A crochet finish....

I started this baby afghan last summer while I was visiting Vermont. It has sat at the bottom of the hand work bag since then... just waiting. Occasionally I'd pull it out and work 4-6 rows and then put it away. I pulled it out last week and added a few more rows and then decided it was big enough. Time to work around the edges. I watched the video again, and then gave it a shot. Not too bad for my first attempt at this pattern. Thanks Amy for posting the link last July. It was fun to do and now will sit in the closet until a baby blanket is needed. I think the next attempt will be a granny square as you go.

Slanted Shells Variation 2 - I used Simply Soft Caron yarn in off white.

Slow Stitching Sunday

I made some progress this week on the Quilt Square Along Block. I had taken out the straight lines on the inner border and added the wavy mountains. I like them much better. I followed along the creams in the hst border and did an x in the corners.

All of this is free hand quilting - I'm too lazy to plan things out =). I searched in a book to find a cable and then I just drew them based on the picture. I have two sides with the five cables that I hand quilted already. The other two I drew were the first ones and had six cables.... I need to use a damp cloth to get rid of those marks and rework them as five cables so I can finish it up today.

Next in line is this little T wall hanging that I did through the 'Lets Book it' Link Party over at Vroomans Quilts. This is from The Civil War Sewing Circle by Kathleen Tracy. I love the hand quilting on the one in the book and will follow that for my quilting.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other slow stitching projects are being worked on this week.

Kaleidoscope progress....

I think I have decided on a layout. This will be it.

They are as half blocks now and are picked up for piecing together to make blocks. I tried a different layout of alternating the purple and blue but it just was not what I was thinking. I'll settle on this layout and now get this one into a top over the next week. I won't be sending this home with my parents..... so the deadline is the beginning of June so I can ship it up to the recipient for her HS graduation.
Now I need to go color some Easter coloring pages with the kids on this very rainy and thundery Saturday. We are planning to head out to a Japanese Steak House for the Hibachi table this evening. I hope my Mom can make it. We went bowling with the kids yesterday afternoon and she took a bit of a spill and is pretty sore today. That is going to make for a very long ride in the car if they do leave tomorrow as planned. I'm hoping they will stay another day or two =).

Last week of teals......

Since this is the last Saturday in March, I had to finally finish up the last 8 churn dash blocks to join the collection of blocks this year. All 12 of my teals.

Here are the blue, pink and teal/aqua churn dash blocks for the year.

I also added one more sampler block. This one posted briefly and I could never find it again on Angela's blog, but I do remember 1.5 inch as the fabric size, a four patch in the middle and a courthouse step for the pattern. This is what I came up with.

Head on over to SoScrappy on Saturday morning and see the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge links and projects in pretty teals. I do wonder what color will be chosen for April? I'll have to wait and see what the background of her blog changes to.... and try not to stalk her too much =).

After a very cold week here in Florida - it looks like it might actually warm up today. Much better than the 52 degrees it was at our playground yesterday morning where we had to go home and have some hot cocoa to warm up. The kids had a good time playing with some friends. Aidan's friend Cadi wanted a play date and since they go to different schools this year they don't see each other much. Her Mom and I had a good chat while the kids played. Em's teacher Ms. Tori also came with her 1 year old daughter, her Mom and her three brothers to play. We are thinking of going bowling today with the kids and I know I need to get some new soccer shoes for Emily before practice on Tuesday. We'll try and do that today too.

Triangle Quilt along....

No, I don't need a new project BUT... I have always loved all those triangle quilts and decided to join in on this one. I just happen to have this lovely bundle of fabrics I won from Ellen last year that I think would make a marvelous baby throw in triangles.

I think I will add in a few solids in pink, blue, green and white and see how it comes out. You can check out the Triangle sew along here - or click on the picture to the right and read all about it. Anyone else want to join in? This looks like fun.

Lets Book It....

Sharon over at Vroomans Quilts has a neat link party each month called Lets Book it. This is to encourage us to grab a book off our quilting library - one that we just 'had' to have for a certain project but have yet to make it. This month she is doing a cute little quilt of hexie flowers from the book 'The Civil War Sewing circle' by Kathleen Tracy. My hubby got me this book for Christmas a couple of years ago along with my requested 'Remembering Adelia'. I do love looking through both of these books.  I'm in process of making my version of the orange peel quilt from the 'Remembering Adelia' book but had not made anything from The Sewing Circle yet.

 I was always drawn to the T is for Temperance quilt. I think mainly because I love blue and the quilting on that one is simple but it speaks to me. This month, I decided to join along and made my version of that little quilt. She is 19.5 square and I plan to find some batting and a backing and work on hand quilting this over the next little bit. Maybe I'll have it done for the next link party! It's not too late to join in the fun.

Today - Mom and I went for pedicures. Her first one! We both have pretty pink toes right now.

For all those up north - I'm throwing in a picture of my roses that are in full bloom out front. Enjoy!

6.5 Inch Cat - for the Rainbow Scrap Sampler

I had modified the pattern for a 8.5 inch cat last week to make a little teal cat in the RSC Sampler size - 6.5 inches unfinished. I figured I'd put a little tutorial out there in case anyone wanted to add a cat block to their sampler. The original pattern is free here.

For a 6 inch finished block.

Cat fabric - 1 - 3.5 x 6.5 inch rectangle
                   1 - 3.5 x 2 inch rectangle
                   2 - 1.5 inch squares (ears)

Background fabric - 1 - 3.5 inch square
                                 1 - 3.5 x 2 inch rectangle
                                 1 - 1.5 inch square (tail)

Mark a line from corner to corner of the small 1.5 inch triangles and attach the white to the large cat block and the two cat colors onto the white 3.5 x 2 inch rectangle as seen below.

Sew the face to the ears and then add the 3.5 inch background square to the side.

Sew the top of the cat to the body. You now have a  cute cat to add to your collection of 6 inch squares.

Sorry about the bad photography. I had just quickly moved my sewing machine into the play room table since the 'sewing room' is occupied as a guest room right now. I was also in a hurry as two little ones wanted to ride bikes and they have to have an adult out front if they ride in the driveway. I volunteered so they were waiting for me to finish sewing and go watch them. Hey - if it tires them out so they go to bed better I'm all for it!

Since it is Sunday...... I'm going to pull out the same block from last week and work on some hand quilting a little later. I have not made any progress on this because I did not like those lines I made in the inner border. I will pull them out and do a nice rounded curve of some sort. I think it will look better. I'm thinking of trying a little cable in the last border so I wanted a curve of some sort in the inner border. We'll see how it comes out next week! 

To see some beautiful hand work head on over to Kathy's Quilts linky party, put your feet up and enjoy the show.