Purple Table Scraps Challenge

 When I made my spring blossom quilt a few years ago I had an extra purple one. 

After selecting it for the table scraps challenge it sat, and sat, and sat. Today was the day to machine quilt it. Then I attached the binding... and added a little hand quilting inside the blooms. Sophie was napping but allowed me to cover her up a bit with it for a photo.

Linking up with Joy and the Table Scraps Challenge.

Saturday RSC in purple

I have been in avoidance and so not really sewing. The graduation quilt is to the point of needing long borders attached. I really dislike cutting and sewing long seams. I may remeasure.... is it really needed? Sigh. Since I am not letting myself sew other things until that gets done, pinned and machine quilted not much has happened this week. It will get tackled this weekend however - it is mid month and the kids will be overnight at Grandma's to head to the car races tonight.

A few more purple hexagons were added this week and a slew more were prepped. 

The purple Erin's butterfly was made and basted. While out with Emily we picked up a background fabric for these - it is a big white dot on white. I need to figure out the size to cut for applique. It recommends 12.5 but that is really tight with them filling out the whole block so I might go with 14.5 or 15 with extra space around them.

I pulled out the hearts I made last year - hand applique from a charm pack. That left some interesting cuts leftover which I started sewing together. I think I'll cut out that middle that is created and the rest might go into a crumb block of some sort. I believe I have some of those around the sewing room somewhere. I can't touch those until the grad quilt is farther along in the process though!

I found some extra blocks and added a purple border on one that will be finished off into a table topper I think. I also sewed four leftover friendship stars together for another little 12 inch block. That one might become a hot mat if I can find that batting in the sewing room!

Linking up with the RSC where everyone is playing with purple.

A little of this... a little of that....

 For a Monday, some things actually got done! After finishing up working, I took Emily to Joanns for her to grab a mask for girl scout camp and for me to get a backing for the graduation quilt. I also got a few yards of a white print for a background for those butterfly's. The mask selection was minimal, as you can imagine. We also did a stop at Publix to grab a few things we needed. The red border got sewn on after I filled another bobbin. I'm waiting for my pressor and then I'll make a small black border as I think it is already pretty much the size I was thinking. Pinning should happen later today....

I stitched up the third Harmony corner block before starting dinner - beef stroganoff. After kitchen clean up - I started a batch of bagels. I have never made them before but Greg and I have been talking about trying them and since I didn't do it Sunday... I did yesterday. They came out of the oven last night and of the 8 made - there were only 5 left this morning. Seems we all tried them out (Emily had half of my plain one and part of Greg's everything one) - Greg said they were better than the Thomas Bagels! Pretty easy to make and I just used the regular flour I had on hand. I tried this recipe and added the everything bagel seasoning on 6 of the 8. I left 2 plain for me!  While the dough was rising, I finished off making some red pepper hummus for the fridge. My afternoon snack with carrots or peppers or cucumbers.

I am caught up with the hexagons this month and managed to play with a few leftover blocks on Sunday for the purple month. I think one will become a hot mat - the friendship stars - and the other a little table quilt - maybe hand quilted? We will see how the month goes! I think these both finish around 12 inches.

RSC 2018.... and no blue sewing yet you say?

How can that be? Blue is the largest part of my stash and my scraps and not a bit of blue sewing yet? Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. Come in closer. Closer..... I have way too many tops and collections of blocks in my sewing area.

There, I said it.

Deep breath.

I feel better now.

So, instead of being good and picking up the area and finding more things to distract me..... I just cleared off the sewing table and diligently worked on my spring blossoms quilt. You see - it got pinned, walking foot machine quilted and I made and attached a binding to the front this week. Don't tell the quilting police.... but I plan to hand quilt the blossoms.... after I finish the binding! I know, I am a rule breaker! I'm thinking I'll outline the color blossoms on the inside and then do what Joanne did with her machine in the middle sections since I like how that looked. So..... one project has officially moved out of the sewing area this week. I'm calling that a win. I made this last year with the RSC Challenge and the free pattern can be found here. It is a super fun quilt to make.

Since I had some time... I pulled out the wonky houses and looked up the directions for the uphill and down hill. I had one uphill and 3 downhill. I know when I cut them and sewed them a couple of years ago I cut out 2 of each. Might be why they got put into a pile and erased from the memory. I cut some fabric for 2 uphills today... and I actually got 2 uphill houses! Woo Hoo! These were made with the RSC Challenge a few years ago. Hey - one of the houses is blue, does that count?

I did see some blue this week though. I needed a change of pace after 2 days of hand quilting on my red dresden block last weekend (and a very sore fingertip) so have been knitting and made both of these this week.  Just need to tuck in the ends and they will go into the dish cloth rotation.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge on Saturday. I'll be with 150 girls at a cookie rally in the morning. Unfortunately - the location of the rally does not have heat... and it is going to be freezing overnight here in Florida again. It will be an interesting dress code... as most don't have winter gear so hopefully lots of layering and gloves and mittens will be happening. Stay warm everyone.

For now, I am going to cooking club tonight so I'd better get in a quick walk (and turn on the pool pump to low for overnight) and then make dinner for the hubby and kids. Have a great weekend.

Weekend Roundup....

Another busy weekend.... of course! Would you expect anything else from me?

Saturday was an early morning start with Emily and 7 other girls from our girl scout troop heading to a Wizzadry event about an hour from us in the forest.  I had 3 girls in my car.... I will enjoy quiet today in my house! The girls got sorted into houses (GIRL - go getter, innovator, risk taker, leader). Then we headed to potions class. The girls got to make a scary bubbly creation that bubbled over the huge glass container. One of my daisy's added the final touch that started the bubbling. Then they made lip balm to take home. Next was herbology - where they put together some mandrakes to grow before learning about different herbs and scents.  Spells was next- the girls picked and decorated their wands and got their acceptance letter with a butterfly surprise inside. It was outside time at the quiddich pitch after that .... with a obstacle/solving race first then a quiddich game. We hit the honeydukes store last for some butter beer and lots of scary named candies that the girls got to eat. A fun time was had by all. My 3 had some playground time....and my daughter didn't like the twirly tire ride. We had a sick girl (mine of course) on the way home but she was better after.  Grandpa A was there when we got home after dropping girls off to parents. A nice visit with him and then.... the boys started putting down the floor in Aidan's room. We did have an issue..... a nice heavy box fell and landed on the boy's big toe. After about 20 minutes of screaming and crying - he has a very bruised big toe.  At least the carpet out of the room is really helping with his allergies.

Some pumpkins got carved and pumpkin seeds got toasted in the evening. Needless to say - I was in bed early after watching a Harry Potter movie.

Sunday - it is going to be an interesting week with Aidan and his toe - with putting on socks and shoes. He seems to be walking fine and can move it - just a good bruise. They are off to Grandma's house today. They are headed to the cooter festival in Inverness today to see the turtles race. That leaves me a couple of hours to clean up the house a bit before everyone returns. A quick lunch date with hubby at Chili's (with a margarita with my fajita so no driving  errands for me today!) I'm headed to the sewing room shortly - the sewing machine doesn't count as heavy machinery..... right?  (which now has all Aidan's things from his room in there - I just had it all cleared out! ). I hope to get the spring blooms quilt into a top stage by the end of the day. I went with white..... I cut out the blue and just didn't like it. I'm thinking a bright green binding from the leaves in the bloom blocks eventually.... or maybe the light blue. I guess I will see what works when I get to that stage. Sharing this one with the RSC Challenge. The free pattern can be found here. Thank goodness I still have 2 days to make some pink bow tie blocks!

Some more Inklingo shapes will get printed. I had NO luck last Sunday. Lots of paper jams until I figured it out on Tuesday. Note to self - leave a 1/4 inch of just freezer paper on the top and right side of the paper going into the printer so it pulls through ok. After I did that - no printing issues! I need to prep a bunch for my trip next week so I have some hand work for the plane ride and evenings in the hotel.

I also hope to slow down a bit and finish the last row of the purple setting triangles on the trip quilt.  I do like how this one turned out. It will have to wait a bit for it's hand quilting.

Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching.

Monday design floor

I decided to lay out the spring blossom blocks this morning. Somehow I have one extra block.... I did 7 of the purple instead of the 6 needed!

Then I pulled some colors to see what the setting triangles would look like.....

It will sit until it tells me what it wants! The kids and I are headed to The Crayola Experience today in Orlando. We are meeting up with some friends there. 

We have to be home for soccer practice tonight... so dinner is in the crockpot so I don't have to deal with that later tonight. Onion, potato and carrots in a cream of mushroom sauce on the bottom with chicken leg and thighs on top that were seasoned with rosemary herb blend. We will see how it turns out! I was thinking beef stew, chuck roast or a roaster chicken... but they were all expensive... and this package was on sale for a little over $4! 

RSC Pink blossom blocks.

I found the floor in the sewing area.... and then decided it was time to sew the parts of the pink blossom blocks together. These are the last 5 I needed for this project. It will be time to start pulling fabrics for the setting triangles for this one. I could go with the white flowered print... or a color. I have a soft yellow or purple in my head for this one... but we will see what is in the stash.

Linking up with the RSC Link Party. Head on over and see what other pinks are coming out to play.

A Finish!

Can it really be? Did I actually complete something? Why yes, yes I did!

Crayon Box

Not a boring backing.

I finished the hand stitching of the binding on this crayon box quilt at bowling Thursday. This was not a UFO... but rather a project from the RSC Challenge this year. I believe I somehow started this on the multi color month I think? It is a little one finishing off at 44x58.

That means I can start something new..... ok, most of these are new purchases for the triangle quilt for Emily... but a couple of the pinks came from stash. I have 132 - 6.5 inch triangles cut out. I need 204....must search a little more in the stash to find the last ones needed.

From some of the above scraps I cut out my 4 inch squares to make the last of the spring blossom blocks. 5 will get made at some point.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge. Since I had a 3 hour nap after bowling this morning with the kids (and the splitting sinus headache finally went away) I might have sewing time later tonight when I know I won't be tired!

Orange blossoms....

I finally got a little orange sewing in and managed to find that missing white background for the blossom blocks. 5 of these babies got made in orange and I am just waiting on 5 more pink ones before I can start putting these together. I need to do some measurements and figure out if I want to frame it in a color of the setting triangles or not..... I guess it will depend on if I have enough of something in my stash. I know I do have enough of the white if needed. After 7 years of this challenge (or is it 8?) I finally figured a few things out I thought I'd share. I decided to reclaim a 12.5 inch storage box back in January when I had decided to make these blossom blocks. I wrote down some instructions on a piece of paper that I got from here - thanks Joanne for a great free pattern! I also noted how many of each color I needed on the back. I stored my green in here (moved to stash now as I cut ahead for the pink month) and stored my completed blocks in here. It made it easy each month to see what I needed for parts and how many in each color.  I have a paper in a storage bin on my BITA blocks too - just waiting on black and brown to come up in the rotation to finish off those blocks for a nice queen size scrappy quilt.

September 21 Greg and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. We have not really celebrated per say, he had these pretty pink flowers delivered and I ordered his favorite meal  - Papa John's pizza for dinner! I know - we are pretty boring! Today is my FIL's 82nd birthday - we will be taking him out tomorrow to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate. I think we'll count that as our anniversary dinner too (I do love my prime rib!) I'll have the kids call and wish him a happy birthday after school today.

In the mean time I will be adding more of these bright orange to the trip quilt. One strand of thread does about 4 of the 2 inch squares. A nice, slow repetitive process adding these on. I am ready for the nice calming blue on the next round.... 3 bright colors in a row is my limit!

I'll be linking up tomorrow with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Greg will take the kids to bowling so I can work in the morning.... internet issues Monday didn't allow me to log into work so I'll make up those 5 hours tomorrow morning. Very grateful to work for a company that allows me such flexible time. Have a great weekend.

RSC in Blue

A little late for the link up but I did get to play with my sewing machine this afternoon and finished the 6 spring blooms for the month. These pretties were added to the collection. The link to this free pattern from Canuckquilter is here.

Linking up to the RSC Challenge - head on over and see all the lovely blues that were out to play this week.

RSC in Yellow!

Yea! I got to make some more of the flower blossoms  (Spring Bloom block free pattern here from canuckquilter.com) this month!  I looked at my notes and it said I needed 6 blocks of yellow so..... 6 blocks got made!

To group a few challenges together this month (17 in 2017, RSC yellow and hand stitching on Sunday's) I am pulling out my midget appliqué top and making the yellow appliqué border this month. It needs something first though so the yellow cornerstones don't get lost in the border. So far this one is completely hand stitched..... so I'll continue it with the borders.

I also got an almost complete last month of the 2015 RSC Challenge quilt that just needs the binding attached to the back. You can find that here.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge today in yellow. Head on over and see what sunshine colors have come out to play. 

Monday.....

Sunday was a day of puttering in the sewing room. I dumped out the smallest bin of scraps and sorted them. I am now very afraid to dump the 3 huge bins.... it took so long to sort that little one! How did I fit that many scraps into one little bin?

I got my spring blossoms sewn together. I found 9 of these diamonds so decided to sew them all together.

I also cut and sewed a bunch more of the Thangles Series #4. I have 2 left to make... and one to fix. I don't know how I missed that I forgot to reverse one of the colors so will need to pick that one out and resew it. These finish at 8 inches... and I have no clue how they are going to go together. Either way it is going to be a very small quilt!

I also got my quilters scrapbook pressed, pinned and started quilting the blocks. That is a big quilt to pull through my little sewing machine area. I think I know why my back hurt last night!

I hope to add some time to the quilting on this each day this week. I have outlined 6 of the blocks so far but there is lots left to quilt.

It's RSC Saturday in Purple!

I actually have done a few things in purple this week. I got 4 of my border blocks finished for the 1857 sampler quilt I am working on.  Hey, it is purple so it got included!

Some bow ties were added to the pile from last week.

I found a bundle of 12 blocks with a pattern and fabric that I decided to start stitching up. This is the Thangles series #4 but.... I am just using my easy angle ruler =). The two purple blocks got made along with a handful of the other ones. These are going quickly.... and now there are more scraps!

Finally I made a spring blossom from the free pattern over at canuckquilter.com These are so fun to make. I am going on her quilt design and will plan to make certain colors this year
as the month's color comes up. I will use the same background and the same green for the leaf. It will be fun to see how this one comes out. One done - 5 left to sew the parts together into their blossoms.

The dresden plate from last year got a little hand quilting done on it last Sunday. It should be finished off this Sunday with an X put into all those squares on the edge. It was so fun to hand quilt this block I am looking forward to finishing one each month this year!

Linking up with RSC Challenge on Saturday morning and Oh Scrap on Sunday.


Tried a new recipe last night and it was yummy. Lemon Greek Chicken from the Pampered Chef Website.

Lemon Greek Chicken before

After......

I think this one will make it into the rotation! I'll pull out the potato and triple the mushrooms. I think a rice pilaf would go well with this next time.  Potato was good but...need more room for the mushrooms!