Its a soup kind of day....

I decided it was a lentil soup in the crock pot day. That and leftovers will be dinner tonight (tourtiere with gravy and meatloaf were the last 2 nights meals!). The kids are back in school - with a few calls from school reminding kids to dress warm for the weather and they actually are letting it be an excused absence if you decide to keep your child home from the cold! It is in the 30's and cold and rainy and lows to 25 tonight. My kids are at school and will be all week!

On their last day of 'vacation' they each got a little sewing time in. Aidan got his parts sewn into rows.

Emily laid out her triangles for me to sew a few together. I should be able to add 2 rows this afternoon to her quilt before we head to gymnastics tonight with a new teacher. She loved Coach Emma but she has moved on and we will see who is reassigned to her class.

It is snowing in Tallahassee, Florida right now! Crazy weather.

Happy New Year!

I spent yesterday delivering kids to Grandma and then getting some groceries. I should not have to go grocery shopping for a while!
Then it was time to sit and relax in the recliner with some hand stitching. I got the red dresden plate quilted and just need to work on the outline and cross hatch in the white part, then put an X through the squares surrounding the block. My left middle finger is a little sore from the needle picks.... so I might have to rest it for a day. I still can't stand a thimble on my finger. Emily suggested hearts in the center circle. I think I did a swirl in the purple. Each one will get something different I think. This was free hand stitched... cause I was too lazy to find a heart and trace it on there!

 Hubby grilled some steaks last night and we had baked potato, steamed broccoli and some mushrooms to go with it. I was zonked out on the couch by 9! Yup - real exciting at my house! I did wake up from 1-5 and decided to read a cozy mystery on my kindle. I want to read a little more this year and I heard rumors that whatever you do on New Years you do all year =). It was Old Maids Puzzle by Terry Thayer.

I put away a few more Christmas things and found the sewing table. I sewed 40 more of On Ringo Lake's step 2 for an even 100 out of 200 done and pressed. She revealed the final clue today! What a pretty quilt.

Then I pressed the Spring Blooms Quilt and the backing and cut the batting. Pinning that is next on the list. I think it will just get straight line stitching on the diagonal and some hand quilting in the blooms. The white fabric is not a good feel for hand quilting so I'll have to come up with something for the corner setting triangles. I do have some ideas.

When putting things away I found the parts for Hoarfrost - a quilt pattern by Joanne over at Canuckquilter. She designed the Spring Blooms Quilt too! I decided my hang up with this one is the paper piecing. I really, really do not like paper piecing at all. So... I am taking some liberties (hope you don't mind Joanne!) and will be finding a few snowflakes to appliqué to the 3 snowflake blocks needed! That will let me get this quilt finished I think.

For now.... I'm going to make a tourtiere for dinner tonight. I'll probably be the only one who eats it but oh well, it reminds me of my french canadian heritage, even if it is traditionally a Christmas eve meal. Having the oven on later will warm up the house - we are getting a high of 48 today in north central Florida.



Happy New Year Everyone!

New Years Eve Slow Stitching....

I had pulled out the red Dresden Plate from a few years ago to start hand quilting this week.

This is a shot of all the blocks I made. The purple one is hand quilted and the others hope to get some attention in 2018. They will be sashed with white in between them all. This will be a take with me project in the car line so it is a quilt as you go effort.

I made a little progress on this Saturday and plan to make more stitches in this today while the kids are at Grandma's... who was nuts enough to take them again for a double kids sleepover with their new travel luggage!

As her son said as he walked by me tonight - 'I think we have enough evidence to have her committed!' A big thanks to my MIL for taking the kids again... she had them Wed/Thurs and had one of them last Friday overnight as well.

What will you be stitching on, to end the new year? Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. A special big thank you to Kathy for hosting the link up each week and for all the encouragement over the years.

Hope everyone has a safe New Years and keeps warm. I'm going to enjoy staying in with hubby and no kids - which means peace and quiet! Cleaning the house is all done so I can enjoy Monday in my sewing room!

RSC Challenge and a wrap up of 2017 finishes

I know lots of people are planning all the new things they will be starting in 2018. I found so many parts and pieces of things  when I was moving stuff around earlier this week in the sewing area that I really, really should just concentrate on what I currently have and see about finishing up some things. I hope to go through the sewing area a bit more today and tomorrow so who know's what else I will find!

Some unearthed things - my dresden plates from the RSC Challenge a couple of years ago. They need hand quilting still all except for the purple one. Eventually these will be sashed with white to make a nice quilt. I started the red one and hope to put some more hand stitches in tonight.

I also found the houses - from a couple of years ago! I'm sure I need a few more of these and they also need their tipsy turvey surround added to almost all of them. I think this will be concentrated on for one week each month with the RSC Challenge next year.

Then there were a handful of crumb blocks that I sewed together into color sets of 4 to make a 12 inch block earlier this year. I think I should make some more of these next year with the RSC Challenge. That covers 2 weeks.

Then there were some bow tie blocks with muslin. I don't know where these fell off the wagon but they are cute and easy... so I'll make some more next year too. I seem to have 12 of the purple, orange and teal, 11 of the blue and yellow and four reds and two green! I wonder if others might turn up while I am cleaning/clearing?

I have purple and red friendship scrappy stars.. but no other colors. I am guessing those were the first 2 colors of the year =). I do love stars, so I'll add to these on months other than purple and red. Some scrappy nine patches in colors might get added to this project.....

Wow - that fills up 4 weeks in a month for the RSC Challenge. It seems when I break things down this way into 4 things with one each week I do a much better job of working on things through the year. I have not done this the last 2 years and I don't seen to be getting things done. I'll try and go back to my proven method!

Somehow I need to add in some more 16 patch blocks - cause they are always so versatile and I like making them. Easy to cut extra 2.5 inch blocks when prepping those bow ties. I think another colorful cube quilt with grey background might get made from them next year and then another star with blocks in the corners as a go to quilt to have on hand.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge to end up 2017.

Some of the finishes this year - keeping in mind some of these quilt the parts or tops were made much earlier! :

RSC 2016 row along

Quilters Scrapbook pattern by Canuckquilter

Thangles 12 month BOM

Granmothers Choice Quilt along with Barbara Brackman

Bricks and Stepping stones - Bonnie Hunter free pattern

RSC 2015 quilt along by Angela Feldbush

Crayon Box pattern by Bonnie Hunter

Log cabin - scrappy blues

There might be a post tomorrow or Monday of the progress made in 2017. Stay tuned.

Also linking up Sunday with Oh Scrap.

Friday - Crayola Experience

Today was one of the last day's to use our yearly pass. It expires on Dec 30th... so we headed to Orlando today to use them one last time. Next year we'll be heading to Tampa for MOSI. Museum of Science and Industry. (Thanks family for the $ to get the family year pass!).

The bonus - the Worlds biggest Crayola Crayon was there for us to see!

It was very crowded but the kids had a good time doing some favorites.

The science lab is always a hit - they added that in the last year. We did some painting and used the drying machine to make some Christmas tree ornaments. My favorite is sitting at the round table with buckets of crayons and pictures to color them in.

While there.... we walked to the food court for lunch and saw some luggage. The kids needed new carry on bags - they use them when we go up to Vermont and when they stay overnight at Grandma's. I was looking at some before Christmas but didn't get them... and the price went up the day after Christmas on line so we took a look. Turns out their prices were around the pre-Christmas price I was looking at so they each picked out a travel bag!

Dinner is in the oven and it will be a little bit of a late meal tonight - but that's what happens when you get home at 5:30. Thank goodness there are Chicken cordon blue in the freezer (now in the oven) and I had a few potato's that needed cooking so they and an onion and leftover peppers from the appetizers on Monday are in the oven too with some rosemary, salt and pepper. I think some broccoli will get steamed as well. A nice rounded meal... and the kids and I had a Jamba Juice mid day for our fruit!

Thursday.....

Emily and I did the drive in on Tuesday night. We were by ourselves so got to stay in the car.

Ferdinand was a cute movie and we had a good time. The boys stayed home that night. Wednesday I drove the kids  to Grandma's in the morning so I worked in the afternoon. I had to go get one of them last night (another 2 hours in the car) so the deChristmastreeing of the house had to wait. He called as I was taking off the ornaments. I managed to finish it off this afternoon and the tree is outside. Ahhhh. So nice to have that out of the living room as it has been there since the day after Thanksgiving and it was a live tree!

I normally wait until new years day to take everything down... but it has been up for a long time this year and I am ready for the declutter and to put out my snowmen =). They are out for the month of January here in Florida at my house.

The bonus of a live tree - when you vacuum up all the needles after you take it out (I was smart and put out an old cheap long tablecloth for the tree to land on and be pulled out of the house with). There were some on the tree skirt that got picked up by accident by helpers so I get the nice pine smell for the next little while whenever I vacuum.

Hey Mom - I finally bowled good today - think you can beat a 547 series? There was a 202 in there and everything! Grandma had both kids so I didn't have to bring one with me - they went to Chuck E Cheese and got delivered after I got home.

It is cooler and overcast today with a few sprinkles. Flirting with 60 degrees - which I know is a lot warmer than most of the USA is experiencing right now. I'm thinking Chili tonight for dinner with some corn bread. First... the boy has a guitar lesson and I need to get some steps in while he is jamming.

Tuesday...

After a little working (cleaning day in the office) and then a walk at the trails with the family had me with a little time this afternoon. I snuck away and moved some things around in the sewing area and found some parts for step 2 of On Ringo Lake.

I think this makes about 100 of the 200 flying geese needed for step 2 of the coral and cream. Yes, they need pressing.... and I need to cut more parts to make the next 100. Step 5 has been released and I am way behind but... I am taking this one on my time frame and am saving off all the steps.

Ms. Emily really wants to go to the drive in tonight to see Ferdinand. They saw it last week with Grandma but she said she would go and see it with me too! Not sure if the boy will join us or not - if he does, Dad will have a nice quiet house tonight. Going to get chilly down to 51 tonight so we'll have to bring some quilts to snuggle in..... and if only 2 of us go we can stay in the car to watch!