RSC in blue

 I got into the sewing room this morning and pulled open the drawer of 2.5 inch strips. There were only a handful so I pulled in the scrap bin and got enough squares to make 2 16 patch blocks. They were added to the pile of colors this year. Linking up with the RSC.

I know it is not fabric but I have added some granny squares in dark country blue. I finished off this skein and will pull the medium blue to make some more. This is a new project and I am shooting for one every day or two.

The cats had their annual vet visit this week. All is well. They opted to ride together on the way home. Peanut lost a little weight and was 8 pounds 3 ounces. Ollie gained (he is on the right) and is up to 13.5 pounds.

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.

Purple....

I'm going to pull out the blocks for the 1857 Album quilt along that I did a few years ago over at SentimentalStitches.  It was free at the time each month over the span of 18 months. I did 36 of the blocks. It was a lot of applique. I did mine in a purple colorway of 2 purples and a green on a cream background. I had the border fleur de lis on a darker cream to frame it. I see a dark purple binding on this one eventually. This month, I hope to sew this one into a top. At least I'll be working on some purple with the RSC!

I had Aidan lay out the blocks for me. He did a pretty good job of balancing the colors. He was not sure what to do with this crest block... he said he turned it each way and decided to put the 'cow' face up! COW! Too funny.

I did a short walk with Emily this morning and we saw this flock of turkeys. We waited for them to cross the road in front of us then they were about 6-8 feet from us here on the lawn.

I took a break from work this morning to get some water and came back to this. Now how am I to sit in my chair with Ollie laying on it? Normally I sit and he lays between me and the back of the chair. Silly boy. Peanut usually lays down in his black bed.... or when he wants attention right in front of my laptop which he is blocking. Occasionally he sits on my lap and pretends to type on the keyboard. Silly boys.

We have seen a band or two of rain come through. Not bad. We played a new to me game yesterday and again today. It uses logic and strategy. I love it! It is called QWIXX. Aidan gets a little upset after a game or two when things don't go his way..... we are working on it. Emily just kicked both our butts this last game with a high score of 80! I got my 4th penalty to end the game. My strategy didn't work out this time but most of us had fun!

Em is in the pool with Dad supervision. Think I'll lay down and see if the headache goes away before I have to think about dinner. 

Chevron Graduation quilt.....

 I guess I should probably start on the graduation quilt needed for next month! I have been collecting fabrics for this quilt over the last few months. The requested colors are yellow/gold with blue.... yellow/gold is the favorite color. She likes simple.... so the chevron pattern it is. I figured I'd do it in gradation and it will probably be a couple of strips of all these colors. I'm planning a twin size and will use the strip piecing on point layout rather than the half square triangles. Wish me luck! Of course..... I might switch it up and put a light yellow by a darker yellow for a couple too.... we will see what happens in the sewing room!

Someone was 'helping' me work yesterday.... Peanut cat.

Speaking of the cats... they truly are spoiled! They got a new climbing tree this week that the kids assembled for me. I was going to have it out on the back screened in porch.... but decided to put the 14 year old one out there and this one outside my office area. The cats tend to come and play for a few hours while I start my day then retire to the bedroom for their naps! We have another big one in the living room about twice this size the cats enjoy playing on as well. See, spoiled cats!