A May finish...

I got this in under the wire - finishing off the binding last night around 9:30PM. My Celtic Solstice - the Bonnie Hunter Mystery from the fall of 2013 is finally finished!
So bright and cheerful - I had it on the bed two weeks ago after I attached the binding to the top and I guess Greg had not seen it before since he was asking an awful lot of questions about it! And yes.. he has snuggled under it already so it passed the test. The cats have also given it the two meow's up..... It was interesting to finish the binding with a Maxie cat right up on the quilt resting her head on my left hand which was holding the quilt for the right to bind it.

Celtic Solstice - 2013 Bonnie Hunter Fall Mystery. Machine pieced and quilted by Deb in Ocala, Florida. Quilt has warm and natural batting. Finishes at 81.5 x 81.5 inches.

Slow stitching Sunday...

I have one side plus half of another of binding to finish off tonight on the Celtic Solstice Quilt. I hope to get a little quilting time in tonight as well - I have two stars left to machine outline and all the side partial stars to outline on the Hunter Star graduation quilt. Progress....with hopes to mail it out later this week. That June 13th deadline is coming up quickly!

Yesterday afternoon my employee was going to take something out to the dumpster and opened the door and saw this! Only in Florida. The nice police officers came about 15 minutes after we closed and captured him and relocated it. I hope we don't find any more of them out there today when I head into work.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.

Oh, I tried a new recipe this morning. It was for a chocolate cake donut - without a donut pan I made muffins. They baked for 9 minutes at 450 degrees in the muffin pan. I had to save off two to bring into work for Gail and Dustin... since I mentioned I was planning to make them this morning. Nice and easy and oh so yummy! Here is the link.

http://www.somethingswanky.com/baked-chocolate-cake-donuts/

Slow Sunday stitching.....

After a trip to Tampa yesterday afternoon to see a night show of Disney's Frozen on Ice with Ms. Emily and her Daisy troop, I plan to settle in with some slow stitching this evening. First I have to do a short day at work but then I plan to settle in with some binding on the Celtic Solstice quilt this evening.

Zonked out on the ride to Tampa after a morning of pool time with Grandma H. Yes Mom, I was stopped at a stop light when I took this!

Celtic Solstice - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Fall 2013

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what others are working on today.

Monday.....

 It was raining this morning so no walk. Instead...... I moved boxes to reach the Celtic Solstice quilt and backing that was already rolled onto the boards. I got it pinned and then decided to do some squiggly lines (Wow - Laverne and Shirley just popped into my head!) in the middle part. A nice wavy line in the cream border and a straight line on the next border.

Then.... the big blue border. I switched to the free motion foot and ran into trouble. I'm thinking loops with flowers in the variegated thread but.... three thread breaks already made me stop after four flowers. It is making progress... and one way or another it will get finished off tonight or tomorrow. I already have the binding made for this in blue..... I'm thinking I should have done orange but, I'm going with blue.

November wrap up of goals...

I think I did pretty good this month!
1. The maple leaf quilt got finished. Well... I just need to hand quilt some maple leafs into that plain border. Two leaves are in the black print right now.10 to go int he black and 12 in the cream =)

2. Celtic Solstice was finished into a top. Bonnie's new mystery starts today... Are you joining in?

3. The Century Quilt was finished into a top 10/28. I'll quilt this next year sometime.

4. Snails Tail - no progress.
5. RSC color of the month was light blue. Hexies, churn dashes and a 16 patch block were made. I made a couple of missing 16 patches and then made all 12 into stars... then put them into a quilt top!

6. Tiny Tuesday - I made a couple but I think I have enough for my sampler quilt. Just need time to start putting them together.
7. Hugs and Kisses got pinned and the hand quilting started on Thanksgiving! The yellow block is done....48 to go!

8. I pulled out the Little T quilt and finished the hand quilting. It is now a finished little quilt.

9. I also decided to make 6 place mats for Thanksgiving this year. I got them done thanks to a pattern from Joanne at Canuckquilter.com.  I put Christmas fabric on the back so they are reversible!

I think I did pretty good. December there is no link party of goals.... but I'd love to finish up a couple of my RSC blocks into complete quilts. I also want to do my last two appliqué blocks for the Quilt Square Along blocks... the motive on that is to have two small things to hand quilt for a trip later in December. Head on over to see Kathi and visit her link party of goals.

Ta Da! - Celtic Solstice is officially a top!

Celtic Solstice is a top finishing at 82x82. There are 2302 pieces in this quilt!

I went with a mottled blue. Guess I need to go shopping and get more of that fabric for Alex's graduation quilt. His quilt is due for June 2015. I am trying to determine a pattern so I can start on it next month. His request was white and blue - not light blue or dark blue but a medium blue. I was thinking bear paw on point or a 12 inch block that has a plain center - nine patches in the corners and opposite 3 way sashing in the other four parts... not sure of the name of the block but I can see it in my head! Then... hunter star popped into my head this morning. I've always wanted to make that pattern and have the specialty rulers for it already. Do you think that would be boyish enough with blue and white? This is for a high school graduation present. I make a twin size quilt for each of the nieces and nephews as they graduate from high school. I've done 5 years in a row and this makes year 6 and then.... I get a couple years off! The next one is a Freshman this year.

Want a trip down graduation quilt lane? Well....you are going to get it anyway =)

Ben's quilt - leftovers from Greg's quilt using the Nickel Quilt book.

Kristin's Yellow Brick Road in batiks.

Star Struck for Mindy

Jillian's Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope for Becky

Home with a sick girl today. She has decided to pop a fever yesterday afternoon and tossed her cookies all over last night around 9:30. She finally got to sleep around 11 and slept until I had to wake her to bring brother to school this morning at 7:15. She is a little warm but seems better. It will be a day resting on the couch with the tv and hopefully back to school for her tomorrow. Lots of hand sanitizer for me today along with clorox wipes and lycol. I don't want this bug =).

Off to press the backing for hugs and kisses...... maybe I can get that pinned today finally? I'd love to start hand quilting that one this week. I used my 60% off coupon at Joanns yesterday and got 300 pins so I don't tie up all mine on that quilt. I did a text and also got another 60% off some citrus thread to quilt Celtic Solstice and a 20% off everything! Spent $45 and saved $45! Not too bad. That much more $ to spend on my Joann's gift card......

An update on Celtic Solstice....

Well, the first two borders are on. Now to find some green for the final border. I think I will make it wider than the pattern calls for to make it a good size quilt. It is 72x72 right now and I think I'll add 5.5 inch borders to make it 82x82 before quilting.

Celtic Solstice two borders on - VTQuilter

Close up - VTQuilter

Monkeys?

Mottled bright green for the border?

Emily had to have her picture taken.

Thoughts? Opinions? I had to add a couple of units to make things fit on the pieced border - mine are 22 and 24 instead of 21 and 23.
Mom just weighed in and does not like the green.......
Maybe a 2 inch green, a 1 inch orange and then a 3.5 inch medium blue? Hmmmmm. Must check and see what I have to work with.

Only the borders to go on Celtic Solstice!

It's a good thing I checked those four patches before I laid them out - I had to fix those two that I noticed were wrong last week. Since I hate sewing long seams..... I decided to do it as I went. I sewed two rows at a time and then sewed the rows together. It made it much more manageable and when I had four rows together....it was over half done and easy to continue! I'll have to remember that.... I usually just do the rows and then it sits for a while since I hate sewing long rows together.

I just need to finish piecing the middle border and cut the inner and outer borders out. A job for tomorrow I think. Yes Mom... the floors got swept and mopped and the living room got cleaned. Progress =)

It was clear out the crisper for dinner -  I made a veggie spaghetti sauce and threw in the proscuttio leftover from the meatloaf earlier this week. It came out pretty good and used up the pepper, mushrooms, onions and scallions hanging around with some of my canned tomato's. No recipe - I just tossed things in and that was dinner.  I made a loaf of french bread to go with it...... Must stop eating it! It is way too good. Good think I halved the recipe so I only have one loaf (well, half  a loaf left!).

Design wall Monday.....

I have about 6 or 7 blocks left to make for Celtic Solstice but I figured I'd lay a few of them out and see how it is looking while everyone else is away at work or school this morning.

Mom - I had to go back into the house and find the windshield scraper this morning... there was frost on the windows, roofs of the houses and the grass! It is November 3rd..... in FLORIDA for goodness sake. Thank goodness we are back to the 80's mid week. Had to pull out the kids winter coats this morning.

Off to pre-vote since I get to work tomorrow. Then a quick run to the store to pick up some deli meats and the rest of the things for meatloaf tonight. I'm doing the spinach, provolone and proscuttio in the middle tonight for a change of pace. I made the standard Betty Crocker one I grew up with the last couple of times. Au gratin potato's and a veggie or two will round out the meal. I baked off a bunch of pie pumpkins yesterday so I'll be making Aidan's pumpkin pudding for dessert.... I even picked up the spray cream this morning when I was running errands. Spoiled boy.

I realized I've never posted the recipe on the blog! In case someone wants to make this here it is. I got this from a dear friend Rita up in Vermont. Aidan absolutely loves this.

Pumpkin Maple Pudding.
Oven at 325 degrees. 2.5 quart dish.

1 - 16 ounce can pumpkin (I use fresh pureed pumpkin)
1 - 12 ounce can skim evaporated milk
3/4 cup Vermont maple syrup
1 egg
2 egg whites (I've been know to just put 2 eggs total in!)
1 Tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt.

Mix together in a big bowl. Grease the dish. Bake for 1 hour - pudding will jiggle in the middle.Take out of oven and sprinkle with nutmeg and 1/4 cup chopped pecans (I leave the pecans out!).
Bake 5-10 minutes more until a wooden pick comes out clean. Cool - cover and refrigerate.

Monday Civil War catch up.....

I had to make three CW blocks this morning to catch up from the weekend. No sewing this weekend other than a few stitches on some Celtic Solstice blocks on Sunday. I have half of step 5 done - 50 units! I did get Greg to show me the hose connect on the power washer and I got a great start on our long driveway. Lots of black mold and gunk is off and it looks so clean this morning! I'll do some more this afternoon while the kids are out riding their scooters.

The Civil War blocks today are getting interesting as I am running low on some fabrics. I am just pulling like fabrics from my stash to coordinate at this point.
Another Death went together pretty easily. It is not exactly like the book....but close enough.

A Little Broth.... I had it laid out correctly with the 60 degree triangles... and somehow the two lights did not end up together.....it seems I put the side rows on wrong. I did not notice it until after I trimmed it. Oops.... I made my own version for this one too!

Infernally Ungrateful went together as it should have.... so I was 1 for 3 today.

I am planning to do lunch with Emily since I completely forgot about it on Friday! Do I go power wash the driveway or sew some more.... ?

Friday sewing....

Absolutely no time sewing yesterday.... but the house is slightly cleaner than it was!
I made up for it today and did a bunch of sewing this morning. I made two Civil War blocks to make up for yesterday and today. I also got my four RSC blocks done.
Suspension of Furloughs and Americus Soldiers Relief Society on the bottom.

I also finished up the block A of Celtic Solstice. 24 of these are done so it is time for step 5 so I can make the alternate block. Two need some repair as the oranges are not turned correctly. Oops.

Tiny Tuesday....

I remembered it was Tuesday and made a Civil War block today!

This is called The Queen of the West and was towards the end of the book. Yes, I flipped through and pulled an easy one for today. Tomorrow I hope to start with the one a day for the month of October..... we'll see how I do.

After a trip to Sam's Club this morning to stock up the freezer and get lunch things for school I did a quick run through my LQS. I wound the last of my Bottom Line thread yesterday into the bobbin and needed more. I picked up a medium tan since that will go with the backing fabric I picked up for the next few quilts to get machine quilted. I also got a blue pearl cotton that I think will be used to big stitch the Little T quilt. Now to figure out what size needle to use for that.

My leader and enders has been making the orange and yellow hst's for step 3 of Celtic Solstice. I think there are more than 120 in that pile and I need 200 total. The pick up line today will have me snipping these apart and trimming the dog ears and counting them.  

I managed to outline the center of the Maple Leaf quilt and stitch around all the maple leafs this morning with the walking foot.

I think the area around the leafs will be stipple stitched. The geese outlined and then some small maple leafs quilted in the black and tan middle border. Lots of leafs stitched with swirls in the outer border. Then I have to pick a binding color..... Just writing the plans down in case I forget what I was planning when I get back to this tomorrow morning.

September Wrap up

This is a recap of my goals for September in the List Goals, Link Blog - Party. 

1.) Test a pattern Starlight Wishes for my blog friend Joanne. 

This is my completed Starlight Wishes. I just love how this came out. Thanks so much to Joanne for letting me test out your pattern. It is ready for purchase at her Craftsy store here. Here is a post she did with some different color options - a truly versatile quilt pattern.

2.) Applique the last Century Quilt block and put the top together. 
I'm happy to say the last appliqué block is done. I hope to put this top together next month.

3.) Continue my RSC blocks in the color chosen for September.
All completed - a 16 patch block, 13 hexagon flowers and 12 churn dash blocks in orange.
I also made the RSC Sampler blocks for the month in orange.

4.) Tiny Tuesday blocks from the Civil War Diary quilt.
I got a few done this month. I plan to catch up a bit next month.

5.) Step 3 and/or 4 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery.
Step 4 - 120 four patches in orange and green are completed.

6.) Walk every morning M-F for 30-60 minutes after dropping the kids to school. 

I did pretty good two of the four weeks. One week I was sick and had a sick kid home a little. This week - I stubbed my toe very badly on Monday afternoon and have been trying to stay off it for a couple of days. It is the first time I have had a toe actually turn purple from a bruise with swelling on the little toe. I'd say the corner of the coffee table won that round! Much better by the end of the week and I was able to bowl yesterday morning.

Goals for October.....
1. Finish the Maple Leaf UFO - top is done and batting is cut. Needs Quilting.

2. Finish the Snails Trail Rainbow quilt - top is done and batting is cut. Needs Quilting.

3. Continue the RSC Challenge in color selected for October. If black or grey I want to make mice to go around my teal cat blocks. 

4. Tiny Tuesday blocks - I'm going to shoot for one a day the month of October. Wish me luck on this one.

5. Step 3 and Step 5 of Celtic Solstice so I can start making those blocks and get the top completed before the next mystery starts the end of November.

6. Get the Century Quilt into a top stage. 

7. Applique the second December block for a pillow.

8. Start hand quilting the Hugs and Kisses Quilt after I finish putting the borders on.

9. Make two pillowcases as requested by my daughter for birthday present gifts for friends. One this Saturday and on the 11th of October for parties.

10. Steam clean the living room carpet - boy does it need it!
11. Continue walking in the mornings - especially now that it is a glorious temp in the mornings - high 60's and I love it!

I'm linking up with Kathi over at KCDesigns on Friday and Angela at SoScrappy on Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I really hope to have a Slow Stitching Sunday post with the Hugs and Kisses quilt ready for hand quilting... but we'll see how the next two days go!
It is calling for rain today and tomorrow but I hope to run some errands and pull some weeds this morning. Tomorrow Greg is busy with Aidan for scouts (archery in the morning and selling popcorn in front of Publix in the afternoon) and I get to do a birthday party with Emily in the afternoon for a new friend from school. Oh shoot - must sew his patches onto his uniform today too!
Have a wonderful weekend.

First Saturday in Orange!

I actually got some time to sew this week and it feels great. Angela posted two RSC Sampler blocks this week - bear paw and kick. I had fun picking out my orange fabrics for these. I am using a peachy orange for the lights this month. Oops, the bear paw is upside down!

I've been busy working on testing a pattern for Joanne who blogs as Canuckquilter. Starlight Wishes is going together beautifully. I just love when the seams all mesh together perfectly. That rarely happens with my sewing but it sure is working great on this quilt. I went with brights and black as a background. The next step is the first border and then prairie points. I have never done them before but her instructions are wonderful. I am having so much fun playing with this pattern. Wouldn't this look great done up in Vicki Welsh's hand dyed fabrics? Joanne plans to have this pattern available for sale later this month.

As some leader and enders I have 40 of my 120 four patches in green and orange completed for a step in the Celtic Solstice Mystery.

Head on over to SoScrappy on Saturday morning to see what other orange projects are being worked on this month. As for me..... I have a sick boy home (no fever but I know he is congested, sore throat and he was saying his tummy felt off this morning. By ten he was 'fine' and bored. Arrgghhh.) He so kindly shared these germs with Greg and I. Lets hope the girl does not come down with it next since it is her sleepover at Grandma's this weekend. I've got an hour to prep some appliqué pieces for the car line hand work. I'm guessing he won't want to stay home from school again even if he is sick =). He did some math problems on the board in the kids playroom, then some spelling words and shapes. His teacher had sent home some extra work sheets this week which he has worked through. Now he is counting down the minutes until we can go pick up his sister from school. Hmmmm maybe they'll play nice together so I can sew some more?

Saturday in green.....

You would think having both kids in school full time for three days this week I would have more done. Nope - I only got to sew on Friday. Lots of errands run on Wednesday and a whole stack of newspapers from the previous week got read after a 2.5 mile walk in the morning. I did cut lots of strips out for Celtic Solstice before getting the kids. Thursday - I dusted and vacuumed and cleaned; went to my bowling meeting that took 1 hour in the morning. That starts next Thursday - a new league to me and it will be while the kids are in school =). I got a 3 mile walk in before the temps got ridiculous. Friday..... I sewed and made a bunch of phone calls (school concerning Em's speech, pediatrician for Aidan's canker sores that keep happening, Mom and Mom-in-law a few times). Did I mention I got to sew?

It does not look like much but I have 80 of my 100 step two units done. Oh boy do these take a lot of time! They will be 3 inches finished! Notice all those 2 inch strips ready for parts of step 3,4 and 5?Not a single orange cut yet =)

These are the parts for the next 20 units of step 2 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery. 

I also got to sew the sampler block posted today - Bouncing Betty. This would be a great scrap quilt unit.

Head on over to SoScrappy on Saturday morning to see the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge links. I will be busy at work on Saturday and Sunday this week - assuming people are willing to go shopping in the 100+ heat indexes we are having this week. My car temp was 100 on Tuesday when we got in the car around 4PM and that was with the windshield screen up!

On my walks this weeks I got to see the turkeys again each day and this bunny was in my yard as I was coming home from my walk on Thursday.

Oh - Emily did start school on Wednesday - this is her in her classroom. It is very scary how much she looks exactly like me at that age!