Design floor Monday

I picked my UFO project for June and encouraged my Vermont Quilting FB group to join in. I just had the 16 patch blocks when I started Saturday.  I made those last year with the RSC Challenge. Hopefully this will be a finished quilt by the end of June. The pattern is Goodnight Irene and I love how it is looking in the scrappy colors. Excuse the messy floor.....not much area in the sewing room for display and everything extra gets shoved into my space. The kids and I will be working a bit each day this week to clean up in there in the afternoons.

Linking up in June with OMG for the June One Monthly Goal.

I did some outside work yesterday and the heat did me in. A splitting headache yesterday evening had me in bed by 5 for the night. Feeling much better today... and love how my planting area came out. Just need one more white bee balm to put in there and some mulch. Greg pulled the bushes out of there last weekend... they were trimmed down last year and then a frost got them. They didn't come back well so we decided to take them out. I'm going to love these perennials with a pop of sunny colors - yellow, white and orange - as I enter my house. Yikes, the driveway really needs to be power washed. Living in Florida it is a constant fight with mold with all the humidity.

Today will be a BBQ of some Ribs with my MIL and FIL coming over for some pool time in the back yard. Greg has been busy building a deck for it yesterday and today. Me.... I guess the house needs to get picked up and food needs to get made. Potato salad, dip for chips, and a taco salad. First.... I need to pop to the bowling alley (why are they bowling on a holiday?) and deliver some Avon orders.  Must get moving.

Taco Salad Appetizer.

8 ounces of cream cheese - softened

8 ounces of sour cream

4-5 medium tomato, chopped

1 small head of lettuce

1 onion, chopped

1 large jar of salsa, drained

16 ounces shredded mozzarella

sliced black olives, optional.

Strain the salsa and discard juice. (1-2 hours). Mix cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. in a 9 1/2x11 dish or round platter, layer the ingredients.

-cream cheese and sour cream mixture

drained salsa

chopped onion

chopped tomato

shredded lettuce

mozzarella

black olives

Chill for a couple of hours. Serve with Tortilla chips.

Slow stitching Sunday....

Kathy reminds us to slow down and relax with some stitching each week. Today will be a bit of a busy day but I do plan to get some relaxing stitches in at some point.
The big question.... which project will have some stitches added to it?

I have these diamonds that need to be turned on the 1857 block. I use back basting and stitched every other diamond. Once these are turned I'll back baste the others and turn them this week.

I have these pretty blue squares that need to get marked with their sewing lines 1/4 of a inch from the edges.. so they can be added as the next round to the trip quilt. I have 80 of them to mark.

I'll probably add this green dresden (finally... it has been waiting for over 2 weeks!) to it's backing so I can machine stitch the green squares onto it to make a block ready for some hand quilting. I have another sage green dresden that needs it's middle added before that one can be appliqued down.

I think I'll concentrate on getting the dresdens finished off, so I'll have a little hand quilting project to take with me to the beach next month.... and up to Vermont in July.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other hand stitching is happening on this holiday weekend.

My builders (Greg and Emily) are prepping plans for a deck to be built around a part of the new 24 round pool. Nice and big.... the 15 round was getting small with me and the two kids in it. Despite the bigger pool, the kids are right next to each other in this one and bugging each other!

Showing a picture of the guinea pigs in their play area this morning. They love the tunnels.... and I love that it is recycling a Fedex box and some round cardboard tubes. Guess it is time to clean their cage while they are playing.

We also had a caterpillar that we watched turn into a pink lady butterfly. This was a girl scout project. One of the leaders was doing it and had extra's so I grabbed them for my girls. One emerged yesterday and we set her free. The other one.... had a burst of meconium yesterday afternoon but has not emerged. I fear that one won't survive.

RSC Last Green Saturday....

I got some much needed sewing time in last Saturday and managed to get my 18 geese cut and sewn for the row along.

I also added 17 BITA blocks to the pile in forest greens. I still have 16 to make in light and bright greens... that may happen this weekend or maybe we'll have another month with some green in it =)

Linking up with the RSC Challenge on Saturday and Oh Scrap on Sunday.

The kids are officially out of school and will be 2nd and 3rd graders on August 10 when they go back to school.  Yes..... I am already counting the days =) My working from home life (computer programming) got extended through the end of August.... that will be interesting to see how the kids do this summer. Right now I work 20 hours over four mornings while they are in school. I have them scheduled for a couple of camps in June and will bring them to Vermont for a week or two in July.  I guess we'll figure that one out as we go!

I had 1 cup of buttermilk leftover from waffles last weekend. Since I have lots of veggies in the house for the weekend and thanks to the guinea pigs eating them I keep a good stock. I figured I'd make a homemade ranch dressing. I found this one here and added the parsley, chives, scallions and garlic from my garden. So yummy!

An appliqué block completed.

My fingers healed enough from those girl scout badges that I was able to finish the last two tulips last night. Just needs it's dark purple peels added to the four corners. This is my replacement for the saw block number 10 I believe. I just didn't care for it so crafted my own pattern of this one.

Monday.....

Well, the patches are on her uniform and my finger is killing me. Should have found my thimble much sooner than the last 3! Oh well, knitting for a day or two should let it heal up a bit.
I know I am missing one or two....not sure if I find them I really want to put them on today. We'll see. She has one from camp in April and one from the fall I am missing. Good thing she is moving up to Brownies... no more room for patches! We have a crayola experience one to add after June.

As an appreciation for being a volunteer it was a troop leader and daughter event last night. We did Painting with a Twist and had a blast.

Emily with her work of art.

And mine. I was good until I attempted the birds in the upper corner. Those did not work out well!

Sunday Slow Down.

I 'found' Emily's girl scout uniform just in time to add lots of badges to the back by hand today! I added the two giraffes from her sales this year and an online patch before heading to scout Sunday at the church where scouts meets this morning. I'll have to get the rest on today for her bridging ceremony tomorrow night. She will bridge to brownies tomorrow. Aidan will also have his scout ceremony tomorrow night... followed by a bonfire and smores. I asked if my Daisy's could crash their party if we supply smores things and they are letting us. =).

before picture

All of the badges that need adding. I know there is a horse one somewhere  too..

I got some machine sewing and prep time in yesterday afternoon while the kids were at Grandma's. I have three more of my 1857 blocks prepped for back basting this week.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts who reminds us to take time for ourselves to recharge, breathe and relax.

RSC Saturday in Green

I got these two houses finished off this morning while waiting for the kids to get ready for Grandma's house. 

This needs to be hand appliqued down and then add the squares around the edges. Tonight's project.

Prepping for working on BITA's today. These will finish at 6 inches.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge today.