Regrouping and restarting....

Sometimes... you just have to start again!

A couple weeks ago I finally started hand quilting the basket quilt.

I neglected to cut away the back part of the applique. Trying to hand quilt that basket.... 4 layers... was rough. After a 2 week time out where I knew I needed to pull that out and unpin and cut out the backing...... I finally did it yesterday!

All 25 baskets are now down to 1 layer of fabric.

Tonight, it will get repined and the hand quilting will commence..... just like De Ja Vu!


Saturday was a tea party with Emily put on by another troop raising money to travel to Georgia to visit Juliette Gordon Lowe's birthplace - the birthplace of Girl Scouts!

Today.... we tested a recipe we will try next week at our final scout meeting until August. Ice Cream in a bag! We tested it in 4 trys at home this afternoon with one bag letting in some salt on Aidan's first try. The second try worked better. We will try it again Wednesday with a double bag of the ice cream part and see if we have a fully successful try.

Recipe is found here . I'll hit the big walmart (or send the boys tonight) and pick up Lactaid free half and half... so Emily can enjoy it. They didn't have that kind at the neighborhood walmart we went to this weekend.

I put mine in a round container and rolled it for 6-7 minutes.

 The things I sacrifice and do for these girls =) Hehehehe..... I added mini chocolate chips. Yummy!

Come back tomorrow for a Finish! Not of the ice cream.... that is already in my belly!

Sunday....

Another week has flown by! The kids have 3 weeks of school left... just 3 weeks! How is that possible?
Things are starting to wrap up and the end of school year crazy is happening. Scouts has 2 weeks left... guess I really need to sort badges and plan the bridging ceremony for next week. This week they are learning about Autism (one of the younger sisters in our troop who is now in the Daisy troop that meets with us has autism) and will make a swap and write a letter to a girl in a sister troop in Ohio... and give some input on their end of year ceremony next week.

Soccer has 2 more weeks. Awards ceremonies are the last week of school and an orientation to Aidan's new middle school next year is also that last week of school. 2 summer camps are scheduled and paid for (camp invention for both and horse day camp for Emily one week). I work from home about 20 hours a week...yup, summers are interesting but the kids are older now and more self sufficient so it should be ok. ( humor me with that thought anyway!)

Kids are being shuttled to Grandma's by Dad today. I hear he might have some project to do there today as well. I plan to take 1.5 hours and attempt to pick up and clean the house. Note to self.... smaller house next time!

Then it will be lunchtime and the afternoon is all for sewing today! I will be working on the graduation quilt - chevron in yellow and blue. I hope to get all the strips sewn and cut today to play with the layout. Tonight..... I'll curl up in my recliner with the binding stitching on the huge log cabin quilt. I have 2 sides done.... 2 sides to go (188 inches of binding)!

I might also pull out the hand quilting on my first basket on my quilt... unpin and cut out the basket backing on all of them. It is a wall hanging size so not too big. Lesson learned... always cut out behind if you plan to hand quilt! 

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers..... as I will get some slow stitching in today eventually!

Just rubbing it in a little for Mom - some photo's of the tomato plants overflowing with roma and cherry tomato's! I might have been having tomato with fresh basil and mozzarella the last few days =)

This one got planted out by the kids play area.

The angel trumpets are in bloom. This is the one by the tree through the fence. The one by the shed is also in bloom. 

Time to get dressed and start cleaning.

RSC in Orange!

I pulled out the orange hexagon flowers yesterday and got the first one attached and sewn down at car line. I even cut out the back so it will be all set for piecing come November. I guess I did the second one waiting for someone to get dressed for riding. I need to pull the basting thread out and cut out the back on that one still. Only 11 orange flowers this month!

I was debating on cutting out the back fabric but since I plan to hand quilt this.... and on those hexagons I really don't want that extra layer of fabric in the mix. I had started hand quilting my baskets where I did not cut out the back..... big mistake! I will definitely be cutting the background fabric out on these flowers! So.... I have a lot of black backings to cut out .... in red, yellow, green and teal! It is an overwhelming task.... so I think I'll just plan to do one or two of the finished ones each day (are you laughing? Cause every time I make a plan like this it lasts maybe one or two days lately!) 

Linking up with the RSC Challenge in orange.

Yesterday was an adventure. Emily's horse riding academy moved this week! She cancelled the lesson last Friday to prep for the move and yesterday we got to see the new place. The arena is now outside! It was a lovely day and the grounds are very nice. 

Four more horses were being transported after Em's lesson and her Prince was one of them. She rode Prism yesterday. It takes us about 30-35 minutes to get there now instead of 25 depending on traffic. I75 is now involved.... but I'll have to take a look and see if I can get there without that .... I really hate that interstate and avoid it at all costs. I did get on to come home and immediately saw red lights on all 3 lanes. I thankfully was in the right hand lane still and the next exit was right there. Yup, I got off and took back roads home. Much faster.

Then it was game night. We were all close - within $300 of each other. Mom won =)

Today.... Hubby is working (which means I just plan on a 12+ hour day and don't expect him home for dinner..... the kids are not liking this new job at all). Emily and I have a Mother/Daughter tea party with girl scouts. Unfortunately the boy will be home for a couple of hours....and he is already in a mood this morning. I'll try and entice him with helping plan and cook dinner and see if we can turn around the mood.... maybe I'll even get the front bed weeded this morning and then we can shop for flowers for it this afternoon.... that usually turns him around too!

 Hopefully I'll get a little sewing time in.... but we will see how the day goes!

Umbrella's needed....

Well, I did finish off the last teal/aqua umbrella yesterday afternoon and boy, we did need an umbrella last night at soccer! Thank goodness the rain stopped right before the games began so we were dry for both games. You can tell they are getting to the end of the season (2 more weeks) as the teams are much more aggressive going for the ball. Aidan and I did move half way through Emily's game (the second game that night).... parents on our team (2 Dad's) and one parent from the other team were extremely loud and disagreeing with the ref calls..... a wee bit too close to the boy's ears. We moved to the middle of the field to get away from it as someone was getting a headache.  His schedule also got messed up yesterday (he plans his days and does not do well when things change!) when a friend of his dropped in after school for a visit with his Mom and little brother.

Time to prep some orange umbrella's for the RSC Challenge for the month of May.
Not today though.... our horse academy moved locations this week. We will now travel up to Reddick (north of Ocala) for Emily's lessons. We will see how my gps works to find the new place today! It will take about 30 minutes instead of 25 to get there with the new address.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge on Saturday.

Chevron Graduation quilt.....

 I guess I should probably start on the graduation quilt needed for next month! I have been collecting fabrics for this quilt over the last few months. The requested colors are yellow/gold with blue.... yellow/gold is the favorite color. She likes simple.... so the chevron pattern it is. I figured I'd do it in gradation and it will probably be a couple of strips of all these colors. I'm planning a twin size and will use the strip piecing on point layout rather than the half square triangles. Wish me luck! Of course..... I might switch it up and put a light yellow by a darker yellow for a couple too.... we will see what happens in the sewing room!

Someone was 'helping' me work yesterday.... Peanut cat.

Speaking of the cats... they truly are spoiled! They got a new climbing tree this week that the kids assembled for me. I was going to have it out on the back screened in porch.... but decided to put the 14 year old one out there and this one outside my office area. The cats tend to come and play for a few hours while I start my day then retire to the bedroom for their naps! We have another big one in the living room about twice this size the cats enjoy playing on as well. See, spoiled cats! 

RSC in Teal....and binding time.

It has been a busy day! I did relax this afternoon and got a couple more umbrella blocks completed while enjoying the comfortable temps on the back porch. I believe as of now I am all caught up! Sophie allowed me to pose them with her.... if I petted her after!

I started out this morning blueberry picking with Aidan while Greg and Emily stayed home and cleaned the pool. I picked with her last Saturday.

I also got to stitch a little on the binding while Emily cleaned the guinea pig cage and I supervised them and the cat (Ollie) who was watching them intently. I'll be working on that binding for a while - each side of the log cabin is 94 inches long..... that's a lot of binding!

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Slow Sunday Stitching.

Tiny Thursday?

Well, I keep missing Tiny Tuesday but I finally have an umbrella post this month..... on the 25th! Yikes. I do have some making up to do! The teal umbrella is posing with the plant that arrived at my house on Easter. I need to pop it into the ground this weekend.

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap challenge where teal is the color of the month.