Teal/Aqua in the RSC

Welcome to August! I got a little hand stitching in yesterday and got this purple and aqua flowering snowball completed. I have a couple of shoo fly bocks left and then I need to lay them all out and see how many more I need/want to cut out. I do love stitching these, especially the flowering snowball. I think I cut out 23 of the 25 the throw pattern calls for. I can easily just make more to make it bigger. The tricky part is finding scraps I have not used yet in the blocks!

 

I've had my 2 teal/aqua string of beads blocks ready to go for a couple of months. I guess this is the month to finish the last 2 of the 16 blocks. I see this needs a press after all the travel it did this summer.

Aidan mowed the lawn late last night (close to 8 when it got cooler to feels like 100 and the sun was going down) and put his hat on the dog when he came in. He tried this last week, and Bear knocked it off right away. Last night, he kept it on for a bit. He is not a dress up dog. We tried a kerchief once and he went nuts trying to get it off.

I think the girl has horses today, so I might go with her and see the horses. I'll probably be too wiped out from the heat and humidity to do much else after that! It is very draining.

Linking up with the RSC.

Wednesday

After picking up the car yesterday after work, I figured out dinner. I had made a list on a post it note and attached it to the fridge door back on Sunday. It has lessened the 'whats for dinner' questions.  I had enchiladas down last night, so used some of Emily's roaster chicken to make that with a can of green enchilada sauce. My recipe is just chicken (extra roaster chicken, or canned chicken is what I use), a can of cream of chicken soup and some sour cream - about 8 ounces. I add a good spoonful of refried beans (I made my own yesterday and need to work on that!), then some of the chicken mix and then some shredded cheddar. Roll up the big burrito and place in a 13x9 pan. Cover the top with the sauce and then some cheese. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. 

After dinner, I prepped things and did another batch of tomato's. I now have 21 pints of tomato in the pantry. Well, the last 7 will get washed off and placed in there later tonight closer to the 24 hour sit mark. The all sealed already. 

While that was processing, I finished the purple flowering snowball and did this blue one. I think I have a green shoo fly prepped for tonight.

Tonight I have lemon chicken and capers over pasta with a salad on the list. I have some snow peas that will get quick boiled and then smothered in butter and salt and pepper as a side. I'll run out to Aldi and grab chicken for that and some spinach and cheese for the quiches tomorrow night. I'll do a spinach, onion and cheese one and then a sausage and cheddar cheese one for Emily and Greg. They are picky!

I also need to make the dozen of hard boiled eggs from a couple of days ago into Deviled eggs. Once made up - they tend to disappear quickly.

Thursday is my day off.... so I'm thinking I need to really get a 'finish' in soon of my UFO's. That Arkansas Traveller quilt needs to get pinned and I need to play with the Table Scrap Challenge for Purple as well. A few 16 patches need to get made in orange and purple and some alternate blocks are needed as well. If I'd get off my phone games and work on some of that I might see some progress!

 

25 hours without internet

 We also live in a dead area for our cell phones..... we tend to use the in house wifi for our phones.

Everyone is alive.... although someone didn't make a peach cobbler as he was unable to google recipes. I did point him toward the bookcase of cookbooks. He did find one for a cobbler ... and said 'Did you know you have a Chinese cookbook? Yup, I do!. Does Emily know? Not sure'. He took it to her, since that is her wheelhouse for making things.

We had no phone (through the wifi for the land line one) and no tv as we do streaming. I occasionally had one bar on my cell phone.  It was probably a good thing we could not watch the hockey game Monday night.... as we are both rooting for the Oilers and they lost big time to the Florida Panthers (we are lightning fans!). 

I work from home, and log in through my work's VPN. No internet means not able to work. Arrrgghh. 

I did drop a load off to Goodwill and got it out of my house around noon yesterday. I might have finished my audiobook and needed to get to an area I could download the next one .... hehehe. I also did a check on our outage. Yup, was still out with expected 6:30PM resolved time. It came back a little earlier - with no notification from them. Greg just happened to check and it reset and came back around 4:40PM. We lost it around 3:30 PM the previous day. So much for signing up for a text notification of it coming up. 

I really did not get much done as I had no motivation. I did give the dog a good walk before it got hot (before 8AM) and chatted with a couple of neighbors. One also worked from home but had Verizon cell service. We have TMobile. The other has a different provider than Centurylink for internet so she was fine. They are putting in fiber across the road so I'm sure they cut a line somewhere. 

I did mark stitching lines on the back of one of the shoo fly blocks and one of the flowering snowball blocks. I started on the flowering snowball.

And got these 3 parts together. I need another one like this and then the two lighter parts with a yellow square in the middle.

I also got the two orange sting of beads blocks done for the month. I got the darker orange one with green peels done yesterday.

Back to work today. Greg took the kids to the bank to get their own checking accounts and a card attached to it. We will still be paying this, but it will establish their credit ratings and we can separate out their use of the 'card' they each have in their name for paying for gas and things while they are out and about. Greg had it lumped in with his and was questioning things and I had to explain which kid was where for each of the dates listed. He was questioning Jacksonville Food Trucks. I explained, the end of April was Skills USA for Aidan and they did not cover food, we did. They covered the hotel and getting them up there and back. We pay for gas and food for them. Some extras we discuss and pay, some things they pay out of their monies. Like Aidan and books he bought while at Skills USA. They are pretty responsible with their money. 

Aidan is off for his Senior formal photo for the yearbook. They have men in tuxes and ladies in a black v shape by their neck. Very different from what mine were, but $25 and done. We will do outside ones ourselves for him at his request.

I'd better finish this now as it is the end of lunchtime and time to get back to work. 

Wednesday....

 Four parts left to hand quilt on this quilt! I hope to get this finished tonight and maybe make the binding.

The back shows the stitching better. Love this teal leaf print on the back.

I snapped this butterfly yesterday on my way to pick up the kids. I loved the blue at the bottom. Not sure what type it is but it sure was pretty.

Slow stitching Sunday

 There has been a lot of slow stitching this week! This is the parts department of stitching my Hexagon QAYGs together into pairs, then four patches. My little tin has singles to stitch together. This has been my pick up line project this school year. I do need to prep the rest of my aqua ones today for the month so I don't fall behind.

A shot of the sets of 4 that have been hand stitched together.

Hand quilting progress. This little flowering snowball is 36x48 and has 96 parts - not including the tiny square in the middle of the block. I have 16 parts left to stitch around the top edge! I found a dark blue that will become the binding when done. I have enjoyed stitching these gentle curves by hand and then quilting around them. Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers. I'll be adding some more stitches into this quilt and hopefully will be working on binding by mid week!

Last evening the kids and Greg made sushi - california rolls! They did a great job and I hear they tasted just like the ones we buy. They had fun making them and Dad did all the prep work and clean up! 

Saturday morning was horses. Emily was grooming Lance before she rode. He had just been rolling in the hay so lots of cleaning and attention was needed! I think she was riding him for at least an hour while Mom wilted in the heat! 

Not a great shot of the chickens but Em was out with them one day this week.   As soon as we go out back they all come running/flying to see us! They do love to hang out with their people....especially when we feed them! 

Sunday Slow Stitching

The sight this morning when I looked out back and saw a few chickens roosting under the tree! They like to hang out in this area near the house where there is shade, water and they get to watch the people walk around in the house! 

I hand stitched a couple more sets of 4 together last night. I think this will be a good way to start putting this one together. I have been making one hexagon QAYG in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month this year. Teal/Aqua was chosen for August.

I had a roaster chicken that Aidan used for ceasar chicken wraps for school lunches a couple of days and I turned the rest into Chicken enchilada soup. It was oh so yummy and then we let the chickens have the carcass. Now that was entertainment watching them!

I have been hand quilting as well and for my 12 blocks with 8 parts in each block - not including that little center part - gives me 96 parts to hand quilt. I counted last night and was at 56. Mostly I have the edge ones to go at this point... any advise? I need to mark my 1/4 inch for the binding so I don't stitch too close to the edge. I know some attach a piece of fabric or tea towel. I'm feeling pretty good about getting this quilt finished this month for my August OMG.

 

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers. 

I'll be playing in the sewing room a bit. The boy and I made a quilt for him that ended up around 60x60. At the time, I mentioned he might need it bigger. No, this size is fine Mom. Well, that was 2 years ago and the boy is now 5 feet 8 and still growing at age 13. I think he will be 6 feet at a minimum when done growing! I will be making 4 more blocks with the edging and attempting to 'add it' to the existing quilt. I am thinking I will make a panel for the bottom and bind it, then whip stitch the two together. Does that sound like it should work? This is his quilt. 

Friday catch up.

I did a little whip stitching of these sets of 4 Hexagon QAYG's together this week. I need to get back to stitching my individual teal hexagons but I wanted to play with getting a few sets of 4 together to see how it would work. I tried the way Daisy and Grace recommended to stitch it together but I found there were gaps when I did it and whip stitching them together works better for me - faster and more secure.

I got out the Accuquilt Go and cut parts for a scrappy Flowering Snowball kit. I have been adding some from each color selected each month from my scraps. I see I really missed on the purple month of June! I cut dark blue and teal yesterday and I'll pull purple later today and add those to the pile since it is still out.

I also pulled my #5 HST from my 8 inch cube and cut out half square triangles to make one teal block in the bottom corner. Seems I missed Purple and Dark Blue with this set of Garden Path blocks. I need to make another teal then the purple and dark blues this month. Once cut out, they do go together really nice. 

Thursday was my day off and I was in the mood to bake! I made some back of the bag Honey Oat Bread - recipe from King Arthur Flour and some Sourdough Soft Pretzels since the sourdough starter needed attention. It makes 8 - I had one, Greg had 2 and each of the kids had one at car pick up for their snack. I popped these three in the freezer and we will see how they heat up.

I'll link up Saturday with the RSC where we are playing with teal/aqua.

***Edited - right after this post I got a call from school. Em was close contact to a positive case Thursday. When I mentioned she was vaccinated they actually SENT HER BACK TO CLASS! It makes no sense! We cancelled horses, grandma and scouts as it is safest to assume it was transferred. Knowing our hospitals are overrun in Marion County right now (over 270+COVID patients) we are hunkering down. Thankfully we are all vaccinated. I see lots of sewing in my future today! 

 

Weekend wrap up

 Since teal or aqua is the color for August, and so far my sewing projects have been by hand I'm combining my RSC Saturday and Slow Sunday Stitching posts this weekend!

I had pulled and cut out these aqua/teal fabrics for my Hexagon QAYG. This should cover the first half of the month before I need to dig for more variety. I was pleased with this array I found on the shelf - at least 12 different ones.

This is all the prep work - bigger muslin hexagon squares, my smaller colored hexagons and the batting with my handy dandy pins, scissors and thread.

Edited: Saturday nights progress. This is the other cat that does not get photo's much - Oliver/Ollie or LeeLee as we all call him now.

The back of the flowering snowball quilt is teal and shows the hand quilting better. I am just following the shapes as I quilt. I have about 4 blocks quilted of the 12 so pretty good progress so far this month. 

Time to move the hoop!

I'm writing this on Saturday afternoon so it is almost time to dry off the eggplant and bake it a bit before we bread it and bake it again. Eggplant Parm is on the menu tonight with a salad. I'll be prepping those hexagons in between dinner prep steps.

August OMG

Since July was to get this hand pieced I think August will be to hand quilt my flowering snowball quilt. It is fairly small at 36x48 so hopefully it is a reachable goal. Linking up with Elmstreetquilts and OMG for August.

 

Slow Stitching - hand quilting Flowering Snowball

 Since my July OMG was to finish hand piecing the flowering snowball blocks together, I was able to pin the 36x48 little quilt for hand quilting yesterday! 

The first few stitches going in always feel good. 

I was planning to use a mix of blue and green quilting thread but the backing is a pretty teal flowered print that was the perfect size (leftover from the backing of the cat and mouse quilt still waiting on the frame - poor thing!). I started with the blue... and will probably add the green as well like I was thinking. Will it really be noticeable on the back.... and do I really care? I'm thinking no!

While I was prepping this yesterday... there was a search for the backing fabric I knew I had purchased a few months ago. I had it all planned out on how to divide up a 90x108 batting to cover a few smaller quilts.... and of course I changed my mind on the next quilts to quilt! Oh well. After finding the backing - it fit the VQF quilt which is 71x71 and the Endless Diamond quilt which is 48x60. That quilt kindly decided it was fine as is and did not require a finished border.... I think it realized it would probably sit in the drawer for years if that were to happen! I then laid out the batting and got what I needed for the Endless Diamond quilt and the Flowering Snowball quilt. The VQF quilt will use the roll of Warm and Natural for machine quilting. They are folded together and ready to go for the next 2 quilts. Hopefully I will remember that when the time comes!

VQF booth hop from 2009 or 2010

Endless Diamond

Linking up Sunday with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers.

July OMG

I finished hand stitching this hand pieced flowering snowball together this afternoon to complete my OMG for July. Now to press it and prep it for hand quilting. I think I managed to flip my rows somewhere along the way but I'm leaving it as is. Linking up with ElmStreetQuilts for One Monthly Goal.

These girls came running when I went outside for the photo. We have one chicken who is broody and we take her out of the nesting box a few times a day.  She has plucked all the feathers off her underside to better heat those eggs that will never hatch as we don't have a rooster. Poor girl. She does eat and drink when we take her out which is good. 

I have not gotten much accomplished on my day off sewing wise... but I did get a walk in this morning, colored that grey in my hair (when I asked Aidan if he noticed anything different and he said 'No', Hubby kindly said I got younger! We will see if Em notices when she gets home from school shopping and lunch with Grandma.) and washed the sheets. I also set up my new Fitbit Charge 4 that arrived today. The screen on my old Charge 3 was starting to have lines through it. 

 

Sunday slow prepping

I have fallen a bit behind on my hexagons this month so I worked this morning to prep the rest needed through the 31st. These go quickly once all prepped in the evenings so I should be able to catch up on these by the end of the week.

My OMG was to get these blocks into a top. I have them into rows and just need 3 long hand stitched seams to finish it into a top. I hope to get one of the long seams stitched this afternoon.

Yesterday, a lot on the diagonal from us in being cleared of trees and they were burning them there causing lots of smoke in our area. I decided it would be a good time to burn this pile of brush so tended this for a couple of hours before popping into the pool to cool off with Aidan. I did pick up the girl from girl scout horse camp yesterday morning.  She had a great time but it was like pulling teeth to get that out of her. Her horse did not want to jump over the poles but he did 'walk' over them! Oh well, she had a good time and that is what mattered.

I took a little walk last night while listening to my audio book and caught this little squirrel in a tree. 

My lunch break is almost over. Kids are off to Grandmas for the day and hubby is working on a 3 hour mid term exam so I will head back into the sewing room and get out my Accuquilt to cut some flowering snowball parts in dark blue to add to the scrap quilt parts I am prepping each month with the RSC before I cut my HST's for the garden path block. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.

 

Last Sunday in Vermont

 I have a few days left of my visit but I have to log back into work starting tomorrow. It was a nice week off and just relaxing. Today I have things prepped a bit for my siblings all coming out again and my cousin is stopping in to visit before she fly's back home. We had the graveside funeral for my Aunt who passed in March yesterday. I saw a lot of cousins I have not seen in 15-20 years! We opted for appetizers rather than a 'meal'. I have some veggies prepped and some meatballs in the crockpot with a jar of chili sauce and 8 ounces of grape jelly. A yummy treat... someone might have been wanting them so I offered to make them! Emily and I made some no bake chocolate peanut butter cookies last night as well. My siblings are each bringing something to share and we have some fruits coming to supplement the grapes I picked up yesterday. Tonight we are heading to a local baseball game (college level players in the summer). 

Since everything is prepped, I'm sitting on the glider rocker on the porch. The lake is twinkling with the sunlight making it sparkle on the water. Perfect setting to stitch my Hexagon for the day. 

I hand stitched the first row of the flowering snowball blocks together last night on the porch. I have one block to attach to the second row. This was cut out on my Accuquilt and hand pieced earlier this year. I have been cutting out parts in each color of the month this year for a future scrap quilt. This one stitched together so easily!

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.

My view.... Aidan was heading down to feed the ducks that were quacking their arrival and wanting breakfast.

July OMG

I am away on vacation but did bring some slow stitching with me. I think for July I'd like to hand stitch together these 12 flowering snowball blocks. I enjoyed stitching the flowering snowball block in the hand stitching sew along last year so I ordered the Accuquilt die for that block and cut out these parts from a few FQ's that I have had for years waiting for a special project.  Things might get moved around a bit as I stitch, we will see.  

Linking up with the July OneMonthlyGoal.

I plan to stitch a few of these blocks together for Slow Sunday stitching after the 4th of July family gathering. Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Saturday RSC in red...

Well, I never did get into the sewing room last night. These are the red parts that will become 2 garden path blocks. 

I have the reds pulled and just need to press them before cutting out some flowering snowball parts in red. I figured I'd make myself a kit for a scrappy flowering snowball quilt this year by cutting a little each month. No rhyme or reason on how many or what fabrics, just pull from the bin and if it fits it gets cranked through! These are bigger so not a lot of my scrap bin parts are big enough. 4 of the half peel and 4 of the bigger parts makes a 12 inch block. I'm using my Accuquilt to cut them out.

I did use my Accuquilt 8 inch cube - die #5 to cut my 2.5 inch half square triangle parts this week in light blues and reds. The light blue ones did get sewn together.

Finally, my Hexagon quilt as you go blocks got prepped and started. I seem to be a few days behind so maybe I'll bring the tin with me to horses this week and stitch a few as Emily is riding.

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.