April OMG....

Do you ever just feel like working on something? No? Really?..... Guess it is just me then.

I am in the mood to work on this UFO from 2011. I went to the Vermont Quilt Festival without the kids (who were 3 and 2 at the time) and decided to pick up the booth hop blocks from 12 vendors. I had done the blocks and got the finishing kit and then it sat in the waiting drawer. What... you don't have a chest of drawers that have the UFO projects waiting for when you feel like working on them? I knew these were in there. I went back and found a few blog posts about them as well...... here, here and here.

This is where I stand. 12 Blocks Completed.

A black and white photo of the finished quilt.

Fabrics from the finishing kit.

We will see what happens! My goal for April is to get this to a top. It would be lovely to get it completed....but I'll shoot for a completed top first.

I'll link up with the April OMG once it opens up. If anyone has made a quilt from these blocks, please share a photo of your completed top.

Slow Sunday

 Today I have a full day .... all by myself! To do whatever my little self wants to! Hubby is headed into work at the grocery store and the kids are being picked up by Grandma for an overnight. (Yes, she is insisting and knowing that neither the kids or her have gone out in the last 2 weeks we will risk it I guess). The tree guy is going over at 8AM tomorrow to take down a tree and she thought the kids would like to see it. Hubby is off work tomorrow so he can pick them up while I am logged into work. The advantage of not being in school - they can just do their school work in the afternoon. Virtual school starts Wednesday for them.

Yesterday Emily wanted a technology free day so I was allowed to link up yesterdays Rainbow Scrap Challenge post then nothing.....the house actually got vacuumed and living room rugs were steam cleaned! Must not let that happen too often! Bathroom cleaned and kitchen cleaned and mopped. (She relented in the afternoon..... her room was spotless and rearranged and she wanted to play on her iPad.) I also got this Ella Maria Deacon block stitched. There is a little bit for the middle left to stitch. I also hope to prep the month 7 blocks today. We are pretending it is a perfect circle =) Use your imagination.

*** Updated and done!

I finally started hand quilting this week. I plan to add a few hours today while watching a few Ms. Maisel episodes. Butterfly's and then cheese triangles in the light teal for the cats and mice to chase!

The crochet got pulled out this week too. Good mindless pattern when you can't concentrate. It works up so pretty too. I have 3 skeins to add to this still.

I'd like to finish off the first row of sheep on Aidan's pillow but that takes concentration. Maybe I will have some in a quiet house today?

Linking up with the other Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

Finishing up teal...

This last Saturday of March has snuck up on me somehow! Thank goodness Thursday is my day off and I finally got a little sewing time during the afternoon to pick out, cut and sew these 10 Sweet Confetti blocks from Sunday Best Quilts. 

Then I moved onto the nine patches and stars.... I managed to finish off the orange one I had started last month and make a couple of stars..... then the bobbin thread ran out so I was done for the night.

Friday afternoon after work, I had to 'fix' the orange one - as a star had a wonky wing, and managed to get both of the teal blocks done. They are finishing at 12 inches by the way. I think I'll just make 2 each month as that will give me 20 blocks - in a 4x5 setting of 48x60 for a nice throw size..... unless I decide to make 3 each month (and make another orange and teal) and have a 5x6 setting for a 60x72... since the kids are growing taller than me already...... we will see how the weekend goes!

I made a list on my white board in the office of the blocks I am making this year.... since I keep forgetting each month! I had 4 of the stash buster blocks in light and dark green. I made 2 in teals. I'll probably make a couple of orange ones tomorrow and maybe a bright green one... or two. These are fun to make and if my scraps had a 3.5 strip I could really have fun with this. We will see how distracted I get after making the orange and green ones... and how much AC time I need since the temps this weekend are going to be in the mid 90's in Florida!

I'll link up Saturday with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I do wonder what color April will be?

March OMG is completed!

Here is the completed quilt! I started this in December of 2014 with the blue in the bottom left corner using 2.5 inch squares and a needle and thread. This 90x90 quilt was hand pieced in 2015 and then took forever to hand quilt it on my frame..... it might have been put in time out after the cats shredded the batting ... timeout was for over a year... It is now completed and being used on my bed.

Linking up with the One Monthly Goal. I do wonder what project will be selected for April.

EMD Wednesday

I was able to finish the stitching on this block #24 of the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt Along yesterday afternoon while watching Robin Hood Prince of Thieves on Netflix. 

After dinner (berber chicken and Mom's potato salad) I took a long walk and saw one wild turkey. I took a photo and posted it on facebook.

My brother in Vermont responded with this photo from his window - deer and snow!

My sister also in Vermont, raised him a photo of 8+ inches of snow and an owl from a few days ago!

I guess taking photo's of wildlife is a family 'thing'! 

I hope to work on block #22 tomorrow after work. Then I'll start on the latest set of 4 - #25-#28.

Book Club....

I know it is Tuesday... and should be EMD update day.... but hand piecing this little guy was more appealing last night than actually finishing my EMD block.
Evelyn and Jane! Jane needs pressing but she is done and ready to link up on Thursday with the other Book Club Hand Pieced blocks this week over at ElmstreetQuilts and KristinEsser.com. (Thanks Mom for picking up these purple fabrics a few years ago for me! In case they looked familiar to you.)

I did some other hand piecing and prepping yesterday. Block #22 for the Ella Maria Deacon from Sentimental Stitches. I decided to prep each petal and hand piece them together. Now to press them then applique onto the background.

First.... must get my 5 hours of actual work done! I have worked remotely for a former client of mine programming since March of 2016. 

The kids have their school packets printed off and are working on their Day 1 school work. After all the griping.... someone just walked into my office and said with a smirk... it's not that bad.... They ask the questions at the end of each online page....and highlight the paragraph where the answer is! Geez.... they make it too easy for them. That was the boy after MUCH grumbling last night and this morning! The girl sorted through her 42 pages, pulled 3 more answer key's that I missed and said 'Mom, really!'. Then we sorted her core subjects by days. She looked at the 5 math pages - one for each day and rolled her eyes and said, can I just do them all at once since it won't take any time at all? I said sure. She also has iReady math and reading to do online for 45 minutes each this week with other on-line educational sites assigned by her teachers.

We will see how next week works - sounds like K-5 is going to be virtual but I am not sure on the 6th grade since their print out was for 2 weeks of work....... At least both are doing their school work now on their first day back from 'spring break'. 

Our Chinese place was closed on Saturday when I called (was trying to help them out - small family owned) for a while.... so I decided to make Moo Goo Gai Pan last night. I improvised on a few things (had used the mushrooms in beef stroganoff Saturday so used a jar of them and no snow peas - I used carrots, celery and onion with water chestnuts and bamboo shoots and chicken). That with rice got good reviews from everyone last night! I wonder what will be for dinner tonight?

Slowing down Sunday.....

Sunday evening slow stitching is crochet. It is a nice way to relax while waiting for the kids to return from Grandma's. A friend stopped over to pick up some TP that hubby was able to grab at work yesterday. She went to 4 places with no luck so I had texted  hubby if they had any at his work. (Grocery store) They did not... but a truck came in and he was able to grab a package for her before he left work yesterday. He was nice enough to also bring me some fresh tomato, cucumbers, lettuce, potato and onions as well as some lactaid milk and eggs. Emily does love her potato salad and now we can make her some.  Sarah stopped by and picked up her tp this afternoon and we chatted at a nice social distance for a couple of hours without and kids around. It was so nice.... I had not chatted with her in a while! Just like that it was 5PM! A call to Mom and Dad and then a nice salad for dinner and it was time to settle in and crochet for a bit.

The kids have 1 more day of their 'spring break'. Tuesday they will start a new chapter for quarter 4 of their schooling. This week, they will be pointed to some normal on-line things they can study and next week their virtual schooling will start. We will find out more of how that will work later this week.
Until then it is 'normal' at my house. I work 20 hours a week from home, hubby works part time at a grocery store and also has one day a week for his pool cleaning business. Things are changing day to day here in Florida but we are rolling with the 'new normal' as best we can.


Linking up with the Slow Sunday stitchers.