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.