Last Purple Saturday!

I'm happy to say I found that missing pink birds in the air block when I was prepping my QSAB blocks for hand quilting yesterday afternoon. Turns out it was attached to some batting and hanging out next to the drawer where I am keeping the rest of them. He was happy to join all his other buddies yesterday in the drawer.
Since the kids each took a 3.5 hour nap yesterday (yup, both sick again with sore throats and I got it this morning) yesterday I was able to get a bunch of things done. Six more of the log cabin blocks are completed so I have 21 blocks finished at 12 inches each. I have 9 more of these to make and then I'll put them together into a top for quilting. I have 6 weeks to get this one completed and mailed out. This will not be the final layout... I am just trying different things each time I take a group shot.

I also worked on some of the purple pineapple blocks until the bobbin thread ran out. So I switched to prepping three QSAB blocks for hand quilting and started on one of them until the kids woke up. Trust me... I tried waking them up multiple times - tickling and everything. Em said 'No', turned over and went back to sleep. Aidan just kept turning away from me and not even opening an eye. I did pay for it last night with them not settling down until close to 9PM.

This is how the Pineapple Blossom quilt is coming along. I have all 16 blocks pieced but not put together yet. I am thinking a 2 inch 'frame' around the pineapples and then the extra triangles around as the second border. I think it will finish with a batik print around the outside. I may stop and check out a LQS for the outer most border since I don't have enough of the color I'd like in my stash.

Go on over to SoScrappy's blog and see what others are doing for the purple scrap challenge this weekend.
As for me, the kids are down for a short nap... I think I'll do some hand quilting while catching up on a recorded show or two. The lack of sleep the last few days has caught up with me.

Deb

QSAB Done!

With a little sewing here and there during the morning and some serious sewing and pressing during naps.... I got this block done. Lots of tiny pieces in this 12 inch finished block. I hope to get this set for hand quilting tonight and maybe can get it done for the Sunday reveal at Jo's Country Junction. 

A package!

Thanks so much to Jill at DarlingJillQuilts for this nice package of fabrics I got in the mail on Tuesday. Sorry I am just posting about it as I got the mail late that night and worked a 12 hour day yesterday at the store. She sent me these lovely fabrics I'm going to use on my midget blocks for my Tiny Tuesdays.  You'll be seeing these pop up in my upcoming Midget blocks I'm sure. They are really pretty lilac, green, cream and maroons.

I am realizing it is getting to be the end of the month and I have not done my Quilt Square Along yet.....

The corn and beans one at the top is what Jo picked for this month.  I really should cut out those 96 blocks and subcut them into triangles this afternoon.... but I think housework will come first today.... darn it. The floors need mopping and a good vacuum and I have  a big house. Hopefully the kiddo's go down good and I can get that done quickly (after picking up all the morning adventures spilled all over) and then have some time to sew or cut fabrics.
Here is the living room - this is what happens when I chat on the phone with my Mom! The kids decided to pretend it was my birthday and these are all my presents wrapped in quilts, newspaper and what ever else they found.

If I don't work on the QSA block...... There are 4 pineapples cut and ready to sew and some log cabins that need the last log or two before trimming up. So many choices.... so little time!

On another note - we weeded our little garden this morning before the sun hit it and pulled out a bunch of things. I left the corn and the scallions but everything else was past or got picked. The beets are cooking up on the stove top. The beans are washed and in the fridge.  I'll replant some cucumbers, zucchini and beans tomorrow morning. I plan to put in some winter squash around September.  We got a good amount of beans from the last planting before they dried up on me. We did pick a few of the corn and the kids wanted a corn snack this morning - I didn't remind them they were a veggie! I picked 4 but Aidan was already eating one before I could cook them up.

Off to pick up so maybe I can get some sewing done after a little house work.

Midget Tuesday

I got a chance to sew on Sunday night while the rain was pouring down and put together #46 - Dancing Star. Hopefully the rain comes to an end sometime this week - at this point we have over 5 inches Sunday night around 9:30PM. There was 10 inches on the monitor when I woke up on Monday morning.  Lots more expected in the next day or two.
Stay dry!

A trip down memory lane...

After making blueberry muffins this morning with the kids I decided we needed an activity to keep them entertained today. How about a science experiment with some measuring? We did a cooking experiment. Can you guess what we made?

This is what it looked like after we mixed all the ingredients.

I got quite the arm workout stirring this constantly until it came to a ball stage. I got the white boards out for the kids to practice drawing (Emily) and tracing his letters (Aidan) while I did the part on the stove top.

As it cooled (and I got a shower that had one person come in and mention someone was painting on the walls instead of the paper.....note to self, painting must be supervised even for the 5 minutes I wanted for a shower.)

Then we practiced kneading - Aidan did the green all by himself from adding the food coloring to getting it all worked in. Em worked on the red and yellow and did a great job with a little help from Mom. I did the blue. I think Aidan did the best job of the bunch of us.

So, did you guess? We made Play doh!

I remember making this a couple of times with my Mom when I was little. I used a recipe I had written down in my homemade cook book.

3 Cups Flour

1.5 Cups Salt

6 tsp. cream of tarter

3 Cups Water

3 Tbsp. Vegetable oil

Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the wet ingredients together. Combine them in a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until a ball forms. Let cool and knead. Can be divided into several pieces and add food coloring and knead to distribute the color. Store in sealable plastic bags.

Now to get them to pick up the bucket of toys that got spilled onto the kitchen floor so they could get to the shapes.......

Purple Saturday

Birds in the Air in Purple are done. I still can not find that last pink block.... maybe it will turn up next month when I attempt to clean and organize the sewing room. Here is the lot of them so far this year.

Go on over to SuperScrappy and see what other purple things everyone is working on.

Progress

I got back in the sewing room today after I got the kids down for very late naps. I had called to set up a play date yesterday but with the rain coming in she countered with Chuck E Cheese this morning. We met at 11 and left when there were lots of kids and the noise got to Emily around 1:20. Made for cranky kids and a very late nap. While they slept...... I got to sew!

So I finished up the 6 log cabin blocks I started a few days ago and now have 15. I am thinking I am half done and 30 blocks at 12.5 unfinished will make a nice sized quilt with a 5x6 setting. What do you think? It is for a wedding present and not for a bed per say. Do you think the 60x72 is big enough?

I also cut out more strips for the pineapple blossom block and have enough right now to have 16 completed blocks. Hopefully I can do some sewing this evening and get 4 or 8 blocks done to add to the completed 8 already done. I just might be able to get another 4 blocks out of the fabric for a 20 - 12.5 unfinished blocks to set 4x5. We'll see.

Off to make dinner for some very cranky kids. Shrimp and broccoli Alfredo with some tomato, cuke, pepper and scallions in a balsamic vinegar dressing on the side.  Yummy.