Purple parasol anyone?

It has been a busy week and I finally got my little purple umbrella completed just in time for the Saturday link up of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

I did manage to sew these blocks together last Sunday. It is now 72x72. This is a subset of blocks from the 1857 sampler album quilt along over at Sentimental Stitches a few years ago. It was all hand applique for me. I am not sure if this will be hand or machine quilted. Thoughts? I like how the darker tan background frames this one... my son, not so much! 

-Monday was working and kid pick up (and quick grocery run to pick up things for scout meeting that night) We did the brownie snack badge - made Pico with chips, energy trail mix and berry smoothies. I finally checked my phone about 9:30 that night (guess it rang while I was supervising chopping) and I got to log into work that night too!

-Tuesday I drop off both kids (I normally drop Em for 7:15/20ish and Greg drops Aidan for 9) and start work an hour later. Tonight was Emily's horses. She nixed my taco Tuesday thoughts and we did quick chicken chili and corn bread in between me having to go get the boy from school and making dinner early. Greg picks Em up Tuesdays so I can get my 5 hours in.

-Wednesday was working again and then kid pick up in the afternoon. Early taco dinner with a stop to get chili powder which someone could not find while making the mix. I had my taco meat over a salad with some chips on the side....before running out to my GS leader meeting. Seems one event is filling up fast.... lots of fb posts on our private GS troop page and I got another 4 indicating they really wanted to go. I had payment from 3 already.......

-Thursday - day off thank goodness! Dropped Em to school then drove 15 minutes to drop off our form and money for 7 girls and 2 adults to the Wizarding Event next month. Phew - got us in and it closed at capacity a few hours later! Then home to do the prize fund lists (which I kept putting off!), a quick shower and off to bowling. Rushed morning means I did not bowl well and the average went down! Oh well, higher handicap right? Stopped in at Sams to fill up with gas (going through lots more with kids in 2 schools!) and picked up a roaster chicken for dinner. Yup - you guessed it we were running again tonight. After picking up Emily - putting away stuff and looking at papers I got to go get the boy (20 minutes away). Got home to see his papers and then eat quick before everyone jumped in the car to head back to Aidan's school for open house! We went through his whole day.... in 10 minute increments with 4 minute walking. It is a big campus for a middle school! I got my steps in as I missed my walk this morning with errands! Hey - I got 10,000 steps (T+W) and within 500 steps of it (M+TH)! That morning walk after dropping Emily to school and before work actually happened this week!

-Friday - back to work today. Did keep the boy home from school - he was off today and a day of rest hopefully will help. I have cooking club tonight - Emily needs to clean a guinea pig cage after reading her book for 30 minutes (She LOVES her language arts teacher this year. She is actually reading by herself every day!) I found out Em's open house was rescheduled..... for when I am gone to VT! Figures. I had to reschedule her IEP as it fell on that week too. Sigh, I have yet to meet her teachers as Dad took her to the meet the teacher before school started and now gets to take them to her open house. The good news.... her speech has improved that we will probably be putting her in 'check' status so she won't get pulled back to back days from science this year. Aidan's IEP check for gifted is Monday. Dad gets to attend both this year and see what I have been doing the last 6-7 years with them!

-Saturday - You would think it would be a day of rest right? Not! Emily is doing community service with her KCL (Kindness, Community, Leadership) club at school. I think they are reading to animals? I'll drop her in the morning for 1.5 hours. The boy has a birthday party to go to with a friend from his school last year from 2-8. Depending on the weather and how Em feels at pick up mid morning - I might drop her to the barn to help Liz out with horse care for a couple of hours..... we will see. Me - I'll be in the sewing room playing with fabric in between running kids here and there!

Hope you are not too tired if you read this far. It was a very long week!

I'm feeling accomplished!

The kids were playing with scraps in the sewing room yesterday.

I set up an extra cutting mat on my office desk to cut out some borders for the cat and mice quilt (silly quilt wanted to be bigger so I made it happy!). I cut out some white - sewed the bigger strips together to do the sides and cut some for the top and bottom. Attached the top..... and spent a while looking for the other one! Did not find it.... decided to go with hubby to take the kids to Grandma's for an overnight around 5PM.... they wanted to spend the night with Scruffy's 1st night at her furever home! She adopted Scruffy officially on Saturday morning.

We did a meet and greet last week with her and Grandma so she could see how she was with the kids. A very sweet 1 year old terrier mix! You can see she is so happy with the kids and them with her. Grandma was a wee bit offended when they mentioned they usually don't put puppies with older folks.... and asked who would take her if something happened to her.  She immediately said my son and his family! =) We got approved from the meet and greet visit too I guess!

Today - I had a quick run to the girl scout store to get the proper number of badges - since they finally did their horseback riding yesterday as a troop. We had some bridge up since I had planned to do it.... I have 6 juniors and 5 brownies now. The girls got a great education and got to ride a horse, take care of it before and after and gave each one a bath and then put it out into the pasture. I loved getting compliments from Liz on the girls being respectful of the horses and well behaved. Makes me so proud of them! I also grabbed snack badges which we are doing tomorrow and letter boxing and geocaching as those are the next badges we will be working on. We tend to keep busy!

After a quick lunch it was sewing time! I turned on my machine and guess what I found draped over the edge of the sewing machine? Yup - that missing border for the top! It was white and blended right in! A little cutting and sewing and pressing and soon I had this cute top 61x72. This is the next hand quilting project.

Since I was on a roll, I found the photo I had taken of the blocks Aidan laid out for the 1857 quilt. I managed to get them sewn into a top as well today! This one is 72 inches square. It might need a dark purple border.... but maybe a dark purple binding will be sufficient. Not sure if this will be hand or machine quilted. It was all hand applique.

Time to settle in for a little relaxing knitting or crochet tonight I think. I'll either be finishing a dish cloth or making a scrubby. I have not managed to get to the store to pick up new knitting bamboo needles so I pulled these little ones out. I guess it will be a smaller dish cloth  since I don't think I can get 50 stitches on there... I think I am a little over 30 stitches now.

Linking up with the slow stitchers this Sunday and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge where purple is the color of the month.

Thursday Umbrella.....

Might be needed as a parasol. Boy is it hot out! Mid 90's for temp with feels like even hotter now that the sun has returned from behind all the clouds. Mom - this was from the fabric of pansy you got for me!

I stitched this at bowling today, along with
finishing up these 4 patches into a 16 patch block.

Edited: Linking up to the RSC on Saturday. I cut out some purple and white from strips to make two of these 16 patches in purples. I used the 2 inch strips. All prepped for car lines next week!

Purple....

I'm going to pull out the blocks for the 1857 Album quilt along that I did a few years ago over at SentimentalStitches.  It was free at the time each month over the span of 18 months. I did 36 of the blocks. It was a lot of applique. I did mine in a purple colorway of 2 purples and a green on a cream background. I had the border fleur de lis on a darker cream to frame it. I see a dark purple binding on this one eventually. This month, I hope to sew this one into a top. At least I'll be working on some purple with the RSC!

I had Aidan lay out the blocks for me. He did a pretty good job of balancing the colors. He was not sure what to do with this crest block... he said he turned it each way and decided to put the 'cow' face up! COW! Too funny.

I did a short walk with Emily this morning and we saw this flock of turkeys. We waited for them to cross the road in front of us then they were about 6-8 feet from us here on the lawn.

I took a break from work this morning to get some water and came back to this. Now how am I to sit in my chair with Ollie laying on it? Normally I sit and he lays between me and the back of the chair. Silly boy. Peanut usually lays down in his black bed.... or when he wants attention right in front of my laptop which he is blocking. Occasionally he sits on my lap and pretends to type on the keyboard. Silly boys.

We have seen a band or two of rain come through. Not bad. We played a new to me game yesterday and again today. It uses logic and strategy. I love it! It is called QWIXX. Aidan gets a little upset after a game or two when things don't go his way..... we are working on it. Emily just kicked both our butts this last game with a high score of 80! I got my 4th penalty to end the game. My strategy didn't work out this time but most of us had fun!

Em is in the pool with Dad supervision. Think I'll lay down and see if the headache goes away before I have to think about dinner. 

A finish!

I actually got a finish in August! Woo Hoo!The baskets got their binding finished last night after some pool time with the kids. Now to decide if it will hang in my office or my sewing area.

I'll be prepping the cat and mouse quilt today.... although I will need to do a 'test' and see if it might need a border or two to make it a wee bit snugglier. (is that a word?) I think it needs a little white border then a teal on the outside - maybe 4.5 inches or so. I have a feeling this one is going to get taken into a bedroom and I won't be seeing it for my use! 

Speaking of my use. I have to laugh. I crocheted a blue afghan years ago when I first met Greg back in 2005. It was called Michi's afghan....and 2 weeks ago it lived in Aidan's room. Then Emily claimed it for a while in hers, and yesterday it was in the den and Greg was snuggling up under it for an afternoon nap! We were discussing it in the pool. Seems Aidan wants a green and cream afghan - like the ones up in Vermont on the end of his bed  Mom! Yes, I have your pattern still. I saw it not too long ago - hand written by you. That one is a ripple one with I think 7 long rows that you hand 'stitch' together in alternating colors. I made a few of them over 20 years ago in pink and grey, orange and cream (that one Mom had started probably in the 70's! and I finished it), raspberry and cream. I guess I liked pink back then! Emily requested one like the Michi's afghan in a lighter blue than the navy that one is.  I guess I have request lists!

Linking up with the other slow stitchers today.

Emily had her riding lessons yesterday at the new facility. This one is less than 10 minutes from our house and is back to a covered arena. Love that!

My horse whisperer. Seems Prince did not want to get collected for his lesson but the 2 girls were able to catch him, put the halter on and lead him in from the far field by themselves.

Leading Prince into the arena for riding.

Well, another day and another shift for Hurricane Dorian. Today was the first day Greg appeared a little concerned.  A Cat 5 will do that I guess! He lived in Florida during the 90's and was stationed at Patrick when Andrew was going through. He said this one is reminding him of that one and once they get that big they kinda make their own weather pattern. We are prepped and ready..... well, we didn't do the yard pick up yesterday as it was heading away to the east but will do a quick bit today and maybe pop the boards over my bedroom windows tomorrow. Just to be safe. I just called them on their way to Grandma's and let them know Tuesday is a day off from school - just in precaution if they need to make the schools into shelters for those in low lying areas or mobile homes with the possible winds if it tracks more our way. Can you guess the reaction? Lots of cheering and clapping! The kids are looking forward to a game day and puzzle day with Mom and Dad Tuesday!

August Finish? Maybe.....

I finished the hand quilting Thursday and trimmed it up. Emily pressed my binding for me and I will attach it to the front today. Good hand work for movie night tonight.

Saturday morning will be watching Emily ride Prince at the new riding facility. She is so excited and I am so happy it is 10 minutes from home. I just checked the address and it is a little different from what I was thinking. Mom - it is right behind the Catholic church on 200!

We will do the yard pick up after that and then jump in the pool to cool off. Might as well enjoy it while we can as the temps will be in the feels like over 100. Right now it looks like the hurricane will stay on the east coast side and potentially off the coast. In our hurricane prep we realized we needed a better form of cooking option for no power. We have a camp stove arriving tomorrow.  We don't have a gas grill just a big green egg. The pellet stove takes electricity. It is nice to have options and we are prepped for 'what if'.  We have been discussing a gas grill...... I noticed I grilled a good amount while up in Vermont. It is so nice to just push a button.... and it is ready!

I think the cat and mouse quilt will be the next one in the hoop! Must find a backing and get it prepped.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge....and looking forward to purple!

Wednesday.....

I finally finished the first block for Happy Little Things BOM over at Jaquelynne Steves  The Art of Home website. I had pulled some fabrics from stash for this one and since I have so much waiting time, figured I'd hand piece this one as well. All done and ready for the next block release next month.

I had an early dentist appt this morning. After, I stopped at Sams as we were out of frozen burger patties. I buy them in the 6 pound package of individual patties as they are so easy to defrost in the microwave (3=1 pound) for meals. As you know, I am in Florida and we are busy watching the weather as a competitive sport with hurricane season in full swing. Dorian is powering up to become a hurricane and only Mother Nature knows where she will go. I am inland and on the west side of Florida so will probably just see rain and wind... if it comes in around the middle of the state. Too soon to tell....but people are already getting crazy buying bottled water. Me... we have a couple cases in storage already. Plenty of batteries in the house  (cause we live in Florida and you just never know!)  I just fill up big blue jugs of water and other containers and the tubs.... if it is a chance of losing power. We will see how things are shaping up Friday..... if it looks like central Florida then I'll fill bigger tupperware containers with water and pop them in the deep freezer. They will keep things cooler longer in case of a power outage... and can be used for drinking water if it is longer. Hopefully, it will go north and away from land and we will have a nice holiday weekend. If not.... I have plenty of hand work to keep me occupied!