Weekend plans.....

The kids are planning to do an overnight at Grandma's still to play with the dogs. They are opting out of the car races as I am assuming it will be cancelled due to the crowd in close proximity. Greg is working all weekend 2nd shift. What is a girl to do you ask?

Clean? Really.... do you know me at all?

This one will get loaded onto the frame. I have had the batting and backing all set to go for months! I'm thinking butterfly's in the bigger boarder, outline of the cats and in the cats either a wave or circle pattern. I'll figure out the rest as I go!

This one will get pinned for hand quilting to be by my recliner and possibly car lines (assuming kids go back to school on the 24th after break next week).  I see falling colorful raindrops and outlining the umbrellas.  I have batting and I think I'll have enough of the teal print backing from the cat and mouse to use for this one.

We will see what happens!

Ella Maria Deacon

A little late this week on posting. It might be because I was busy working on binding instead of working on this block...and reading much too much on the COVID-19 virus!

I decided yesterday to take a look at my midget applique blocks for ideas on what to put in the middle of the block from this month. I was thinking a flower..... but when I scrolled through I saw a block with 4 hearts. I liked it, it would be easy to prep and bam, decision made. I cut my heart shape out from a folded piece of paper. Used that to trace onto fabric the outline, cut and placed onto the block. I took it to 1 car line and a guitar lesson yesterday and got it completed!

The binding is officially done on the trip quilt as of last night. I just need to make and attach the label!

I am opting not to go to my normal bowling league today since I have had a dry cough and a bit of a sore throat. I feel fine (plenty of energy!) but my league is mainly made up of older ladies - age above 70 and my teammates are 88 and 84 and the other one is 65 and currently going through cancer treatments. They don't need to be exposed to my germs. Hubby has more of a flu bug so just safer for them for me to stay home today.

My goal today is to play with some teal fabrics, finish off hand piecing one or two more of the EMD blocks and maybe pick up the seeds for the garden to keep the kids busy next week while on spring break. Emily would like carrots, watermelon and corn. Aidan wants gourds, pumpkins, summer squash and peppers (he has been successful using seeds from peppers we use). I'll get the salad stuff - lettuce, radish, swiss chard, beets and peas and beans. We will see what decides to come up.

Sunday....

A day to relax and putter doing some things I enjoy! I need it after a fun filled day with the kids at the local Discovery Center where it was Engineering Day! They built popsicle stick bridges and then tested them to see how much weight they would take before breaking (Aidan was 6kg, Emily was 4kg), an egg drop from the top of a bucket loader to see if their egg would survive (Emily's did but Aidan's did not), and experimenting with water filtration where they filtered some dirty water using common household materials (both got down to the 50 range from over 200). No, the water was not drinkable but they had fun seeing how clear they could get it!

One kid is off to Grandma's. One is home working on creating a book that is due tomorrow (yes, he has had over a month to work on it and we won't mention he gets his procrastination honestly!). Hubby is off to work. That leaves me with a fairly quiet house today to putter!

I'll get a few binding stitches in on the huge trip quilt.

I plan to mark these bits for hand piecing for an old EMD block. I must have nicked that corner when cutting something. Oops. We will see if it needs a fix or not.

I'll also work on finishing my current hand applique one today. I have 2 more other than these to get done to be caught up before the next release. We will see how the week of car line progress goes.

I'd like to get the cat and mouse quilt loaded onto the frame.... but we will see how time goes by today. Linking up with the other Slow Stitchers.

I do have to drive over and pick up Emily from Grandma's tonight.

She has come here with her new addition and we have Buttons the Maltese dog while she runs to the store to get a small crate for her, food and treats. Her owner (MIL's friend) was found in his condo yesterday after the landlord asked for a wellness check since she did not get his rent check on the 1st like normal. Sadly, he was found deceased and had been for a while. Her groomer took the dog right in and got her cleaned up and trimmed, the emergency vet advised her on how to feed her after so long without proper food (guessing over a week at minimum). The kids are keeping an eye on her while Grandma is gone.

A quick trip to the store for me to get some fruits and veggies and dairy and I'm good for the week with a stocked fridge and pantry I should be able to come up with meals this week!  Tomorrow's scouts meeting is being held at the Auntie Annies at the mall where they will learn about proper hand washing and make their own pretzel.... that they get to eat! Next week is spring break so I figured after 2 weeks of fun paining they deserved a treat. We did this as a troop a few years ago and it was requested we do it again as a few have not done it before. Our troop has also sold out of our cookies as of yesterday - Yea! Emily sold off another 25 boxes yesterday afternoon while meatloaf was baking in the oven. She only has 8 boxes not sold ....which will be taken to bowling and I'm sure will disappear. They happen to contain 5 boxes of Samoas... **** which might be my favorite! =)

RSC Saturday

I'll be working on another side of binding tonight on this RSC project I worked on in 2015! This is hand stitched and hand quilted and finished at 90x90. I used 2.5 inch squares from my stash and used a consistent 7th round with the white dot print. I'm so happy this will be finished in 2020... finally! I went with a scrappy binding.... I may have gone a little over board making it as I have over 100 inches of scrappy binding left still! Oops. As you can see, it is kitty approved. Where ever this quilt is, Peanut is on it! He even spent the morning yesterday on this on the bed rather than in his kitty bed next to my laptop like he normally does! Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

kitty quilt holder while trying to hand stitch binding!

This is the instructions on how I made mine for numbers of squares. 

My Trip Around the World block - 2.5 inch squares. Makes a 30 inch block finished.

1,4,8,12,16,20,24,28 - white round, 28,24,20,16,12,8,4

Off the frame????

Yes! The trip around the world quilt is officially OFF THE FRAME!!!!!!

It still needs to get trimmed (something about the cat was napping comfortably on half of the cutting mat last night and I didn't want to disturb him!). I did make the binding (he let me cut various strips of fabric on half of the mat) and have it pressed and ready to attach once it is all trimmed up. I'm thinking I might get to that today or tomorrow. I see hand stitching binding in my future! This 90x90 quilt will take a while - that is 360 inches of binding to stitch as well as a label. I think I might write the label with the permanent pen and then go over it with some embroidery so it won't fade when it is washed.

I already informed Ms. Quilt Stealer that this is not going on her bed. She is agreeing to disagree at this point.

Ella Maria Deacon

This one still needs a press. Hand pieced and finishes at 9 inches. This one was actually fun to make =).

Had a clean out the fridge win for dinner tonight. I cooked up some mushrooms in butter with a little onion and a handful or two of spinach that needed to get used. Then I chopped up the last of the roaster chicken meat (the carcass was taking a spin in the crock pot with onion, carrot, celery, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and thyme to make broth) and added it. Cooked up some campanelle pasta and added it to the other pan. Emily had that version and Aidan and I added some warmed up alfredo sauce to ours. Oh boy was it yummy. I do wonder what I will come up with for tomorrow night.....

March OMG

My One Monthly Goal for March is to complete the hand quilting on my 90x90 trip around the world quilt and get it bound. This is all that is left to get quilted as of this morning.

Yes, this was my goal from last month and I was oh so close. March 1 started out with an afternoon of hand quilting on it and I am so close to being done. Unfortunately.... I needed sleep last night and to work today, then kids expect to be fed..... you know the drill. It is looking promising that this month I will finish the quilting, make and attach the binding and label and call this quilt completed! I am so excited!

quilting from March 1

Linking up at Elm Street Quilts and the OMG for March.