Another week of teals...

It has been another busy week but we are headed into Spring Break next week (starting today for Aidan) and my parents came back Wednesday to help out with watching kids and will be able to stay through the 31st when they head back to a cold and snowy Vermont. They got to see the kids first soccer game this week - and Emily got the good sportsmanship medal after the first game! All the kids will get one by the end of the season. She left the light on in her room shining on it so I could see it after I got home from bowling last night.

I had prepped some hexies last week and got them all done to join the other hexie flowers for this month. You can see how I prep them for hand piecing here.

A shot of my 'flower garden' so far this year.

I also cut and made four of my churn dash blocks. Hopefully I can sneak in a little sewing this next week so I can cut and sew the other 8 churn dash blocks needed for the month.

I also made a 6.5 inch cat to add to the sampler quilt. Let me know if you'd like the measurements to make this. I'd be happy to do another post with the measurements.

I really need to also finish up the graduation quilt top sometime this week - most are in half blocks at this point so I just need space to lay it out - decide on the final layout and get that sewn together.

    I picked up some eggs at the farm stand this week. They were green shells! Those chicks must have been in the mood for St. Patricks Day! I showed Emily when I picked her up from school Tuesday and she said she had to have green eggs and ham for lunch... and then proceeded to chant all the parts in the Dr. Seuss book 'Green Eggs and Ham'! 

In between all that we'll try and find some fun things to do with the kids on their week off. We'll probably hit Uncle Donalds Farm later today, bowling, maybe the fair in Inverness, walking on the nature trails, picking blueberries if the pick your own signs come out, putting them to work making a new veggie garden with me - the two little ones we have need to be shored up on the bottom fence so the rabbits don't eat all my peas, lettuce and beets which are now up! Really need to get some beans, corn and cukes planted along with my tomato and peppers. Not sure if we'll head to Orlando or not.... walking for long periods is not on tap for my Dad with his knee. All in all - a fairly restful week is on tap. Now to get the kids to sleep in past 6:30AM!

Head on over to SoScrappy's link party on Saturday morning and see what other teal projects are being worked on.

Leprechaun Traps for St. Patricks Day...

Aidan had a family project last week to make a leprechaun trap for school today. This picture is missing the Lego steps leading to the top of the box where the coins are. The leprechaun left some foot prints on the top but did not get caught!

Emily had to make one too for our house - notice the Kleenex 'bed' for him to rest on after he was caught? Well, he is just too cleaver and did not get caught but he did use the bathroom and forgot to flush! Green water in that bowl when we got home from picking up the kids =)

Corned beef is in the crock pot with the onion and carrots. I'll grab some of the liquid (trying some Guinness in there with a little water this time) and add that to the pot for cooking off the potato and cabbage later. I think it is time to make some Irish Soda Bread with the kids....and then some green rice krispie treats. What else is there to do on such a rainy day?


Irish Soda Bread - recipe from Rita Bixby. a.k.a - Margarita Rita! When I lived in Colchester,VT - I remember she had me and Michelle come over one day and we all made one of these and she sent us home with them and the recipe card that I pulled to make it. Great memories! I really miss our walks each evening (yes, she will be 80 this year but I only have half her energy!) and then certain nights we'd stop back to her house after our 7PM walk for margarita's and home made guacamole or salsa made by her hubby Jim for snacking and chatting.  No worries - Michelle and I both walked back to our houses - mine was three houses down and hers was a little further around the corner. Onto the recipe.

Set oven to 375 degrees
2 1/4 cups flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oleo
1/2 cup raisins
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 cup butter milk (or Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice and milk to measure 1 cup)
1 Tablespoon oleo or butter for top.

Grease 8 inch round cake pan.

Mix dry ingredients. Mix well. Add oleo and cut in with a pastry blender. Stir in raisins and caraway seeds. Add milk and blend well. On floured surface knead dough 6 times. Press dough in pan. With a sharp knife point cut an X 1/4 inch deep on the top of the loaf. Brush with the oleo. Bake until done - 25-35 minutes. Remove immediately from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Slow stitching Sunday....

This morning I did a little prep work and figured I'd show how I prepare my hand pieced hexie parts.

First I grab some 2.5 inch strips - They are a little big but are handy. I need 17 inches for 6 hexes.
I made a template using my 1 inch hexes adding 1/4 inch all around. I trace 6 of them lining up the sides for easy cutting.

Then I stack my fabrics - 5 today and cut them out. The way I line them up it is easy diagonal cuts each way.

Then I flip them over and place one of my 1 inch hexie parts on the middle and trace around with a pencil.

Once that is done - I put them in groups of 6 matching prints and add a yellow for the center. Hand work all prepped for the week!

I also did a little hand quilting this week and have made a little progress on my 12 inch block. I hope to get a few more stitches in on this tonight. For now - it is off to work to give one review and interview another. At least it is a short day. Kids are in route to Grandma's for the day. Hope Greg enjoys his peace and quiet this afternoon! We had a nice family day yesterday and all went to a birthday party for one of Aidan's friends at the park yesterday afternoon. After a walk around the park in the afternoon and then an evening walk for us while the kids were on their scooters it was a wonderful day. This morning - the earliest up was Aidan after 7 and he just took an iPad into the play room until the rest of us got up. Emily woke up around 8 - the last one up today. Much better than their usual 6AM on weekends!

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other slow stitching is being worked on today.

The dangers of blog reading......

you tend to start new projects instead of finishing current projects (or cleaning the house like I should have been doing this afternoon!). I'm going to blame Sheila on this one. She makes some lovely 8 inch blocks each week in the rainbow scrap colors and then she'll arrange them into charity quilts. Well, these cute little cats showed up a bit ago and she shared the link to the free pattern. I use a Mac and that has a 'top sites' page when I log in where I can place 12 web pages and I put that free pattern cat on one of them. Every time I got onto my computer, I saw it. As my Mom can tell you, I am on the computer way too much during the day. I saw that cat a lot!

I had my stack of teal and aqua fabrics just sitting on the cutting table. I also had to finish cutting some parts for the Kaleidoscope quilt today after I made some decisions and had some deep blues on there too. I needed a purple in the middle side and blue in all the other spots.

Well.......... instead of cleaning the house I popped into the sewing room and cut out 12 cats. 10 or 15 minutes here and there during the day and I now have 12 - 8 inch cats. They need some sashing..... and I think a border of little mice with some embroidered tails on the end would be really cute! Now... to find a little mouse pattern =). I had seen a quilt with cats and a mouse border years ago at The Vermont Quilt Festival and it has stuck with me as a neat idea. See, I told you reading blogs is dangerous!


Edited : Found this free link at Fons and Porter that has a cool mouse paper pieced pattern in it. That will work for my mouse border. You can find it here.

Rainbow Sampler in Teal

This week I managed to make three rainbow sampler blocks.
Spool, Butterfly and Soul Searching.

And then she posted another one! Here is Anvil. I love these fabrics. I picked them up last Saturday at Nana's Closet in Brooksville, FL. 

I also had cut some 2.5 inch squares to make a 16 patch block in between sewing other things.

Now it is time to lay out the Kaleidoscope quilt on the living room floor and figure out the final layout so I can cut the rest of the triangles and start getting that one put together. It is much easier to do that when no one is home to 'help'.!

It has been a long week - when someone in the household is sick it just throw's the whole week off! This time it was Greg who came down with a flu bug on Wednesday morning. That left me to drop kids to school Wednesday and Thursday and then work at the store, getting there just in time to open both days. Then home to make sure homework was done and tuck them into bed. Today he headed into work and hopefully will last the day. I'm going to do some much needed sewing to get the above done and relax a bit, then...... pick up kids and run errands. We have a birthday party tomorrow that we need a gift for and Aidan has a leprechaun trap to make for school on Monday. I am scheduled to work on Sunday but we hopefully will both have tomorrow off for a family day before the hectic pool season starts down here. My hope is that I can sneak off to the gym first thing Saturday and Sunday and get a much needed workout in. It lost the coin flip today to some relaxing sewing on the Kaleidoscope quilt.

Saturday head on over to  SoScrappy on Saturday morning and see what other aqua and teal projects are being worked on.

Tiny Tuesday

I did manage to make a quick block this morning after mopping floors and while the garden was watering. Here is a block called Pleasant Campaign. Don't mind that little bit on the bottom that doesn't line up.

Off to bring Emily to her speech lesson and get the next set of HIPPY lesson plans for next week. Then to pick up Aidan and back home for a few hours before soccer practice tonight. A busy Tuesday.

My Lori Smith 12 inch blocks.......

Since I pulled out the last block I have made to be hand quilted this weekend I figured I'll pull them all out and see how many more there are to make before I can start putting this one together. I know I have two more applique blocks to work on and after checking the patterns I have one more pattern block to make from the third pattern. That leaves one block for me to come up with! That will give me 20 - 12 inch (ish) blocks to sash and put together as a Quilt as you Go quilt. I used a big FQ stack of Kansas Troubles fabrics that I purchased years ago before kids at the Vermont Quilt Festival. I have some left in the drawer but I am not sure if I want to go scrappy for the setting or bite the bullet and find some online to purchase for sashing and a border treatment. I started making these with a group of people on-line back in 2012 with Jo at JosCountryJunction as the host. 

The backs are all different colored homespun prints in the maroon, blue and green range and I think I'll use a brown or black to connect them on the back.

I also finished off the blue dish cloth on Saturday. I've started another one in blue but have a skien of pretty pink waiting in line. I am guessing I need to make some crochet towel tops for Mom to go home with her to Vermont, too. Those can easily be worked on at night if the cat's don't play with the yarn too much!

While I was preparing this post, Emily got some of the Birds in the Air blocks out to play with. This is what she came up with and then took a picture of. Just like her Mommy! They are now all picked up and tucked back into their drawer. Someday that one will get put together and I really want to do an allover baptist fan - freehand and hand quilted. Someday....

And yes Mom - I did go to the gym this morning and got a good workout while the kiddo's were at school. Now I just need to remember to water the garden every morning =).