Sunday....

It has been a very long week and I seem to have a headache that started last night and was still there when I woke up this morning.

I hope to take a few stitches on this purple umbrella today. Hope is the important word there. 

I'm not sure if there will be 2 more after this or if I add another 11. I guess I'll decide mid October.

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers.

 There has been no sewing or stitching at all this week and I am in Florida instead of Vermont. My father in law Tom has been in the ICU since Monday. He turned 84 on Sunday and had called off our dinner out on Saturday not feeling well. There was great improvement yesterday and he was moved to a normal room late yesterday. Greg has headed over to see how he is today. The kids had an overnight with Grandma last night and they went to the car races - a previously scheduled outing and overnight. Let's just say I got woken up at 8:30PM from the recliner and told to go to bed to sleep last night! I think I have been in bed by 9 the last 3 nights. Very unlike me. Oh - Greg's parents have been divorced since he was 6 but both come over for holidays and are friendly. She has been great and came over to stay with the kids when we first found out. It has been lots of driving and shuffling of schedules to keep the kids centered and 'normal'. 

Today...I'll grab a shower and see how I am feeling as to if I go get Em from Grandma's (45 minutes away) or if Greg swings that way from the hospital. She has a 1PM birthday party to go to. I'm sure another dose of Advil will keep the headache at bay and knock down the low fever. In the mean time... I'm enjoying the smell of my night blooming jasmine which is loaded on the bush outside and wafting in through the closed windows.... too hot to open them!

Sunday slow stitching....

I have a couple hand work projects that I am working on.

I finished the embroidery for the Happy Little Things block. Time to pull and mark the rest of the block for hand piecing this week.

I started a new project - The Ella Marie Deacon Quilt along over at Sentimental Stitches. 4 blocks a month released mid month for the next 21 months. I think I will hand piece mine in scrappy blues from my stash. This is the first block I hand pieced - well I just need to add that shape all around. I'll prep the other 3 today.

I realized I had $25 over at bluprint that had to get used by the end of the month. I went looking around and saw they had bamboo knitting needles and they were on sale! I had broken the tip on my favorite size 8 that I use for dish cloths.... I got 2 sets of them in a 9 inch and a few other things and it arrived on Friday! Woo hoo - one pair will reside in the car but instead of the console - where it can get broken while taking it out! - I will put it in a zippered cloth bag with some dish cloth yarn (sugar and cream) and it will live in the passenger seat! I'll transfer my current pink dish cloth in process and that will be the first into the bag.  I also picked up a water erasable marking pen, a number 11 bamboo needle (hey, you never know when you might need it!) and Aurofil mako thread cream in a 40 weight I think. I believe I had 7 cents to spare! Not bad.

I did manage to 'fix' the batting on the frame last week and I am looking forward to watching Hocus Pocus (don't judge - I love watching this movie in the fall, and yes I have it on DVD!) this afternoon while adding some hand quilting onto my colorful trip around the world. I tend to work left to right on the frame (cause I'm silly like that!) and will be finishing the purple section today and moving onto the teal. I got a good amount done on it yesterday in between kids coming in to 'check on me'. I had to hit the pause button... a lot.... I was watching Bad Moms which is not kid appropriate.

Sophie the cat was supervising.

The kids made us a chocolate cake for our anniversary yesterday - complete with chocolate hearts they piped with a bar of baking chocolate in the pantry! Not bad for a 10+11 year old.... and with a little threatening they even cleaned up the kitchen pretty well after. Did I mention there was some threatening to never be allowed to bake again if they (one in particular) didn't help clean up and do all the dishes? For some reason they put candles on the cake - a 13 for our 13th wedding anniversary!

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers who are sharing what they are crafting in slow, methodical stitches this week. I wish I was in Ontario, Canada.... I'd join in on her slow stitching Sunday retreat Oct 6. I'll just join in, in spirit from Florida.

Saturday in Purple!

I was able to sew a little purple this week!

Since I have so much hand work time - I started a little 16 patch and got 2 of them done in purple to go with the one in pink. These are made with 2 inch scraps.

I also played with a new to me block... I just have to get past the problem I have with one section. Completely user error as the instructions are great, the person making it..... well I keep turning something wrong!
I have 2 of these blocks in purple now, well almost, that  I think are becoming a new RSC block collection =) Joanne at Canuckquilter sent me her pattern for the Variable Starburst. Thanks Joanne!

I really like playing with 16 patch blocks and since I have not been making any this year like I had planned..... I'm starting in September with some! These are from 2.5 inch scraps and were machine pieced.

I added the one block I have been consistent with this year -the  umbrella! After checking Joy's blog it seems I should have 38 of these as we are in week 38 of the year. Lets count... 38!

Linking up with the RSC where you can go find lots of pretty block collections being made from scraps.

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. Greg is off to clean up a pool this morning. I'll drop Emily to the barn to help Liz with the horses for a couple of hours and Aidan is getting dragged into the overgrown garden with me to help try and tame it for fall planting in Florida. We were heading to the villages to take my FIL out for his birthday which is tomorrow - but he called off this morning not feeling well. He will be 84 tomorrow!

Ella Maria Deacon Quilt.....

I'm blaming Chris! She just had a blog post about the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt along over at Sentimental Stitches. It started a few days ago on the 15th and looks like Gay will be releasing 4 blocks a month (love that it is mid month to mid month!) for the next 21 months.

I managed to make 36 of the 64 blocks for the 1857 quilt along I did a few years ago. It finally got to a top stage this month. It is nice to have a quilt finished before starting a new one.... Oh yea, I finished a basket quilt recently. Guilt gone! 

We will see how this one goes. I think I made a decision that this will be a scrappy blue and cream quilt instead of the original green, maroon, brown on a cream print. There are 3 piles of blues to pull from (we won't even think of the amount in the 3 scrap bins!) and a good amount of creamy white on the shelf. I'll try to remember to grab the cream ones instead of the white on white. I'm thinking the softer cream is the look I am going for. Wish me luck. Not too late to join in on the fun. She has a facebook group you can ask to join to feel things out first if you'd like. The one for the 1857 quilt was very positive and friendly.

Tuesday 'brella

This little guy has been added to the umbrella collection of blocks. Aidan ordered a yard of this fabric with his extra $ from Blueprint. There was a scrap hanging around from his project that worked great for this.

Playing with Purple....

I saw this block over at Joanne's blog Canuckquilter last week. I loved it and thought it would look so pretty in purple! I was right. Thanks so much Joanne for the instructions to make it. This is 12 inches finished and I am debating on making a bunch of them in purple for a pretty scrappy purple quilt... or make a rainbow of them.

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Sunday.... a day of rest.....

I hope! The kids will soon be on the way to Grandma's house. Greg made waffles this morning. I helped Emily finish up her nails (marble nails) this morning while breakfast was being made. The nails were painted white last night and we tried one nail to see if it would work. It involved taping off the skin, using a little bowl of water and dropping nail polish into the water, then swirling it then dipping that finger in. The blue nail polish must have been used so she went with red and purple instead of blue and purple.

I plan to play today with fabric and prep things in a kid free house. The kids are in route to Grandma's house to play with Scruffy today.

The latest Happy Little Things block is all prepped for embroidery. I hope to get this done today so I can pull fabrics to finish off the block - hand piecing in the car lines this week. I'll use the same floss as the first one. I decided to mark with a thin permanent marker this time instead of pencil. The pencil was hard to see.

I'm finally going to 'fix' the batting on the frame that the kittens tore up last year. It has sat in timeout long enough. I have just a little to hand quilt before I get to remember how to turn it for the next section! I believe some time will be sitting at the frame today adding some hand quilting stitches in. I need to figure out a way to roll that batting and keep it safe... I may need to find a pool noodle or 2 and some little tie downs to create something with a muslin protector.... so I don't have to deal with this again!

One of the guilty parties.... on the cat and mice quilt I had draped over the frame but removed for the photo's. Wonder if he thinks those are real mice to catch?

I really, really wanted to have the cat and mouse quilt prepped for hand quilting by now... but I saw a backing I loved at Connecting Threads in the catalog. I thought about it all week......and this morning I ordered it along with some in purple for the backing of the 1857 quilt and a queen wool batting to try out for hand quilting (either the green irish chain or the Joanns Fabrics Y2K sampler quilt). I remembered I had $100 in birthday money still tucked away from last year for my splurge!

Linking up with the other slow stitchers at Kathy's Quilts today.