I won!

I was the lucky winner over at Kathy's Quilts with the Happy Little Things Blog hop this month! The prize arrived today. I am sew excited! I got the Sunday Best Quilts book by Sherri McConnell and Corey Yoder. I just took a quick page through and the quilts are beautiful (I see some future RSC projects in there!) and I can't wait to read the beginning part to learn more about these wonderful quilters. I think it will go in the car with me for pick up of kid #2 today.

The kids carved their pumpkins yesterday afternoon ... in the hot and humid Florida air. It was feels like 97 leaving horses yesterday at 6PM. We can't carve them too soon down here... they rot fast in the heat.

Aidans - pumpkin

Emily's pumpkin cat

Aidan's gourd

Sunday....

Slow stitching finally got to happen this afternoon. I started in on the orange today.

I see a few things I need to stitch up with some orange thread - the joys of hand piecing (a few years ago - I have learned a lot since then!) and being left on this frame forever with a cat that thinks it is his personal hammock bed! A few stitches to tack it back together in a couple of spots and then more hand quilting tonight I think.
I finally played with the different angles the EZ3 can do. Flat and all the way up were not comfortable. I liked the angle of the second slot from the top. Just right for me.

Yesterday Emily got dropped to camp with our troop. I got to go home and spend the rest of the day with the boy - he had a science experiment to do and needed some Mom boy time without sister. He got his meal request - shrimp lo mien made for dinner. Lots of game time and just hanging out time.
Today I had to pick up the girl while the boy was shuttled to Grandma. I then headed over to visit my father in law with Emily and fed her lunch before coming home. She got a shower (did I mention it was 100% humid yesterday and it rained and the temps were in the upper 80's with no AC at camp?... and this morning they cleaned their cabin and then picked up the trails from any stray wrappers from the trick or treat event they worked yesterday?) and has been relaxing after researching the snake she spotted on the trail this morning. I hear every one's lungs worked great to scare it off!
Emily wants breakfast for dinner - and she and Dad are great at making eggs, hash browns and sausage so I think I'll let them have some time together in the kitchen while I stitch on the frame in the bedroom while watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Linking up with the other slow stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.

FNSI

I'm going to join Wendy at Sugarlane Designs on the Friday Night Sew In tonight...... (at least during car lines if I can't manage some sewing tonight!)

I know I will be stitching a little on my #6 block for the Ella Marie Deacon Quilt Along over at Sentimental Stitches. I chose to hand piece mine and this applique block is being back basted and then needle turn applique. 16 baby peels in a pretty design. I just need to back baste the 8 light blue and then needle turn the 10 of them.

I have lots of bins of scraps... overflowing that need some attention. I am tempted to START something new..... that crooked courthouse steps block that Bonnie Hunter and Jo Kramer were playing with the last few weeks. It would be a great use of scraps....and not much thinking involved. Bonus.... it could be completely scrappy in color - just pull and sew! My kind of mindless sewing that is needed in my life right now.

Tomorrow we drop the girl to Girl Scout Camp for an overnight with my other leader. I am not going this time! They are decorating the front of a cabin and then handing out goodies to trick or treaters at an event, then spending the night and helping to clean up the trails at the camp the next morning. I get to supervise a science project - Aidan is baking a Vanilla Crazy Cake and determining if baking soda or baking powder will rise a cake better. We will be doing 3 cakes - one each with soda, powder and no leavening agent. I had to laugh when I wrote up how we would dispose of the experiment! Why, taste test it of course! Hehehe....
He got his choice of meal since sister is away. He chose shrimp lo mein. We will see what other things he decides to do on his Mom and boy day tomorrow.

Umbrella Wednesday

I was able to finish stitching this last night in an air conditioned house (it was feels like 95 yesterday and humid before a cool front went through last night). I get to work in my office again today and the cats are happy to be back to the normal routine - one sleeping in his bed beside my laptop on the desk and the other on top of the cat tree supervising, while Sophie has the rest of the house to herself for a few hours! I really need to count and see how many more of there I need to make. I am thinking 7..... but should lay them out and see sometime soon. One more in 'dark' colors for the month of October. I wonder if it will be black, brown or grey?

Sunday Stitching....

Love being the first one up! A nice quiet house (well, the road noise is picking up and getting to me but it will be time to close up the house soon to try and keep it cool with the AC not working today - temps will be sunny and 86!)

I knitted a few rows on my yellow dish cloth. I have a feeling this one may be a colorful one as I don't think there is enough yellow to finish it. I did spy some pink that will fill in or the huge cone of cream may get started off. Knitting is such a great - keep hands busy while the mind works - task with this particular pattern.

Aidan and I were in the sewing room for a bit yesterday while Emily was giving a couple of horses a spa day. I was able to prep an umbrella block and pull fabrics for block 6 of the Ella Marie Deacon quilt along.

 This weeks block for me is orange peels in a neat pattern. I had fun picking out my 3 fabrics to use on them. That should keep me busy in car lines this week. 16 little tiny orange peels (under 3 inches long) to stitch onto my 9.5 inch block.

No progress on the trip quilt on the frame. Maybe I'll get a little stitching in on it tonight? The teal is done for this turn - onto the orange.

We will see how tired I am after a Wizzarding event with my troop this afternoon. 3 hours of fun with 7 of the girls! I do love my Harry Potter and they do such a great job with this event. It was offered 2 years ago and the girls had a blast. Some changes have been made...and I got to see some of the wands made and chocolate frogs that will be in the 'store'. I'm looking forward to watching the quiddich game!

Linking up with the other slow stitchers at Kathy's Quilts.

Friday....

This was the gorgeous beginning of the sunrise this morning after dropping Emily to school at 7:15. Yes Mom, I pulled over onto the grass on the back way home to snap this photo out of my car window. A beautiful reminder to be thankful for what we have.

Yesterday was my bowling day. I had to drop both kids to school before as Greg headed over to his Dad's rehab center for a shuttle to an early doctor appt. It was nice to see the ladies again - I missed last week as I was with Mom and Terri in Lakeland at the hospital with my uncle. He passed on Monday and is now in the arms of his wife up in heaven. 

I picked up Emily and walked into a hot house! It is still warm in Florida although we had a cool day yesterday thank goodness - high of 81. It was cooler outside than in the house. A call to the AC people and they sent someone out late afternoon. Great service - love our AC folks. The bad news... need a new compressor. The good news..... it was finally cool last night in the 60's and we got to sleep with windows open! It was cooler out on the porch last night at 68 degrees so game night was held there and we also  had dinner there (home made Chinese - the kids first time seeing the Wok used - Moo Goo Gai Pan and Beef with Snow Peas - both kids want this added to the rotation!) 

The next set of 4 blocks were released for the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt Along. Block #5 was hand pieced this week - the ohio star. I am regretting not making it with the dark blue I have used in all the other blocks... but there are 84 blocks total and it will be all kinds of blues so I think in the end it will be fine. I'm excited there is a peel applique block this month. I have been wanting to make some peels....hopefully this will hit that wish and I'll be able to stop! I really don't need a new project. I get to make another of the 1st block this month too - I think I'll swap the light and darks in those triangles.

The estimate on the new compressor for the AC came in this morning. It is on order and hopefully we will be up and running by Monday evening. Unfortunately it is not cooling down more than 70 at nights over the weekend with 80's for highs. Better than summer temps in the feels like 100+ though!

As for me - working in the garage office (no window and no air) is out - so I'll be working on the back porch today!

Umbrella and a perfect timing finish!

I managed to stitch up this umbrella yesterday.

I also knitted the second half of my purple dish cloth at a meeting last night and just finished it off at home .... with just that little bit left of the yarn at the top! Sophie was an unwilling photo prop - you should have seen the look she gave me after I took the photo!

Perfect amount to finish with! I used the crochet hook and weaved in the ends and added a pink and purple dish cloth to the drawer. So nice to open it and have some nice pretty colors peeking out at you.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge on Saturday - that umbrella is brown with blue flowers!