June OMG is completed!

I finished the hand stitching on the binding last night for the graduation quilt. It just went through the wash and is all set to pack in the checked bag tomorrow for delivery. This disappearing nine patch is a long twin size and will be going to my nephew Charlie who graduated high school this year. Emma the chicken allowed a photo op with the quilt.

Linking up with the June Monthly Goal.

 

Happy Fathers Day!

 First off - Happy Fathers Day to the best Dad ever - my Dad! 8 days and I get to see you in person for a big hug.

Today will be much needed prep work for slow stitching. I finished off one Harmony block pieced by hand this week - so I have three more to prep and hand stitch. Those will probably be my take with me project. Each block is using 2 different reds and a tan from a Fat Quarter package. 

Other prep work will be the Hexagon QAYG blocks. I need to prep the rest of the purple for this month and I'm going to guess on July's RSC color and prep 15 of those as well. If I guess wrong - I'll be that much ahead for another month! I finished off my last prepped one this morning. Peanut was not happy to have a hexagon placed on his back!

Then I'll settle in with some slow binding stitching on the graduation quilt. I have one side almost done - 3 to go! I must say, I don't think I'll bind with black backing and binding again. Working with that and black thread to hand stitch is difficult. Who knew?

As I folded it up and placed it for a photo - someone had to check it out!

Here, I'll hold it down for you Mom!

My bed now! Well, that's what he thinks. This will be traveling up to Vermont next week to gift to Charlie.

What will you be slow stitching today? Linking up with the other turtle stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts who has encouraged us to slow down, relax and stitch for the past 9 years. Thank you Kathy and all the participants for the encouragement over the years.

Lots of progress!

First off - the graduation quilt got some straight line quilting, the binding made and attached to the front!  

The update on Harmony: The step I had prepped was stitched up yesterday. I just need to stitch the two  triangle in a square blocks together. I also prepped and marked the last 8 flying geese units for hand stitching. They go in the open spot on the outside edge of the middle sections to finish off the 28 inch block! Almost there on Harmony.... 3 more to go after this! Upon closer inspection.... I have the corner blocks turned the wrong way! I do love this effect though =)

Slow stitching Sunday

 I have been doing a little slow stitching and making progress on my Harmony quilt. I figured I'd concentrate on getting one 28 inch block done for the link up through the end of the month. I got the first set of steps sewn into the corner blocks. This is a pretty neat pattern laid out just like this though!

I'm working on the second to last parts - one more seam on this set and then I prep some flying geese for the last step. They will go in the middle and connect to the square in a square center. 

I'm hoping to be adding some binding stitching tonight as well. The graduation quilt is pinned and will get some straight line machine quilting today and the binding sewn to the top for hand stitching to the back this week. He graduated yesterday and it will get delivered in person in a few weeks when I am up in Vermont. I think it is around 66x88! 

Hubby pulled out some cocoa beans and made some chocolate this week. It does make the house smell wonderfully like chocolate! He was tempering it yesterday and this bar looks pretty good. I'll have to give it a taste test later today.

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers.

June OMG

 

My daughter snapped this photo of the 24 blocks for the graduation quilt last night. I started with 5 inch squares so the 'finished' block of 4 is bigger than my 12.5 inch ruler! This is a disappearing nine patch done in white, black and red for my nephew. I plan to deliver this in person at the end of this month when we fly up to Vermont.... so it does need to get completed this month into a twin size quilt for gifting! That is my OMG for June finish the top, quilt and bind it for delivery. There will be a small red inner border and a larger blackish outer border. My daughter is tasked with making the pillow to gift it in - she is pretty good at making the pillow cases. She has been doing all the pressing for this quilt while I sewed it this past week. Not bad for a 12 year old helper!

Linking up with the June OMG.

Saturday in red

 I have been concentrating on the graduation quilt this week with pops of red. I still need to make a couple of my red blocks for the month... but it is a long holiday weekend for me so I should be able to knock those off while in the sewing room working on finishing this quilt into a top.

15 blocks completed of 24 for the graduation quilt - disappearing 9 patch. Even the cat toy was red in the upper left hand corner!

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

I took one cat to the vet yesterday and the other goes next week. I got him the annual shots we were late on. No real help on the aggression issue that started late Wednesday night (my normal vet was out so I went to the other one in the office). They did recommend a plug in that calms cats and helps deter aggressive behavior, peeing outside the box and scratching.  Who knew they had such a thing? This is the  spray. 

I'm happy to say there was no hissing, yowling and chasing last night, but the boys are still not acting like they did for 3 years. A tolerable truce right now but they are not friendly toward each other at all. Separately, they each purr and love petting and attention. I got one of the plug ins and have more on order and a spray coming. 

I saw a great deal yesterday at a local grocery store - pork shoulder for 99 cents a pound with card! They were huge - I got the smallest at 18.72 pounds. $72 down to $18 and change was too good of a deal to pass up. It was cut into a 10 pound and 8.72 pound portion all packaged in one sealed pouch. The bigger portion barely fit in my oval crock pot but it got made into Carnitas yesterday and overnight. I sealed 4 family size bags for the deep freezer and have a large glass container filled for the weekend meals (carnitas and cuban sandwiches) and grazing. Emily and I might have taste tested last night before bed and she had a bowl for breakfast this morning! The other portion will go into the crockpot later today once I pick up honey for the pulled pork recipe. I expect similar containers for the freezer from that portion - so at least 10 family meals of meat.... not to mention leftovers. =). I got to use some math skills - I had to double and a half the carnita recipe and triple the pulled pork recipe - based on the pork size. 

Off to horses today with the girl then pool time. It might be warm enough for me now and if not... the mid 90 temp and feels like higher should get me in there for a bit.

Graduation quilt D9P progress this morning.

 It was time for a lunch break so I figured I'd show my progress on quilting today.... after some of the cat drama was calmed down. I did have a pressing helper which made this process go much quicker. She did a good job. So first I cut my 5 inch blocks then sewed them into a nine patch. I made sure my middle red was now 4.5 inches and sliced down the middle measuring 2.25 inches from the red in both directions and cut.

That gave me these 4 blocks.

I turned the top left and bottom right blocks so the red was in the corners.

Sewed them together and got this block!

I had Emily pressing for me and she also pressed a few more fabrics I grabbed over the weekend so I can cut them and add to the white and black piles for more variety. This is the first 8 blocks of the 24 I plan to make for a 4x6 setting. It should come to a nice twin size with a border or two.

Now for the cat drama. Last night - Peanut and Ollie (LeeLee or Oliver is the true name) were fine and I was laying on the floor petting both and they got along. We believe they were brothers and were bonded so we got them together about 3 years ago. Late last night around 11... all of a sudden Peanut was chasing Lee and lots of hissing and cat growling. Normally they do this and swap and it is playful around 9PM . Not last night. 3 of us heard and all came out to investigate. I separated them and all was quiet for an hour or so when it happened again. Peanut chasing and attacking Lee. Originally they flew in from outside on the porch. Not sure if another cat or animal was out there and sprayed him or what. But Peanut is acting like he doesn't know him and he is an intruder. We have had peeing outside the box lately but I was trying to figure out which one before taking to the vet and we did separate where the litter boxes were thinking maybe someone was not letting them through (sometimes Sophie sits at the entrance and does not let the boys in). I called the vet - I have an appt for Lee tomorrow as they did not have time slot for both boys. I figure the non aggressor might have a medical issue - bladder infection or something and we can get him checked out first. Never a dull moment at my house.

7th grade awards

 Last night was another awards at school - this time for Aidan and the 7th graders. He was recognized for a 4.0+ gpa for the whole year last night. Sorry about the bad photo - he would not consent to one after..... he was ready to head home after 1.5 hours in a room full of people! Since I had stopped on the way home with the girl for a treat - he had the option as well. She chose McD - sunday and he chose Baskin robbins sunday. He has county wide essay today in his last critical thinking class. Let's just say it was sprung on the teacher  last week and he already told the kids he would be very generous with grading it! Still, the boy is stressed. Hopefully after today - he will have a stress free last day of school tomorrow.

This is the start of the graduation quilt. I did get a slew of 5 inch squares cut out. This will get sliced on the vertical and horizontal to create 4 - blocks that will get turned and sewn together. The corner blacks will remain whole - but the rest will be 4 red squares and white triangles. I hope to slice it up later today and see how it comes out.

Graduation Quilt

 Yes, the high school graduation is this year.... and I hope to have this completed by the end of June so it can fly up with me to Vermont.

First step - pick a pattern and colors. Black,white and red were selected. I showed a photo of a disappearing nine patch in those colors and it was approved. I got to Joanns yesterday and I think it was the quickest I have ever picked out 13 fabrics for a quilt in my life! Cut and paid for was this bunch of goodness.

Now to start cutting and hope my math was correct! I have never done this pattern before but it looks 'easy' to do. We will see how it goes. 

This is the photo I sent for approval I found on Pinterest by searching on black and white disappearing nine patch quilts. Another had the instructions using 4.5 inch squares to make the nine patch. Fingers crossed it works out for a twin size!

I have a crazy week coming up after a crazy weekend of running errands all... day.... long! 

Saturday was horses, then home for lunch then arrive late to a birthday party which I ended up staying at until after 5Pm with her. Honestly no clue what I did that night but being outside all day in Florida in May... I was probably in my recliner! The weather just drains me!

Sunday - once the kids left for Grandma's around noon I had about 5 hours or running. Seems the Dollar Tree was out of helium - at both stores I tried for balloons. I was picking up things for bridging and end of year scouts party tonight and then the fabrics. My badges I ordered last Saturday are still in route - so those won't be handed out but the water balloons did arrive so I'm calling it a win. They will bridge up from the last 2 years to their new units. Then will have some snacks of veggies, fruits and cookies. Then a water ballon fight... and yes, I expect to get soaked as well. I think I'll man the hose! Hehehe.

Wednesday I have school awards for Emily in the evening. Friday night we have Emily's FFA banquet. I'm assuming I will get an invite to Aidan's awards this week for next Monday night. Last day of school is Wednesday May 26. The kids are counting down the days.....