Last Sunday in March

I made a bunch of progress on the cross stitch this week. The yellow quilt block part was added and a bunch of the grassy area below the wagon. 

Last Sunday

today

Thursday night was a busy one. I had the girl inducted into their HS National Honor Society. Her brother is also in it and was running the evening as VP. She then went and changed quickly into her uniform for the Senior night of guard performance. Three local schools were there and celebrated their seniors and then did a run of their show before the final Competition. Her brother stayed to watch and finally saw her perform. He was impressed!

I am planning to relax today! It was a long day at FFCC Competitions yesterday in Orlando where I was shuttling 4 girls on the teams from our local High School. Both teams performed well and increased their scores at the final competitions with great performances. Varsity took 1st place and JV were 6th out of 16 but increased a good 5 points from the last competition. All the performances were fun to watch and all should be proud of the jobs they did. 

I treated myself to this salted caramel frappe after 8PM to watch the final hour of performances. The sugar kick was nice as I had been awake since before 5AM.

Emily and her team. 

This week - the boy is off to Jacksonville for the week and will be competing in Skills USA in the engineering area with a friend. I hear lots of 3D printers are working right now printing their parts needed for Tuesday's competition. They made changes to the design Saturday and now they are modifying the presentation piece.  Their final run in this competition before heading off to college next year. 

Time to grab some lunch and decide what I feel like playing with today.

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

RSC Chickens

 I had a lovely unscheduled weekend and was looking through my block collections... once I found the boxes they were in! 

I decided to add a few chickens to the flock in red and green for this month and last. I had plenty of blue ones already.

Yes, three of the purples are a different size, since I turned the chicken body on the wrong side and then just went with it the first month I made them. The pattern is free at Sew Inspired Blog - Chicken Quilt Block.

. That will be fun to fit into a quilt! I might need to add eggs and a coop! We will see. Looks like I need to add some orange, black and white and brown birds. The red polka dot one makes me smile! 

I'll link up sometime on Saturday with the RSC.  It will be a busy day for me as I'm chaperoning and driving a group of kids to FFCC Championships in Orlando. It worked out both groups are quite the timeframe apart, which should work out to see both programs and awards despite being about 30 minutes from each other as JV is performing at a different school from Varsity. It will just be a very long day - 6AM until Midnight with the getting ready, driving and standard perform and wait for awards time.  Knitting will go with me in my backpack. That was easy to do while watching and waiting last competition. 

Slow Sunday

 I've been making good progress on the cross stitch. I forgot how much I enjoyed doing it after a 20 year hiatus. This was my last post last Sunday

I've been stitching this week! This is where it stands this week. This is the second page of the pattern. I still need to do the first page but I wanted to start towards the middle on this which was the quilt part. I think I'll alternate between working on the 'quilt blocks' and the grassy area below the wagon. The pumpkin was fun to stitch. This is the October Quilts For All Seasons book by Paula Vaughn. I did the months of August, September and started January back in the 1990's.

When I went to the front room to photograph progress, I saw these guys out the front window! One of the flocks of turkeys in the area. This one has 2 toms and 4 ladies. 

He is missing some feathers, so I know which flock he is with.

A question for you all. How do you juggle multiple projects? Knitting, cross stitch, sewing, hand quilting, hand piecing? As the mood strikes? Finish one before moving onto another or work a little on each throughout the week? 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

Little House Sew Along from Melva Loves Scraps

 I managed to sew up blocks 3+4 today. The basket and the shoo fly blocks. Looking at the photo, I wish I would have done a second lighter purple on the basket instead of a medium, but it is done so it's staying! 

Here are my four blocks so far. I believe there will be nine in total. We will see how long the jelly roll lasts! My blocks are a little bigger and finish at 18.5 inches. 

Linking up with the Sew Along as I wait for the next block release.

RSC red houses

I was able to play a little in the sewing room this morning and finished off 4 houses so I have a set of six now to join the green and blue ones. I'll have to cut more chimney and roof parts so I am all set for next month's houses. Linking up with the RSC.

It feels strange to have nothing planned for the weekend. After a nice sleep in and a walk with Bear I enjoyed the puttering in the sewing room. I think I'll head back in after lunch and catch up on my Little House Sew along as I need to do block 3 still and I think block 4 is out as well now. 

 Next week has a National Honor Society induction (Emily) that Aidan has to lead as VP since the President has a game that night. It also is on the same day the Friends and Family presentation of the Winter Guard (not color guard this is more dance with the colorful flags, riffles and sabers) performances, since all competitions are at least an hour away. The final competition - FFCC Championships is next Saturday in Orlando and I'll be driving a bunch of the kids to the competition. The JV and Varsity teams are at different schools, about an hour apart but their time for performing and awards are spread apart so I think they can go to the others performance and awards. Just makes a very long day!

We had quite the wind gust at our house earlier this week that was in front of a cold front going through. We had 2 nights of freezing temps! In March in Florida! Unheard of.  It took the metal awning we have over my car for a whirl. Unfortunately, the metal bar scraped my driver's side door and pulled up the trim by the window on the drivers side. Hubby pulled it off and ordered a new one. Hopefully he will take the mirror off today and get the new trim piece on, so it won't leak with any rain. I can deal with the scrape later. They also need to put the new cover on the frame and put it back, right side up so I can park under it again and protect the paint on the car from the Florida sun. We don't have a workable garage. 

Since the kids were off this week and Aidan needed an oil change on his car and mentioned the grinding sound on starting and I noticed brake issues - it went to Honda for service and a check. We had them do a bunch and then took it to Meineke for the brakes as their labor cost was loads less. A $21 part and $700 in labor was a bit ridiculous I thought from Honda. So, $5,300 later the car should be good for another 100K miles! It has 190K now. The AC is working again and an oil leak is fixed, the grinding sound on start is fixed and the belt got replaced with the break pads and routers and a rotate on the tires and the oil change of course. Things got cleaned out and everything is running smoothly again.

Time for a quick lunch then back to sewing. Maybe I'll prep a quilt for quilting this weekend as well. We will see. 

Slow moving Sunday

Today I plan to putter and do some relaxing things while recovering from Saturday! On tap is some grocery shopping and making my little house block with Melva's sew along. Some slow stitching will also happen with a few threads added to the cross stitch. I did finish off a knitted dish cloth Saturday that I started this week while watching some training sessions on Teams at work. 

I started the brown part of the wagon by the wheel the last few days. I think I'll fill in the half stitches in blue above that next. This was the last photo from Wednesday. Not much but every stitch counts!

The knitted dish cloth. I finished this while watching the guards perform Saturday. I have a huge spool of this yarn when Joann's was clearing things out. Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

The rest of this post is Winter Guard and my Saturday as a Chaperone. 

 Saturday was a long day! We arrived at school before 6am for call time. Varsity needed to run through since they had one person away and one broke her toe Thursday night. A little modification was needed. We left around 8 on the school bus to the comp about 2.5 hours away. The JV team (the team my daughter is on and is co-captain of) had a great run and got first place in their class of 7! First time in their history.  The Varsity did well later in the day in their class and also took home 1st place.  The last competition is Championship in 2 weeks. We arrived back to school around 11pm. We got home about 11:40. I got 10k steps yesterday despite 5 hours on a bus! I was very happy to sit with the JV's bags in the auditorium while they went with the Varsity for their body warm ups through all warm ups and then  put down and pulled their floor for their performance. That is about an hour of time, so I got to watch all the teams perform in the Varsity grouping. Everything is timed down to the minute and there is a mark down if they run late on any part. I've learned a lot about guard the last 2 years. This is my kid ready to perform. 

After they got their 1st trophy with the team. They had performed a few hours before awards ceremony so everyone got to change out but the captains and the senior on the team since it was her last non Champions competition. 

This is their performance from Saturday if you'd like to see. Lots of hard work went into this.

Wednesday

A little stitching to fill in the sashing on the quilt. It is easier to do the blocks once the sashing is stitched.

Saw these guys on our morning walk. The camera allowed a nice photo from afar.

 The boy handed the girl her acceptance into the schools National Honor Society today in one of her classes. He is the VP of the chapter but the President has a sporting game on the 26th induction ceremony so he gets to lead it that night. How did the below 2 get to be a Junior and Senior in High School?

 

Spring 2013. Ages 5 and 4.

Rsc houses in red

I was able to add a couple of red houses to the collection as well as the last two green houses I had cut out. I managed to cut more of the parts needed for the house tops and chimneys for the next batch, so those will get sewn as I am doing other things.

I need to find the chicken blocks and add see what I need to add to that collection and get back to the graduation bear paw prints. Since today is an at home day rather than in Tampa at the winter guard competition (sick kid), I get to relax and putter around the house. Hot weather arrived here in Florida, so I'll enjoy inside things.

Linking up with the RSC.

Cross stitching update

 

I've been able to add some stitches to this a couple days this week. The wheel is taking shape.

Emily came home sick Thursday from school. She is missing MPA tonight and her competition tomorrow.  She got the crud from the seniors from their trip. She ate a bit today this afternoon at least. A bagel and applesauce.  

Aidan has his first F1 race to watch this weekend. Australia so late night racing. 

Im off from chaperone duty tomorrow so I'll get to sew the two red houses i cut out for tomorrow. 

Another week of busy

 

This was Sunday night after a shower when we got home from St. Pete. I think Bear missed me!

Monday night Emily has an induction into the newly formed PAHS (Pageantry Arts Honor Society) at her school. Seven were added and she was one of 2 Juniors. The others were seniors. It was a nice ceremony. I get to do this again next month with the National Honor Society with her. She is the VP of the chapter this year.

I did 3 trainings at work Monday and pulled out some knitting. Easy to do while watching the screen. I also might have matched pairs of short houses with the fat houses for the Brimfield EPP that I had prepped. It's time to start stitching those into threesomes. Then I need to pick and prep the orange peels for their bottoms. The tall houses are all set to be added to attach those sets together.

Both kids are late today - one has a Tennis meet about an hour away, the other has guard practice. Thursday is a repeat of this and Friday is symphonic band MPA in the evening. Saturday is a Winter Guard Competition I plan to chaperone at in the Tampa area. 

Saturday racing with the boy

 The crew arrived home safe very late Thursday from the senior trip. Quite a few memories with the blizzard in NYC. Quite the treat for Florida kids who got to play in the snow in central park.

After midnight to bed, then A and I left around 9 to head to St.  Pete for the Indy weekend. Day 2 of racing today. Got rained out yesterday.  We have seen a few drivers and enjoying free Java hut drinks. The cocoa is really good. Trying the vanilla latte and hibiscus tea next trip. The trucks are racing today then a couple qualifying times. The Big race is tomorrow.  We get to walk by the cars on the grid this year. The boy is excited.

My FILs house is almost ready to go on the market. Painted outside, carpets cleaned and all plumbing is done. Just a couple things to do. The work there Thursday (we cleaned) had hubby having bad back spasms... so he is relaxing with the heating pad this weekend.  We'll do the last painting inside next week. Em gets the weekend off.  She got home after 8 every night this week and had a bunch of tests.

Next week she has color guard Honor Society induction, practices, SAT testing and symphonic band MPA.  Boy has tennis practice and a game. 

I added stitches to the cross stitch but forgot a photo.  Should get some stitching in tonight in the hotel. 

Pre mpa Wednesday. 

Friday.

Friday

Mazda race this morning.  He had me here for 8ish!

We had Jollibee for dinner last night. Pretty good. Phillipines cuisine.

Just wanted to post that I'm alive! Just enjoying the last 2 years of busy teens before they leave for college.

A UFO finish and some RSC blocks

 It's Saturday! I had an early start and dropped the boy to school this morning before 8AM for his Senior trip north on a coach bus with 79 other students and a handful of teachers. It looks like they might connect with a bit of a Nor'Easter... so that will be fun for the Florida kids! Mine is set with gear and should be fine. Lots of memories will be made before they arrive home Thursday evening.

 I ran a few errands after and got home 10ish. Walked the dog before it got too hot (crazy weather today close to 90 then a cool front goes through tomorrow and high maybe 70!). A good day to stay inside after another errand with hubby, and sew!

I did manage to finally finish the binding on the nine patch UFO quilt yesterday. It needs a wash, as someone dropped something on it at some point. I'm blaming the dog, as he loves to lay on it. It finished at 68 x 80, so a good size.  I just did walking foot machine quilting on it through the nine patches and outlined the blue border and did a three loop in the corners of the blue. Then a straight stitch in the white border and the flowered border. It should be enough quilting with the warm and natural batting.

I fixed the boo boo green house from last week and added a couple more. Here is what I have so far. I might add another couple this week. If I have the parts cut out, they go together well while sewing other things.

Figured I'd show the crew this week.

Peanut and Ollie.... I think they're around 8 years old now? Time sure does fly. Yes, Ollie is a good 5 pounds more than his brother.

This one has gotten much better on walks from years ago. There were 5-6 wild turkeys over there in the woods. I was able to easily tell him no and we turned around after he looked at them for a while. When we first got him - he would have been over the fence after them.

This one didn't go over the fence with his friends. 

The chickens are laying again, and I've got a slew of eggs on the counter in the rack. Guess I need to make a quiche and recipes with eggs this week. I like to hard boil a bunch and then it is a quick easy breakfast in the morning or on my salads at lunch. The girl is going to enjoy being the only kid this week and will be 'stealing' her brothers car with the senior sticker and parking in his spot this week. 

Off to get potting soil so I can plant the lettuce hubby has been growing in the Christmas gift he got me. With all the lettuce recalls, he got this device and it is growing some really nice lettuce! I'd like to plant these and start some herbs and more lettuce. I think there are 3-4 varieties.

Excuse the messy kitchen.... I need to put the clean dishes away. The egg holder is full, and I've got nearly another dozen in a box on the shelf. Since they are not pasteurized or washed, they don't need to be refrigerated. We have two chickens that lay green eggs, two lay light brown eggs and Buttercup the Rhode Island Red lays brown eggs. 

Linking up with the RSC. Lunch time, then sewing some green scraps.

Little House Sew Along

 I chose to do the two color block this week of the Indian Star block and love how it turned out! I just hope I have enough fabrics from my jelly roll for all 9 of the blocks. We will see. I might have to see if I can find another one or something comparable, just in case.  My blocks are finishing a bit bigger at 18inches, since I am using 2.5 inch strips to make the log cabin part. The inner block is still the 6 inch finished. 

Linking up to the sewing along with Melva Loves Scraps.

I'm having a lot of fun with these and remembering good times reading the Little House on the Prairie books when I was growing up. 

A new sew along start

 Little House Sew Along 2026 by Melva Love Scraps started a couple of weeks ago. I ran across it and then was thinking what colorways to use. I've got a few 2.5 inch jelly rolls and decided the purple one would be great for this project. I'm going to 'modify' stuff so I don't have to trim things up so my blocks will be a wee bit bigger. 

The purples are much more vibrant in person.

The first block is a maple leaf block with the surrounding log cabin strips around it. I might add the stem, I might not. We will see. 

Linking up to the sew along before the next clue drops tomorrow!

Nine patch ufo progress

 Looks like binding is the next step. I got this pinned yesterday. Machine quilted today. Ill be hand stitching binding dow later.

I do love days off work with nothing scheduled to do!

So glad I had made my binding already. It just needed pressing.

This was yesterday when I started.  I pinned it on the floor and could barely move last night with back pain. Thankfully it is much better today. Emily walked Bear today for me, since they are off.

I think I'll make sweedish meatballs for dinner, so I need to go get things for that.