Split nines is finished!

 

Split nines was made with 2.5 inch squares each month in a color from the RSC and finishes at 48x54. Simple blue binding from the cut off backing and it is done. I was too lazy to piece a few of the celestial backing parts together, so cut into some blue floral print backing instead. 

This guy got finished off last night and my off center photo was taken this morning before it hit melting stage outside.

We headed over to visit my FIL this morning and caught him while he was at Rehab. After a little visit when he was back in his room, we checked the house. With my new to me car, I backed it out of the driveway and onto the lawn/road and jumped out to close the garage door and check the mail. It is a good thing I tried the door to the vehicle before Greg pulled away with his Dad's car as I was locked out with the car running! Sigh. We had to pop home to get the extra key and then drive back. Got there... and the key fob needs a battery@$#!$#@. Hubby played with it and if you push a little button and pull, out pops a hidden key for the door! Who knew? We got into the car, and I was able to continue with my day. I gassed it up (we live 45 minutes away!) and hit Joann's as my reward. I needed fabrics for a baby boy quilt for my niece who is due in July. No clue what to make... I had planes and trucks in my cart... then found the Kona on sale. Picked some basic colors... then back to the fabric aisle. I opted for dinosaurs and changed out a few of the solids for different tones. I'll come up with something. I'm thinking of surrounding a square of dinosaur fabric with the various solids but could change my mind. We will see what happens.

Sunday

Yesterday I finally decided on a backing for the split nines quilt. I cut it and the batting and did a little pinning. I decided to try a pre-programmed stitch on my machine and got 2 lines done before the needle broke. That told me to turn off the light and call it a day. I'll head back in soon and see if I can get this completed this afternoon.

I did get some hand quilting in on this cat while the F1 race was on this morning. I just need to outline the white part and then I'll have 2 cats left. Two grocery runs were completed, and meals planned for the next few days. 

These two like to curl up together. Emily decided to 'help' me and totally cleaned the master bedroom. Dusting, vacuuming and moved the furniture to vacuum under and behind it. There was a lot of cat hair as that is their territory. It was so nice to sleep in there last night. 

I've got a few hours until I need to make the sauce for the chicken to go on the grill. We call it the Weatherby sauce - from Enosburgh Falls Vermont. It is basically just butter, margarine, vinegar, water and salt. Sounds weird but oh so yummy! Great on bone in skin on chicken cooked on the grill. I have great memories of Dad manning the grill with a maxwell house glass container with holes poked in the top to hold this sauce that is boiled and then put on the chicken whenever you turn it on the grill. 

I should have some time to put in a new needle on the machine and see if I can make some progress on the split nines.

Sunday already?

 It was a long 24 hours with the kids! They both had a great time yesterday. One was volunteering at a robotics tournament and the other went to the FSU football game last night and returned back to the school around 2:50AM. Yea.... I didn't get much sleep last night! I also watched the F1 race in Vegas with Aidan from 1-2:20 when I headed over to pick up Emily. I have a feeling I will be dragging a bit today!

I did manage to pop to the grocery store and pick up a standing rib roast. I do love prime rib and it is so easy to cook at home. I tend to get them when they are on sale around the holidays, cook them to a rare/medium rare and then seal a meal individual slices for the freezer. I need to adjust my amounts this year as it appears the girl likes them now too and will pull them out for meals when she doesn't like what is offered. Thanksgiving, Christmas time and Easter are when they are on sale, so I plan accordingly. I ran out a few months ago. I also like to add it to my salads for lunches =).  I tend to do a recipe like this, although sometimes I just do salt and pepper for seasoning or add some fresh chopped rosemary and garlic. I've got a 7 pound roast I need to take out of the fridge in a little bit and put the turkey in to start defrosting. I have a 12 pound one of those. 

I did just a little in the sewing room yesterday and got a set of split nines done in light blues. I need 2 more sets to finish off this one I think for a child size donation quilt.

I pulled out some hand piecing and was working on Harmony from a hand stitch along in 2021. I need to make 4 more of these and then really search for the 8 flying geese I need to finish the block. I have them for the next block but the ones for this block are missing. I have the fabric, so I'll probably just cut more out and mark for stitching. I'm sure they will turn up as soon as I do that!

Not much progress on the Bear Paw but I have a feeling it will be a bit of a lazy day today so probably a movie and some hand work are on tap.

The kids are off for the week of Thanksgiving. I have appointments scheduled for them on Tuesday. Dentist and blood draw as a follow up on their physicals last month. Too busy to do it until now. 

We made the mistake of letting the dog out back last night during the race. I completely forgot it was Sunday and the auto irrigation was on for the lawn. Our crazy water loving dog found the sprinkler head by the fence and would not come in. Silly boy. Thank goodness Aidan knew how to turn it off. He eventually came in.... he was in hog heaven playing in the water and mud. I guess Greg and the kids get to check and fix that this week too! 

Linking up with the RSC quilters and the Slow Sunday stitchers.

RSC Saturday

 I'm not sure how these split nines will end up, but there are 16 sets of 4 now in various colors!  I added a sage green this week and the last one added was the black one. I think it needs 4 more, so I'll be adding some others to it this month.

Linking up Saturday with the Rainbow Scarp Challenge.

Friday and RSC

 It seems like the quilting on this little quilt has taken forever! I think I started quilting on it about a year ago and it keeps getting bumped. I finished the last bear paw block and now need to mark the setting triangles and start quilting on those. I believe it is a F1 race weekend and there is a sprint race on Saturday and a regular race on Sunday. They are in the USA and in Austin Texas.  Lots of potential stitching time while I watch the races with Aidan.

My goal Thursday was to roll this quilt on the boards and get it pinned for quilting. Let's just say the dog was worse than the cats in helping! I do have the top rolled onto a board and the batting is cut. I need to press the backing again (someone was a ghost in the backing for a bit yesterday) and get it rolled later today. The girl has an away game tonight so very late pickup. I hope to get this pinned tonight. I'm thinking if I buy some pre made pizza dough at Publix, the boy can make stromboli for dinner tonight! The kids are much better at forming them then I am, so they get the job!

For the RSC - I now have 15 sets of these split nines. I am not sure how these will be set, but I either need 1 more or 5 more. Do I want a rectangle or a square? 48x48 or 48x60? I know I want to add a brown set. I do have those strips of green left over from the christmas cactus.... they would help round out the colors better. Right now my blocks have 4 blues to 2 of everything else and this one black set..... I guess I am leaning towards adding 5 more? Maybe a red, green, black/grey and 2 browns to even out things a bit? 

The latest squirrel running around in my head..... a wall hanging with a dresden turkey. I found this video from Missouri Quilts and think he would look great in the middle of some fun blocks from the Autumn Jubilee.

It got replaced with the previous one that will probably become a 2024 project. Hand piecing 60 degree triangles.... since Bonnie at Quiltville is using 60 degree triangles in her new sew along. It reminded me of the thousand pyramid quilt that I would love to make from scraps someday. Some inspiration photo's.

from jasmine.noraisin.net on pinterest.

or Panama Pyramids that Canadian Needle Nana was making.

I need more hours in the day!

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.

RSC split nines

 I got 4 of my 8 split nines sewn up this morning. I then attempted to lay them out for a photo. Peanut and Ollie thought I needed supervision. Peanut kept moving to whichever blocks I laid down to help 'hold them down'. Such a good helper he is! NOT.

No horses this weekend and next weekend as the trainer is on a bit of a vacation visiting her kids up north. It is nice to be able to sleep in on a Saturday after a long night on Friday. The first preseason football game was held at the high school last night. It ran a bit late due to the opposing team arriving a bit late. Emily had fun playing tunes in the stands with the band and had a great time.

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.

RSC in red

 I got a little time to sew this week and prepped some reds for the split nine patch blocks. I always pull one out of the box as a reference to help with placement of the squares.

I think they turned out pretty good! 8 blocks to add to the mix.

I had some thoughts for the Table Scraps Challenge.... but I made a change from the original plan. I was thinking green and red apples, but it didn't happen.  I had these squares left on the cutting board after making the above blocks..... so in the interest of the challenge, I used them to make this red toned placemat. I had thoughts of adding a red apple to that one lighter block in the middle, but it didn't happen. It got machine quilted and I attached the binding by machine. I still need practice on that, but it is getting a little easier. As for the letters A and G.... Aren't you Glad I had these blocks sitting on my cutting matt to use this month? I was!

I'll link up with the RSC on Saturday and with Joy at the Table Scrap Challenge on Friday.

RSC and some orange

 I got a little sewing time in on Thursday and finished sewing the dark green split nine patches I had cut out last month, and did a light and dark in orange for this month. Wish I would have turned a few of those 4 patches in the brighter orange block, but oh well. 

These blocks set this way remind me of this quilt I finished in 2017. I called it the cube quilt.

I also found a grey snowflake strip of fabric in the lights bin to use for the kites for next week. It will be an early start tomorrow getting Emily to the high school for 7AM to play for the graduation that morning with the band. I think they are headed to their Grandma's for the day after that to help her put back everything after the new carpet was installed earlier this week. They went over last Sunday to move all the things out of her hutch and other furniture and the bottom areas of the closets for her. 

That means 2 days to twiddle my thumbs! I mean.... sew? Maybe think about painting the living room or the bedroom? I hear we are picking up 4 baby chickens tonight as well, so it should be an interesting weekend to see how the dog handles that!

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday. The kids have one week of school left before I have 2 kids in high school! 

RSC Saturday

 I only got a little sewing in on Thursday, but I was able to make this set of 4 bright green split nine patches. I should have time later today to make 4 dark green ones. Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.

I did a little green crochet this week, but decided to stop at this point on the dish cloth and use it as is. This one is the griddle stitch or the lemon peel stitch.  I'll try the Moss stitch next, I think. This one is a little long for me, so I'll start with less chains on the hook for the next one. I guess I prefer my cloths to be more of a 6-7 inch square. This one was almost twice that.

I'll start off my morning with a ride on a horse. It has been over a month since I have ridden so hopefully it all comes back to me! I asked for an early ride time since the heat just does not agree with me (I know, I live in the wrong state!). Nothing is scheduled for the rest of the weekend. Might I get  a little sewing time in? Fingers crossed. I hope to make a couple of bright green garden path blocks to finish off that collection of blocks. Who knows, it might even become a top and get quilted! 

Finishing off pink.

I was a little late in finishing playing with my pink this year. I was off yesterday and got a couple of hours in the sewing room to see what needed to get worked on. Turns out - I still needed to make some split 9 patches in pink for February. My supply of pink is very limited, but I was able to make up these blocks to add to the collection.

 I'll link up on Saturday with the RSC where people will be pulling out the green to play with for the month of March. I am excited! I have 2 light green blocks to make for the garden path collection and then I can assemble that into a quilt top. That will be my goal this month - to get that 2021 collection of blocks into a completed quilt.

Peanut the cat thinks the blocks will require moving around once I make the 2 light green ones. I'm sure he will be happy to assist in that process!

I headed off to the middle school midafternoon to be a chaperone for the advanced band heading to the MPA (music performance assessment) at one of the local high schools. There were a few middle school bands playing last night followed by a few high school bands. We got day 1 of the 3-day assessment. The kids did a great job and when the

teacher checked with the judges; they had assessed them at superior across the board! They performed 3 prepared songs on stage for 3 judges, then headed to the sightreading room across campus. They have it very secure and no phones while in that room. They saw 2 pieces of music and were given 3 minutes of review with the director before they performed the first one. The second piece they got 5 minutes to review before they performed it. The hardest part was not clapping after in the sightreading room since they did such a great job! This was a photo of them on the stage. We got home around 10PM and the girl was very sleepy this morning. I admit, I was as well. 

I think this finishes up the crazy month of February for the girl - with FFA (horse evaluation one weekend, cow another weekend), Band - lots of 3:45-5:30 after school practices the last few weeks and then the performance last Tuesday and the main event last night. Add in some girl scout cookie booths and riding of horses, working with Noelle the cow and feeding animals.... and normal schoolwork and it has been a busy time in my house shuttling kids here and there.

 

RSC in blues.

I made another set of 4 of these this week. The dinosaur fabric from when Aidan was little makes me smile.

I have another side of binding to stitch down on Hoarfrost and hope to have that completed this weekend.

It was a frosty start to the day in Florida. Emily needed to scrape the windshield before we headed out for the early feed at school of the animals.

 A quick stop at Dunkin on the way home and a quilt on my feet to warm them up, before we head out for her horse riding lesson. Her fellow Cadets in her girl scout troup are coming over this afternoon to work on building their free library house for their Silver Award. Greg is helping the girls to build it. He'll do the circular saw, but the girls will be using the hand saw, drills and hammers to build it. 

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Thank goodness we will have other blue/teal months. Not many scraps were played with in January.

RSC in blues

 I got a little time to sew this week! I have seen lots of pretty split nine patch blocks over the years and decided to make some this year. I think I'll dig a little farther into the blue box and make some more of these.

I sewed up the kites from last week and might make a couple more of these as well. I do love how easy these are to make with the dies.

I have had these extra quarter square triangles leftover from the Sweet Confetti blocks just sitting around and waiting in a basket next to my sewing machine. I was able to use some 2 inch white strips to make the flying geese wings with my ruler. I sewed these together, but I might take them apart and pop them into groups of 2 instead and see what will happen to them once all of them are sewn into geese. I'm thinking a nice little wall hanging or some placemats?

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday.