Umbrella - last purple one...

This guy was started in one car line and finished in the second one today! It felt good to play with the needle and thread. Now to pull black/brown for the next umbrellas. I have 2 fabrics in mind already - a pretty brown print with blue flowers and a black with colorful cat faces on it..... I just need to find that one. I think I still have some of it hanging around in a scrap bin, somewhere. No car lines for me tomorrow... but I do have a horse lesson to sit through. Emily missed her lesson last week and they were away this weekend.

Sunday....

It has been a very long week and I seem to have a headache that started last night and was still there when I woke up this morning.

I hope to take a few stitches on this purple umbrella today. Hope is the important word there. 

I'm not sure if there will be 2 more after this or if I add another 11. I guess I'll decide mid October.

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.

 There has been no sewing or stitching at all this week and I am in Florida instead of Vermont. My father in law Tom has been in the ICU since Monday. He turned 84 on Sunday and had called off our dinner out on Saturday not feeling well. There was great improvement yesterday and he was moved to a normal room late yesterday. Greg has headed over to see how he is today. The kids had an overnight with Grandma last night and they went to the car races - a previously scheduled outing and overnight. Let's just say I got woken up at 8:30PM from the recliner and told to go to bed to sleep last night! I think I have been in bed by 9 the last 3 nights. Very unlike me. Oh - Greg's parents have been divorced since he was 6 but both come over for holidays and are friendly. She has been great and came over to stay with the kids when we first found out. It has been lots of driving and shuffling of schedules to keep the kids centered and 'normal'. 

Today...I'll grab a shower and see how I am feeling as to if I go get Em from Grandma's (45 minutes away) or if Greg swings that way from the hospital. She has a 1PM birthday party to go to. I'm sure another dose of Advil will keep the headache at bay and knock down the low fever. In the mean time... I'm enjoying the smell of my night blooming jasmine which is loaded on the bush outside and wafting in through the closed windows.... too hot to open them!

Sunday slow stitching....

I have a couple hand work projects that I am working on.

I finished the embroidery for the Happy Little Things block. Time to pull and mark the rest of the block for hand piecing this week.

I started a new project - The Ella Marie Deacon Quilt along over at Sentimental Stitches. 4 blocks a month released mid month for the next 21 months. I think I will hand piece mine in scrappy blues from my stash. This is the first block I hand pieced - well I just need to add that shape all around. I'll prep the other 3 today.

I realized I had $25 over at bluprint that had to get used by the end of the month. I went looking around and saw they had bamboo knitting needles and they were on sale! I had broken the tip on my favorite size 8 that I use for dish cloths.... I got 2 sets of them in a 9 inch and a few other things and it arrived on Friday! Woo hoo - one pair will reside in the car but instead of the console - where it can get broken while taking it out! - I will put it in a zippered cloth bag with some dish cloth yarn (sugar and cream) and it will live in the passenger seat! I'll transfer my current pink dish cloth in process and that will be the first into the bag.  I also picked up a water erasable marking pen, a number 11 bamboo needle (hey, you never know when you might need it!) and Aurofil mako thread cream in a 40 weight I think. I believe I had 7 cents to spare! Not bad.

I did manage to 'fix' the batting on the frame last week and I am looking forward to watching Hocus Pocus (don't judge - I love watching this movie in the fall, and yes I have it on DVD!) this afternoon while adding some hand quilting onto my colorful trip around the world. I tend to work left to right on the frame (cause I'm silly like that!) and will be finishing the purple section today and moving onto the teal. I got a good amount done on it yesterday in between kids coming in to 'check on me'. I had to hit the pause button... a lot.... I was watching Bad Moms which is not kid appropriate.

Sophie the cat was supervising.

The kids made us a chocolate cake for our anniversary yesterday - complete with chocolate hearts they piped with a bar of baking chocolate in the pantry! Not bad for a 10+11 year old.... and with a little threatening they even cleaned up the kitchen pretty well after. Did I mention there was some threatening to never be allowed to bake again if they (one in particular) didn't help clean up and do all the dishes? For some reason they put candles on the cake - a 13 for our 13th wedding anniversary!

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers who are sharing what they are crafting in slow, methodical stitches this week. I wish I was in Ontario, Canada.... I'd join in on her slow stitching Sunday retreat Oct 6. I'll just join in, in spirit from Florida.

Saturday in Purple!

I was able to sew a little purple this week!

Since I have so much hand work time - I started a little 16 patch and got 2 of them done in purple to go with the one in pink. These are made with 2 inch scraps.

I also played with a new to me block... I just have to get past the problem I have with one section. Completely user error as the instructions are great, the person making it..... well I keep turning something wrong!
I have 2 of these blocks in purple now, well almost, that  I think are becoming a new RSC block collection =) Joanne at Canuckquilter sent me her pattern for the Variable Starburst. Thanks Joanne!

I really like playing with 16 patch blocks and since I have not been making any this year like I had planned..... I'm starting in September with some! These are from 2.5 inch scraps and were machine pieced.

I added the one block I have been consistent with this year -the  umbrella! After checking Joy's blog it seems I should have 38 of these as we are in week 38 of the year. Lets count... 38!

Linking up with the RSC where you can go find lots of pretty block collections being made from scraps.

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. Greg is off to clean up a pool this morning. I'll drop Emily to the barn to help Liz with the horses for a couple of hours and Aidan is getting dragged into the overgrown garden with me to help try and tame it for fall planting in Florida. We were heading to the villages to take my FIL out for his birthday which is tomorrow - but he called off this morning not feeling well. He will be 84 tomorrow!

Ella Maria Deacon Quilt.....

I'm blaming Chris! She just had a blog post about the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt along over at Sentimental Stitches. It started a few days ago on the 15th and looks like Gay will be releasing 4 blocks a month (love that it is mid month to mid month!) for the next 21 months.

I managed to make 36 of the 64 blocks for the 1857 quilt along I did a few years ago. It finally got to a top stage this month. It is nice to have a quilt finished before starting a new one.... Oh yea, I finished a basket quilt recently. Guilt gone! 

We will see how this one goes. I think I made a decision that this will be a scrappy blue and cream quilt instead of the original green, maroon, brown on a cream print. There are 3 piles of blues to pull from (we won't even think of the amount in the 3 scrap bins!) and a good amount of creamy white on the shelf. I'll try to remember to grab the cream ones instead of the white on white. I'm thinking the softer cream is the look I am going for. Wish me luck. Not too late to join in on the fun. She has a facebook group you can ask to join to feel things out first if you'd like. The one for the 1857 quilt was very positive and friendly.

Tuesday 'brella

This little guy has been added to the umbrella collection of blocks. Aidan ordered a yard of this fabric with his extra $ from Blueprint. There was a scrap hanging around from his project that worked great for this.

Playing with Purple....

I saw this block over at Joanne's blog Canuckquilter last week. I loved it and thought it would look so pretty in purple! I was right. Thanks so much Joanne for the instructions to make it. This is 12 inches finished and I am debating on making a bunch of them in purple for a pretty scrappy purple quilt... or make a rainbow of them.

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.