Weekend post...

I have been enjoying a bunch of hand work the last few days.
I added a few rounds to the aqua trip block - mostly yesterday on the back porch while watching the kids with their play date. One little girl went home for a nap but her brother stayed to play for the afternoon. Lots of running around outside - trips on the playhouse as a boat (watch out for the whale!) and hikes through the back woods as settlers to the new world. Time to prep more squares for this - 28,24,20, etc down to 4 to finish this last block off. I do wonder if on this last one I'll actually remember not to sew on those corner white triangles? I've only remembered twice the whole year!

Last night I added another 1.5 hours of hand quilting on Hugs and Kisses and have the fist border completed. Now the challenge - hand quilting that last edge. I got the blue peel quilted inside and out and started the orange before I decided to stop for the night.

When I need a change of pace - I have a little binding to add onto the twinkle star quilt that I machine quilted earlier this week with a wiggle stitch. This little guy is 40x40.

For the sewing machine..... I plan to add a few alternate blocks and maybe start sewing my blocks into rows. I have most of my parts sewn together - just need to finish the red four patches and cut some more 4.5 inch squares. I kept forgetting to change one part of 4 blocks of Angela's pattern to help my last border to connect those chains. Must find the yellow and light blue fabric to cut a few more squares for four patches. Of course... those are the alternate blocks I have already sewn up!

Linking up Saturday with the RSC Challenge and Sunday morning with Slow Sunday Stitching.
Greg has taken the kids to Grandma's so I get a little time of quiet in the house. My Daisy's are ringing the bell as part of their community service today so I'll be checking in and making sure someone is there. We have 3 hours to fill in at the end - I had Em signed up for the last hour but will try and have her do 2 and I'll cover the other hour by myself with the cadet scout. Too bad I can't bring hand work with me =). Sunday..... Greg and I will toss a coin and see who gets to work the short day. I hope I win - as he'll get the kids and I'll work before he heads to Clearwater Sunday night for a couple of days of training (recertification of CPO - certified pool operator). I'll hit the recertification at the next training session usually in Feb/March time frame.
Our elf has learned what the kids want for Christmas this year and I'm sure he has reported that back to the big Boss. Emily wants a police rescue helicopter to round out her rescue team (fire trucks, ambulance, police cars). Aidan wants a blue sewing machine. So nice the kids only really ask for one thing from Santa instead of the big lists I've heard other kids ask for.
Ok - must go shower and dress so I can sew a bit before Greg gets home.

Black Friday... is decorating day

And boy are the kids gung ho for decorating for Christmas. They started at 8:30.... I really need more coffee. All my fall things - mostly my Partylite candles were put away by the kids... and then properly put into their boxes by me. Then they dragged out the Christmas boxes of decorations. To distract them - I said to go find the tree in Aidan's room and take that out. I gave myself a 1 hour reprieve while they decorate the tree before I have to start helping =) A big thanks to Daddy for stringing the lights so they could add the garland and then the ornaments. They are actually doing a good job this year - I don't think I'll need to redecorate the tree this year and spread out the ornaments!

Oh, the elf flew in this morning. I was sure he would get confused and head to Vermont since that is where he last saw the kids. He must have gotten Aidan's note that he was to come to our house this year. They found him right off this morning in the dining room.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.  

No BH mystery for me this year.....

I have way too many things in process! Instead of working through the clues with everyone else in blog land over the next months, I will be working on getting some finishes.
My hope is to work through the following in December.

1.) Finish the last 10 midget appliqué blocks and get the yellow surround on them. I have fallen a little behind on these but would love to have the blocks competed by the end of the year.

2.) Finish the teal trip around the world block and hand sew all 9 blocks together. I decided to hand quilt it as a whole project rather than individual quilt as you go.... which means I need to ......

3.) Finish hand quilting on Hugs and Kisses and get it bound.

4.) Appliqué the 13  dresden plates onto the background and piece into a top.

5.) Finish the alternate blocks for the RSC Sampler quilt, assemble the top and get it quilted and bound by the end of the year.

I may not get them all done, (you know, life does tend to interfere with my quilting!) but at least I'll have made progress on them rather than starting something new. If I do pretty good on the list - my reward will be to finally make my Bittersweet Briar wall hanging that I have had sitting in a kit forever.... well since I saw Kim Diehl speak at my guilt up in Vermont before I moved to Florida. After that one is done- it will be paper piecing my storm at sea kit. That one has been waiting 8 years to get made.
There. I feel better now that I have the plan in my head down on paper. =)

Now to make some cloverleaf rolls and a pumpkin pudding for Thanksgiving. I just have to make the potato and gravy on Thursday as Greg is in charge of the turkey and stuffing this year. He saw an episode on America's Test Kitchen that revisited Turkey with Julia Child. I'll let you know how it came out!

Tiny Tuesday is a twinkle star almost finish....

I decided I needed a sewing reward this morning so I pinned, quilted and made a binding and attached it to this little guy. It is 40x40 and has a nice snuggly blue dot flannel on the back. Just needs to have the binding sewn down.... and I'll have a nice finish from my RSC2015 twinkle star blocks.

Design..... pantry?

Well, after a frustrating Saturday when I opened the Christmas boxes on the back porch and found lots of things crawling in there......it lead to some research. Turns out a bag of bird seed went bad and some pantry moths moved in......and since we have the cat door they migrated into the house. We had little moths that we could not figure out what they were or where they came from but they were mostly in the kitchen, in the pantry. Today instead of cleaning the house up for company Thursday I took everything out of the pantry and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and vacuumed up the few little buggers that were left in the crevices where the wall and ceiling meet. Greg hit them with the vacuum the last couple of weeks and they are getting lots fewer but there is a life cycle and I want them gone. Most of the things in the pantry are sealed (love my glass jars and tupperware!) and were safe. A couple of things from Greg's Atkins days got hit and it was time to toss them anyway. Three bags of garbage later and lots of boxes into the recycle bin.

The good news..... I have a clean and reorganized pantry! Hopefully me moving things around in there doesn't drive me too nuts. I already realized I moved the baking things one shelf up.... which the kiddo's can not reach anymore. Might have to swap things so they can reach them again.

Now to add the last few things back in and I'm calling it a day. The rest of the kitchen and house will get cleaned tomorrow. So much for sewing.......

Now to finish prepping the crafts for girl scouts tonight and then I think I'm going to relax for a few minutes before starting dinner - Chicken marsala with rice and whatever veggie the kids select out of the freezer. I'll add a salad and dinner is done.

Slow Down Sunday..... with a touch of rain.

Kathy reminds us each week to slow down, relax and enjoy some slow stitching. I get to work a short day today at the store so I'll be sure to bring some stitching with me just in case..... rain tends to make for slow customer counts. I think the Aqua trip block will come with me and maybe a round or two will be added on today at work.

Tonight - lows in the 40's so I'll be snuggling under Hugs and Kisses and working to turn that third corner of the first border tonight.

Hugs and Kisses - third border almost done!

Emily decided to make a scarf this morning.

Mom - I think I'll finally pick some swiss chard tonight and have some with the calzones for dinner =). I added a scallion from the garden to my salad yesterday. Don't worry, I'll plant another row of chard and beets this week and next month so you can enjoy some in March when you come down =)