A finish.....

Emily and I finished off her quilt yesterday that she started around Christmas with her new pink Janome. Of course.... she picked red and the solid green went well with it since there is some green in the red print. She chose the purple princesses from my stash yesterday for the backing.

Her first quilt with her sewing machine. The front is 6 inch squares.

 The back - purple with princesses.

Maybe my Tiny Tuesday block will get made today for a Wednesday post? Time will tell but first I need to get outside and get some yard work done. It seems to keep getting pushed back until 'tomorrow'. Raking and moving the rest of the oak leaves off a flower bed and then some pushing of the lawn mower while the kids play croquet. I mentioned it yesterday before Grammy and Grandpa took Aidan shopping for his birthday present.... he picked that game along with a few other things. We played quite a few games last night and he is going out to practice now while I get some yard work done.

Weekend catch up....

After a busy week I think I'll enjoy the cooler temps (high of 70 here in Florida today) and get some yard work in. Tonight I plan to do some relaxing hand stitching on my Yellow Trip around the world block for the RSC Challenge. Good thing there are a few more days in March to get this done.  I stitched most of the last yellow row in complete silence last night while Greg was checking something on the computer for work. No tv, Em was in bed and Aidan was at Grandma's. Peace and quiet =). There are 225 2.5 inch squares in each of these blocks. I'm a little past half way with this one.

I've made progress on my Hugs and Kisses quilt this week - 32 blocks are completed out of 49! I hope one more block will be completed this evening after a day of puttering around the house and yard while I hear all about the cruise my parents were on this week. They arrive back sometime today and we might just do a little early birthday celebration tonight with them for Emily - who turns 6 on April 7.

The kids decorated their Easter cookies on Friday afternoon. It kept them entertained and used the half container of frosting that was left in the fridge.

I'm linking up with SoScrappy for the RSC Challenge and Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.  Head on over and check out the links.

Day 1 of Spring Vacation

After getting rained out of the soccer game last night (I swear I heard thunder so they called the game in the 3rd quarter after it started pouring big rain drops!), it was a late night to bed as they needed a shower and bath to warm up. Of course, they were both up bright and early this morning. Why does this never happen on a school day? I think they both just wanted to snuggle with Dad before he headed off to work this morning.

Shooting Stars - Aidan in grey with green shoes going after the ball. Em was sitting out that quarter.

I got an early start so I decided my reward was to curl up in my recliner and quilt a block on my Hugs and Kisses quilt. I now have 31 blocks completed out of 49!

After a leisurely morning we put together some sugar cookie dough. You can find that recipe at the bottom of my recipe page. I got it from Sharon P from my quilt guild in VT and it makes the best sugar cookies for shapes and they taste wonderful. It is chilling in the fridge for a bit but will be made into some Easter shapes in the next hour. Decorating will happen later this afternoon as thunderstorms are predicted. I see a movie in our future and some stitching on my TATW block while we watch.

For now.... they found some balloons and are coming up with balloon games. So far we moved a tension rod into the doorway between the living room and bedroom hallway so they can hit the balloon over it to each other.

Then they bounced it in the air and the first one to hit the ground lost - Aidan's hit the ground but I think Em was holding hers =). Now they are going to use their round chairs as 'buckets' and see how far away they can be to hit it into them. Such a easy and cheap thing to keep them occupied today. The blue chair is 50 points and the pink one behind it is 100 points. They do have great imaginations.

I had plans to make play dough but it appears I never restocked the cream of tarter. I'll have to pick some up tomorrow after work so we can make it Sunday. That will keep them occupied making things with it next week.

Off to make some lunch for us. Kraft mac and cheese it will be I think. Looks like it is time to watch The Lorax while Emily plays with some play dough that Aidan found.

Wednesday....

It has been an interesting day. The usual yelling start to get the kids moving and out the door to school. One more day before vacation so tomorrow should be easy to get them ready and off to school. (Aidan has a field trip to see Cinderella and Emily has an Easter Egg hunt).  It was pretty foggy this morning, so I tried to FMQ the border again on Celtic Solstice. Three needle breaks and other thread breaks and I gave up again (after a LOT of muttering). I have one side done and one or two flowers on the second side. I think it will get ALL picked out and I'll try something different. I seem to be able to only FMQ with Masterpiece thread and I'm trying to use a Coats and Clark cotton that I loved the colors on since they pick up the yellow, orange and lime greens in the quilt. I tried cleaning the machine, rethreading and obviously changing the needles (5 of them total today!).

I took my walk this morning after that and grabbed my shower. A few loads of laundry have been done as well as going through the kids clothes and pulling those they have outgrown. Those will head to Grandma's to bring to her local woman's shelter this weekend. The dishwasher was put through and then..... I started feeling congested and blah. I have Aidan's field trip tomorrow at school so I decided to catch up on a few of my recorded shows (NCIS LA, and NCIS from last week) and pulled out my crochet mystery. They released clues 6+7 last week...... but I am back on clue #4. I now have 8 of twenty completed. I had three done when I started working on these this morning. I think I have the pattern down on this one so it will go much faster now without having to keep referring to the directions. I still need to stitch in those tails as well.

Em just cleared out her room to vacuum in there, so I should vacuum the rest of the house after she is done. I'd also like to pot the climbing flowers my MIL picked up for me a couple of weeks ago. Other than that... I'm taking it easy and planning to crochet a few more of these step 4 blocks. Lets hope the congestion does not move to the sore throat the other Mom's have been getting (and the kids of course with strep). It sounds like a week long thing and we start vacation on Friday.

Aidan's tops of his ears are red today and his cheeks are getting a little red....that is never a good sign with him as it means he is coming down with it too.  =(. Maybe we'll all just rest this afternoon instead ? Off to find my crochet hook.

Tiny Tuesday Flower #6

This one is similar to last week's flower but the colored part of the flower is a different shape. I chose an orange print for that part this week. The green part is also shaped a little different as well. These are the midget appliqué blocks from sentimental stitches.com and will finish off at 4.5 inches.

Flower #6

Last week's flower #7

Monday.....

 It was raining this morning so no walk. Instead...... I moved boxes to reach the Celtic Solstice quilt and backing that was already rolled onto the boards. I got it pinned and then decided to do some squiggly lines (Wow - Laverne and Shirley just popped into my head!) in the middle part. A nice wavy line in the cream border and a straight line on the next border.

Then.... the big blue border. I switched to the free motion foot and ran into trouble. I'm thinking loops with flowers in the variegated thread but.... three thread breaks already made me stop after four flowers. It is making progress... and one way or another it will get finished off tonight or tomorrow. I already have the binding made for this in blue..... I'm thinking I should have done orange but, I'm going with blue.

Slow Stitching Sunday.....

After a busy day at work yesterday, today will be a nice relaxing day with family and some hand stitching. We are sending Mom and Dad off to a cruise today and then heading to my MIL's house for a little family get together with a cousin of Greg's he has not seen in ages.
After having a little girl crawl onto me in bed this morning at 6:09 AM.... (Figures- a Weekend morning she is up and raring to go at the crack of dawn and all last week there was lots of yelling to get her out the door to school around 7:20!) We had a couple of shows to keep her quiet and her brother who came out around 6:30. Now they are in the playroom playing school so I get to watch a show and put some slow stitching in. Hmmmm I think I'll work on my Trip Around the World in Yellow putting this pretty yellow with blue flowers onto the block. Sorry for the low light - the sun is not up yet!

Later tonight - I'll quilt another block (that purple one!) on the Hugs and Kisses quilt and finish off one corner. That will leave 21 blocks left to quilt in the center. Progress =)

Head on over and see what other projects are slowing being worked on today at Kathy's Quilts - Slow Stitching Sunday link party. I'll be stitching away until the rest of the house wakes up!