Slow Sunday

After a rainy and thunderstorm day yesterday, progress was made as I stitched a bit. Half of the snowflake is appliqued down (the left side!) and hopefully the right side will get done today. I need 3 of these to replace paper pieced snowflakes in a quilt I am working on this month. I don't remember seeing white for them in the pile for this quilt.... so that might make things interesting. I seem to be running out of white on white prints....

I also added some 'rain' to the umbrellas. I drew the lines on the left hand side yesterday as the right hand side was all quilted. 

Joining Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers today. What will you be stitching today?

RSC Cobblestones in dark blue

I cut and pieced this grouping of cobblestones yesterday. They will get sewn into their strip later today. We will have a quiet 4th of July here. Greg is working this afternoon and evening. Grandpa had his pacemaker replaced on Wednesday and is on a no-drive for 2 weeks order so is staying home....I hope!. Grandma's sciatic is acting up still - 2 weeks on Sunday! - and is staying home with the doggies. Just me and the kids. I see some pool time in between the t-storms and maybe some burgers to go with the potato salad, corn on the cob and watermelon for dinner tonight. 

Wishing those in the USA a happy and safe 4th of July, a belated Happy Canada Day to those in the north and a Happy Saturday to everyone else!

Linking up with the RSC Quilters.

Baby quilt.....

It appears I am in need of a baby boy quilt! As the master procrastinator that I am..... I kept putting it off as inspiration had not sprung other than I really wanted an iSpy of some sort.

Well, I played with some blue and made a little version of Magic Star top earlier this week. I realize I have the squares flipped the wrong way too but I didn't like how the 2 color looked with it the proper way. What if I added a dark blue border to make it a wee bit bigger and add some fun 'boy' fabrics to the back and make it a 2 sided quilt? I like it! I think it is around 40 inches. 

I had to hit the store and get a few veggies Wednesday so I went to the 'big' Walmart for the first time since January I think. I have been to the neighborhood one with just groceries and essentials but I wanted to check out the fabric aisle. Let's just say... there were 7 FQ's and maybe 15-20 bolts of fabric in the whole cotton aisle...... That's it! I grabbed 4 fat quarters - baseballs and bats, doggies, dinosaurs and a cute red check with ants crawling all over it. Boys love bugs ..... well, all but mine does! Aidan took one look and told me to remove the ants... they might think they were real ants! He also asked why I was using his fabrics! 

I was a wee bit disappointed by the lack of selection but that is why we have a stash! When the t-storm dropped my connection to work again Thursday, I took the time to shop the wall and pull some 'fun' fabrics. I found some Thomas the train, owls, horses, cats, red sox - cause I HAVE to add that in with my family!, turtles, pumpkins, bats, etc. It worked. I figured if I cut 16 fabrics of 10.5 inch squares it should make a fun 40x40 backing and I'll border it to make it the same size as the front. That way the kids (he has 2 older sisters!) can do some iSpy searching together.

So other than completely forgetting the back needs to be bigger to quilt it (can you tell it has been a while since I have actually finished something?) I am going to make this work!

I have no clue how to quilt this one.... I am thinking on the diagonal from the magic star side. I'll use warm and natural so it won't need much quilting. That is today's project - get it pinned and quilted and make and add a binding to the top.  

I did manage to find a package of elastic while shopping so I plan to make a few more masks so we all have an extra one. I finished off mine and ordered some fabrics from Connecting Threads to make Greg a few more with just loops over the ears for working. They have to have plain so I have Aloe and Sage basics on order to go with the Publix green. It will also work as vines when I ever finish off the applique for the midget applique quilt... hopefully sometime this year now that I have my bias binding maker again.

Easy Breezy Leader and Ender Challenge.....

On July 1 - Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville releases the new block for the leader and ender challenge. I think I just might join in this year as one version is using 1.5 inch strips and making a cute block. I really need to start going through the bins and taming them and I think this little block might help tame it.  Here is the first one.

Will you be joining in on the fun?

OMG for July - Hoarfrost!

Since the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is dark blue this month of July I decided to work on my Hoarfrost quilt and get it to a top. My stretch goal is to get it quilted and bound as well! This quilt is a pattern from Joanne Kerton at Canuckquilter. I love Joanne's patterns - they are all so well written and I have been lucky to be able to test out a few of them over the years. This one was to be testing the pattern the beginning of 2016 when I just started working again and that modified my sewing time drastically.

My fabrics for Hoarfrost.

I decided I really dislike paper piecing - which are those pretty snowflakes. My solution is to needle turn applique a version of the snowflake I pulled off a coloring page ages ago. So, this month I will make 3 of the snowflakes, sew the parts and pieces together and then piece and add the borders for a finished flimsy top! Wish me luck. Oh, and with feels like temps in the 100's in Florida I figured the snowflakes might cool me down? 

    

Joanne's Hoarfrost quilt

Geese across the table.

Quilters Scrapbook * my test version

Stair Steps 

Blossom blocks.

Starlight Wishes * my test version

Head on over and check out Joann's versions of these pretty patterns. I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal and hope to see you at the end of the month with a finished top or quilt!

Magic Stars.....

I took some time on Sunday to finally play with a free tutorial over at Joyfulquilting's blog. It took 2 10 inch squares to make the blocks. I cut 4 and this is what happened!

Light and dark blue. Hmmmm what if I made some more?

I had played with the blocks in the corners... but I didn't like how they looked. I had to piece the light blue to make the block big enough.

I had it laid out after sewing it together. Someone came in to the sewing area and asked - Did you make that today? Yes, was my reply. A little grin and she swooped down and grabbed it and ran off. After I tidied up a bit I checked in her room to see this..... I did warn her it is not hers......

These two fabrics were leftover from Sally's graduation quilt. A light sky blue and a dark blue that I use in a lot of things.

Eventually it will get pressed and trimmed. It should be around 35 or 36 inches... so I'll have to figure out how to make it a wee bit bigger for a lap quilt. Maybe a pretty floral blue and yellow print all around the outside?

Sunday stitching and chicks?

Today I will be joining the Slow Sunday Stitchers while adding some raindrops to the umbrella quilt. I finished outlining quilting the umbrella's last night. I'll use my newly purchased hera marker (nope, never did find my original one!) and a ruler to mark my stitching lines today.

I also plan to finish the last three hearts in purple. Of course, then I need to figure out what I will do with all of them! I believe there are about 40 of them.

Thursday we got an addition to the household. Well, 4 of them actually. Greg and Emily were busy dismantling the play area earlier this week as they no longer use it. It would be a great spot to put a chicken coop and run as it is mostly in the shade and in the back of the property. Greg has mentioned getting some chickens over the last couple of years with the issues with the eggs and chicken production in the US. Emily is going into middle school and wants to do agriculture as her elective. She is horse crazy and has always loved animals. I won't get her a goat.... like she wants.... or a horse.... but maybe some chicks to watch grow and give us eggs?

Greg and Em went to tractor supply on Thursday to get the supplies needed for chicks. They had placed an on-line order and were going to arrive July 6th. Suddenly, a text photo of baby chicks with a ?. Sigh.... they did not come back with any.... but they both went to the computer and did research on the kinds of chicks they had at the store. They decided on the heat tolerant and quiet chicks that I took both kids to the store and got later that day. They each picked 2 chicks. 

Gold Sex Link chickens are a cross breed utilizing the Rhode Island White Female and the Rhode Island Red male. The result is a hardy and robust dual purpose breed with superior egg laying capabilities as well as substantial size for meat.

We repurposed the guinea pig cage to house the chicks while they are inside the house. Jimmy Jr, the last pig passed last month. We added a 1/2 inch square wire around the cage so little cat paws could not reach in and get them!

The popular thing in my house now is watching the chicks. Kids, adults and cats!