Sunday slow stitching

Time change.... everyone is sleeping in but since the cats did not get the memo, Sophie was meowing right on schedule. Early! While I was up I fed all 3 cats, let the chickens out of the coop into the run and refilled their oyster shells and put some food down so everyone could eat without fighting.  Coffee perking was the next on the list.  After checking a few websites and checking out the local news... it was time to stitch a hexagon for the day. March is darker green. First - I stitch down the folded over 'binding'.

Then I quilt it following along the edges.

    Before long there is a completed Hexagon quilt as you go block ready to add to the pile.

I will finish up quilting the last block - number 18 on my Hand Pieced Quilt Along quilt from 2019. I'll go back and add 3 lines to the sashing and then I'll figure out what to put in the side triangles. They are not very big - but I'm thinking maybe hearts? Still time to decide.

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers. 

More green....

 A two post day! All went well with the Mammogram this morning as expected. The garden got tilled to take care of the green weeds growing and I'll hand weed later tonight when it gets cooler. The chickens got excited when I turned on the water to let it sprinkle for 20 minutes. Seems like love to play in the water and peck the ground to get the bugs it brings up.

I got a little time in the sewing room and was able to finish piecing 2 blocks. I had started these on Thursday and didn't notice until I pinned this on the wall that ..... we have a problem in Houston! Darn it - I should have known something was off when I had to trim down the four patches. Sigh. Those big parts should have been cut to 4.5 inches not 4 inches! Oh well, guess this one will go on the back. Good thing I have plenty of green.

When I pieced the Garden Path one it went together nicely, but after taking the photo I might swap the two corner pieces on the left side with more green and have the next one be more sage shades. 

The wall reminded me I need to pull for Erin's butterfly and then the Full Stop row still. Plenty of time this month. Linking up with the RSC.

We have a mystery as to where Rosie is laying her eggs again. Today though, there were all 9 in the nesting boxes. 2 in one box and 7 in the other!  Rosie is the small white one on the upper left side. Poppy has the green one. The 3 Plymouth ones are the light brown at the bottom and the other 4 darker and large ones are from the Sexlink (Rhode Island Red/White mix) chickens.

Saturday in Green

 

I was playing with some green on Thursday but don't have final blocks to show for it yet. I did put out all the hexagons so far this year for a photo op. 31 pink, 28 yellow and there will be one each day this month in darker greens. Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

I'm happy Cookie Season is done! We are down to 8 boxes for our troop after another booth on the lawn and I'll just pop the $40 in and donate them to hometown hero's under Em's name. Now all I need to do is finish entering the cookie sales and money collected and make a deposit to the bank. That will be after I get my Mammogram this morning. It was cancelled with the change in insurance and doctor this year.... so I am going to a new place, closer to home. We will see how it goes.  The kids are officially on Spring Break for the next week. Seems everyone slept in, so I popped out at 8AM and let the poor chickens out of the coop. They were so ready for freedom and food! Greg gets to take Emily to horses today as it is the same time as my appointment.

I decided to let the kids pick a meal from a country for the coming week. I said I'd take the American version of Ireland for Wednesday! I picked up the corned beef and fixings for the crock pot meal. I've made Calcannon  and lamb in the past and it did not go over well so I'll stick to the corned beef and veggies I know they will make disappear. The Irish soda bread with it always goes fast. 

Emily chose Mexican enchiladas which I believe are tonight. Aidan chose Chicken Tikka Masala. I think I need to get one spice for that one Monday. We will see the world a bit this coming week. I might have to visit Germany and make hubby happy with a meal he grew up with. There are still some days up for grabs so we will see what they fill them with.

Hands 2 Help

 It is that time of year again! Time for the Hands 2 Help Comfort Quilt Challenge! You can read about the challenge here. It is their 11th year and nearly 3,000 quilts have been donated to provide some comfort in a time of need. Won't you join in?

I signed up yesterday (thanks for the reminder Joy!) and plan to make a quilt or 3 to donate this year to a few charities. I might also do a Hometown Hero one - a new category this year. I have someone in mind.... we will see what I can come up with.

I missed it last year... there might have been a wee bit of chaos in my household and it slipped through the cracks. Never fear - there are quilts I can pull that are already made but.... I have a few collections of blocks that would be ever so happy to get sewn and finished off into a quilt to provide some quilty hugs. In fact... those churn dashes that have been in the drawer waiting patiently for a few years are so excited to be considered,  they might open the drawer themselves and jump onto the floor for layout play this next week with the kids help! Perfect timing as they are off next week with spring break - and they are pretty good at balancing the scrappy quilts with color placement.

Green Hexagons

 

I caught up with my hexagons tonight and got a whole week prepped and ready to go.  Hopefully there will be more green sewing tomorrow. I'm going to have to dig deep into the darker greens for more. 

Harmony...

 Week 3 of Harmony and I am still working on week 2! I decided to make the throw - so will be making 4 of the blocks in shades of red and white. The first week was square in a square. The second week was 4 sets of 4 HST's. I have 2 sets completed and trimmed. 2 sets marked and ready to stitch by my recliner. I did one set in each of the red colors I have used so far... but they may get mixed up when I decide to put them all together. We will see how it looks in the 'play' section once it starts to go together.

Week three is the 'fancy' HST. A HST with an extra triangle added to the background part. I'll prep those after I finish up the step 2 blocks. 

Sunday stitching...

 It has been a s l o w start for me today after a long night! Emily and I went to the drive in last night (a girl scout event) and watched a double feature. Tom and Jerry and then The Blind Side. We got home around 11:30 - hubby was waiting up for us. Emily and I had chatted on the way home where we wondered if he would be awake. I told her he probably would be since we tend to make sure the other gets home safely before turning in for the night. 'Why' she asked. I said that is what you do when you care about someone... you make sure they are home safely!

Our badges for the event and our ticket vouchers for our meal and popcorn for the movie.

The cats didn't care I got to bed late and Sophie wanted food before 7AM. Since I was awake.... I let the chickens into the run about 7:15. The splitting headache (probably not enough water yesterday and lack of sleep) had me back in bed when the neighbor decided to play weird music at 7:40 AM that I could hear inside my bedroom with everything closed up. I might have opened the slider and said something like 'seriously, loud music before 8AM on a Sunday?'. Amazingly, it got turned down within 2 minutes. That response has never happened before!

Some Advil and a little sleep had me waking up at 11AM and feeling much better. I sent out some prep work for my girl scout meeting tomorrow night (digital photography!) and maybe my photo's on the blog will improve starting next week? One can hope =)

Grandma is feeling better but called off on having the kids go over today for the day. The boys need to make a trip to the trash/recycle center today. The garden needs some weeding/tilling and the car will get taken to the drive through car wash so I (kids) can use their vacuum to clean the interior.

After those tasks.... it will be prep work and a little hand stitching for me to relax. Maybe outside in the sunshine in the high 60 degree temps. Perfect temps to be outside stitching today.

I need to stitch the remaining 3 blocks for part one of Harmony, then prep the part two blocks - half square triangles and stitch them up before block 3 is started on Monday. Completely do-able as they are easy steps. No progress on these this week since Tuesday.

I will also prep some more green hexagon blocks for the quilt as you go blocks I am making each month in the RSC color. Darker green this month of March.

I have the pink and yellow Erin's butterfly all basted and ready to be appliqued onto the background.  I machine stitched the blade wings, then hand pieced the circle part on and hand basted the 1/4 inch seam. I just need to cut out the background square, attach them  by hand and cut out the black body part to stitch down in between them. I'm not sure how many of these I will make - 9 maybe?

The pink and yellow ones so far this year.

I'll settle in this evening with a little hand quilting on the hand pieced quilt along quilt. The cats have been 'helping' this week with that project! Kathy asked about thimble use.... I never could get used to having something on my finger so while I have adjusted to using a hoop or frame, I prefer my fingers bare when I am quilting. 

We have an abundance of eggs (all 9 are laying!) - so I decided to make a quick quiche with some leftover asparagus yesterday afternoon. I did not bother getting out the recipe... or measuring! I chopped the cooked asparagus up and added it to the greased bottom of a glass pie plate. My recipe uses some milk and a little mayo, blended together.  then the eggs.... I used a bunch of the small to medium ones (maybe 7?) and a couple of extra egg whites from the sweedish meatballs last week. Poured that in then checked in the cheese drawer - added some provolone slices and some shredded sharp cheddar. Into the oven for 45 minutes covered and breakfast this morning was waiting for a warm up! I got mushrooms on sale for 99 cents for 8 ounces yesterday, so I'll be making my Sweet Tomaot's restaurant - Cream of Mushroom soup later today. Recipe is under the recipe tab at the bottom. My lunches for the next few days! I love this soup.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers....