2022 Finishes

 I got a very slow start this year as I was dragging my feet on working on the memory quilt for Olivia. I went looking through my quilt album on Facebook and realized I had not been placing everything where it should be! A few moves and some looking through the blog to find those finished quilts that were missing.  Let's take a look and see how I did, shall we?

Hand pieced Hexagon Quilt as you go front. 60x80.

The back of the Hexagon Quilt.

Olivia's memory quilt. Queen size.

Scrappy Crumb quilt.

Sweet Confetti (2021 RSC blocks I think)

Crossed Canoe 2022 RSC blocks... finished the same year and everything!!!

Row House Sew along with Accuquilt.

Endless Diamond. Hand pieced and Hand quilted.

RSC Squares from 2021. This one lives up in Vermont now.

Scrappy Irish Chain was a leader and ender of 2 inch squares years ago. Bear has claimed this quilt. Well, all quilts really!

I dissected an attempted tumbler flag into these two runners.

A baby quilt from a sew along years ago.

Baby Masala that still needs to get shipped off to my great niece. (bad auntie!)

A snowman from the table scrap challenge. 

The Ravelry UFO Challenge has been a big help in getting some old UFO's finished off. I am itching to start some new things in 2023 or grab some kits I have that have been hanging around. 

I liked the idea of doing one Hexagon a day in 2021 and would like to do something one a day in 2023 but have yet to decide on anything. Maybe monthly and change things up a bit? I have been paging through quilt books and magazines and there are plenty of quilts I would love to make. Paring things down is the problem. 

** Edited and linking up with the RSC since quite a few of these finishes are rainbow challenge quilts.

RSC Squares is officially finished.

 I finished hand stitching the binding last night. I was enjoying stitching on the screened in porch listening to the loons call each other until the light went away. 

All of my siblings will be coming over today (4 of them) for burgers and dogs on the grill and to visit. It looks like it will be in the low 70's so I don't think anyone will be going into the chilly lake today. 

Sunday in Vermont.

I am really enjoying the 70's with no humidity in Vermont. Much better than feels like 100+. We are spending lots of time outside and in the fresh air. We do love the screened in porch overlooking the lake. My parents have owned this property since 1964 and I always spent my summers here growing up. We got done school and moved out here (45 minutes from our home) and then moved back right before school started in the fall. Lots of great memories have been made here and I'm so glad my kids can enjoy it as well.

I think I started this blue knitted dish cloth at an Encampment with girl scouts in October. Emily has added some stitches to it in various places. It was stuck in my backpack for a long time and then was in the back of the car. It finally got finished Friday. I also added a granny square that I was crocheting on the new swing with canopy out by the driveway looking down at the water. Very peaceful.

Aidan has a F1 race this morning and maybe I'll get some stitches in on the binding of this quilt. It seems people take it to cover their legs and snuggle up in whenever I want to work on it! Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.

I have our meals planned for the day and the kids and I might try to scale the mountain this afternoon.  I think Mom likes the break and having meals just planned and made and presented! Steak on the grill with baked potato and green beans. It was to get cooler tonight, so I planned potato leek soup. Tomorrow is lots of siblings and family coming over for dogs and burgers on the grill with lots of salads. Maybe 17? It will be good to see all my siblings and some of the nieces and nephews. 

 

Sunday....

Well, I was planning on driving all day today, but we pushed off the leave date to Monday. There will be lots of driving time for me this week as we make our way north up the east coast to visit Vermont and family. We will be making some stops along the way to break things up.  The kids have only done this drive once when we moved here when they were 3 and 2.

Am I packed? Well, technically no but I do have all the clothes pulled in a pile, the drinks are ready for the cooler - waters and Gatorade and some snacks for the car. The first thing I did pack on Friday was my hand work bag from Thirty-One. You know the important things get packed first! I love my bags - I have 2 like this, a lunch cooler that is great for the car in Florida and a few of the Utility totes for shopping. I knew someone who was a consultant and got invited to a few parties' years ago. Anyway... what's in the bag you ask? There are 6 pockets on the outside and one on each end - great for water bottles and little things. I remember having 8 labeled water bottles at a parade with the girl scouts in there at one time!

Let's take a look! On the left we have the EPP for the Brimfield Awakening block with all the papers, templates and things needed to work on those. In the middle is 2 Harmony blocks that are in process for hand piecing from last year. I do have one 28 inch block completed but was planning to make 4. Hopefully I make progress on this the next few weeks. I threw in a sewing kit I got at Aldi's last year - just in case I need something there is a good variety of things in there. I'll also tuck my Vera Bradley coin purse where I have thread, scissors, pins and my needles but that is by the recliner still.

Inside we have yarns! I grabbed a skein of each of the 3 blues for the granny squares and the hook, some scrubby yarn and some dish cloth yarn. I know I have knitting needles in the car as well.

I have 6 dark blue and 8 medium blue granny squares so far.

I'll also bring the RSC Squares quilt to finish off hand stitching the binding if it doesn't get finished tonight watching the hockey game. I have one 64 inch side hand stitched. 

Last night I finished hand stitching the binding on the Baby Masala Box quilt. This will travel up to VT with us so I can show my Mom and then I'll ship it to Cece in Wisconsin.

I'll probably bring the Endless Diamond quilt that I am hand quilting. I have 4.25 blocks left to quilt. I think I might make and attach a binding today in case I finish quilting it then it will be nearly done. 

I think that should keep me busy for the 2.5 weeks we will be gone! Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Hubby is staying home to care for the animals (chickens, dog and 2 cats) and continue with his college classes. He starts 2 new ones tomorrow as he finishes up 2 today. Every 8 weeks he gets a new set of classes toward his degree.

I'd better finish breakfast (I just pulled blueberry muffins out of the oven) and grab a shower before I take the car through the car wash and give it a good cleaning inside and top off the gas tank for tomorrow. It got a check and lots of fixes at the dealer earlier this month and a new battery last Saturday so we should be good to go with my 2014 Honda CRV. 

Progress.... RSC Squares

Finally some progress in the sewing room! I finished the quilting on the RSC Squares last night. I just did diagonal lines on this one. Nice and easy.

Then I made and attached the binding. I do need to hand stitch it down still. 

Progress!

 Linking up Saturday with the RSC.

Happy Monday

I did not get as much done in the sewing room as I expected Sunday, but I did make some progress before needing to sleep for a while to stop a headache. 

I cut out triangles in dark blue and purple and made 2 more garden path blocks to add to the pile.

Then I pressed the RSC Squares quilt top, measured and cut the backing and pressed it. Both got rolled onto their boards and I cut the batting off the roll of warm and natural. That was all that got done on Sunday.

Monday I woke up and after a Gaterade and lots of water I took Emily to horses in the morning and did a little grocery shopping on the way home. I managed to get the quilt pinned in the afternoon and started the quilting after making veggie lo mein for dinner. I had to stop when Peanut decided it needed some cat napping in part of it.... and it was getting close to game time (NHL) so I stopped for the night. I have one side of the diagonal lines sewn. Just have to do the other side on Tuesday after work then make and attach the binding. Might this quilt get finished this month for a second finish of my UFO's for the Spring 2022 Challenge? Time will tell.

Peanut did inspections throughout the process!

Happy Fathers Day

 

Wishing all the Fathers out there a very Happy Fathers Day! I get to see my Dad in a couple of weeks and I can't wait!

I have made progress on hand quilting the Endless Diamonds quilt and have 6 more blocks to quilt. 

I'll be hand stitching the last edge of binding on the Masala Box quilt this afternoon while watching the F1 race in Montreal. Aidan is very excited his favorite driver is starting in second position!

First up for the day - prepping the top, back and batting for pinning a quilt for machine quilting.

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.

OMG May- RSC21 Squares

This one is telling me it is time to finish it. Right now it is a 64x64 top. I think I need a backing and I already have warm and natural batting on a roll. I have plans for this one - it will go to my last girl in the troop that has not received a quilt yet. She did not attend the encampment when I handed out the other quilts last fall. She loves blue so I'll try and get a blue backing and will bind it in blue as well. My goal is to get this quilt completed and with a label for Nadia by the end of the month.

Linking up with One Monthly Goal. 

RSC in red

 Finishing up 2021 projects.

I made the last 2 blocks for the RSC Squares this week. Now I can play with the blocks and start stitching them together. I do need to press them first - the ironing board was full and I was too lazy to clear it off for pressing.

Peanut had to inspect the blocks.

I also cut out the wings for Erin's Butterfly in red. They are stitched into their wings. I need to press, cut the inner circle and hand stitch that to each wing and then I can baste it. I think I was planning to applique them to the background this year and add the body and antennae. 2023 for hand quilting it. I will have 9 blocks - when the red is completed I'll have 8 and just need to add one more color to the mix.

Linking up Saturday with Angela and the RSC.

Wednesday check in....

 The kids are back in school! If you heard a big cheer this morning, it might have been me dropping them off to school! They both indicated that just a few of their teachers wore masks, the principal did (as they said he always has his on! Smart man!). Not many kids did- about what it was in December. As the Florida government passed a law in November not allowing masks mandates, vaccine mandates, and allowing parents to opt out of quarantining and isolation.... it should be an interesting month.

I opted out of a GS leader meeting tonight as I know the only ones wearing a mask would be me and Jenny, another leader who lost a parent to a few girls in her troop in October to COVID. I am planning to meet with my troop for our normal Monday night meetings,  but we meet at a church where masking is required and the girls and parents respect that. There are only 6 now so I can spread them out well too.

Lets see - meals for the week since I know I struggle with coming up with things I figured others do as well! Monday it was cool (60 degrees and lovely weather from the 85 on Sunday!). I decided it was a great night for meatloaf and baked potato with green beans. I use the Betty Crocker cookbook for my meatloaf - and use about 3-4 pieces of white bread instead of bread crumbs because that is what my Mom did!. We add mozzarella to half the loaf in the middle (emily does not like the cheese in there and she helped make it) and ketchup on top. Tuesday - I had ground pork to use since I forgot to separate it before I froze it and there was 24 ounces in the package. I had half a cabbage in the fridge and some carrot and scallion so I made Egg Roll in a Bowl on Tuesday night. Ms. Emily made some rice in the quick cooker (Pampered chef version of insta pot) and added some soy sauce and an egg to make her version of Japanese Steak House rice.  Wednesday.... it was lemon chicken with thyme over rice with green peas. I believe if I remember to get mushrooms tomorrow we will do beef stroganoff on Thursday with a green salad and egg noodles. Friday - Papa Johns Pizza (supporting the local economy!). I have been doing salads for lunch with cucumber, roma tomato, olives, hard boiled egg and a home made vinegrette. Breakfast has been oatmeal with craisins and a little brown sugar. 

As for sewing.... I have been stitching away at hexagons and have all the black ones into sets of 4. I'll prep the needed extra hexagons to finish up the color sets tomorrow and then will begin putting the sets of 4 into sets of 8. 

I have tomorrow off so I will plan to do a little prep work on the memory quilt and sew the last 2 blocks needed for the RSC21 Squares quilt. I was able to find and cut out the parts needed for the four patches and all the other squares for a maroon and a red block.  I also pulled out the little basket of red scraps and cut out 20 'wings' for a red butterfly block. I should be able to  machine stitch that tomorrow so I can hand baste it in the car line tomorrow.

I may take the 2 crumb blocks in red and stitch them together to make a table placemat size rectangle. I am picturing a nice white snowman on one side of the placemat. He might need a jaunty top hat... we will see what happens.

Saturday in green

 A few touches of light and bright green this week - I cut out a slew of hexagons last night and about 10 are ready for prepping for stitching. If I am tagged with the horses run today that is what I will be working on. 

I pulled some darker green and stitched up this block since I did not have a dark green in the mix for this collection. Something about forgetting the correct size to cut things and my block ended up 12 inches instead of 16! oops. All fixed now. 

I got a bright green butterfly block stitched and basted. All set for applique onto a background next year. This is going to be a multi year project.

I saw this bumblebee this week and managed to get him right after he came out from getting some nectar. 

I hope to see more green and some bits of orange later today when we head to the pumpkin patch! I wish the cool front had gone through already, but alas it looks like later tonight. It will be a hot and sunny day walking around the field. 

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

RSC in bright green

I finally finished up the orange and prepped some green hexagons this week. I managed to get one green stitched up in the car line yesterday. The rest are ready for a quick 5-10 minutes of time here and there.

While the green was out I cut out this block and got it sewn together. I messed up the dark green month one - so that will be my next block in this series. Then I need 2 more - and since I missed the red month with them one will be bright reds and one maroon I think.   I used 4.5 inch squares and 2.5 inch squares for the four patches. It finishes at 16 inches.

 Linking up with the RSC on Saturday. 

It will be interesting to see what the next week brings. Our county's community spread numbers were 9% last week and 6 % this week. The school board had said 2 weeks under 10% and they would remove the mask mandate (with the parent opt out which is at 22% in our area). I did attend an in person leader meeting for girl scouts this week. Keep in mind my troop does meet in person and per the new church rules we meet at, masks are worn at our meeting and I have the girls spread out. I was one of 2 people at the leader meeting with a mask. There were about 25 people there. We were spread out at a U shaped table but that tends to show how things are in my area of Florida. 

Teal wrap up

Why he thinks he is helping while laying right here I have no clue. Peanut is a very needy boy!

I have parts for Erin's butterfly. I need to hand stitch the middle curve then baste it still. The full stop question marks, the garden path blocks and one of the scrappy squares in teal.

I'll link up Saturday for the RSC where we will find out Septembers color for the challenge. 

 

Saturday in Pink

While looking for a missing part for the mystery clue #3 (no clue where those 2 parts went!), I found these parts and pieces at the bottom of a basket. They are pink... with limey green. I remember purchasing these two fabrics at a going out of business sale in Burlington VT in the late 90's. I had taken a hand quilting class there once. I see some flying geese big parts, some small hst's and the bigger ones were sewn into these 6 blocks. I think this will be the basis of a table topper this month. No clue where it is going but it is time to get them sewn and into a completed project.

I have really not sewn this week other than to make a couple of masks and then have to rework them to make them smaller from the complaints I got. These are the parts for one of the RSC blocks I am planning to make. I don't have as much variety with pinks (my daughter liked red and purple instead of pink!) so it was slim pickings. 

I have 9 of the Hexagon QAYG blocks completed. 

Last night was homemade pizza followed by watching Miracle on Ice. Aidan had selected a quote for a school project last month and it was one from Herb Brooks. I figured he should watch the movie, too. Nice to watch a feel good movie to end the turbulent week.

Emily is insisting I get dressed as she needs to head to horses shortly. It is chilly out.... high 40's. I am not looking forward to sitting outside for over an hour today. It is still much better than feels like 100+ though!

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.