Slow Sunday.....

I had a finish and a start this week. The finish was the Umbrella quilt which I posted about yesterday. Hand applique last year and hand quilted this year.

The start - was a new block I had drafted from a memory and finished hand piecing it mid week here. I am calling mine Endless Diamond since it is similar to an Endless Chain pattern I found.  I plan to dig in the scrap bins and prep some more pieces to make more of these 12 inch blocks.

I also plan to pin this 35x35 inch book club quilt for hand quilting today.

A few stitches will be added to the cat and mouse quilt on the frame which has been sadly neglected to get the umbrella quilt completed.

As I was in between things last night, I pulled the crochet out of the tin can and added a couple of rows..... which had Emily asking when her blanket would be completed! She tried it on for size and it needs to be a little bit bigger. 

I'm sure some time will be spent helping build the chicken coop (maybe - he and Emily did a good job last night for a couple of hours out there). Prep work, stitching and relaxing are on tap for my Sunday. It was an early start as someone was wide awake at 6AM and thought she needed to 'check on me'! every 45 minutes! I put her off until I got out of bed at 8. So much for sleeping in on a Sunday! 

Linking up with the other slow stitchers at Kathy's Quilts. 

An RSC finish!

I managed to finish the binding on my umbrella quilt despite some 'help' from Peanut who thought I needed the quilt held down! As you can see I had the binding up to the yellow when 'someone' decided to take a nap! Yes, he was tucked on top of the next section I needed. Thank goodness the chickens woke up and made noise and he decided to go check it out.

I trimmed this up on Thursday night and was too lazy to make a binding. There happened to be just the right amount of scrappy binding sitting around and I decided it was meant to be.

This is the completed quilt. Maybe an outside photo later today. Too early this morning and no sun out. 

Linking up with the RSC Challenge

Sunday stitching...

The kids are heading to Grandma's for the day. I hear I get to add fencing to some panels for the chicken coop and finish filling in the dirt underneath. I see some slow stitching with a movie later today!

The middle of the umbrella quilt is finished so it is time to mark and stitch the setting triangles. Who knows, maybe a binding will get made and attached this week as well? This was my freehand attempt. I'll get the ruler out to mark the others.

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers.

I keep telling myself I need to actually finish a few things before starting something new..... like a hand pieced flowering snowball quilt from scraps or finally trying a block I drafted years ago from scraps..... something new might pop up next week, we will see.

Flowering Snowball.

drafted block

A Magic Stars finish

I finished hand stitching the binding on this baby quilt yesterday afternoon. This is the back - 10 inch squares of 'fun' kid prints.

The front - Tiffany's Magic Stars... tutorial from The Joyful Quilters blog. I just did machine walking foot of diagonal lines in the corners.... the decided to outline stitch in those L shapes and in the center blocks. I used warm and natural so a lot of stitching was not needed. It should be all set for lots of washings and use.

Still working on quilting rain onto the umbrella quilt.

My second order from Connecting Threads arrived yesterday (under a week!) so I now have white on white fabric to prep and stitch a couple snowflakes for Hoarfrost and I can start cutting and stitching the boarder for it. 

We are expecting really hot temps again today. I might try and go attach the chicken wire to the bottom of the coop area... but I have a feeling it will be put off for a cooler day.  I don't do well with heat and humidity. I think I'll just stay inside and stitch!

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers. 

Peanut keeping an eye on the chickens this morning while enjoying the heat lamp. They love the roost dowel Greg installed this week.

Outside while Emily cleaned their cage yesterday.They are about 2 weeks old.

I sent Aidan out to snap some photo's of my flowers yesterday before the rain came.

Feel free to stop reading here. The rest is why not as much stitching got done due to some stressful decisions that needed to get made. Lets see what it was!

I find I tend to play games on my phone (Cookie Jam) when I am stressed. Lets just say lots of games played and not so much stitching this week. Tuesday there was an emergency school board meeting a day after a mandate came down Monday that schools in Florida will be open on time .... for us that is August 10, 2020. Our new cases are averaging 10K the last 2 days and have been averaging 7-8K new a day for the last 2 weeks.... and hospital ICU's are getting full. In my county (Marion County)  we had 409 new cases in the last week as of Friday with 84 in hospital and 10 of those in Covid-19-ICU's in the 3 local hospitals in Ocala.  Edited - 15,300 new cases in Florida in the last 24 hours! 70K added in the last week.

Teams have been working to come up with opening plans before this mandate came down. (Keep in mind most of the state is still not wearing masks). They came up with great solutions.... and then it was up to parents to make the decision. We have until July 15 to decide for each child. The choice was in school every day following the bell or virtual at home with your schools teachers following the bell. The teachers will either have a class of kids in front of them or a class of virtual in front of them, no mixing. After reading the 70+ page document and lots of discussion with hubby without little ears around.... Grandma's sciatic recovered enough that she took the kids Tuesday and silly lady kept them until Thursday night!... We are opting to keep the kids home for schooling. Our cases are still rising and the kids are not comfortable going out in public with so many not social distancing or wearing masks. I only go out for groceries and Greg goes out for work where unfortunately he is in a small space and while he wears a mask, most of the customers do not! We will reevaluate in December for the Jan-May semester. Hopefully our local cases and hospitals will be in a better situation at that point. This also allows us to still see my in-laws who are in the higher risk age group. Greg's back is also not better - no shot Wednesday as insurance denied the request. Let's just say he sneezed and coughed Friday and called off work Saturday in intense pain. No way can he get CoVid-19 right now!  No matter your thoughts on this pandemic, I think we all need to practice kindness as everyone is in a different situation and there is no easy answer. Some have no choice but to send their kids to school as they need to be at work. The teachers and administration of schools are also put in a difficult situation. That is their job/passion and it is potentially risking them and/or their families. No easy solution and no easy answers so please practice kindness. 

Since we have a feeling this will be on-going for the next year or more.... we decided to use that stimulus check to purchase new laptops, wireless mouse and keyboards for each of the kids for school. They each had really old hand me downs (over 10 years old and out of update capability). These should last them well into high school. It also helped as they were so excited when the keyboard and mice arrived Friday.... the computers arrive on Monday.

Rain, rain go away.....

I can't remember the last time we saw the sun! It has been cloudy all week and rainy the last couple of days. The other side of town got 8 inches of rain yesterday! We luckily have had constant rain instead of deluges so the moat on the lawn has not filled up and the sand has been able to absorb it. (Yes, I figure if it is a moat then I live in a castle!)

It makes me think I need to work on some hand quilting outlining the rain umbrella's today. I started free hand 'rain' and 'raindrops' on the quilt but.... I am straight line challenged so that little bit will get pulled out and the herra marker will be put to use to assist with the rain lines after I get all the umbrella's outlined.

Progress is being made on the Book Club hand pieced quilt along. I have one row and one sashing together. The second set should be assembled and attached today as well. I was able to mark the rest of the sashings for hand piecing yesterday so they are all prepped and next to my chair for little bits of time here and there.

The kids are BOTH going to Grandma's for a rainy day today.

I might try and get the first set of sheep knitted on Aidan's pillow. That has not come out to play in a while. I think I'll try and get it moving along this month as he has been waiting a while for it. This is the last photo I have of it.

Of course the girl wants her crochet blanket too.... that occasionally will get pulled out and I add a row or two while waiting on things to bake or when I have a few minutes of down time. This is an old photo, it is probably 17 inches longer now as that skein is done and another is almost done as well. I think I was getting about 11 inches a skein with this blanket stitch.

Linking up with the other slow stitchers at Kathy's Quilts. 

Sunday.....

After yesterdays errand day, today will be stay home and relax.... until this evening when I need to go retrieve the children. We let Grandma come get them today for a day at her house with the dogs. Greg (hubby) is still a hurting unit with back pain when he moves so he is sitting and trying not to move too much today.

That leaves me to putter and play!

Blueberry muffins were made this morning. They were so yummy! One of the errands yesterday was a trip to a local family run farm market. I got my fresh corn there on Thursday. They got 50 bushels of tomato's for canning on Friday afternoon. I didn't go over Friday so called Saturday afternoon to see if any were left. 1 left... but someone had called and requested it. Would I like to be called if they don't pick up? I said yes, they were 15 minutes away so just give me time to get there before they closed at 5PM. They are closed Sun-Tues so didn't want them to sit. I got a call at 4:40.... she didn't show up if you want them they are yours! I have a nice box of tomato's that will get water bath canned today.

They also had pickling cukes but I figured I'd wait for next week on that one. I did grab 4 cukes and did a quick pickle on them to go with the fish fry we had for dinner last night. The farmer fields here in Florida are full and with all the restaurants and businesses closed they are having trouble finding places to put it. I know some are donating to food banks but lots are dying in the fields. I will be happy to put these up today and stock the pantry with some nice canned tomato's (and they won't go bad if we get a hurricane and lose power!).

While those are processing I plan to start my OMG for April! Yesterday the boy helped me to arrange the 12 blocks to a pleasing layout. I started cutting the huge squares for the setting and corner triangles. Just have to cut the sashing and start sewing it all together. It will be 72x72.

Tonight will be settle in and relax with some slow stitching. But what will be chosen?

Some rows have been added to the crochet blanket this week.

I finally pinned the umbrella quilt and it is ready to land in the hoop for hand quilting with the newly purchased blue quilting thread that arrived in the mail last week.

The cat and mouse on the frame has been sadly neglected. Will this be lucky enough to get some stitches?

Prepping and stitching the next Book Club Block could also happen.

So many choices... I think I may have to toss the options into a hat and pull one out to see tonight.

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers. Try to squeeze in some slow stitching each day for some sanity in these trying times. Even if it is one row of crochet or one strand of thread. It will soothe your soul.

Weekend plans.....

The kids are planning to do an overnight at Grandma's still to play with the dogs. They are opting out of the car races as I am assuming it will be cancelled due to the crowd in close proximity. Greg is working all weekend 2nd shift. What is a girl to do you ask?

Clean? Really.... do you know me at all?

This one will get loaded onto the frame. I have had the batting and backing all set to go for months! I'm thinking butterfly's in the bigger boarder, outline of the cats and in the cats either a wave or circle pattern. I'll figure out the rest as I go!

This one will get pinned for hand quilting to be by my recliner and possibly car lines (assuming kids go back to school on the 24th after break next week).  I see falling colorful raindrops and outlining the umbrellas.  I have batting and I think I'll have enough of the teal print backing from the cat and mouse to use for this one.

We will see what happens!

Umbrellas....

I stitched up these 2 umbrellas yesterday. I believe I need to prep 2 more and then all the umbrellas will be done for the year!

Umbrella's...

Long time between posts. I seem to have gotten some bug flying - probably from the first set of flights - oh goody! Lack of energy, splitting headache and lots of sleep all day Monday and last night around 5 it hit again. Guess I did too much yesterday..... Lets hope the second plane ride bugs don't hit as that will be next week with Thanksgiving!

Tom - my FIL finally got released home yesterday afternoon. Must call and check on him today and see how he slept in his own bed last night. It has been since Sept 23 since he was home. A long time.

I have little to show for my time off. I did manage to finally finish up the second set of 4 Ella Maria Deacon blocks last week. This one needs a good press and a fingers crossed it is 9.5 inches square. I printed out set 3 yesterday. I'll have to prep the first block for hand piecing tonight for tomorrow's bowling time. Lots of tiny flying geese without true measurements so I'll be making templates and cutting fabrics.

I think I showed the grey top umbrella I did last Sunday. I managed to do the rainbow one this Sunday and started the orange one in car lines yesterday. I just need to finish the needle turn applique on that one today in car lines. Once that is done I only need 4 more umbrellas! I have 2 prepped and just need to prep and pull fabrics for 2 more. Hmmm. I wonder if I have any more of the blue fabric I used on Emily's sailboat quilt 10 years ago.... that would make great 'raindrops' for the setting triangles..... Must search the stash and scrap buckets this week. If not... maybe the circles can be hand quilted on the selected setting triangle fabrics and within the umbrella blocks. Just thinking as I type. Things are always subject to change!

Monday umbrella to ward off the snow?

Just a little stitching in the hotel tonight while watching the snow fall. Yes, I had to brush about 2 inches off the SUV to head to dinner tonight..... and yes another 1-2 got brushed off to get back to the hotel! We just went a few blocks up to the Healthy Living Store so my co-worker had options for food. I loved their cheddar ale soup last night... and got some again tonight. Snow = soup weather. 

The umbrella in grey was stitched at my parents yesterday. I might stitch another umbrella tonight if I finish the 8th block for Ella Marie Deacon. The middle part is done and one set of the triangles. A few stitches here and there add up.... just like the snow falling outside the window. We will see if the projected 8-12 inches happens... although it is looking like it will. Fingers crossed for a delayed opening tomorrow.... more stitching time!

Slow Sunday...

Why yes, it will be a slow Sunday! I prepped a few blocks at the last minute on Friday to take with me on my business trip. I plan to work on one or two of them today.

The #6 Ella Maria Deacon block was completed this week and I prepped the next 2 the ones with blue on the top left hand side.

I just did this block this morning! Love my little snowman in the center.

I also prepped a few of the umbrella blocks to finish off the blocks needed for that little quilt. Prep work was easier on that one - just cut the 6 inch square and draw the pattern onto the back of the fabric. Pull some fabrics for the umbrella parts and done! I am back basting these so the prep work is easy peasy.

I also put the scrubby yarn and a crochet hook into the bag.

Those projects should keep me busy this week while I am up in Vermont on my business trip. I also have the kindle loaded with books to read. Looks like a nice snowstorm will arrive Mon/Tues..... I get to test the winter driving skills! At least the drive to the office is just one exit up the road and not too bad.

Linking up with the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Umbrella Wednesday

I was able to finish stitching this last night in an air conditioned house (it was feels like 95 yesterday and humid before a cool front went through last night). I get to work in my office again today and the cats are happy to be back to the normal routine - one sleeping in his bed beside my laptop on the desk and the other on top of the cat tree supervising, while Sophie has the rest of the house to herself for a few hours! I really need to count and see how many more of there I need to make. I am thinking 7..... but should lay them out and see sometime soon. One more in 'dark' colors for the month of October. I wonder if it will be black, brown or grey?

Umbrella and a perfect timing finish!

I managed to stitch up this umbrella yesterday.

I also knitted the second half of my purple dish cloth at a meeting last night and just finished it off at home .... with just that little bit left of the yarn at the top! Sophie was an unwilling photo prop - you should have seen the look she gave me after I took the photo!

Perfect amount to finish with! I used the crochet hook and weaved in the ends and added a pink and purple dish cloth to the drawer. So nice to open it and have some nice pretty colors peeking out at you.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge on Saturday - that umbrella is brown with blue flowers!

Umbrella Wednesday

Another umbrella added to the collection. This one has paw prints on it.

Slow Sunday Stitching....

There will be slow stitching today! I am up early (hey - when you fall asleep before 8PM then wake up for an hour around 11:30 then go back to sleep till 6:30 you must have been tired!) and ready to do a little slow stitching while listening to the news in a nice quiet house.

I did not get much sleep Friday night - we had a sleepover and the girls were in a tent set up in the living room and they did not settle down until after 11PM... giggling and chatting and we were up early to meet the troop for a walk to search for a geocache on the trails for 9AM. We found one..... and decided we will wait for it to cool down before doing that again! It was feels like 90 degrees at 10AM yesterday. I spent the day cleaning the house (between breaks to stitch up block #3 for Ella Marie Deacon Quilt Along) which explains the tired. This does need a press but it was fun to stitch together.

Today... slow stitching, grocery shopping and a visit to my fil in the hospital is on tap for me. He is better and they are talking release to rehab early this week. It will be 2 weeks on Monday he has been in there. Very weak but on the road to recovery.

Today will be slow stitching the Happy Little Things block (next one is released tomorrow!). Anyone have tips on how to center properly and cut the embroidery block to size? I thought I had a good plan... but it is not going to be centered well.

Prepping Block #4 for EMD quilt along and prepping 2 umbrella's to stitch this week in the car lines will happen.

I hope to also put some thread into the TATW quilt on the frame this afternoon/evening. Lofty goals, so I'd better log off, take a sip of coffee and get stitching on HLT's!

Umbrella - last purple one...

This guy was started in one car line and finished in the second one today! It felt good to play with the needle and thread. Now to pull black/brown for the next umbrellas. I have 2 fabrics in mind already - a pretty brown print with blue flowers and a black with colorful cat faces on it..... I just need to find that one. I think I still have some of it hanging around in a scrap bin, somewhere. No car lines for me tomorrow... but I do have a horse lesson to sit through. Emily missed her lesson last week and they were away this weekend.

Sunday....

It has been a very long week and I seem to have a headache that started last night and was still there when I woke up this morning.

I hope to take a few stitches on this purple umbrella today. Hope is the important word there. 

I'm not sure if there will be 2 more after this or if I add another 11. I guess I'll decide mid October.

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.

 There has been no sewing or stitching at all this week and I am in Florida instead of Vermont. My father in law Tom has been in the ICU since Monday. He turned 84 on Sunday and had called off our dinner out on Saturday not feeling well. There was great improvement yesterday and he was moved to a normal room late yesterday. Greg has headed over to see how he is today. The kids had an overnight with Grandma last night and they went to the car races - a previously scheduled outing and overnight. Let's just say I got woken up at 8:30PM from the recliner and told to go to bed to sleep last night! I think I have been in bed by 9 the last 3 nights. Very unlike me. Oh - Greg's parents have been divorced since he was 6 but both come over for holidays and are friendly. She has been great and came over to stay with the kids when we first found out. It has been lots of driving and shuffling of schedules to keep the kids centered and 'normal'. 

Today...I'll grab a shower and see how I am feeling as to if I go get Em from Grandma's (45 minutes away) or if Greg swings that way from the hospital. She has a 1PM birthday party to go to. I'm sure another dose of Advil will keep the headache at bay and knock down the low fever. In the mean time... I'm enjoying the smell of my night blooming jasmine which is loaded on the bush outside and wafting in through the closed windows.... too hot to open them!

Purple parasol anyone?

It has been a busy week and I finally got my little purple umbrella completed just in time for the Saturday link up of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

I did manage to sew these blocks together last Sunday. It is now 72x72. This is a subset of blocks from the 1857 sampler album quilt along over at Sentimental Stitches a few years ago. It was all hand applique for me. I am not sure if this will be hand or machine quilted. Thoughts? I like how the darker tan background frames this one... my son, not so much! 

-Monday was working and kid pick up (and quick grocery run to pick up things for scout meeting that night) We did the brownie snack badge - made Pico with chips, energy trail mix and berry smoothies. I finally checked my phone about 9:30 that night (guess it rang while I was supervising chopping) and I got to log into work that night too!

-Tuesday I drop off both kids (I normally drop Em for 7:15/20ish and Greg drops Aidan for 9) and start work an hour later. Tonight was Emily's horses. She nixed my taco Tuesday thoughts and we did quick chicken chili and corn bread in between me having to go get the boy from school and making dinner early. Greg picks Em up Tuesdays so I can get my 5 hours in.

-Wednesday was working again and then kid pick up in the afternoon. Early taco dinner with a stop to get chili powder which someone could not find while making the mix. I had my taco meat over a salad with some chips on the side....before running out to my GS leader meeting. Seems one event is filling up fast.... lots of fb posts on our private GS troop page and I got another 4 indicating they really wanted to go. I had payment from 3 already.......

-Thursday - day off thank goodness! Dropped Em to school then drove 15 minutes to drop off our form and money for 7 girls and 2 adults to the Wizarding Event next month. Phew - got us in and it closed at capacity a few hours later! Then home to do the prize fund lists (which I kept putting off!), a quick shower and off to bowling. Rushed morning means I did not bowl well and the average went down! Oh well, higher handicap right? Stopped in at Sams to fill up with gas (going through lots more with kids in 2 schools!) and picked up a roaster chicken for dinner. Yup - you guessed it we were running again tonight. After picking up Emily - putting away stuff and looking at papers I got to go get the boy (20 minutes away). Got home to see his papers and then eat quick before everyone jumped in the car to head back to Aidan's school for open house! We went through his whole day.... in 10 minute increments with 4 minute walking. It is a big campus for a middle school! I got my steps in as I missed my walk this morning with errands! Hey - I got 10,000 steps (T+W) and within 500 steps of it (M+TH)! That morning walk after dropping Emily to school and before work actually happened this week!

-Friday - back to work today. Did keep the boy home from school - he was off today and a day of rest hopefully will help. I have cooking club tonight - Emily needs to clean a guinea pig cage after reading her book for 30 minutes (She LOVES her language arts teacher this year. She is actually reading by herself every day!) I found out Em's open house was rescheduled..... for when I am gone to VT! Figures. I had to reschedule her IEP as it fell on that week too. Sigh, I have yet to meet her teachers as Dad took her to the meet the teacher before school started and now gets to take them to her open house. The good news.... her speech has improved that we will probably be putting her in 'check' status so she won't get pulled back to back days from science this year. Aidan's IEP check for gifted is Monday. Dad gets to attend both this year and see what I have been doing the last 6-7 years with them!

-Saturday - You would think it would be a day of rest right? Not! Emily is doing community service with her KCL (Kindness, Community, Leadership) club at school. I think they are reading to animals? I'll drop her in the morning for 1.5 hours. The boy has a birthday party to go to with a friend from his school last year from 2-8. Depending on the weather and how Em feels at pick up mid morning - I might drop her to the barn to help Liz out with horse care for a couple of hours..... we will see. Me - I'll be in the sewing room playing with fabric in between running kids here and there!

Hope you are not too tired if you read this far. It was a very long week!