Sunday....

I have done a lot of hand work this week. I do see some in my future today as well.

I think I will put a good 30 minutes of hand quilting into the quilt on the frame this afternoon! I am going to try and concentrate on putting at least 15 minutes in on it every day this week. We will see how I do. It seems that if I don't actually stitch on it, no progress is made! Imagine that =) I hope that will be enough to finally be able to roll it next weekend. The maroon is ready to roll so I just have the yellow and sage green to hand quilt

I made progress on the red dresden plate and plan to prep the light blue one for hand quilting in the car line this week. I still need something in those border squares of red..... but that should go quickly. I did an X in the purple ones and I might do a small melon shape in the red.

Red Dresden almost done.

Purple is done for now.

Ready to prep the next one in light blue.

It will be cold here in Florida this week (I know, cold is relative  and it is nothing like the temps up north) so I might be snuggling under this spring blooms quilt while adding some hand stitches into each of the flowers. Maxie cat did let me finally finish the binding on this and she has been sleeping on it each night since I am leaving it on the seat of the recliner when I go to bed! Spoiled cat.

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers today and hoping Kathy is feeling better this week. I am off to shower (the kids just left for Grandma's house - the boy is feeling better and they are heading to see Paddington at the movie theater) and then I plan to head into the sewing room and see what trouble I can get myself into!

RSC in blue.

Well, I opened one bin of scraps this afternoon.... but there sadly was not much blue in there. Must be in one of the other bins. (I have 3 large ones I am admitting to!)  I did have one 2.5 inch strip of a light/medium blue in there so I grabbed that to make one of the sew along blocks for this years RSC Challenge. I made 2 of the 3 - 10 inch blocks today. I found a stack of 5 inch floral prints on the shelf and decided to use a few of them up so they are in these two blocks and a 16 patch block. I have had that stack since the late 90's!

I had made a light 16 patch block earlier this week and the bow tie was a leader and ender today.

I made two more uphill houses earlier this week and cut out 2 downhill. I sewed the downhill ones today.... I think I am getting the hang of these! They need trimming but I'll do that once all the blocks are done.

The red dresden plate made progress and I got a bunch of the cross hatch done in the rainy day car line yesterday and finished it up this morning with a movie. I hope to add the X's in the blocks on the edge later tonight and then I can pull out the light blue one to work on. 

This snowflake is not light blue.... but the quilt it goes with has lots of blues so I figured I'll work on this in January. I was pattern testing Hoarfrost for Joanne at Canuckquilter a while ago but never finished the 3 snowflakes. Her pattern has them paper pieced. It was my stopping point. I really do not like paper piecing.... so last week I was checking out snowflake coloring pages and found this one. I printed it out, cut out on the lines and then used that paper to trace this out onto some white fabric. We will see how it goes as it will be needle turned appliqué. I need to press it before attaching for hand work.

There was a knitted light blue variegated dish cloth made this week too but that didn't get a photo. 

The boy was feeling off today - he is resting when he needs to- which is  a nice change from his usual self. We cancelled Grandpa since we don't want him to get sick. I did make a trip out to the store to stock up on soups for the pantry after lunch. It seems we were out of chicken noodle ones. The house also got swept, mopped and vacuumed (hubby actually helped with the vacuum) this morning. Hopefully the boy is better and both can go to Grandma's tomorrow. If so - I plan to spend the whole day in the sewing room! So many options of things to work on!  Blocks could be put together into tops, tops could get prepped for quilting, blocks could get made.... endless possibilities. 

Linking up with the RSC Challenge and Oh Scrap. What are you working on today?

Forever Leader and Ender project.

I have this basket of 2 inch squares next to the sewing machine. When not working on other things and I need to get to what is under the needle, I pull 2 squares and sew them together. I believe the idea is to make a very scrappy irish chain quilt with it. I really need to do some cutting of the scrap bins to refill the color and light options sometime soon. I'll also need to start working on the alternate block but... that would involve a decision on what color to use as the light... keep it scrappy or use one fabric? Until I decide, I'll just make more of these!

Sunday....

After 10AM and the kids are finally off to Grandma's house. I guess that means I should shower and dress sometime soon? I had a splitting headache after the girl scout cookie rally yesterday so after lunch laid down and took a 2.5 hour nap. Yup  - that had me wide awake from 2-6.... so I was reading books on my kindle. I see a slow day ahead with some stitching on the binding. I got a little bit in this morning and turned the first corner before the kids left... and now I have the same sight as Friday night. A cat on me and using my hand as her pillow. Spoiled cat.

Maybe if I clean the house a bit and run the vacuum (which has her hiding under the bed) I'll be able to get a little more hand stitching in?

My alternative red dresden block needs some lines drawn for a cross hatch on the white part. I did outline the plate in the white yesterday since I took this photo. That might need to happen... since she usually lets me hand quilt with the hoop. I know, a very, very spoiled cat I have.

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.

RSC 2018.... and no blue sewing yet you say?

How can that be? Blue is the largest part of my stash and my scraps and not a bit of blue sewing yet? Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. Come in closer. Closer..... I have way too many tops and collections of blocks in my sewing area.

There, I said it.

Deep breath.

I feel better now.

So, instead of being good and picking up the area and finding more things to distract me..... I just cleared off the sewing table and diligently worked on my spring blossoms quilt. You see - it got pinned, walking foot machine quilted and I made and attached a binding to the front this week. Don't tell the quilting police.... but I plan to hand quilt the blossoms.... after I finish the binding! I know, I am a rule breaker! I'm thinking I'll outline the color blossoms on the inside and then do what Joanne did with her machine in the middle sections since I like how that looked. So..... one project has officially moved out of the sewing area this week. I'm calling that a win. I made this last year with the RSC Challenge and the free pattern can be found here. It is a super fun quilt to make.

Since I had some time... I pulled out the wonky houses and looked up the directions for the uphill and down hill. I had one uphill and 3 downhill. I know when I cut them and sewed them a couple of years ago I cut out 2 of each. Might be why they got put into a pile and erased from the memory. I cut some fabric for 2 uphills today... and I actually got 2 uphill houses! Woo Hoo! These were made with the RSC Challenge a few years ago. Hey - one of the houses is blue, does that count?

I did see some blue this week though. I needed a change of pace after 2 days of hand quilting on my red dresden block last weekend (and a very sore fingertip) so have been knitting and made both of these this week.  Just need to tuck in the ends and they will go into the dish cloth rotation.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge on Saturday. I'll be with 150 girls at a cookie rally in the morning. Unfortunately - the location of the rally does not have heat... and it is going to be freezing overnight here in Florida again. It will be an interesting dress code... as most don't have winter gear so hopefully lots of layering and gloves and mittens will be happening. Stay warm everyone.

For now, I am going to cooking club tonight so I'd better get in a quick walk (and turn on the pool pump to low for overnight) and then make dinner for the hubby and kids. Have a great weekend.

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!