Tuesday Umbrella

My last blue umbrella for the month. I'm happy to say I am all caught up with these again. I wonder what color umbrella's will be added next month. It will either be purple or darks - brown or black. Those are the colors left for the RSC this year.

Monday progress.

I decided to test out the sewing machine yesterday. It still works!
I found this pile of parts from cutting out Emily's triangle quilt. I just paired them together and sewed. Then trimmed to 6.5 tall by whatever. Not sure how these will go together but time will tell. Maybe a little quilt for the kitties?

I had these half square triangles trimmed up and in a little basket.....so they got sewn up too. I know I have more of them somewhere in the bins from trimming off the stars sample quilt I made. I think with a couple more I'll make a cute little wall hanging for my office or sewing room. These blocks are 3.5 inches.

It felt good to sew again.

I also did hand piecing.... the BOM is nearly done. Just need to cut and draw sewing lines for the last frame for this little guy. I like that I decided to hand piece this one. One block per month for the next few months over at Jacquelynne Steves website.

Sunday....

 This is what happens when I attempt to take photo's for the blog! Peanut thinks he needs to 'help' holding things down! Silly boy.

This is how far I have gotten on the BOM - Happy Little Things. I decided to hand piece this one as I have more waiting time than sewing machine time lately! I got the flying geese done in the car line. Lines are drawn and this one is ready to get pieced the next time I am waiting.

I grabbed the first 'clip' I saw. It was a binding clip. Great way to keep parts together.

 I also found block 1 from Save the Bees BOM...who know's maybe I'll actually finish this block sometime now that it is in the baggie of hand work. I might have found this while starting to go through things as I put things back in the sewing area!

 This is my take with me baggie of hand work. It contains the above 2 projects as well as my umbrella block parts for back basting applique. I think there is also an applique snowflake tucked in there from another project... just in case I might run out of anything to do!

I did have an issue on Friday. I had tucked my knitting needles and yarn into the car console. I have a bunch of stuff in there.... and when I tried to get it out.... I broke the tip off one of the bamboo needles! Bummer..... I love my bamboo needles. Since I have not 'found' the bag of knitting stuff, I opted to cast off this dish cloth half way. Hey - it will still wash the dishes just fine! Note to self - always buy 2 skeins of dish cloth yarn so I can make 3. One skein tends to make 1.5 dish cloths and I only remember to buy 1... so that second one is ...... colorful! I think instead of the console I'll grab a big zippered bag that I can tuck various projects in and just keep it in the passenger foot area. Must pack that bag up today and pop it into the car. I'll tuck the cross stitch and it's book in there as well. Never can have too many options available!

Linking up with the other Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

Saturday morning we split up a bit. I took Emily to horses while Dad took the boy to get a hair cut - out to lunch with some of his gift cards and they picked up some powdered sugar Emily needed to finish off the lemon frosting for her lemon cake she made Friday night. I heard from Aidan.... Dad was thinking she needed 5 pounds of powdered sugar (5 cups in reality) and was putting 5 bags of it into the cart! Aidan just looked at him and asked what he was doing? He realized his mistake and they got 2 bags and put the rest back on the shelf! Silly boys.  We did find out some great news. Emily's riding instructor had to move quickly back in June and relocated about 35 minutes from us and had to leave behind the covered arena. We are in Florida. It rains and is HOT.  It was feels like 97 degrees at 10AM yesterday. Em was dripping sweat and red faced when she was done at 10:50. Liz just signed a lease for a covered arena 5 minutes from us! I fear my girl is going to be having a second home at the barn helping out very soon.

Prince was waiting for her when we got there to get his rub down and then get all saddled up for riding.

He got a bath after and then she put him out in the field when she was done her lesson. 

RSC Saturday....

This little 'brella was added to the collection this week in the light blue pile. I'm not sure where the week went but I have yet to use my sewing machine..... maybe today I'll break down and see if it still runs!

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

The boy wants to trim bushes outside this morning, and I really should weed the front triangle bed which is over grown. Em has horses mid morning as well - it has been a couple of weeks since she rode and she is anxious to get back on Prince!

It was a busy week. Second week of school for the kids. Monday was our first meeting of girl scouts. Wednesday was Aidan's guitar lesson and Thursday I had the first day of bowling in the morning and training for nut and candy sales at night. Friday was cooking club. And just like that the crazy school year schedule begins!

I did get a couple of new recipes from last night. I loved the one I made.
Grilled chicken penne al fresco. It was so yummy! Everyone went back for seconds and thirds on this one.

Margherita Pita Pizza .
2 tsp italian seasoning mix
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove - pressed
4 flat pita bread rounds
2 plum tomato, sliced
1 cup (4oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
2 Tbsp snipped fresh basil.
Directions - Preheat oven to 425. In a small bowl combine oil, seasoning mix, vinegar and garlic minced with the press. Mix well, Place pita rounds on rectangle stone. Brush one side of each pita with oil mixture. Slice tomato. Top pita rounds evenly with tomato and cheese. Bake 10-12 minutes or until cheese is melted and edges are slightly browned. Sprinkle with basil. Cut pizza's into quarters.
Pumpkin bread pudding was the last recipe.

Prep Work.

The key for me to get things done is to have a plan and do the prep work! This week the goal is to get my umbrella done  and hand piece the Happy BOM. The umbrella is prepped and in it's baggie for the car line with necessary threads and needles and scissors. The main part of the block for the Happy BOM is prepped and lines drawn all set for hand piecing.

The knitting needles and yarn for dish cloths now live in the car console.... in case I forget to bring anything with me!

I also went onto my library website and downloaded their free audible app to my phone and checked out a few books. I listen to them while walking or in the car line waiting on the kids. A great way to 'read' some books.

Sewing Sunday!

I am halfway moved into the new sewing area! When you sort through things as you bring it back in, it tends to take a looooonnnnnggg time! I did sort 2 big drawers of strips of fabrics (1.5,2,2.5).... I have a lot more room now! I'm going to hand off a bag of yarn to one of my girl scout Moms so she and her Emily can crochet.

Last week I had some goals and I'm happy to say I made progress on a few of them! I got 3 umbrella blocks completed- laid out on my new floors which are so much nicer than the carpet,

 the knitted dish cloth finished and one patch hand sewn onto Emily's girl scout vest. I forgot how much of a pain it was and will attempt to use the machine to stitch the rest of them today.

I did make my embroidery block - I just need to add a couple more french knots and then trim it to size. I am thinking I will pull some fabrics from the stash and hand piece this one while in the many car lines I get to sit in now! I'm debating changing to blue to a little bit darker floss.....

I'll stitch in Emily's and knit or crochet in Aidans. His I tend to be on the road waiting to get in with all the police going back and forth..... I like to be looking up not down at my stitching. I'm going to try a hexagon crochet block to make into an afghan. I found a tutorial I liked here - will see how it goes! Hmmm. Might have to look down at that though, unlike my dish cloths (which I need to finish the one I started last week in car line - it is half way knitted!). Will give it a try this week and see how it goes.

 I also got back into hand quilting and have 2 sides of my setting triangles to go on the basket quilt. That will be the project to work on today.

Grandma called this morning.... seems the gage on her pump is zero and no water. Hubby will go and see if he can figure it out and will bring some jugs filled with water for her. We kept 2-3 of the big blue jugs from when we had them at the store. They come in handy to fill with water in case of power outages (hurricanes) or situations like this. Hopefully it is an easy fix and she doesn't need the pump replaced... we had to do that a few years ago with ours. I see a nice quiet house for a few hours and time playing with fabric in my sewing room. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers this week.

RSC Saturday

It is another rainy day here in Florida. Lots of rainy day pick ups from school (3 of 5!) which we normally don't have until a few months into school!
That has allowed me extra car line time!

I am all caught up on my umbrella blocks! (I was 3 behind!) I finished off the pink and made 2 blue ones this week. That's my new flooring in the sewing area/office (a.k.a the finished garage area!). I love it with my pretty sunny yellow walls!

All the umbrella's so far. No clue how they will end up in a quilt.

I also picked up my blue basket quilt and I've got 2 sides of the setting triangles quilted in the evenings. I have yet to find the herra marker (hopefully today as the sewing room painting and floors are done! Time to sort and move back in this weekend!) so just did a free hand lines to mirror the triangles. The bottom is done and I'm working up the right side. This is 32x32 for a pretty wall hanging.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge. Head on over and see all the fun projects being worked on.