RSC in Teal....and binding time.

It has been a busy day! I did relax this afternoon and got a couple more umbrella blocks completed while enjoying the comfortable temps on the back porch. I believe as of now I am all caught up! Sophie allowed me to pose them with her.... if I petted her after!

I started out this morning blueberry picking with Aidan while Greg and Emily stayed home and cleaned the pool. I picked with her last Saturday.

I also got to stitch a little on the binding while Emily cleaned the guinea pig cage and I supervised them and the cat (Ollie) who was watching them intently. I'll be working on that binding for a while - each side of the log cabin is 94 inches long..... that's a lot of binding!

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Slow Sunday Stitching.

Tiny Thursday?

Well, I keep missing Tiny Tuesday but I finally have an umbrella post this month..... on the 25th! Yikes. I do have some making up to do! The teal umbrella is posing with the plant that arrived at my house on Easter. I need to pop it into the ground this weekend.

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap challenge where teal is the color of the month.

Blueberry scones....

I have fresh picked blueberries! They need to get used.... blueberry muffins on Sunday. Today it is blueberry scones with the scone recipe I learned while up in Vermont in March. The berries go on the top.... I also sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top as well.

Made it through a scout night where the girls learned about the galaxy, how far apart things are (we did giant steps to show the distance between the planets from the sun to Mars.... cause the next one was 95 yards or 95 giant steps away!) and they played with my phone and the free Sky View (terminal 11) app on my phone to find various things in the night sky! Scheduling a planetarium visit in Gainseville to finish off the badge requirements. Seems they kinda liked this so maybe next year we can visit the NASA space center over in Titusville! So fun finding things the girls enjoy - my one who did not like the robotics love this one...... until I mentioned it was science =). Silly girl.

The hand quilting has started.....

on the basket quilt as of Easter Sunday! One block done.

I was planning to also stitch just on the inside of the blue basket.... but I did not cut away the back and boy that one extra layer of fabric is not fun! I guess I will be cutting the backing away from the hexagon flowers since I know I want to hand quilt on them. I had asked around on the fb group of celebrate hand applique and got a response that they don't cut away behind the design. I had always remembered hearing that you do.... so I guess it is a preference thing or maybe it depends on the design and how you will finish the quilt? Oh well, it is a learning experience and now I know I have another step on the hexagon flowers. 

I free handed the heart..... not great but it does look like a heart! 

Happy Easter....

There are still at least 6 Easter eggs hidden in the house. Emily found 26 but Aidan only found 20. I'm sure they will pop up eventually!

I did a little repair work to my hand pieced quilt along top this morning.... there was a little part on the bottom edge of this photo where a little more white was needed. The good part - hand piecing is really easy to add that little part! All fixed. 

I was going to work on hand quilting this next...... but I already have my blue baskets pinned and prepped so that will come first. I think I need to challenge myself to hand quilt at least one basket block per day... so I can get this one done by the end of May! I'll start with that teal blue one in the middle today.... after the in-laws leave this afternoon. I think I'll stitch 1/4 inside the basket, 1/4 outside the basket and maybe an echo of that once or twice.... maybe a little heart in the middle of the basket? 

First, the ham needs to be warmed up and the potato's roasted with some rosemary from the rosemary bush out back. Asparagus and snow peas are also on the menu along with the orange salad. Grandma is bringing the potato rolls from Publix, a cheese ball and deviled eggs.

 If you have recipes that call for hard boiled eggs, please pass them along! The kids seemed to have dyed 2 dozen eggs over the last 2 days... so we have lots of hard boiled eggs to use up! 

I remember a sliced egg on top of asparagus with a cheese sauce over it from long ago... that might be on the menu with tomorrow's dinner. Also - anyone ever use the bottom parts of the asparagus and if so, what do you do with them? I got 2 bunches to cook down and would love to find a use for those extra's. Soup maybe?

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Oh - I've also stitched down a couple of pink hexagon flowers this morning .... I know pink has not come up with the RSC Challenge yet, but I counted 21 of these so figured I'd get a head start. They make a great take along to stitch at soccer practice on Tuesdays. Sharing a few of the roses we (Aidan and Emily helped out a lot) cut back yesterday. Aidan made 5 vases worth. The cats have so far devoured one of them.... silly cats!

Thursday - free day....

Did I accomplish what I wanted.... no but, I did make progress! This is the log cabin quilt top with the borders. I'll press the backing and roll it on the boards this afternoon. I also need to piece the batting.... the quilt is 94x94 and my roll of batting is 90 wide. I'm sure I have an extra stip or two I can stitch together to make it big enough.

I also found and laid out some 3.5 inch bow ties. I added a couple teals and most of the greens this week. Looks like I need to add some red and just a handful of the blues. I think that will hit all the colors so this set of blocks is almost done and ready for assembly as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge little quilt. I think I started this one or two years ago. Right now they are just laid out.... I think they will be colors scattered all around once I sew it into a top.

Linking up Saturday with the RSC.

Hand Pieced Quilt Along..... A flimsy top!

I finished the hand piecing of the last few sashings yesterday. I did much better when I cut the strips to size rather than adding a little extra. I 'might' take 2 rows out and restitch...... we will see how it looks after I press it. As you can see on the pre-press photo, Peanut had to inspect it.

Linking up my hand pieced flimsy with the Hand Pieced Quilt Along! Head on over and check out some awesome hand pieced quilts. A big thank you to Patty from Elmstreetquilts.com and Kristin from Simple, Handmade. Everyday. 

Edited: I made 2 of each of the blocks to get 18 blocks for this setting. I used 9 3/4 squares cut twice on the diagonal for the setting triangles and 5 1/8 squares cut once on the diagonal for the corners. For the 1.5 inch sashing rows - I think I had 2 at 20 inches, 2 at 33 inches and one at 40 inches. The quilt measures about 28.5x39. This is pressed and hanging on the wall. I need to add a wee little white piece to the bottom right hand side to square it up then time to pin for hand quilting.