Friday....

 Very little stitching happening. Sigh. With a very rainy and windy weekend on tap I really hope to change that! I see stitching and baking in my future!

Some animal photo's for you.

The girls. left to right are Poppy, Eggnog, Maple, DC and Buttercup. The two new ones - Eggnog and Buttercup are laying eggs daily - a green and a brown. The other 3 should be done molting soon, and once their crowns get red again I think we should get eggs from 2 of them. 

Ollie closest and Peanut. They were curled up together in their sling but moved once I got a camera. Silly boys.

This is the kids last full week of school. All finals but one class period (3rd) are completed. They have 2 more days before they are off for the holiday. 

Wednesday morning, Greg put his back out! I ended up running his errands Wednesday - after picking up the kids. A trip over to drop things off to his Dad, in rush hour evening traffic. While I was gone, the kids put up the outside Christmas lights for me. Thursday I drove the kids to school and then dropped Greg to the ER on my way for bloodwork. I picked him up on my way back...... 1 hour and 10 minutes and he was released with a shot, prescriptions for pain and anti-inflammatory stuff and he was sent home! Very fast, and I'm guessing he wishes he went on Wednesday! It is getting better each day, thank goodness. He said it was similar pain to 2020 when he landed in the hospital! 

I dropped kids to school today, then work, walked the dog at lunch and back to work before picking up Aidan from school. Emily has a band party after school, so she is a 5PM pick up. The chickens got some yard time this morning as well. Aidan is in charge of dinner  - probably stromboli or a calzone or pizza!

We also got a bearded dragon last night for a week. Emily's friend Jasilynn dropped him off for a week while their family is away on a cruise. Emily got up early to give him his crickets and salad before heading to school. 

Off to go get the other kid! I swear I live in my car.

Slow Sunday

 I had help yesterday from Aidan to finally get the rest of the house decorated for Christmas. The inside anyway! He did a great job and I enjoy seeing all my 'things' out reminding me of Christmases past. 

I was able to pull out this Bear Paw and added some hand quilting stitches to the top 2 corner blocks while waiting for a text letting me know what time to pick up Emily from school. They had their last parade yesterday and it was a night one. We dropped her off around noon to help make sandwiches for the band's dinner, and get a couple of volunteer hours. They arrived around 3 to the staging area and then had to wait for the parade to start at 5:30. They were towards the end (#92) so did not head out until well after 6 and it was a full hour on the parade route. My text from her once back on the bus was in all caps, bring cold water! It was around 80 and sunny today. Her pickup time was 8:30ish last night. I did enjoy seeing all the Christmas lights along the way to school and back. 

I need to take Emily shopping for some secret Santa gifts today (band and scouts) then she is headed to a friend's house in the afternoon. She has a winter concert tomorrow night at school. Aidan is headed to Grandma's house for the day. That means if I really want to get a quilt pinned, I need to get it done this morning, while everyone is still sleeping. I seem to get stuck at this stage a lot, but I really want this Christmas Cactus Wreath quilt finished so I can hang it on my wall this year. 

Tonight, I'll be hand quilting another half feather ring into one of the side triangles on the bear paw. I'd love to get this quilt completed this month, but we will see if time allows.

Linking up with the Sunday Slow Stitchers.

More Christmas Countdown box!

 Since I have not done any sewing (or finished Christmas decorating!) I'll share the presents I got in the Missouri Star Quilt Company box! I did make a couple of batches of cookies this week and did some shopping for a countdown for the kids. I have yet to put their things into their Christmas Countdown snakes. I will do that today. Emily wanted her present first thing today and was asking for her snake! I went and pulled out today's gift and handed it to her. A Christmas ornament of Mario from Super Mario Brothers. They did the Nintendo theme including Mario brothers for their marching band program this year. I thought it was perfect! I got an eye roll from her! Going with the ornament theme, Aidan gets and ELF movie VHS. I could not find anything 'good' for him in my allotted time Thursday shopping. We do love this movie and he was looking through all my VHS video's last week.

Onto the box.....

Day 5 - these foam Christmas trees with a pattern and video on how to twist the fabric to go on it. I think I might do mine with ribbon. A project for tomorrow!

Day 6 is this cute little rolling pin with quilt designs. It came with a lemon shortbread recipe which I did make. I need to practice with using the pin...as my quilt blocks didn't show well. They were yummy though!

Day 7 was this charm pack of light blue, pink and red. I have learned if there is fabric there is usually a pattern or use for it coming in the next day!

Day 8 - a pattern to use the charm pack and a thermal batting so it can be used as a hot mat if you want to deviate a bit from the table runner.

Day 9 - a clip on light for your sewing machine with 2 brightnesses. It is a tap light and has a USB adapter for charging. 

Someone took over Emily's spot last night when she got up. Doesn't Bear look comfy all snuggled up in her blanket?

Today, I need to drop Emily off to school for noon for helping with making sandwiches for their dinner while waiting for the Christmas parade to start. They allotted 2 hours to make the things needed and then will head to line up for the 5:30 parade start. This one is a long one and it looks like no rain this time! I have convinced Aidan he needs to help Christmas the house today with me. I also need to rehang my quilt hangers back onto the wall and add my new one from last Christmas! 

I'd like to get my Christmas Cactus quilt pinned for quilting as well. We will see how much gets done! 

Christmas quilty box

 Spoiler alert. If you don't want to know the first 4 days of the Missouri Star Quilt Co Jenny's countdown to Christmas box, then stop reading now! I don't think I am breaking any rules by posting these. It says not to share before the date to open them and since it is the 4th, I think I am safe! The Flat Chuck that came in the box wanted to be in the photo's.

Day 1 - I managed to wait until the first day of December to open my first gift. Ok, I might have peeked the night before. The Facebook group was very helpful and let us newbies know that if there is fabric, there is probably a pattern to go with it coming soon! So, I just petted the fabric as it sat on my home office desk until day 2. Isn't it sew cute! There are 21 sets of fun prints for sn-ugly sweaters.

Day 2 - they were right! A pattern, some fusible web and a template. How cute is this? The template could also be an ornament. They had a video on how to use the fusible and template to make the little quilt.

Day 3 - this one I did not cheat but I opened it as soon as I got home from the Drive in around 7:40 AM Sunday morning ... right after I made my cup of coffee! I do love these flat headed pins.

Day 4 - I was also good and waited for Monday morning to open it. 4 little plates. How cute are these. Dishwasher safe but not microwave safe...if my old eyes read it correctly. I might need to find my level 1 readers and double check.

I think I got enough sleep last night to make up for not getting much Saturday night. It was a very busy day at work.... so busy I kinda forgot to log off at 2:30 to go get Aidan! I looked at the clock on the computer and it said 2:58! Oops! I answered an e-mail and indicated I just saw the time and I am late to go get a kid! I texted him before I left so he knew I was running late. I got there about 15 minutes after school got out. He was fine, chatting with friends.  I sent Greg to get Emily for 5PM. She had a symphony band practice after school. This way they can all practice together before the concert next Monday night. That allowed me to prep all the veggies for veggie lo mein for dinner tonight. It was ready right at 5:30 when they got home. 

Friday hodgepodge

 It is going to be a busy no sleep weekend. It is the annual overnight tenting out at the Drive in on Saturday with the girl scouts. Emily is starting out with horses Saturday and then following up with a Sunday Christmas Parade in the afternoon. I expect her to crash after she gets home from marching in the parade. At least this is the small one. The really long one in Ocala is next Saturday.

I did manage some meals this week! Monday, I think we got an Aldi's pizza and baked it off at home. It was a 16 inch pepperoni pizza and was under $8. Tuesday the kids baked a Salmon we picked up at Aldi and I had my bay scallops in a butter and wine sauce. Yummy. Wednesday was a baked herbed pork loin roast with roasted potato, carrot and onion. Thursday, I needed to use some mushrooms, so I tried this recipe for Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy and some mashed potato and green beans. I really liked it. Tonight is Friday so Greg will order pizza from Papa Johns or Domino's. He was at his Dad's on Wednesday night and came home with some jalapeno cheesy bread so I'm thinking he had Domino's there so probably Papa John's tonight. 

I finished one of the feathers in the setting triangle and the rest I marked need to be remarked (humidity is still in Florida so they disappeared!) I did add a little to the corner though. I need to spritz out the previous marks that I have stitched already.  Someone is waiting for his girl to get home, staring at the front door. 

I decided to do the Countdown to Christmas box from Missouri Star Quilt Company this year. I liked day 1 and can't wait for day 2 tomorrow!

Emily needed new black jeans (she might have gotten paint on hers last weekend) for her concert next week so we went to Kohl's last night. She saw this shirt and thought I needed to get it! She got a Christmas sweater, jeans and another long sleeve shirt. Expensive girl! 

I walked out this morning to check on the chickens and scared Eggnog as she was laying. I also scared 2 wasps who were building a nest. They kinda got me and I needed a little Benadryl cream on one sting to calm it down. The little buggers were building another nest when I went out this afternoon! I got 2 eggs today - a brown one from Buttercup and a small/medium green one from Eggnog. The other three ladies are finishing molting (getting new feathers for winter) and are not laying again yet. 

Tonight is time to trim the tree...... while waiting on the pizza. Seems they had an issue, so it was just going into the oven when I walked in the door from picking up Emily at school. I might have taken the dog with me. Note to self, make sure there is another person in the car when taking the dog on a 25 minute ride to school! He is very happy all his people are home in the house. 

Linking up Sunday with the Slow Sunday Stitchers. Edited - survived the drive in campout with the girl scouts. 

 

RSC Table Scrap Challenge

 A little late but I did finally play with a set of brown four patches that have been hanging around for way too long getting moved from spot to spot. They are now this little quilt and are happy to be out of the sewing area!

The backing used up some of my red sox fabric. I think I used this to make blanket quilts for the nieces and nephews - gosh back in the late 90's or early 2000's! 

A little walking foot quilting and then I hand stitched the binding.

A completed little quilt (slightly under 12 inches square) ready to link up with Joy and the Table Scrap Challenge! The blocks are Kind of happy to be Walked out of the sewing room and into the house as a little quilt. That's the best I can do with K and W!

Sunday

I was able to finish this Harmony block this week. It is hand pieced and finishes at 28 inches. This was a 2021 sew along with Patty Dudek and Kristin Esser.  This is my second block of 4 to make the 56 inch quilt. The reds and tans will be different in each block.

This is the first block finished in 2021.

I took the bag with me to horses Saturday after marking all my stitching lines on Friday night. All the parts for the corner sections are stitched. At horses I was able to add the HST to the rectangle while chatting with other parents for the lesson before.

 

They were down to 2 horses with the others gone to a show and 2 others left behind lame this morning. Poor Reba and Ellwood got the brunt of the lessons. They were both in western saddles, so Emily rode western yesterday instead of English. 

 I had lots of prep work on Friday cleaning walls and prepping for painting. Then the kids went to Grandma's to help her Christmas her house. Since that was my tall person for the high parts (I dislike heights), I delayed painting by a day. The first coat took over 3 hours.... I had Emily helping a little then Aidan came out and did the high parts. The second coat went quickly in under an hour with Aidan's help. It looks so much better now with 12 years of scratches and wear against the main walkway into the house. Now I can hang my quilt hanger onto this wall just in time for Christmas decorating today. That will happen after the F1 race and we do need to go visit my FIL and check on him. A busy day but stitching will happen!

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.