Results from a relaxing day.

 I took a fairly lazy day yesterday. I did finally mop the kitchen floor.... it really needed it! Bathrooms today I think. 

A lot of time cutting and prepping the rest of the pink hexagons needed for January. These are so quick to stitch at night - maybe 10 minutes - once all that prep work is done. 

Then I settled in and watched some tv (ok, listened to tv) while adding some hand quilting to this little quilt. Just a little more time needed on it today and then I can find something for the binding and get it finished off. 

Rolling, rolling, rolling....

I got to roll the frame twice within one week! I just rolled it again on Wednesday and got to hand quilt for a bit after picking up one kid from scheduled early release.  So fun to know I am working on the last set of blocks - blues, pinks and dark greens are on this row. Let's hope it doesn't take a couple of years like the first row!

Does anyone else get sick of figuring out meals for the week? Just me? Really?
I think I had a successful one this week so far. Since we cancelled the scout meeting on Monday night...it gave us time to make the tamales! Boy - they are very time consuming! I did a pork butt in the crock pot as Carnitas. After I shredded it we made the tamales. Tuesday.... on the ride home the boy came up with the idea of Cubans. We stopped at Winn Dixie on the way home they have awesome cuban bread there. Picked up pickles too, and we had ham, swiss and carnitas and mustard at home. Used my pampered chef skillet with press and oh boy, those were yummy. I had half a head of cabbage that we shredded and made a vinegar slaw to go with it. Wednesday - Emily's meal (she didn't like the last 2 days... but did eat the shredded meat plain). Roasted veggie and italian sweet sausage pasta. Hmmm two more days of meals to deal with. Maybe baked fish tomorrow with sweet potato fries and a salad and Friday....pizza?

Where is Tiny Tuesday?

Well, it seems to have been pushed to the back burner for a month or two. I do hope to get back on track next week with my Civil War Love Letter blocks.... thinking I will plan to do one by hand per day while the kids are at swim lessons the week of June 9 and June 16. That should get me back on track!

Today - I decided to show the graduation quilt that did get the binding finished last Friday. I think it came out pretty good. This is a twin size quilt 60x84 and the pattern can be found here. I just need to sew up a teal pillowcase for storage and throw it through a bath cycle in the washer and it will be all set to mail up to Vermont in plenty of time for the High School Graduation. Don't mind the three pins on the front. A little 'fixing' needs to be done as well on three seams. I hate when I don't catch that before quilting.

I missed the Sunday Slow Stitching post - instead I decided to trim some hedges out front  Sunday evening while Greg was mowing the lawn. I did it by hand... so my arms were in no shape to do anything that night. I did some more Monday night but I figured I could manage a few stitches. I sandwiched my little T wall hanging and started hand quilting it last night. I am testing out my new toy - a PVC type holder and so far it is working well. Maybe I can adjust to using a hoop for quilting!

Slow Stitching Sunday

I made some progress this week on the Quilt Square Along Block. I had taken out the straight lines on the inner border and added the wavy mountains. I like them much better. I followed along the creams in the hst border and did an x in the corners.

All of this is free hand quilting - I'm too lazy to plan things out =). I searched in a book to find a cable and then I just drew them based on the picture. I have two sides with the five cables that I hand quilted already. The other two I drew were the first ones and had six cables.... I need to use a damp cloth to get rid of those marks and rework them as five cables so I can finish it up today.

Next in line is this little T wall hanging that I did through the 'Lets Book it' Link Party over at Vroomans Quilts. This is from The Civil War Sewing Circle by Kathleen Tracy. I love the hand quilting on the one in the book and will follow that for my quilting.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other slow stitching projects are being worked on this week.

6.5 Inch Cat - for the Rainbow Scrap Sampler

I had modified the pattern for a 8.5 inch cat last week to make a little teal cat in the RSC Sampler size - 6.5 inches unfinished. I figured I'd put a little tutorial out there in case anyone wanted to add a cat block to their sampler. The original pattern is free here.

For a 6 inch finished block.

Cat fabric - 1 - 3.5 x 6.5 inch rectangle
                   1 - 3.5 x 2 inch rectangle
                   2 - 1.5 inch squares (ears)

Background fabric - 1 - 3.5 inch square
                                 1 - 3.5 x 2 inch rectangle
                                 1 - 1.5 inch square (tail)

Mark a line from corner to corner of the small 1.5 inch triangles and attach the white to the large cat block and the two cat colors onto the white 3.5 x 2 inch rectangle as seen below.

Sew the face to the ears and then add the 3.5 inch background square to the side.

Sew the top of the cat to the body. You now have a  cute cat to add to your collection of 6 inch squares.

Sorry about the bad photography. I had just quickly moved my sewing machine into the play room table since the 'sewing room' is occupied as a guest room right now. I was also in a hurry as two little ones wanted to ride bikes and they have to have an adult out front if they ride in the driveway. I volunteered so they were waiting for me to finish sewing and go watch them. Hey - if it tires them out so they go to bed better I'm all for it!

Since it is Sunday...... I'm going to pull out the same block from last week and work on some hand quilting a little later. I have not made any progress on this because I did not like those lines I made in the inner border. I will pull them out and do a nice rounded curve of some sort. I think it will look better. I'm thinking of trying a little cable in the last border so I wanted a curve of some sort in the inner border. We'll see how it comes out next week! 

To see some beautiful hand work head on over to Kathy's Quilts linky party, put your feet up and enjoy the show.

Slow Stitching Sunday....

Another week has passed and today is a great day to slow down and enjoy some peaceful hand stitching. We are also celebrating a birthday today - Emily turns four years old today.
I've been working a bit this week on my Lori Smith 12 inch block that I am hand quilting. I just have to finish the last border treatment. I think I am going to echo the 1/4 inch quilting around the inner border another time or two and then call this one done.

If I have time I need to finish prepping my midget block for this week. Those curves scare me but Ellen did hers last week so I am jumping in and getting it done. Hopefully it comes out ok.

Instead of sewing on Friday afternoon I was working on costumes for a dance recital. Lots of glue and time for it to set and all those ribbons are firmly attached to the bigger ribbon. They should stay put as they are pinned around the bottom of some little girl's pink crop pants for a 70's dance number. I can't wait to see this later this month.

Head on over to Kathy Quilts and see what other hand work is happening on this slow down Sunday. I'll leave you with this sky picture I took a few weeks ago on my way into work. It makes me think of hand quilting with the pattern and color changes in the sky.

A Disney Day!

Today we are heading to Walt Disney World as a family and meeting my brother and his family. A fun but chilly day is in store. Emily has recovered enough from her fever the last few days to go.
Hopefully I don't get roped into driving again so I can do some hand stitching. I plan to work a little on this 12 in block from Lori Smith and maybe some knitting today.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other hand stitching is happening today.

Slow stitch Sunday

I actually prepped these blocks last week so that I would have them with me this week while I am away at a conference. I see slow stitching in the hotel room or sitting by the pool if the rains hold off. I am taking a bunch of different projects with me so I will have options when the mood strikes.

Orange Peel blocks - I am doing these as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge of 2013. My template is from the book Remembering Adelia.

Midget Blocks - I prepped a hand pieced one to work on this week. These are from the free for now Midget blocks at sentimentalstitches.com

Sufferage BOW - Mothers Choice is all prepped for hand piecing. This is from the Barbara Brackman BOW that is going on right now.

Lori Smith's Quilt Square Along Blocks from a 2012 BOM are being hand quilted and I have one in progress. I did finish off this one last week. It seems whenever I pull this out in public they say it is beautiful and then ask if it is a pillow!

This is a shot of almost all my blocks from last year. One is in progress. I know I have a log cabin one somewhere and one more that needs to be prepped for hand quilting. I hope to continue on with one a month this year until I have enough to make a good sized quilt. I think I need to get one more pattern of 6 and that would give me 24 blocks for a quilt.... a good size I think.

I think that should keep me busy and give me some options if the mood to stitch happens.
Head on over to Quilter Kathy's Slow Stitch Sunday and see what others are working on this first weekend of 2013.

Slow Stitch Sunday

I've been doing some slow stitching this weeks since the kiddo's have been a little under the weather. I have noticed that my stitches are getting a little smaller and more evenly spaced on this one. Maybe less seams or I am just getting better with practice. This block is 12 inches finished so each of the stars is around 4 inches.

A close up of one of the stars.

Head on over to Quilter Kathy's to see what others are working on today.

Slow stitch Sunday

The grandmothers choice block for the week is perfect for a slow stitch Sunday. I plan to put this one together later tonight while watching The Amazing Race. I think there will also be a midget version of this one too!

This week I have slowly been working on my hand quilting of the QSA blocks while waiting for the kid line up at school and a few stitches taken here and there in the evenings. It is coming along nicely and I only have a couple of borders to go on this one before I can move onto the next one. It is so much easier quilting this one with a lot less seams than the usual QSA blocks. I can't wait to get these done so I can pull out my fireworks wall hanging for quilting.

Head on over to Quilter Kathy's and see what others are slow stitching on today.

Prep work Wednesday

Today was the first day of school Aidan had to miss. He was running a fever and said his throat was hurting. His sister mentioned the same thing and has a slight temp too. So, a quick call to school and they are home for the day with me. Both are taking a nice nap for me so after I got some lunch I decided to do some prep work on the kitchen island while catching up with some recorded shows.

Yesterday I prepped two pillowcases and got them completed this morning. I need to either find some more WOF fabrics to work with my flannels or just make them all one fabric. I have some cute boy ones that I don't really see using with Aidan anymore so will pass them along in these pillowcases.

Then, I prepped for my RSC orange Birds in the Air blocks. I should be able to have these 12 sewn up for Saturday.

Then, it was a quick look in the closet for some Grandmothers choice fabric and I pulled a homespun fabric and did a quick prep for some hand quilting on a QSAB. I have four waiting and now I can pull this one out and work on it here and there during the day.

I pulled some fabrics for the Grandmothers choice block. I have tried to print this out from the PDF and it never measures correctly. I decided to use some construction paper and draft it out. Cut my parts and then prep it for hand work. Hopefully it comes out ok... I have also drafted it for the midget size finishing at 4.5 inches but will piece this one first and see how it comes out.

Not too bad for a day of prep work. Hmmm should I start prepping dinner while I can do it without kids underfoot or relax with some hand work?