RSC Chickens

 

I did manage to sew together some blue chickens this week. They were happy to join the flock. I still need to pick out some blues for the Arkansas Traveller blocks and the string of beads blocks. I'm not sure the AT blocks will get done, but I should be able to prep the beads blocks as a hand work project for my trip up to VT. I suppose I should pack Saturday, as we are leaving on Sunday morning. 

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.

RSC in pink and yellow!

 Since I did not get any yellow sewing in last month, I'll do both pink and yellow this month!

I got a little sewing time in on Thursday morning and cut and pieced 4 chicken blocks. I even remembered to do the big part of the chicken correctly, so I didn't have to modify the parts to make it work! I had that purple one right next to the machine for reference as I stitched.  I did 2 in yellow and 2 in pink. I might make a few more of these later in the month if there is time. The red part is 3-D. 

I had the parts cut out and in process for 2 more of the potato chip blocks so those got stitched while I was doing the chickens above. I think I will get out my 2.5 inch strip die and cut a bunch from the stash wall so I have a variety of fabrics to choose from. I'll go through the white bin as well and try and get some usable parts cut. It is overflowing and needs taming.

Linking up on Saturday with the RSC. Head on over and see what scraps are turning into.

The boy has 2 Cambridge college level tests today and then a review after school for Mondays exam. He said the math one was a killer yesterday and all their brains were fried after it. He thinks he did poorly, but we will see what the results are in August. This is one that gets sent over the pond for grading at Cambridge. He got invited to a surprise moving away party at the middle school this evening for his old Robotics teacher. He is moving north and will be teaching elementary next year in the Carolina's and starting a Robotics program at his new school. A bunch of the kids from high school who were in his classes are planning to attend and wish him well. He had them for 3 years in middle school with the robotics program and the boys helped out at the after school program with him last year for volunteer hours and helped at a few local tournaments the last 2 years for him.

Hopefully I can get a little yard work done this weekend. Pull some old bushes and plant new flowers, trim some hedges back and just tidy up before the humidity hits the crazy levels and I hibernate in the AC for the summer!

Table Scrap Challenge

 I just finished the last stitches on the little chicken block. The challenge for March was birds and purple. Well, a chicken is a bird and it is purple! I had fun making this block and decided to not put the red comb onto this one. He will be a chick instead of a chicken. 

Here are the girls in my back yard today. Well, 4 of the 5. Maple, DC (Daisy Chickalotta), Buttercup and Poppy. Eggnog was following me, so she was at my feet wanting attention.

Linking up with Joy and the challenge.

Happy Easter!

 We had a nice non-traditional Easter meal today with Grandma. Aidan worked to get the Big Green Egg back into working order and it is now up on some cement blocks to stabilize it and make it a nice level height to use. 

The kids cooked salmon on the grill last night for dinner and today Aidan was the grill master and cooked up some burgers and brats for our lunch with Grandma. It is a lovely partly cloudy 80 degrees today and right now Greg and the kids are outside in the back yard. The chickens are roaming free while they move the cage run attached to their coop run a little as they have dug up all the grass and made plenty of craters to take dust baths in. With the hawks around and the dog, it is safer for them to be in their safe area most of the time. The dog is inside with me watching those chickens and wanting to be outside with them!

Now that our company is gone, I'm going to relax with a little stitching. This purple chicken needs a red comb appliqued to it's top and then some simple quilting and a binding to finish it off. The pattern is from Sew Inspired but since I messed up how I placed the big rectangle mine is a little different.

This month I want to make progress on my Brimfield Awakening project. I have various charm packs that I will be using for this but I need to decide how I'll lay them out. Until then, I'll keep making the parts and then decide how the colors will flow on them. 

I did get one of the cats hand quilted this week. Each cat will be quilted differently. I think the next one will have circles or swirls after I get it outlined. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.

I do love a prime rib (only the girl is with me on this one in my house - so I just have to fight her for it!) and since it is on sale now with the holiday, I got another one yesterday. It cooked up today and this is how it looks when I pulled it out of the oven. It is resting now, then I'll cut it into slices (the bones were cut off and tied back on by the butcher - those get sealed and frozen for soups!) and will seal a meal them and freeze them. Emily and I will pull them out for a quick dinner (her) or to add on top of salads for lunches (me). It will be gone by the end of June. This one was an 8 pounder. The last one never made it to the freezer and the remains are a beef barley soup in the fridge. 

RSC Wrapping up Purple.

 It was a pretty productive month in purple. Some Arkansas Traveler blocks, some hand applique Sting of Beads blocks and some chicken blocks. 

This guy needs a red comb added by applique and then some quilting to finish him off as the challenge for the month. The cold I have had for a week is kicking my butt the last couple of days so it is not quite done yet. The challenge was purple and birds. Well, a chicken is a bird! I hope to get this guy finished tonight, so I can link up with Joy tomorrow. 

Note to self, pay attention to the way you lay out the big rectangle before sewing the two bottom parts on. The first one I had the long part side to side. I seem to have swapped that when doing the other 4 so I had to make some modifications to make it work. It will all work in the final scrappy quilt.... that just allows for some alternate space things... like eggs! I might unpick the two on the right and add a 3-d comb to those as well. I was going to leave them as babies as it takes a bit for the red combs to come out and get bigger, but I like the look with the comb better.

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.

After sleeping in (10:30!), I have been moving slowly today. I did go get some groceries - the boy decided to go with to pick out snacks and their salmon for dinner. He now has his license as of last week and has driven himself to his guitar lesson without anyone else in the car this week. He drove today as well. Only Grandma is coming over tomorrow for Easter as my step-FIL is not feeling well with a cold and my FIL doesn't like to stray from home anymore. Since the kids are not too crazy about ham, and Grandma and Greg don't care, I offered an alternate meal and everyone liked that better. So, we will be having Brats and Burgers on the Big Green Egg tomorrow. We have not used the Big Green Egg in a while, so Aidan opened it up and got it burning hot last night to clear things out. He'll clean the grill grate tonight and has already scraped out all the old charcoal and bits out so we can put some fresh in. They are going to cook the salmon on the grill tonight for them. I'll be making some soup with the prime rib bones - some beef and vegetable barley I think. I might have picked up another Prime Rib from Publix today.... to cook off tomorrow and then seal a meal slices for the freezer. 

RSC recap

 It has been a productive week for me.

I was able to get the Scrappy Kites from last years RSC quilted and bound this week for a finish. This one is a 42x50 finish and hopefully will be donated as part of the Hands2Help this year.

Then I moved onto sewing the split nines from last year together into this top. It is 48x54 with each 6 inch finished block. 

I finally made a chicken block in purple! I used the pattern from Sew Inspired. I made the red part a little different. I sewed them right sides together and then turned it out. I see I need to 'fix' that part on the lower
left to make sure it is sewn securely together, it must have come undone a little too much when I turned it. 

I will be making my Arkansas Traveller blocks today, but the fabrics are already picked out and ready to run through the Accuquilt Die, so the hard part is done!

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.