Sunday, Sunday

 I have been doing a lot of slow stitching this week. The QAYG Hexagons are close to having 4 sections done.. which when stitched together is half of the quilt (88x34).  I have the last row to attach on the 4th section and then I might just stitch all 4 sections together. This turned out better than I had hoped!

I started the red applique of Erin's Butterfly onto the background. I hope to stitch the black body today and add the antenna. I also prepped the teal butterfly to it's background for February. 

I don't think Emily got to the coop yesterday so I'll do a quick clean out there and check their water and food bins. So far - no more critters in the backyard other than the chickens, thank goodness. 

I know a quick run to the store for lunch items for the kiddo's is on tap, unless I stop in Inverness after picking up the kids from Grandma's house tonight. I have a batch of oatmeal chip cookie dough chilling in the fridge waiting to be baked off. Those might last until Tuesday.

Aidan's team advanced to the next round in Robotics so there will be lots of early and late times at school to work on revising things a bit. I should be able to go to the next one and watch as it is local here in Ocala instead of up in Tallahassee like previous years. Emily will have extra band practices as well as she was boosted up to Advanced band for a couple of concerts they have coming up in the next couple of months. Emily is just doing the Horse Evaluation team this year in FFA and not showing the chickens. She has that in a couple of weeks at the state fair in Tampa.  Of course, girl scout cookies arrive next Saturday as well - so my month of February looks to have lots of juggling and hand work opportunity time. Good thing I have lots of possible projects to select from! (Hexagons, embroidery frosty, cross stitch, knitting, crochet, applique)

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

RSC in Red

Finishing up with red this weekend. I hope to make a few more nine patches in red. I used 1.5 inch strips for these and it looks like a ruler set I already have will work for the other 2 parts needed for the Jacks Chain quilt. This year I will work on making bunches of nine patch blocks. I am using a white dot print - because I know I can get more of it easily.

I added another crossed canoe block in red for 2 this month. I love how it looks like a curve but is really just an illusion.

The butterfly block has been hand appliqued onto the background and the body is back basted. It needs some embroidery antenna and the body stitched down. After a double kid late pick up (Emily normal time 3:45 and Aidan at 5:30 so we hung around the school for him - we live a bit away and with Friday traffic I was afraid I would not make it back in time), then home for a quick bite before I headed to Inverness 45 minutes away to swap cars with Papa Andy. I was too tired to finish up the butterfly last night. It should get completed tonight if I am not too wiped out from Thinking Day with Emily and the troop. I am transporting 4 girls and my co-leader so I needed the bigger van.  We chose England this year. They moved the venue since it is COLD here in Florida today. It is not slated to get much into the 40's all day where I am, so a bit chilly for people who do not have proper clothing for cold weather. It will be in the 80's again in a few days! 

 

 

Linking up with the RSC Challenge. 

The boys are off to a robotics tournament  (FIRST - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in our area. There are 10 teams from the middle schools and our school is sending 6 teams. It is the first time Aidan has gone so it should be a good learning experience. He and another boy on his team put in extra hours before and after school this week to finish up their projects. Thank goodness the 3rd one is back from being out for 10 days so he will be able to be there today as well to help out. Lets just say he was really excited and anxious, but really excited last night when I picked him up from school. Something about a robot flip worked and is worth up to 40 points? They also have a quick jab to move the chicken out of the way instead of going around it? I think it will make sense after I see the video Greg will take today but the teacher was laughing and gave them a fist bump. He might have also called their Homeroom teacher and got them excused Friday morning to stay in his class to continue working for the 40 minutes before their block day class started! They got from 8am until close to 11 to work on it as well as 3:45-5:30 last night. It was a long day at school. 

I'd better grab breakfast before the girls start arriving at my house. 

January 2022 Table Topper Challenge

The challenge is back this year with a twist. We have a theme to go with the RSC monthly color. January was red and the theme was Snowman. I had various ideas of what to do with scraps to make snowmen. But then I saw a cute wall hanging on Melisa's blog and I had to make my own version! 

The beginning from scraps on the cutting mat.

I added some fabric buttons, a carrot nose and some embroidery for the mouth.

The eyes got added with minimal quilting. I pulled a black striped fabric to make a binding and a leftover scrap (probably from the 1990's?) for the backing.

Ta Da! I think he is pretty cute for a simple snowman. 

Dressed up with a snowman my Mom made and some snowflake tea light candle holders.

Linking up on Friday with Joy and the Table Scrap Challenge.

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

It's only Tuesday?

Yesterday, my 17 year old Sophie cat passed away. We knew it was coming. She had stopped eating and was getting weaker and weaker. Her kidneys have been an issue for a few years but she appeared happy and in no pain so we let her go on her terms. Up until yesterday she was still purring when we petted her. She is buried out back next to Maxie cat - her sister that passed 4 years ago. 

This morning we had a opossum in the cage. Greg released it but upon further research it is probably what got Fred the chicken. We will try to capture it again and rehome it far, far away. It was a cute little bugger though.

3 sets of 12 groups of hexagons are put together. I have 5 sections to go. Now that I know how they go together it is moving along pretty quickly. I also might have spent a lot of time in the living room with Sophie stitching on Sunday. 

 

Slow stitching Sunday

Today I'll be working on stitching these QAYG hexagons together by hand. I have them all into sets of 8 from last nights stitching. I'll make them into rows of 16 today and then start stitching the 3 rows together. This is section 3 of 8 for this quilt.  It measures 22x34 at the longest points. 

The first 2 sections.

I was visiting blogs and saw the cutest snowman wall hanging on Pinker N Pumpkin Quilting & Stitching yesterday. I hope she does not mind but I ran into the sewing room and grabbed some red and extra white and began stitching this up. My guess on sizes was a little off but I'm making it work!

After some hand stitching last night it was to this point. I tried using my applipops for the circles. Lets just say someone needs more practice... but my snowman is not about perfection as he might be melting down here in Florida. 

Ollie (I know it looks like Peanut but he is about 3 pounds heavier than his brother!)

I'll be adding eyes to him today and then will have to think about getting him finished off for Saturday's link up for the 2022 Table Scraps Challenge - where red is the RSC color and snowman was the theme for the month.

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Yesterday we lost another Chicken, to a raccoon this time. Fred was a favorite of everyone - she was one of the original pack and had a bit of white on her so I could always tell her apart from the others. So far we lost Emma and now Fred. Rosie had not put herself to bed last night like the others so Emily was headed out to shoo her in when she spotted the Raccoon about to pounce on her. She scared off the raccoon and we got Rosie tucked into the coop and secure for the night.  They will not be happy today as I think we will keep them in the run until we can capture the raccoon and rehome it far, far away from the house. We normally have their door to the run open so they can go into the fenced in back yard (almost an acre) and wander around all day.  

A little red stitching...

I got the inner circle cut and hand stitched to the wings for the red butterfly. I think I picked the black for the bodies of these and just need to cut out 9 of them and then I'll start the process of hand applique to the background and adding some embroidery antenna as well.

I had forgotten I planned to use the crossed canoe die this year for the RSC. I pulled this red and some white dot print and quickly stitched up this 9 inch block. I think I will pull another red and make one more - 2 each month for 10 months will make 20 blocks. 36x45 will make a nice baby size quilt I think. 

 I still need to make some little nine patch blocks using 1.5 inch squares for the eventual Jacks Chain quilt. That will be this week's project I think.

I continue to stitch together the hexagons I was making last year. The second section of 12 is now stitched together. 2 down and 6 to go!

Linking up on Saturday morning with the RSC.  

Thursday

 It is already noon and I feel like I have not done much yet! The kids are to school. I might have ordered a Arkansas Traveller BOB die from Accuquilt for $40 this morning.... I had it in my cart last night  but did not want to pay shipping and didn't see a small die I wanted to bump it over $50.... so they kindly sent me a free shipping code. Yup - purchased and used my measly points to knock $4 off it. So if you really want a die but are thinking on the shipping... go ahead and pop it into your bag and go about your business. It saves in there and they might entice you to get it with a deal! With tax I got it for about $38.

A quick shower and then I grabbed the big bucket and the grippers Aidan uses when he mows the lawn and picked up a full bucket of trash off the side lawn by the busy road this morning. Usually after trash pickup there is a little but there was a whole bunch Monday that I noticed Tuesday and the wind had a lot landing against our fence. All picked up and into our trash bin (in a bag) for Monday.  We needed new towels in our master bath - 10 years and they just needed replacing. We both wanted to 'feel' the towels before we got them so hubby and I went shopping this morning and both agreed on some. I also got a science poster board for our Thinking Day Display for Scouts next weekend and some shock for the pool.

Lunch was leftovers from last night - the potato all disappeared but I did have one small chicken piece and roasted broccoli from the sheet pan dinner. Tonight is my Mom's Spaghetti meat sauce. I have not made it in a while and everyone likes it now that they will eat tomato's!

This was my view last night as I was stitching 2 rows together. Peanut decided my OTT light was too bright for his eyes and pulled this end over them to block it and took a nap.... until I needed to move it to stitch. The look he gave me before he repositioned and tucked his head against my hip and out of the light.... good thing looks can't kill!

I managed to stitch all 15 sides to get the 2 sections together. No unpicking so I might have figured it out finally! I'll work on attaching that last section tonight.

I have 3 hours until kid pick up .... I think I'll spend 30-60 minutes in the office area with a trash bag. Then my reward is the sewing area to play... where I should also be cleaning but sewing will be the reward for cleaning the office.