Feeling like a furniture store....

Friday, after the F1 Sprint qualifying, (1:45) we headed over to my FIL's house as Greg and I wanted to grab a few things of his for our house before we donate the rest. We needed kid lifting labor, so they had to go and we needed the truck, which Emily drives to school. She drove the truck over with her Dad and I drove my CRV with Aidan. It's about 50 minutes away from us. Greg and I have been going through things the last few times we've gone over but told the kids if there is anything they want, to grab it. Aidan's comment, 'this is really weird'. Yup, it is. His next thought, 'OMG - Grandma's is going to be horrible to go through! She needs to wait until Emily and I have places of our own!' Grandma has nice antiques. I'll let him tell her that!

Aidan grabbed a nativity set and the kids grabbed a nice Craftsman set of sockets. They know they are getting 'Papa Andy's' tools eventually and there is enough for a set for both of them from Grandma's house. 

Greg and I wanted to grab his big TV and the tv stand to swap out ours. There is also an old library table that is over 100 years old that Greg's Grandmother refurbished from an old library in Ohio. We had Emily look at Tom's dresser and mirror. She likes light wood, but we said it could be refinished and painted. It is made well, as opposed to the one she has now. She opted to take it and will work on finishing it off to her liking. Aidan was eyeing Tom's desk (Greg said it was probably his as a kid!) as he doesn't like his current one and this one has drawers and room to put things. That came home with us as well.

We figured we left the lighter things so Greg and I could do them in the car and took the tv in the car, and the stand and dresser and mirror in the truck. Came home and unloaded.

It was close to 5PM and I was hungry and did not want turkey leftovers. We set the tv up and realized, the remote was left at Tom's house. Well, the kids said we could go back and get it and the remainder of things and eat on the way (thank you Cracker Barrel). After some indecision (do it Sunday or finish it Friday), we got it done. Had a nice dinner and then it was a quick load of the truck, the car got the 3 boxes of things we brought back with papers and photo's to be in the house when we bug bombed it last Sunday and headed home. It was around 8PM at that point, so a 6 hour job! 

Kids are heading to Grandma's house today to help her decorate for Christmas after Aidan watches the sprint race at 9AM. He said something about a Football game to watch over there....

Greg will head to his Dad's today to look at something we noticed that needs attention and I'm hoping I get to stay home and sew and finish decluttering so I can put Christmas stuff out. I lost my top of the tv to put things so I need to rethink where things will go this year! I have a feeling I'm going to have to go though, so we will see.

The library table, is going to replace the half banquet table with the printer in my office. I see puzzles on the other half maybe... That is the back, there is a drawer in the front.

The mirror is in great shape for the new dresser for Emily.

from the left, Emily's dresser, my old tv hutch with tv that I need to list for sale or leave out by the road, the new desk for Aidan.

The new tv and tv stand. The light wood does completely change that area from the black hutch. 

Aidan says the tv is too big. The picture on it is awesome, I watched The Grinch last night on Prime. I'm thinking he will change his mind after watching his race. Emily says it will take him until at least January to get used to it. He is not good with change!

I did start the Gobble Gobble yesterday during the qualifying for the sprint. Hope to finish the first gobble during the race today. These are the kids ornaments from Grandma this year. Emily got a color guard one with a flag and Aidan got a F1 race car. It's actually the 2008 one... the year he was born!

 

Black Friday

 

Since I have not been stitching... I figured I'd share some quilts and paintings I have hanging up!

I did snap one photo of the kitchen island with all the food yesterday with Grandma filling her plate. We had all the normal things - turkey, mashed potato, stuffing, gravy and cranberry relish. Grandma added green beans, rolls and sweet potato casserole. We put out olives and pickles as well. 

When putting things away, I have a ball jar of maple syrup, which I got out for her casserole topping she makes. For some reason, she grabbed that and put the black olives in it! This one will be remembered for a long time! Olives in maple syrup! She was almost on the floor laughing when she realized what she did!

We did not continue the Domino's game from Sunday. Instead, Aidan picked Skip-Bo. We did need a refresher on the rules but played a couple of rounds. Aidan won them both....... makes you go hmmmmm on that one! 

I finally hung up my Christmas Cactus in the kitchen/living room wall. It took days to find that quilt or it would have been up sooner.

The Christmas Cardinals is hanging on the wall in my office behind my desk.

This is the half wall my desk is against - I like looking at my paintings I did at Painting with a Twist over the years. My favorite is the one in the middle! I do still use an old school calendar - and have next years already. My cousin is a great photographer and she has a calendar out with photos from around Vermont that will be hanging there next year. 

After Grandma left and everyone had 'quiet time', I was going to take Bear for a walk. I asked everyone and Emily said she's go and she walked him. She doesn't let him sniff like I do and ran with him a few times to get his energy out. We had a cool front go through Thursday, and the temps were in the 60's which was lovely. This morning it was 40 degrees at 6:30 when I woke up. Everyone is still sleeping. the dog has been out back twice, and then went back to bed with someone. 

I'm thinking of making some muffins - thinking cranberry orange as I still have some cranberries I did not put in the cranberry relish. Then the tree needs ornaments added to it. We will pop to my FIL's house today and grab a few more things with the kids and the truck to bring to our house, then the rest will be donated to various charities to clear it out. I have not done my 'normal' living room decorating yet, since I am swapping my tv and hutch out to the one from my FIL's place. I'll need to find new places to put things, as I'm losing my top shelf where I normally place some things. 

I never go near stores today, I am not a crowds person! 

Hoping to get some sewing time in later today.... more bear paws need to get made.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I did manage to finish off the quilt fixing, got it washed and delivered late Tuesday evening. Yesterday was cleaning the house up after I finished working. This morning, the turkey innards are cooking on the stovetop for the stuffing. The bird is in the fridge waiting to get stuffed and popped into the oven. My MIL is coming over today and I'm sure some games will be played. We went over Sunday for a game afternoon and played Phase 10, then started Dominos. We are up to double 4's I believe. We will continue that this afternoon. 

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Trains?

 Excuse the mess. We were rearranging furniture to put the tree up (Emily built it in under 3 minutes!). That chair is broken (unfixable) and headed to the dump on Wednesday when they are open next. It was in Gregs area. We put the other recliner from the set in his room and the other chair went into my master bedroom where Ollie has claimed it as his. Now my living area is less cluttered with chairs! 

I mentioned I wanted the train out this year as it has been a while since we have had it under the tree. After I pointed out the box with the train stuff in it, Emily got to work. It was Bear's first time seeing the train and he got good and nosing it off the track,but she was training him with treats to leave it alone. He is afraid of anything 'new' so it was fun to see his reaction.  He was exhausted after all the train play with the kids and snoozed hard last night after we turned it off. 

I made the mistake of taking out my 9.6 pound turkey out of the zero freezer (hubbys idea and I wasn't thinking!) last Thursday. Yup, was defrosted fully by Sunday night and needed to be cooked! Sigh. After Emily's annual physical Monday after I got done work, (4PMish) I cooked an unstuffed bird (well, parsley, onion and rosemary were inside) Monday night with mashed potato and stuffing. I was lazy and didn't do gravy for the meal and used one I bought at Sams, a Kinders Turkey gravy. Yuck! I made gravy after with the turkey drippings for open turkey sandwiches for lunch today. I tossed the other carton of the gravy. No one liked it. So, I did get another 10 pound bird (Publix had them 49 cents a pound so $5 for a 10 pound turkey!) that I took out of the freezer Monday night and should be perfect for cooking on Thursday! 

I seal a mealed the legs and one thigh as one packet for the freezer and another packet of the carcass for soup making later, also in the freezer. The second breast was held for lunches today with the last wing. Any leftovers will get sealed this afternoon. Much cheaper for Turkey

 breast this way!

Repairing a quilt

 

Thursday I finally pulled out this quilt that I said I'd repair for a friends daughter. It is a weighted purchased quilt that is very worn on the edges. I did get permission to cut it but keep the middle intact if I can. One edge was worse than the other so I had to cut about 4-5 inches off one end. I used some of that to patch a part on the other edge that was a u shape torn out completely. The backside along the edges has a lot of wear, so I decided to do a large new binding in brown. I cut strips at 4.5 inches and sewed the 1/4 inch on the front and am hand piecing the back so that it is covering up the worst of the shredding of the fabric. I'll go back after and check for holes, there are a few holes and tears on the front that I can patch with the part I cut off. I think a few stitches here and there on the back will fix the rest. I had hoped to get this back to them late this week, but I've been so tired at night it is ridiculous! I'm falling asleep on the couch around 7 or 8PM! I think it is the new medicine I started on Monday. Hopefully it will get better in a week or so.

I'll be working on adding some stitches to this today, between picking up the house and changing it over to Christmas. Hubby did just vacuum for me (didn't move stuff but vacuumed around things), while I dusted and changed out some quilts on the walls and put the fall/halloween things away. 

I will pop down to the farmers market and get real tasting tomatos and cukes and whatever else looks good in season down here. I started the morning watching the F1 qualifying with Aidan, which happened late last night in Las Vegas. The race is late tonight - 11 or midnight I think. We will see if I am awake for that or not.

Mid Week

 I know it's been a week since I posted last. Just busy. Saturday Emily and I were up early to go help set up the Wizzarding event for a few hours across town. The event was all day on Sunday - we left home at 7:30 and got home around 6:30 that night. Emily got 12 hours of volunteering time as she worked both the morning with littles and afternoon with the older girls and helped pick up after. She needs 100 volunteer hours in her program to graduate. She is around the mid 60 range now with working the weekend at Sisters Retreat and this event for 27 hours. 

I have added some stitches to Gobble Gobble and then sketched out the wording onto a block page so I can see it better. I'll start stitching that later today.

I picked up a bug over the weekend (lots of littles and I know one adult went there both days not feeling well.... Arrghh). I took Tuesday off and slept until 11AM. Might have been that or a new medicine I started Monday. Better today! Off to work I go.

Veterans day

 First off, Thank you to all Veterans who have served their nation. My hubby was in the Air Force back in the early 90's.

I made some progress on gobble gobble. Time to add more brown to the turkey.

I started November 2nd adding one of these a day. All caught up and I'll add a teal one today.

I picked up the girl a couple hours earlier than expected yesterday. Since the government is shut down, they were unable to do one of the museums on the last day as it was a national one. She had a great time and enjoyed peace and quiet in her room for a bit. We had temps around 32 this morning, and she took me up on my offer to start her truck for her 10 minutes before she left for school at 6:40. The boy declined my offer about 40 minutes later when he left. No frost, so it was just cool outside.

 I have the day off, and plan to add bear paw blocks and look at 'fixing' a quilt for a friend. It needs a new binding and there is some damage. I think I need to cut off a little from the top and bottom, use that to 'fix' a few areas with applique and then add a new binding. 

Greg had mentioned Mexican Skillet as a meal a few times, so I let him make it last night while I went to get Emily. I did pull everything out he needed including the recipe. 

The kids found this one years ago and liked it, so we added it to the rotation. It only take 20-30 minutes depending on if you use chicken in a can or raw chicken. I need to start picking a recipe from a cookbook and try them out! 

I'm thinking zucchini boats tonight or taco's using ground chicken instead of beef. I'm sure I'll get push back on that swap. Both kids are late tonight - Emily made the JV Winter Guard team and has practice until 7 and Aidan has an Academic Club meet across town, so will be home later this evening. Not as late as last night - he was helping at an event as an Ambassador for the school. Got home around 9PM. 

Off to walk the dog, who enjoys these cooler temps we are having for a few days.

Sunday stitching.

 It is a quiet morning at my house. Well, other than the neighbor across the street playing weird music before 7AM that woke me up! Sigh. Better than the 2AM it used to be but this is the second Sunday this has happened. Deep breath, I am enjoying the quiet house all to myself with some coffee and catching up on blog reading.

I have been stitching up a Hexagon each day this week (except Friday and Saturday as I was too busy doing cross stitch! Oops) I'll just whip up 3 of them today! Once these are prepped, the stitching goes quickly. I will plan to prep a few more of these today. Sometimes I feel like working a certain color and all I have right now are blue/teal prepped.

The gobble gobble I started on Tuesday has been taking most of my time. This is a free pattern from Melissa who is so kind to make and share her talents with us. I transferred the pattern to a block sheet as it was easier for me to read that way. 

The bulky quilt addition of circles has not finished, but I will get the last 5 done today. I'd like to move the String of Beads quilt to a completed top stage. I'll probably do these during the F1 race in Brazil today. It was quite a Sprint race yesterday. 

Hand quilting - I have neglected the quilt in the frame as I did not like my choice for quilting on it. It came to me this week, I really want to do a Baptist fan pattern on it. I'm just going to free hand it I think (Yes, I'm too lazy to create the pattern although I might change my mind on that too!) I do need to take out the quilting I have done on a few of the blocks first. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers. The drizzle rain has ended at my house and the sun is bright and shining. A last 'warm' day before we get a freeze warning tomorrow night in Florida. It does happen and I'll enjoy grabbing out my jeans and sweater to be cozy! It will warm back up later in the week to our 'normal' temps. I am really enjoying these cooler weather systems that keep dipping down to us. 

Somehow I have 3 days off in the middle of the week, so hubby and I will attempt to tackle his Dad's house a bit. It needs to be cleared out, cleaned and then someone to do some plumbing work and painting outside so we can list it for sale eventually.  He is extremely happy in the assisted living quarters closer to us. He has his own room and things, they do his medicines, meals, cleaning and laundry and check on him throughout the day and help in the bathroom and dressing if needed. He is quite content for a 90 year old man. 

I forgot - I also need to make some wands for a Wizarding event next weekend! Oops. I guess I will be drizzling hot glue onto chopsticks today as well. Then I'll go grab some spray paint and get them colored up for next Sunday's event. Emily was planning to do it, but I ordered the wrong glue sticks for our hot glue gun. 

Taking stock RSC

 It was time to open the bins that hold the RSC blocks and see where things are at.

The alternate BITA blocks (the hst's are swapped and made a fun pattern so I kept making them!)

I see I am missing some colors. I think I'll keep making these in 2026.

The sixteen patches with 2.5 inch squares. Always nice to have on hand for a quick quilt.

The string of beads blocks have 5 more green circles that need to get added. I'll work on those this weekend during F1 races - a Sprint race today and the main race tomorrow.

Linking up to the RSC on Saturday.

Some progress on the Gobble Gobble from Melissa at Pinker n Punkin Quilts. So exciting when it starts to look like something!

Emily is on her Civil Rights Trip. They got stuck in traffic yesterday with a cotton something overturned on the highway and had to cut one of their stops out. She is having fun and shared a short video of the bus all singing along to a song last night. 

At school Friday, there was a surprise visit from a Food Network star. Aidan was hoping for Alton Brown (whom none of his friends knew!) but it was Duff Goldman - the cake guy! Aidan is friends with the person in charge and got asked to meet him and then got to listen to his presentation. He also brought a French chef from WEC (World Equestrian Center) and it was an inspiring speech. I was told I had the Food Network on a lot when he was a kid, so he remembers all the old chef's. I think I put that on as it was a kid friendly show and was good background noise! He is off to a Ted Talk at a local High School for most of the day today. 

Duff and Aidan.

The start of Bear Paw Wanderings... Bear Tracks in the woods?

 Not sure that either name will stick, but I did show Aidan a non-traditional bear paw setting that I'd like to try and he is considering it. He can't picture it with his colors, so once I get a few made we'll test it out.

I know I didn't want tiny ones, as he indicated his quilt is for 'after college' so a bigger size is needed - double bed size. 

I found this pattern at FQ shop for a finished 6 inch single paw and a 14 inch finished standard block. Better than the much smaller ones I have in my books. That should help with the amount of blocks needed!

I showed him some arrangements from this page where I pulled these photo's from. This is the layout they called Bear Tracks. Now picture it in civil war type fabrics of cream, green and blues.

As opposed to a more standard layout... although I really like this RSC type scrappy one!

I really liked this one as well with the different sizes.

and the chain in this one is nice too. I love the little touch of color at the middle of each block by the sashing.

The girl was dropped off to school before 6AM this morning for her school trip to a few neighboring states to learn about the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. Shout out to the 9 teachers taking 90 students under their care for the next 5 days. 

Time to go make some cuts into the fabric and see if I can get some paws made today. 

A gobble start

 I ordered some Aida cloth and it arrived yesterday. I got a start on Gobble Gobble from Melissa at Pinkern Punkin Quilting and Stitching. My honey comb is my needle minder for cross stitch. I had to search for colors to work with but found a good mix. I had transferred the pattern onto a notepad of squares, since my print out was too tiny to read. Good thing I grabbed it from hubby when he was done with his math classes. It will come in handy for making patterns easier to read!

 

I got another squishy in the mail as well from Pieces of the Past. I had ordered 3 of the mini applique quilts that were marked down. They came to just under $25 each and include the pattern and all fabrics for the top and back. Not bad. I think notions are marked down this week.

Slow Sunday in November.

 As November is a new month, I'm going to be stitching one of these hexagons each day! I finished prepping these yesterday, so they are easy to grab at lunch and get one stitched up. These will be grouped into fours and added to my QAYG hexagon quilt from a few years ago that insists on being bigger. I have 2 additional rows already stitched and need 2 more to make it the 88x88 that it wants to be. Each row needs 12 sets of 4, so this will be a long term project over the next couple of months. The blues were at the top of the scrap bins, as you can tell from the pull of fabrics. 

I have not made progress on adding the last 8 circles onto the String of Beads but hope to get it completed this week. 

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Marching season is officially over with the long practices. They go down to just a couple hours after school on Fridays until the 2 December parades are done. They got an overall Exceptional rating - one step down from Superior they got the last two years. The guard and visual did get Superior ratings. The music was not as spot on as their Thursday performance at the football game. It was a great show, and they should be very proud of all their hard work this season. Would you believe I didn't even take a photo? It was a long ride to get to the venue - Greg and I headed 45 minutes to pick up Grandma and then continued 40 minutes further to the venue. Same route back, and around 8, we decided to do dinner out with Grandma before returning her home and chatting for a bit. It was nice to have adult chats without the kids! Greg and I got home just before 11 and Emily rolled in about 11:15. Aidan put the outside light on for us, as he stayed home and finished applying to colleges, which were due by midnight last night for the early applications. Fingers crossed he gets what he wants in January!

Winter Guard try outs are this week. Emily will do that at the first one, and then she heads off on the Junior class Civil Rights trip for 5 days to Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. 

Looks like I should have lots of time to 'play' this week, if only I would put down my phone and stop scrolling and playing games!

The county Pre MPA from October 21,2025.

This is all the bands. I think we are about halfway through, Belleview HS.

RSC and Table Scrap Challenge

 The TSC for October was Denim. The RSC was light or dark neutrals. Linking up to both on Saturday!

Hmmmm.

Looking at fabrics as I was attempting to tidy up my working area this week (photo's later as it might scare people!), I saw some cowboys riding horses on a black background with lots of browns. Darks, checked. Cowboys wear denim jeans. Check! I have a winner.

Since I have finished a quilt or two in the last bit, I actually have batting extra's again, so it was the perfect time to prep more hexagon blocks to add a couple more rows to the hexagon quilt. I started this in 2021 and it is asking to be made a bit bigger. Since it is a quilt as you go style, I am able to accommodate it's wishes!

My finished edges are 2 inches with the templates I have. I use the outer two - the 3 inch and 2 inch. I cut backgrounds using the 3 inch and then batting and eventually more fabrics with the 2 inch. I do need to find the box of clips I bought a month ago so I can prep all of these. 

I prepped this one.

Got it stitched up this morning after walking the dog. Technically a finished little quilt. It will be added to 3 more for a grouping of 4, and then I think 12 groups of 4 make a row. 

The back.

We have one last marching band performance to go see today for their MPA. Their time was set back an hour so it will be a little cooler when they perform. We are having cooler weather in Florida this week, I'm not complaining though. I much prefer cooler temps - in the 60's when they perform tonight.

The girls are molting - at least the 2 Barred Rocks (black and white ones) and they look so funny without their feathers. No eggs for a while as they are building their feathers right now. I think I get about 1 egg a day now. I put a couple dozen in the fridge so they will last a little longer before I need to buy some. 

You can see all the feathers in their big run. The coop looks like something was plucking all the feathers out! Just a natural occurrence.

A close up shot of the girls. Their feather pins are blue, which makes me chuckle when I see them. So far it looks like just these two, but I think Poppy will soon. I think the two younger ones molted in the spring, so I'm not sure if they will again in the fall this year. 

I mentioned I finally went into the sewing area and attempted to pick it up a bit. You might want to stop now, if cluttered mess gives you hives! I did the side section, that I did not photograph first and got that tidied up a bit. Lots of papers into the big shredding box and old suitcases went through and will be tossed out. These are from the 80's and 90's so old without wheels. Then I tackled all the bins of overflowing fabrics. Not a great solution, but 3 contained bins instead of all over the floor helped. I did manage to find the missing colorful Flowering snowball parts I was cutting out a few years ago each month! Still a lot more to go, but I can move around in there now. 

The mess!

Slightly better mess! 

I'd better start lunch. I made chicken stock with a carcass yesterday and will be using that in a potato leek soup today. Chilly temps call for soup and this is a favorite of ours.

Enjoy your weekend.

squishy mail

This is package #2 of squishy mail. The first (which is not where I remember putting it) was some yard cuts of KT line Wheatland. I think about 6 different fabrics in blues and greens. This below photo is half yard cuts (mostly) from Pieces of the past which is doing a 20% off through December as they close down that part of the business. I have neutrals to go with this already in the stash.  I suppose that means I need to start making bear paw blocks for the boy's graduation quilt.

I have one more package in transit. Pieces of the past had 30% off their applique kits last week. I looked. Then went back later in the week and picked up 3 of them. For 17x17 quilts - provided the pattern, all fabrics for the front and the back and I think the binding to complete it. Just needs a batting. The discount brought it down to about $25 each. Reasonable for all that I thought. Not that I needed more projects....

I've added a few more circles to this one. I just have 8 circles to go and it will be a top. I think I will carefully add a little white border - one that fits a stencil I have so maybe 3 inches? Then a green binding. That will make it about 53 or 54 inches square.

One kid has Academic meet today. They have won the 2 they have had so far with their new captain - my kid! Who would have thunk it? The girl is actually home on time today - a rarity. Hubby has a Dr. appt with the VA this afternoon. 

 

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I was adding green circles to the green peel joins yesterday, until a big black dog decided he wanted to be a lap dog and take a nap with me! Spoiled Bear.

I have added stitches to finish off the inner part of the hoop on this cross stitch I started over 20 years ago. Time to get it finished off. This is in a book Quilts for All Seasons by Paula Vaughan. January. I've done both September and August years ago.

I also got mail this week! The Jenny's Christmas box for 2025 arrived this week. I believe there are a few still available for sale at Missouri Quilt Company. I can't wait for December 1 to start opening one present a day through Christmas! It's my present to me -  this is my 3rd year and I ordered it around December 27, 2024. I still have lots of projects from previous years to do, like this embroidery that I pulled out. I'll be adding stitches to these projects throughout the week.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitches. Sit back, relax and remember to breathe this week.