Tiny Tuesday

Bird on a tree. I've been working on this a little bit here and there all week. I got the last three leaves done today while Emily is home with me. She is all congested and a little warm. If she didn't cry at the drop of a hat this morning multiple times I would have sent her to school. Instead some resting on the couch was in order today. I used embroidery floss for the eye and the beak. I used back basting for all the appliqué and it worked great. I have a feeling I will be using that for a lot of these blocks this year.

I also finished the Goodnight Irene top. It measures 48x64. I decided to take an outside shot since it blended in with the carpet color. In hindsight I wish I had used my 2 yards of grey for the background with the blue but I did use up a lot of scraps from the bucket to make this . I think I have a dark blue fabric big enough for the backing of this. Might need to add a stip of something for the side but I should have something to make a small backing for this. Any thoughts on quilting? I am thinking a little meander with some loops but have not decided yet.

Design wall Monday....

I felt like sewing today so I pulled out the blue blocks and sewed them together into rows and then sewed all the rows together. I just need to finish up the border parts and attach them, which should not take too long but I had to stop sewing as the kids needed to be picked up from school. Now to help with homework and do Emily's speech. We have scouts tonight so everything needs to be done and back into folders this afternoon.

I also had started my pink trip block but I didn't like the lack of contrast so I picked out the middle section and I'm replacing the 4 with a lighter pink. Hopefully it will go back together ok. I also searched through and cut out the next 3-4 rows. I just need to draw the sewing lines on the back of them but that will probably wait until bowling on Thursday morning.

Slow Stitching Sunday....

I have been making progress on my hugs and kisses quilt - 20 blocks are hand quilted out of 49! I don't know about you... but I am finding I pick my blocks by my mood for the color I want to work on. I started in the middle and am working my way out but find the direction I move is based on the color block I feel like working on that night. Does anyone else do that?

I plan to pick a pink block (bottom row in the picture) to work on tonight as pink is the RSC color for February. I might put the football game on for a little bit but I have a feeling I'll end up watching a movie instead.
As for me - I am headed into work to run the store on our short day today as my manager is not feeling well. That means instead of heading to the trail head with Emily today... Daddy gets to take her to walk to the bridge that goes over I-75. The kids and I walked to it on Friday on their day off starting at a different trail head. It was a nice 1.1 mile walk to it and they wanted to take Daddy to see it.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and if you need some great links to follow today head over and check out the Slow Stitching Sunday link party at Kathy's Quilts. I'll be linking this post up to it.

Last Saturday in medium blue....

I finally got to make the card trick block this week.

I realized I need more blocks to make my birds in the air quilt to the size I want so I made 12 blue blocks this week. They will be added to the pile of blocks I made a few years ago with the RSC Challenge. I am hoping this one will become a wedding quilt in September for my nephew and his bride. I'm thinking a 15x15 setting for a 90x90 quilt with my 6 inch blocks.... but I just counted and have 133 blocks including these 12. I'm going to need a lot more of these...or they will get a couch throw!

I've been working on my scrappy blue strip all month and it is about 72 inches long and 4 inches wide.

Head on over to SoScrappy on Saturday morning and see what other blue projects (or pink if you started February!) are being worked on.

Oh - I've been looking online for yarn for the mystery crochet along I joined and found this site -consumercrafts.com and ordered my yarn Friday. I am going with my own color selection... hopefully it works! All the color selections were out of stock at the various places I checked on-line and I know they don't have all the colors available at the stores near me.

4 country blue, 2 light country blue, 2 off-white (I'll look for dark country blue at the stores near work Saturday - Joann's, Michaels and Walmart), 2 charcoal heather grey. I really hope I find the dark blue but either way I think it is a good color combo. I do love blue =).

Now to test out dinner. It is clear out the fridge and use up leftovers night. I chopped up the leftover shake and bake chicken breast, added the various veggies and the container of plain spaghetti and plain penne pasta. Made a bechamel sauce and added cheeses. Mixed it together and threw it in a pan in the oven with cheese on top. It smells good. Time to test it out.

Oh boo, something new....

I was poking around blog land and noticed that Amy is going to do a crochet mystery at thecrochetcrowd.com. I checked out the link...... thought about it and then checked it out a few more times over the last few days. Then..... I signed up for it! Yikes, what am I thinking? I see a trip to Walmart or Joanns in my future to pick out some simply soft caron yarn. This crochet or knit along starts on February 10 and will have instructions and video's of the pattern parts posted each Tuesday for 10 weeks. Now do I go with their posted color combinations or do I try my own? I need to get back in there and find the color combo page and have it with me when I go to the store.   It really will be a mystery!

Pumpkin cookies....

I had taken some things out of the freezer this weekend - a pork roast we had Monday night with a minced garlic, fresh rosemary, salt and pepper rub (very yummy) with some roasted potato with rosemary and onion. The frozen chicken breast will be tomorrow nights meal - thinking shake and bake or a baked mediterranean version? I also grabbed a ziplock baggie of 1 cup of pumpkin I had baked off and pureed back in the fall. I was thinking of making Aidan's pumpkin moose but...... I was not in the mood and went searching for pumpkin recipes. I found this one at Taste of Home for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. I have to say... they are pretty yummy. The scale say's I need to stop eating them!

In between things, mostly at car pick up line I have been adding some squares to the 2 inch TATW version.

Tiny Tuesday.

Here is the finished ruffle heart from last week. It got finished up on Sunday night. After getting it done I don't know why I put it off so long  - it went pretty easily once I marked outside the basting line with a chalk pencil to help with the turn.

Next up - the Pineapple block. I used freezer paper templates ironed to the right side of the fabric and used needle turn with that. In hindsight, I wish I had back based the green parts as I did not line them up very well. Oh well, it won't be that noticeable in the finished quilt (I hope!).

Time to head out for my walk, then a quick shower and it should be close to lunch time with Aidan. I did lunch with Emily on Friday and we are getting close to the end of the month. I try to do lunch with them once a month at school.