.

Day 9 of MSQC Jennys box

 

The present

Bias tape tool kit. I do have one of these already.

The inside.

This is the QR code for the reveal and has the tutorial and examples of use. I find this part so helpful. 

Guess I should work on my outer border of my Midget Applique with this set!

The dog is currently going nuts with the squirrel outside the window taunting him. It is very distracting. 

Cat pot holders

 

I found the sewing machine! I grabbed the cat template and made a couple pot holders. It was not the pattern, but I thought they would be cute. I added a hand spot on the back like I did with my last set I made.

They are small, about 5-6 inches. The dog face is a little bigger.

Day 8 of MSQC Jennys box 2025

 

Quilting wrapping paper! It has a page of coordinating tags as well.