RSC in aqua

 I got a little sewing time in this afternoon and got 2 teal/aqua 16 patch blocks done as well as the other purple I needed for that set.

Earlier this week I finished the Arkansas Traveller quilt. It is currently in the dryer.. which is taking forever. We got a new set yesterday, it is ventless but does take longer to dry. We will see how it does with the quilt. This was the photo from Tuesdays finish.

The dryer just sang it's finished song. The backing. 

The crinkly front.

Linking up with the RSC. I was able to finish the Table scrap challenge piece already for next week's link up. 

RSC in green

 I got a little sewing time in this week for some Green RSC progress. I also did some catch up sewing - I only had 1 16 patch block in yellow and red, so I added another of each and 2 greens to the pile. Not sure what they will become, but they are handy to have ready for quick quilts.

Hand stitching moved to assembly and I have these hand pieced QAYG Hexagons into their column to eventually be added to make the current quilt bigger. I believe I want 2 more of these columns..... so it is time to start prepping more hexagons (and use that extra batting cast offs) for the next row. I'll be needing 48 for the next column.

Linking up Saturday with Angela and the RSC.

I hope to get my alternate blocks made this long holiday weekend as well as the final 5 BITA blocks so I can start assembling that quilt top.

The kids have 3 days of school left next week. Next fall I'll have a Senior and a Junior! Emily is playing at the Graduation Saturday morning (she gets to drive herself over there since it starts at 8AM and I'm sure she has to be there by 7AM).

 We did a Brisket on the smoker on Thursday, and I also picked up a close to 10 pound pork shoulder that will go on the smoker sometime this weekend. That should load up the freezer a bit for Greg when we are travelling to Vermont next month for a few weeks. Fingers crossed it is a light hurricane season with no land hits. We could use a break after the back to back hits in October 2024.

RSC in red

I finally got some red sewing in this month! 

I added 6 BITA blocks. I just need 5 more next month and then I can start assembling my rainbow of blocks.

I added the second red string of beads block this month, along with two pinks, two blues and a yellow. I have another gold yellow prepped that I'll start working on later this evening. These are hand applique. I need to add some orange, teal and maybe bright green? White would not show on the background. I plan 16 blocks for these.

This hawk was on the fence when I got home from school with Emily today. Aidan was late with some AICE testing prep after school. Emily has some AICE prep for 2 classes tomorrow morning at school. 

When I messed up making the BITA blocks back in January, I ended up with this 'Alternate' block. I really need to come up with a name for them. I added 8 in red this month.

One 16 patch block in red. I realize I need to make one more of these. I have a couple of parts made and will sew a few more as I am making the Table Scrap Challenge. I hope to link up with that Saturday afternoon.

Linking up Saturday with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

A little red sewing

 I added 6 Birds in the Air blocks. I believe I only need 5 more of these and then I can start assembling them into a quilt top.

One 16 patch block got sewn as I was making these.

I also got a little prep work in on some more bead blocks. Three more backgrounds cut out and some green and gold orange peels cut and marked. 

Progress!

The audiobook in progress is The Women by Kristin Hannah. 

RSC in Blue

 I got a little sewing time in and was able to correctly make the alternate BITA blocks in blue today.

Well, this set of 4 is correct. The 16 patch looks good. 

I see an oops in this one. Top left block needs a little fix. Out comes the seam ripper.

Wednesday night was the bands Pre-MPA. We did a quick run to Kohls for black dress pants after Guard practice Tuesday night. They did well and will work on what the judges recommended on their 2 pieces. Next Friday night is their MPA.

I had found a good recipe site - Amybakesbread. There was a yummy looking cinnamon focaccia recipe that looked good. I decided to try the chocolate chip scones instead this time. I am waiting for them to cool a bit before I try them.  

I'll link up on Saturday with the RSC.

Rsc in blue

The chickens are finally all doing their job and we are getting 4-5 eggs a day! We are making sure that my MIL's friend is kept in stock with eggs as she is on a tight budget and goes through a lot of eggs. I did a couple of egg dishes for dinner on Monday night. I need to hard boil some tonight for deviled eggs. Greg used a few today making the birthday cheesecake with raspberries for the birthday boy.

Today, (Thursday) Aidan turned 17! How did that happen? We went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Wednesday evening for his birthday. I was surprised how busy it was around 7PM mid week. He has had a great week, with a 2nd place Academic Team win at Regionals on Tuesday (North Central Florida). Not too shabby after the surprise County win last month. 2 Nice trophies for the School case.

My FIL was finally moved to rehab on Tuesday. He is doing much better today when we visited after getting a good nights sleep. He has quite the cold, but it appears they are doing a good job with medicines for it. He was taken off to PT as we were getting ready to leave today. 

That gave me the afternoon to do a little sewing. I had planned to make the 'alternate' bird in the air blocks in blue, but I guess I made the actual BITA blocks by mistake! Oh well, 4 less to make. I think I am down to needing 17 now. 

I made one 16 patch with 2.5 inch blocks. I dug deep into the blue bin and found some fun prints I had forgotten I had. 

I'll link up Saturday with the RSC.

RSC round 2 for the day!

 I was thinking of riding today, but Lori figured it was pretty cold out and offered me a pass this morning. Emily and Kyra went early to give the horses some pampering before and after their 11AM lesson. She asked to be picked up around 2PM. So... I got to sew!

Those mistake Birds in the Air blocks were asking for one more set to be created in pink, so I obliged! 

I do think I will like these blocks. I'm not sure if they will get mixed up with other colors or will stay in groups of one set of 4 colors. I guess I am adding these to the mix for the RSC 2025! While making these I am cutting some 2.5 inch strips from the scraps and wall of fabrics. They are used to make these, the bird in the air blocks and the 16 patch blocks. My little pile of them was gone, so it was time to build it up again for quick pulls for projects.

I made another 16 patch block while sewing the above two blocks. A couple of these a month will be fun to play with at the end of the year. 

While in the sewing room.... I played with the cast off cuts of the sweaters and ironed them to a 5 inch background. I got a bolt of Kona from MSQC last month in navy and eggshell. 10 yards each, so I used the eggshell for the cozy sweater quilt and again for these fun blocks. I saw on the Facebook group of the 2023 Christmas box last year someone who did this and alternated them with the sweater blocks. I thought it was a neat idea. I do have quite a few charms left and did get another charm bundle when they were on sale this year. These are 5 inches.

Next on my list of things are the Erin's butterfly parts I made years ago with the RSC. I started with hand applique of the red and teal, but I don't have more of that dotted background. I spent about 30 minutes searching for it yesterday. I also did not like how the placement shifted as I worked on them.  I think I'll pull them off and instead use one of these three bolts for the background instead. (Ivory, eggshell, navy) Now that I have used interfacing, I think I'll machine applique them to the background and then will finish them off with embroidery for the middle body and the antenna. I have 8 of them, so I might need to add one more to make a nice 9 patch with them.

Linking up with the RSC.

RSC in pink

 I tried the birds in the air blocks again this week and made sure to have a completed block nearby while sewing these together.

These turned out correct....

as opposed to the ones I did for last week!

I also did a 16 patch block as a leader and ender while working on my Table Scrap Challenge for the month.

Here is a sneak peak - notice the pink cozy sweater in the middle!

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.

Weekend....

 It has been an interesting few days! Thursday, I got my permanent crown placed and had another cavity filled. It finally stopped hurting by the crown yesterday, lots of taking it in and out really annoyed the gums around that area. 

Friday, Emily texted me around 1PM (school gets out at 3:45) saying her throat hurt to swallow and she felt really cold when she moved. I walked into hubby's room and sent him to go pick her up from school since I was working. She did not want to go to the nurse since she thinks they only send people home if they vomit. She fell asleep on the way home and I clocked her temp at 102 when I checked on her! Her fever is down today to just slightly elevated by a couple of degrees, her ear hurts and her throat as well. She is all stuffed up as well, so a good head cold. She will probably be home from school tomorrow. I cancelled her horses on Saturday, so she has been sleeping a lot this weekend.

The boy had F1 racing this weekend. The race was in Australia, so he watched qualifying first thing Saturday morning and then the race first thing this morning. It really was run in the early AM hours so we watched it after the fact. Quite a race as well. Very exciting and he was happy to cheer on Alonso to another 3rd place finish. 

I had a Girl Scout event for appreciation of the adult volunteers last night at Painting with a Twist. It was a lot of fun. I wish I had made that yellow/white area smaller or my well bigger so it covered the light yellow on top. Oh well. The magic wishing well makes me smile.

I got the garden path blocks sewn together into a top today. I had used my 2.5 inch strip die to cut some sashings, but when I laid them out it just did not look good. I need to press this still, but it is measuring about 47 inches by 59 inches.

I also added the binding to my ABC Table Scraps Challenge today. I ended up hand stitching it down since I completely forgot to do it by machine this time. I had an Unfinished Block hanging around in greens that decided to become a little table mat for the table I made in 8th grade that sits next to my recliner. A few of my things I have been using this weekend. My change purse that holds my scissors, thread and needles. Seam rippers, for the next project and my water and YLI blue thread for hand quilting on the Bear Paw.

Speaking of that next project. I made hubby a quilt back in 2008 and it has been used a lot! I did a little binding fixing this week and now am working on unpicking the machine quilting from the middle sections. It is not holding up well, not sure if it is my terrible machine skills, the thread or a mixture of both but I'm slowly working on unpicking it and I'll add some simple machine quilting back to just hold it down. This was a pattern from the Nickle Quilts Book.

A photo of the quilt top back in 2008.

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers (even if it is the unstitching variety for me today!).

Not much progress.

 Well, the girl was picked up this morning from school around 7:30 AM. I got her home in time to refill the coffee in my travel mug and bring the boy to school. A stop at the Market of Marion and Dunkin on the way home and it was 9:30 and time to log into work for the day. The school is 20 minutes away without traffic. I picked up some nice produce - some plums, fresh tomatoes, zucchini, a pepper, cukes since the ones in the store are terrible and these taste like they should! A huge Nappa cabbage and some kale. Emily already made some Kale chips and they turned out pretty good. I'll use a bunch of the cabbage in the veggie lo mein tonight. I'm also going to pop my Prime Rib in the oven this afternoon. My Dr. did say my iron was low =). I love that it is 5.99 a pound right now at Publix so I got a nearly 9 pounder and after cooking I seal a meal slices and pop in the freezer. I pull it out for adding to my lunch salads during the week. I might go pick up another one... you just can't beat that price and I obviously need some iron in my diet! That anemia might explain the constant tiredness and cold hands and feet. I need to grab a multiviatmin as well.

I attempted to pin the 16 patch quilt twice yesterday and took it out both times. Something is off but I can't figure it out. I tried laying out on the floor and that was not working so I rolled it onto the boards. Still off. I think I'll pull everything off, iron it and reroll and see if that helps. It got put into a time out last night so after picking up Aidan at school for 6PM, getting home and warming up some leftovers for dinner I just sat and rewatched F1 race 2 of the 2021 season with him. I do hope to get this guy successfully pinned, quilted and bound this month so I can get it to it's new owner.

Peanut is happy it is a working day and is taking a break from bugging me at my desk to watch some birds outside the window.

I've noticed a few blog posts listing favorite Christmas things. I have a few songs that I always love hearing this time of year. First is  Belleau Woods by Garth Brooks.  Another song is I'll be Home for Christmas. Finally, The Christmas Shoes. 

RSC

 I have not done much sewing this week. I did just pop into the sewing room this morning and found the Fons and Porter Flying geese ruler and cut out the parts for the 4 geese I need to make these 16 patches into stars. I never know what to use as the background but the one deeper cream print I grabbed did not have much, so I pulled this yard of a light cream to use. We will see how long it lasts! Maybe I'll do a few with this background and then a few in some other fabrics to continue with the scrappy theme. By adding the flying geese to the 8 inch blocks they will turn into 16 inch blocks. I think I'll add a black and a brown 16 patch to the pile and use 12 different colors to make a nice 3x4 setting. No time to sew them yet as the girl has horses at 11 that I need to bring her to.

We are having way too much takeout and since I had no thoughts on dinner Thursday - we opted for Publix subs at the new store that opened about 3 miles from us. That is going to be dangerous!

Friday night was Veggie Lo Mein instead of pizza. The recipe is under my recipe tab way at the bottom. 

It did clear out my veggie drawer so I'll need to go replenish - although I do have half a head of cabbage and a bunch of napa cabbage to use. I guess we will be having Keto Crack sausage and cabbage one of these nights for dinner to use it up!

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

RSC in bright green

It is going to be a long day! My son follows F1 racing, and they are in Japan this weekend. That makes for very early watching! I was up late (for me!) and watched the Practice 3 from 11PM-midnight with Aidan. He did stay up to watch the Qualifying from 2-3AM and slept until 11AM. The race is Sunday morning 1-3 AM our time. I hope to stay awake and watch it live. I watched qualifying when I got up this morning!

The dog decided I needed to get up a bit after 7AM to be fed but I had him get up my hubby to walk him. He let the girl sleep in! Silly dog. She got home a bit before 11PM after playing in the pep band at the high school football game. 

This morning was horses and she tried jumping again today. Just 2 poles crossed in an X low to the ground. Marshmallow did not want to jump but she got him to go over twice. Then did some trotting and a canter. I managed to not hit the record button so missed her going over both times, but I did get to see it!

Peanut got some attention while I was in the sewing room this afternoon. I stitched up one of my 16 patch blocks in bright greens.

I stitched together the Crossed Canoe blocks and thank goodness I took a picture of the blocks laid out on the floor. I always manage to move things around but lots of checking the photo had me sew this one together how I planned. It is currently 36x54 and I think I want to add a little border to get it to a 40x60 size (ok, 42x60) for Project Linus. I'll piece the snowflake backing that I have left for this one and just need to figure out what color to use as a border. Any ideas? I think I know how I will walking foot quilt this one as well, outlining the middle canoe parts so it looks like a gentle curve. 

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

Weekend round up.

I only spent a little time in the sewing room on Saturday. I sewed up these 2.5 inch squares in light blue for my 16 patch blocks. I think I might add flying geese around to make a star and then a 3 background and one colored square matching the block to finish them off this year. 

So that it will look like this quilt below that lives with my MIL and Papa Andy.

I finished the binding on the Sweet Confetti quilt last night. Another quilt completed off the UFO list. I had used the last of the warm and natural batting on the roll I had for this.... so, I ordered a new one that arrived on Friday. That should last me a few years, I think.

For the non quilting related things. Emily had horses on Saturday morning and rode Marshmallow. He does not like other horses, and she was in a ring with about 4-5 other riders so he was a little head strong. She kept him under control well though. I had my second riding lesson on Thursday. So far so good! I did feel the thighs a bit on Friday and Saturday with the little bit of posting I did. Muscles you don't tend to use much, I guess!

Before horses she was loving up with Bear. He seems to think he owns the couch!

The boy has headed to Grandma's for the day. The girl is home, and we will head over to school this afternoon and do the animal feeding. She was selected to show the chapter heifer this year at the youth fair with her FFA chapter. She is excited as she tried for this last year but was not selected. The weekend and holiday feedings of the chapter animals are spread out between the 6 kids showing the cow, pig and lamb. Right now, the lamb is the only one on campus, so she gets to go feed the lamb today.

That gives me a good 4 hours to sew. I see the crumb quilt calling my name for pinning and quilting today. I zig zagged two pieces of leftover batting together yesterday that will work perfect for this quilt.  Might I get another quilt finished from the UFO list this week?

I'll settle in tonight with some hand stitching of some sort after we pick up Aidan from Grandma's house 40 minutes away. (School is a good 20 minutes away so I will have bunches of time in the car again today).

Maybe adding another granny crochet square?

Stitching on my Harmony block?

So nice to have choices. Linking up with the RSC Challenge and Slow Sunday Stitchers.