A little progress

 This is where I stopped stitching last night. I was listening to an Audiobook and my phone and ear buds ran out of battery. I guess it was time to head to bed!

If I keep plugging away at this daily, I am hopeful I can finish off the sashing and cornerstones by next weekend. Then I can fix a few of the applique mice and get those blocks quilted. 

Baby boy has arrived for my niece, so I really need to get that quilt pinned and quilted and bound and shipped to Colorado. We will see if I can get that done before I fly up to Vermont next Wednesday.

I have a baby top completed.

 This is 60x60 and needs a batting, backing and quilting. Baby appears to be overdue.... as the due date was last Tuesday and I have not heard anything yet. Each block is 10 inches finished. I hope my niece and her hubby like it. I found it much easier to wash a quilt than a carpet while the baby is on the floor playing. Aidan's monster quilt got washed about every other day for a few years. Still makes me smile when I see it on his bed. His is 60x60 as well..... my little 6 ft tall baby boy! Not bad for 16 years of usage. I hope this one gets as much use as his got.

To verify the block would come out to the correct size, I cut a 6.5 inch square from a couple of grey 10 inch squares and then some 2.5 inch strips and made 2 each of 2.5x6.5 and 2 each of 2.5x10.5. It worked.... and I might have started a new quilt. Oops!  I have had a stack of neutral 10 inch squares - lots of greys, browns, black and beige. Maybe these will be the black and greys with colors surrounding it for a throw? We will see what happens.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 The house is quiet. Everyone is sleeping but me. The dog has been walked and the chickens have been checked and fed some treats. Blueberry muffins are baking in the oven. I was able to add some stitches into the cat and mouse quilt.

It is a good thing I have seconds of some things. I guess I forgot a baggie of things up at the camp in Vermont. Good thing I am headed up in a couple of weeks for a quick visit with Mom and Dad. They are both doing great now he is back home. 

The cats have been oh so happy to have us home. Peanut is always on top of me, the needy little guy. Ollie just likes to be close.

Emily was so happy to go to the barn and ride a horse yesterday. It appears the trainer found out Boomer likes to jump! I mentioned Emily had an interest in it and had tried it a few times before. She set up a pole on the ground and he does like to trot over it! She setup half on a bucket for height and he was a happy horse. Emily did really well with him and the little jumps. 

I planned fajita's for dinner last night. I had gone and got steak and chicken and found a recipe online here. Right as I was thinking of starting some rice, Greg walked into the living room and asked if I could drive to rehab with him. It appears they did not give us the 3 day warning and his Dad was released as of 10AM and we finally got a call saying he was waiting for a ride! Yup - there will be a phone call on Monday asking what the heck happened. We got him settled in at home. My goodness, we set up his pills based on his release documents. Last time he was home for 2 days before kidney pain landed him in the ER/hospital. He was very unsteady on his feet. I am thinking this is not going to end well. We are hoping for the best and I'll check on him today.

When we got home, the kids had made the chicken recipe for Fajitas and there was just a little bit left and Greg grabbed that. I cooked up the steak and had that with some quick microwave rice and avocado. So much for the leftovers I was thinking there would be for my lunch salads! I guess the kids like this meal now.

I'll be spending time at the machine today working on a baby quilt. Dinosaurs are calling. 

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

RSC teal

 I have yet to go into the sewing room since I got home. The yard got mowed last night and Aidan and I were working on weeding the overgrown front yard the last few evenings once the heat of the day got down a bit. You can now use the walkway to reach the front door. We got over 10 inches of rain while we were gone at the house. The back yard bushes are still crazy, but the house is a bit presentable from the road now!

I went looking for my quilting thread last night to add some stitches to the teal cat and mouse quilt. Oops, left the neutral and blue up in the yarn bag at camp. Good thing I got 2 spools of that blue and grabbed the other one from the sewing room. I added a few stitches to the sashing and marked a few more to stitch.

Turns out, when you lay the quilt on the floor, the dog comes running and sniffs the quilt (it has been away for 3 weeks) and sits pretty for a photo. My phone was not handy, but to get him off, he needed a treat.

I inspected your quilt, Mom. It is safe to work on. 

I have a list of things to do in the sewing room today after I bring Emily to horses. 

My niece was due Tuesday with a baby boy. I have yet to start that quilt.... but I do have fabrics for the top and drew out this pattern. I might mix up the colors instead of having them in a row. We will see. The goal this weekend is to get it to a top stage.

The fabrics. I have a yellow in the stash to use as well.

Since I did not get much time with Mom and really none with Dad as he was in the hospital the whole time (he is home and back to normal now!), I am flying up to Vermont later this month for a week. It seems there is a direct flight again to Burlington VT from Orlando. My little carryon fits the personal item size... so I'm doing the basic cheap flight. 

Once the baby quilt is done, I'll work on catching up with the RSC. I've got Chicken blocks and Arkansas Traveller blocks to make!

Linking up with the RSC.

Back home to crazy temps and humidity with heat warnings.....

 Photo overload. Sorry! We left Vermont Monday mid morning since the kids wanted to go back to Lui Lui's in West Lebanon for lunch. They have the best rolls with herbed oil to dip it in! They thought I was nuts to suggest going there on the way up... but liked it so much they wanted to hit it again as we left. Always trust Mom! My Dad was released from the hospital to home on Monday evening. He is doing great and back to his normal self. My FIL is still in Rehab. I would have thought he would be home by now...I'll go see him soon and see what is up with that.

I snapped this photo last night. Emily has been working on knitting a blanket. She figured out the stitch that was causing her issues and has made great progress on it. She was working on it in the car on the way up and back.

We did a steam train ride in Strasburg PA on Tuesday. It was pretty neat seeing the horse and buggy's along the road. We saw one on Monday night in the dark on the way to the hotel. Very neat.

The lighting inside the train was so neat. Below are some photo's I took of the countryside during the ride.

Ok, the ceiling of the train was pretty neat. I loved those teal lights. There was a lavatory and coal burning stove for heat - that they use in the winter! We did not need it as it was in the mid 90's with feels like well over 100... and we had the 10AM ride!

The boy was a happy camper!

Emily refused photo's, so the conductor got a photo of Aidan and me with the train.

Emily and I had a last paddle on the lake in the kayaks on Sunday night. The sunset was beautiful.

Currently, Vermont is flooding again with the remnants of the hurricane. I hope we left the boat tied well with enough slack. Barre is flooding again. I just hope the lake in Elmore does not rise too much as no one is out there from our family right now. My sister in Marshfield said there is a bridge that had to be replaced from last years flooding, now has water rushing over it again and is impassable. I hope it survives the storm.

 It is trash night here.... so I got to clear out the crispers and cheese areas of the fridge and toss things that had been there the whole time we were gone! Sigh. Things got a wipe down and clean out. Then I got to go get some veggies, milk and creamer and bread. I have no clue what he ate while we were gone... but I'm guessing no veggies. 

The yard is also overgrown. We had a good 10 inches of rain while we were gone and things went crazy. Some weeds were pulled by me and Aidan so we could get through the front walkway. He'll mow tomorrow and we will cut back and clear out more in the front. 

Bear was so happy to see us.... and went right to Emily! The cats are meowing at me like crazy. I'm sure I'll have two of them stuck to me tonight while I sleep. The chickens are happy, I gave them some seed treats, the 2 romaine lettuces I had asked Greg to give them and then let them free range out back for a bit. Happy ladies. There are lots of eggs in the fridge and on the counter. I see egg meals in my future.

Last full day in Vermont

It has been a very different visit from what we anticipated this year. The kids and I were the first ones to be here overnight for the summer. Normally, my parents are out here, and we get a really nice visit with them. This year, my Dad landed in the hospital the day we arrived - a week ago Thursday and we stopped and saw him in the hospital. He is still in the hospital, so my Mom is at their house which is closer to where he is. The good news, they drained all the fluids that were building in his body and his kidneys and heart are stable now. They are doing one more procedure on Monday, the day we leave for home. We are hopeful he will be released on Tuesday to go home. He is 87 and has a heart managed in failure state and bad kidney function but is not on dialysis. 

We hiked most of the way up the mountain on Friday morning. It got hot and muggy and the girl had a headache and was overheating a bit so I called it and we headed back down .4 miles from the top as a straight line.. which the trail is not. Lots of rest and liquids and she was better later that evening.

This is the duck that likes to sunbathe on the dock.

We did a boat ride yesterday when my sister Terri, her hubby Bob, their daughter Sally (up from Boston for a visit) and their dog Gracie. The kids do enjoy driving the boat... just dislike me taking photo's.

The hand work has been crocheting tops to towels and adding the button for my Mom. I have done 3 for home and will do a few for camp.

I also have been working on knitting a dish cloth while enjoying the outside and the view.

We saw all of my siblings on the 4th and my Mom came out for a few hours as well. I am the youngest of 5.

We have had maple creemees and I tried their new this year maple iced coffee. It was yummy. Also got a sticker for the car!

Forgot to move this photo up - Gracie was tired out from chasing the ball down the hill and into the lake all afternoon. Seems Emily was a good pillow.

Our excitement this 4th of July. The grill was out here with sauced chicken cooking when my sister Jo went out to add her chicken. Seems the structure wood underneath decided it was time to give way and thankfully she just got one little burn from the butter sauce that spilled on her leg. Charlie (nephew) was very quick and grabbed the grill and the guys got it off there quickly. Bob now has a new job at camp - to redo the underneath structure. We are very thankful it did not happen with my parents out there.

We have been hearing the loons and Emiy got a good photo of one while we were out kayaking the other day. I took this off Facebook this morning from someone around the lake. One baby loon this year.

It sounds like all my siblings will stop out at some point today as well as my Mom for a visit. I'd better finish picking up the camp a bit.

I did watch the F1 race this morning with Aidan. Go Hamilton with a home win at Silverstone. So happy he took the checkered flag. Hopefully next year it will be Norris's turn.

 

Wednesday

 My sister Joanne brought my Mom out to camp a bit after lunch for a few hours. We had a nice chat and got our first pontoon boat ride. It has been windy and raining up until yesterday. Aidan was the pilot.

Friday, the mountain will get climbed.

Emily and Joanne in the front and Grammy next to Aidan.

My tiger lilies are in bloom out behind the garage.

We headed to the waterfall trail near us where it washed out the northern parking lot and area of a little pond for swimming. The south end was open, and I wanted to see how it fared. The parking area was ok and we went up to the first of the falls and the river is down and running. We can see where it changed course a bit and took out the road just past this parking area, but we got in ok. It was just a quick trip... as the kids really wanted the maple creemee! No photo of that. I guess that means I just need to go again to get a photo! They are only open Wednesday - Saturday.

Ms. Photographer getting her shot of the falls.

For your relaxing pleasure.