Finishes...

I got the binding finished this week on both of these quilts so they are officially finished!

Rainbow under the stars.... finished at 92x92 and will live on my bed. I bribed the kids with bowling if they would hold the quilts for me.

Grandmothers Choice finally got the binding finished last night too.

Time to go pull another top and see if I can get another one finished  off - I'm thinking the churn dash top that is 50x65 should be a nice small one to finish off this month. I pulled some batting parts that just need to get stitched together.

17 in 2017....

May was not a very productive month... but......

The 2015 RSC Challenge quilt.. I really need a name for this one!.... got quilted and the binding is sewn to the front. I just need to hand stitch it down.... hopefully that will happen this month. This one is a biggie - 92x92 and quilted on my little viking domestic sewing machine in three sections, then machine stitched together on top and hand stitched on the back. It worked out well and was a great way to machine quilt a huge quilt on my little machine. I found enough of the hand dyed fabrics for the scrappy binding.

I also finished step 4 of the crochet mystery I started a couple of years ago. Now to add the white middle on all 20 of them for step 5.

Head on over to see how Meredithe and others did this month with moving along some UFO's.


I think my hand pieced and hand appliqué midget blocks top will come out to play this month. I want to make an appliqué border for it... but I think I need a small framing border first...Hopefully I can decide on a color soon (dark blue, green?) to hand stitch that on before starting to appliqué some vines, flowers and maybe a bird or two onto the yellow border. Each block finishes at 4.5 inches in this quilt...I  did about one a week while waiting in the car line at school on the kids to make this one.

It is $2 movie day today - a movie, popcorn and a drink to see Sing. It's my day off so I said I'd take the kids. Must grab a shower first so I'd better be off of here.

Sunday and a holiday weekend to kick off summer....

We are settling into summer this weekend with the kids. The change from school being out is new but..... both kids had a later bedtime last night and slept in this morning! Aidan was 7:30 and Emily was 8AM! That is unheard of with my kids..... so the 9 bedtime might not be too bad! They were in the pool until close to 8 last night so I think that helped with sleeping.

Today they are off to Grandma's and I hear the temps will be 'feels like 100'! I guess summer is now officially here in Florida.

I'll pop into the garden quickly before it is unbearable and rake the weeds out from tilling yesterday and plant a few things after adding to the soil.

A quick pick up of the house and then a trip to the Pet store.... should leave me an afternoon of playing with my sewing machine to finish off the quilting on the third and last section of the 2015 RSC Challenge quilt. I really hope to be stitching that last section onto the first two this evening so I can quilt the final border tomorrow and attach the binding tomorrow night!  This is the first two sections together. I think this time I will create a sashing for the back and sew it onto one side by machine as I attach the top. I had extra backing last time and just turned under and stitched that down on the first connection... but I think I liked adding with the pre cut and ironed one better. We will see how that one goes! It is a learning process after all!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for the Slow Sunday Stitchers this weekend.

RSC in green.....

I took a break from tilling the very green weeds in the garden (going to try and plant watermelon, pumpkin, zucchini again - nothing from the last try and maybe cucumber) to get a little green sewing in.

Three 16 patch blocks got made.....

which led me to think I need to move some of the green out of the shelves and get them into a quilt.

Some of these (with solids and whatever else I find - maybe the blue and maroon plaid too?) might just get made into Bonnie Hunters Bricks and stepping stones. I made one before which my nephew has..... we will see where this one ends up!

Linking up to the RSC Challenge. Hopefully later today I can pin the last section of the 2015 RSC quilt so I can get it quilted tomorrow and attach it to the first two sections. I'd love to get this one completed by the end of the month!

It was the last week of school - the kids are officially 3rd and 4th grades now. They both got some awards this week at school - Aidan got all A honor roll, writing award and one from PE. Emily got E/S honor roll (A/B), one from PE and she got the high honor of the girl Golden Bear from her teacher. Her first time winning it and she was so proud!

Last night was my last cooking club (silly me signed up for another one starting next Friday!!!!)

We made breakfast for dinner - it was yummy! Recipes can be found on the Pampered Chef Website.

Berry Pancake Puff

Lemon Cherry Crumble Cake - we used raspberry jam last night but I hear we are making this tonight for dessert!

Ham 'N Eggs Brunch Braid

RSC Saturday....

 It's Raining! We are in dire need of rain and the nice soaker we are getting today is a blessing! I just love the relaxing sound of the rain drops splattering on the roof. So calming.

I have not played with green scraps this week but, I have been working on one of my RSC tops. I got this section (28x92) of my 2015 RSC Challenge quilt pinned this week.

Then I made the X machine stitched through all the blocks. This morning I finished up the petals around the X in each block. 

This is how it is looking on a green one. 

I am leaving the border section quilting for after I have the three sections sewn together.  Which means I don't have to decide on that quilting design right now! I was thinking the rounded petals all around... but it might end up to a free motion flower with a loopy loop connecting it..... we'll see. The walking foot is working really well for the X and petals (I change the stitch length to 3 on my machine) and the section is not too bad to work under my machine. The next section will be 36x92 with 3 full 12 inch blocks in each row. 

I really hope this quilt as you go method works well without a sashing on the front. I am leaving 1/4 of an inch on the edge and hope it will work when I sew it together. Wish me luck!

This pattern is available for free under the RSC 2015 tab on Angela's block at the RSC Challenge link up. Mine was done using some beautiful hand dyed fabrics from Vicki Welsh. I highly recommend her fabrics - luscious colors and they are a joy to work with. 

I have a feeling I will be contacting her to purchase fabrics later this year to make this quilt for my niece who is graduating from HS next June. She searched patterns and asked for either the pattern star struck by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville 

(like her cousin Mindy's quilt only in teal, blue and deep purple)  or this one. 

My  break is over.... time to plan the next graduation quilt.

The link to the graduation quilts I have made so far:
Ben - Labor Day Stars 2010
Kristin - Yellow Brick Road 2011
Mindy - Star Struck 2012
Jillian - Kaliedoscope 2013
Rebecca - Kaliedoscope 2014
Alex - Hunters Star 2015
Left to go - Sarah 2017, Sally 2019 and Charlie 2021... then my kids!

RSC Saturday....

This week I found the stack of blocks from the 2015 RSC Challenge quilt that Angela designed. It is still accessible on her blog under the 2015 tab if you are interested in making your own!

I modified the borders for mine to extend the chains. This week is the week to sew the blocks into sections. I have one side of 2 blocks and the border sewn together and hope to finish the other side later today..... after I fix two things... the top part I guess I cut the white border a little too long as it is off and then by the yellow block - need to turn that connector block so the orange is on the bottom! Good thing I laid it out this morning!

The middle section is sewn into rows that just need to get sewn together. 

The thought process is that in smaller sections I should be able to machine quilt this on my small sewing machine. It is too big for my hand quilting frame.... so hopefully this will work as a quilt as you go. I am still trying to figure out quilting designs..... feel free to throw out ideas! I could use them. I am thinking an X through the connector and then making a petal around each section of the X..... Quilting design decisions is my least favorite part of quilting.


Linking up with the RSC Challenge for Multi colors today.

Mid week checkin....

Monday we celebrated a birthday. Aidan turned 9.... how in the world did 9 years pass so quickly? Grandma got him roller skates - Emily asked for some at Christmas so he needed a pair. Holy cow - she had his feet measured last week to order the right size - he was in a 4.5 sneaker and now he is a 5.5 and in a 6 for the skates! That is MY shoe size!

 I cancelled girl scouts that night and we got to go out to eat as a family. He got to choose the restaurant.... since we had just gone out to Yamato's the Japanese Steak House for Greg's birthday last month.. he chose Golden Corral. His birthday present still isn't here (bad Mommy didn't order it until Friday - oops!). We got him some extras to go with the Dash and Dot robot that Santa delivered for Christmas. The Launcher and Xylophone should be interesting for them to program and play with once they arrive.

Yesterday the Guinea Pigs got their nails trimmed and got to feel the grass outside for the first time. A carrot from the garden and Aidan added spinach from the garden for the other one right after I shot this photo. The black and brown one is Jimmy Jr - Aidan's and the other is Flower - Emily's. Yes, despite the name they are both boys!

Today is a half day at school, again. Both kids get to go to Crayola today... assuming everyone is healthy. Emily has been battling a cold for a while now (almost 2 weeks?) and Aidan's legs have been achy and he is tired a lot - growing again I think. I swear this kid is going to be taller than me (5 feet 2 inches) by Christmas!

No sewing yet this month... other than hand work on the 1857 blocks (all those corner peels are onto the blocks I did last month). So.... what are my plans for the 17 in 2017? Continue with the 1857 blocks - 20 to make to 'catch up'..... I hope to get 4 or 5 done this month in the car line and at bowling.

Since Teal is the color for the RSC.... I am going to pull out the 12 - 8.5 inch cat blocks and sew them together. I found a mouse that I think will work as a cute block in the borders (surfing mouse coloring photo's while helping with homework!) ... thinking 3 on each side running around with a teal spool block in each of the 4 corners. Will see how I do with that =) The mice with be 2 shades of grey I think and will be appliqued.

I also pulled out the RSC 2015 quilt. I forgot how pretty this one is. I am extending my chains into the border so they 'finish'. I think I stopped because I was out of pink or red or brown or purple...but I think I found some so we will see if I have enough of the background white to finish it off for the blocks. This one is huge... so I am debating on how to put it together. It will finish too big to finish on my sewing machine. I don't want to hand quilt this one (have too many others in the queue). I am thinking maybe do sections (border + 2 columns; 3 columns; 2 columns +border) and quilt each section and then connect carefully the top together and then use a sashing on the back. It will be an experience to do it without a sash on the front but I think it will work. Worst case - I'd like to get this into the strips by the end of the month. Maybe to quilt it next month?

I also got my Thangles quilt to a little top last month - 33x43 I think. I pulled a backing and some strips of leftover batting to piece together to work for the middle. I hope to get this little one quilted and a scrappy binding onto it by the end of the month. Lofty plans... along with my normal RSC blocks for the challenge. If not... there is always next month!!!

Slow Sunday Stitching....

Today I was up and out in the living room before the rest of the house. I was able to get a few purple stitches in the squares of the dresden plate. I pulled the light blue to work on this month (Aqua for the RSC Challenge) but realized I never finished the purple one! Oops! 11 squares to go.... and maybe some cross hatching in the white I think.

No aqua so I'm doing light blue this month for my RSC hand quilting on my Dresden.

I'll also plan to get some of these peels added to the corners of my 1857 blocks so they will be finished. I had to prep some more peels on Friday as I only had one left in the little baggie.

Maybe the cat will stay away so I can finally stitch down the binding on the quilters scrapbook tonight? Every time I pull it out, Maxie thinks she needs to jump up and snuggle in.... and it would be rude to disturb her. Spoiled cat. I only got one strand of thread into the binding before she took over!

First though..... the boy turns 9 tomorrow so the grandparents are coming over today for a BBQ for lunch. Dad is attempting a layer cake for Aidan this year. The kids are outside with crepe paper to decorate. I still need to clean up the kitchen - make a taco salad, pasta salad and I think that is all that is left. Dad is in charge of burgers, brats and dogs on the grill.

Linking up with Kathy over at Slow Sunday Stitching. Also a very late RSC Saturday link up showing some purple from January and beginning plans for Aqua on my dresden this month. I think my 2015 RSC Quilt will try and become a top this month too! So exciting! I am extending the chain into the border so that is the step I am on at this point. All the blocks are not sewn together either - so lots to get done on this pretty quilt this month.