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.

Sunday

Today I'm pretending it is my 'Saturday' since I have Monday off... and was transporting a kid most of yesterday. I did get dinner made for me at the expense of hubbys back. Poor guy, he made dinner (steaks, baked potato and steamed broccoli) but was in too much back pain to eat :(. It was yummy though.

Yesterday was Solo and Ensemble MPA (music performance assessment) a little over an hour away from us. Emily signed up for one of each with her clarinet as it was a requirement to be a section leader next year. 

this was their ensemble. my kid is in the middle.

We got there a couple hours early, so I grabbed lunch from the concession area, went to the car and did a little stitching with the windows down. I did have to put a quilt up to block the sunshine a bit as it was getting a little warm despite a nice breeze. I got the four orange hexagons stitched and quilted. Oops, guess the flowered print needs the quilting added.

We stayed another hour or so and observed another friend of hers do her solo. She did good despite being extremely nervous. I saw this hanging up in the room she performed in and loved the saying. How neat to have this in a high school classroom.

I have made some progress on cross stitch when the dog lets me. 

This is where I was a week ago.

This is where it stands now. The counting and careful stitching of the 'neutrals' doesn't show up well, but it is making progress. I like the weekly comparisons as it shows I am making progress on it.

Joy kindly reminded me I have tons of UFO's listed on my Ravelry challenge and we are halfway through already! Yikes. That is my next project today. The dog has been walked, the chickens needed food so a trip to Tractor Supply happened, the kitchen got cleaned up, the chickens got fed and let out to wander in the back yard. Laundry started and moved..... time to go sew! Kids went to Grandma's house since they are off tomorrow as well for Presidents day.  Let's see if I can get a quilt pinned and start the machine quilting on it! I think I made the binding already, it just needs pressing.

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers. I've watched some of the hockey from the Olympics and figure skating and snippets of curling (I did live on the border to Canada for almost 40 years after all!). 

RSC in green

 I had some of the green strips from the Christmas Wreath that wanted to get used so I made a couple of houses. Yes, I see the boo boo. It will get fixed later today and roof will get flipped... and I see I have 3 red chimneys instead of 2! I must have been sleeping when I did that one last month! Oops. Linking up with the RSC.

I'm off to driving Em to a solo and ensemble MPA (Music Performance Assessment) soon a good hour away from us. I'll take some hand work with me.

We saw the turkeys while on our walks this week. Bear is much better walking by them at this point. He stopped so I could snap a photo or two. I did get to go see Aidan play in his first Tennis match on Thursday. Not bad for just learning tennis last month.

Progress on QAYG Hexagons

 Last night was spent at school watching these below kids from 8 local schools perform their Winter Guard routines. 

Sunday, I spent time stitching these hexagons into twosies. They need to get sewn into groups of 4, and then I'll start making my column to add to the existing extra ones I've done already. I obviously need to add a bunch more colors to the mix first through! Looks like I'll need to prep more of these this week at some point.

Joy kindly reminded me I need to work on my Winter UFO quarter projects. Sigh. I don't like the next stage - prepping and pinning for quilting. Alas, I will get it pressed and pinned today after work. That will allow me to do a little quilting on it Wednesday evening and Thursday, fingers crossed. I'd like to get that old nine patch UFO finished off this month. I was hoping for a finish each month this quarter.... we will see how the next month and a half go! The calendar is pretty full with kid events, but I tend to do better when I am busy... since in my mind I only have this slot of time to do something, so I do it... rather than putting it off until later!

Sunday - a day of rest and stitching?

 I'm still recovering from a Winter guard competition chaperoning (I really don't do anything - just another adult there and I get in free!). We got to school for 8AM and got home after 10PM. The competition was a couple of hours away and we had the added bonus of a handful of the kids were preforming that morning for Pre-MPA for show choir across town. We picked them up after the performance and the school bus booked it to the event. We arrived 20 minutes before the JV was to preform - so no warmups, but they did great and placed 3rd in their division of 9 at the event. Not bad considering 3 people have dropped out - the most recent 2 after winter break so the show was rewritten a few weeks ago. Em is a co-captain this year.

the start of the show.

Em is on the right.

Progress has been made on the Cross Stitch this week.

last Sunday Feb 1

This morning Feb 8.

I just have a small stack of tall houses to glue baste for the current cut parts of Brimfield Awakening. I was able to get a good stack done while the kids were getting ready before we left for the competition. I also stitched closed a hole in one of the snowballs for the performance.

This week the boy turned 18 on Friday, and we will see if he wants to do his 'birthday dinner' today or another time. Friday he was full from a baking contest the Academic club had after school - lots of sweets were eaten! Yesterday Em and I were gone all day and he did his annual birthday lunch and shopping with Grandma. He wants to do Indian at the local restaurant to check it out. We will see if he opts out since it is Superbowl Sunday here in the USA. I'll watch the game and do some stitching while listening. I'm not into football but will watch today. We do streaming services and not cable.... so I ordered Peacock (NBC) here in the USA so I can watch the Superbowl and the Olympics for the next couple of weeks. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

Must go walk the dog, who did not get walked or go out much yesterday while I was gone. 

Happy 18th to my boy today!

 This kid is officially an adult today! Yikes, seems like just yesterday we were taking him home from the hospital... and then back to the hospital twice with high jaundice levels. It was a fun first couple of weeks with him. We are not too big on birthday's in my house, but I did get a few balloons and made a banner that hung outside his bedroom door this morning. Then I blew up orange and blue (Florida UF Gater colors) balloons to have in the hallway as he walked to the kitchen. Emily might have tossed a couple at him as well. 

His Dad made the requested cheesecake with raspberries as his birthday 'cake' yesterday. We will enjoy that later today.... although after school his academic team is doing a party with surprise baking entries and a few blind testers. He made something to bring in, and it will be interesting to see the results. I hear 9 are baking something for the challenge.

I seem to be enjoying the cross stitch and just working on that lately. I finally have a leaf of the 'quilt' nearly completed. Progress! No stitching happened while watching the Tampa Lightning game last night. Way too exciting. That reminds me... need to see if there are any tickets available later this month while we are over that way for the Indy Car races.

Brimfield Awakening

 I have had trainings online at work this week and finally remembered to put my BA stuff near my desk. I was able to glue baste these stacks during one training this morning. 

My tip so I remember - I started on the right side of the house top and went counterclockwise all around. That worked best for me.

I am hoping to have a good stack of at least the big house and the short ones to start stitching sets of 3 on the Winter Guard trip on Saturday. I said I'd chaperone and feel much better this week so should be able to go. Another long day - 8AM to 10PM is the schedule and the competition is a good 2 hours away. Stitching time on the bus is a possibility. 

Cross Stitch

 Cross stitch is a good cold weather project! I've been adding stitches on the inside of the quilt area but since they are white and light creams, they don't show a lot of progress. 

Someone thinks it's cold, and lets his girl cover him up. Anyone else, and he immediately gets up and lays on the quilt. Emily, and he snuggles down and sleeps!

Chilly Sunday in Florida

 It was 23 degrees and feels like 14 in north central Florida this morning around 8AM and it won't get above freezing until 11AMish. We are similar temps  tonight as well. Thank goodness for all the quilts in the house to keep us toasty!

Last Sunday I posted my cross stitch at this stage.

I've been doing a lot of stitching this week! I need to start alternating the colors with the background white and lights of the quilt area so I can make progress there. It is just more fun to stitch the colors as you can see the patterns emerge. 

I suppose I need to go break the ice on the chicken waters. The container for Bear (the dog) on the porch was covered in ice when I let him out. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Stay warm out there.