Table Scrap Challenge

 I just finished the last stitches on the little chicken block. The challenge for March was birds and purple. Well, a chicken is a bird and it is purple! I had fun making this block and decided to not put the red comb onto this one. He will be a chick instead of a chicken. 

Here are the girls in my back yard today. Well, 4 of the 5. Maple, DC (Daisy Chickalotta), Buttercup and Poppy. Eggnog was following me, so she was at my feet wanting attention.

Linking up with Joy and the challenge.

Happy Easter!

 We had a nice non-traditional Easter meal today with Grandma. Aidan worked to get the Big Green Egg back into working order and it is now up on some cement blocks to stabilize it and make it a nice level height to use. 

The kids cooked salmon on the grill last night for dinner and today Aidan was the grill master and cooked up some burgers and brats for our lunch with Grandma. It is a lovely partly cloudy 80 degrees today and right now Greg and the kids are outside in the back yard. The chickens are roaming free while they move the cage run attached to their coop run a little as they have dug up all the grass and made plenty of craters to take dust baths in. With the hawks around and the dog, it is safer for them to be in their safe area most of the time. The dog is inside with me watching those chickens and wanting to be outside with them!

Now that our company is gone, I'm going to relax with a little stitching. This purple chicken needs a red comb appliqued to it's top and then some simple quilting and a binding to finish it off. The pattern is from Sew Inspired but since I messed up how I placed the big rectangle mine is a little different.

This month I want to make progress on my Brimfield Awakening project. I have various charm packs that I will be using for this but I need to decide how I'll lay them out. Until then, I'll keep making the parts and then decide how the colors will flow on them. 

I did get one of the cats hand quilted this week. Each cat will be quilted differently. I think the next one will have circles or swirls after I get it outlined. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.

I do love a prime rib (only the girl is with me on this one in my house - so I just have to fight her for it!) and since it is on sale now with the holiday, I got another one yesterday. It cooked up today and this is how it looks when I pulled it out of the oven. It is resting now, then I'll cut it into slices (the bones were cut off and tied back on by the butcher - those get sealed and frozen for soups!) and will seal a meal them and freeze them. Emily and I will pull them out for a quick dinner (her) or to add on top of salads for lunches (me). It will be gone by the end of June. This one was an 8 pounder. The last one never made it to the freezer and the remains are a beef barley soup in the fridge. 

RSC Wrapping up Purple.

 It was a pretty productive month in purple. Some Arkansas Traveler blocks, some hand applique Sting of Beads blocks and some chicken blocks. 

This guy needs a red comb added by applique and then some quilting to finish him off as the challenge for the month. The cold I have had for a week is kicking my butt the last couple of days so it is not quite done yet. The challenge was purple and birds. Well, a chicken is a bird! I hope to get this guy finished tonight, so I can link up with Joy tomorrow. 

Note to self, pay attention to the way you lay out the big rectangle before sewing the two bottom parts on. The first one I had the long part side to side. I seem to have swapped that when doing the other 4 so I had to make some modifications to make it work. It will all work in the final scrappy quilt.... that just allows for some alternate space things... like eggs! I might unpick the two on the right and add a 3-d comb to those as well. I was going to leave them as babies as it takes a bit for the red combs to come out and get bigger, but I like the look with the comb better.

Linking up with the RSC on Saturday.

After sleeping in (10:30!), I have been moving slowly today. I did go get some groceries - the boy decided to go with to pick out snacks and their salmon for dinner. He now has his license as of last week and has driven himself to his guitar lesson without anyone else in the car this week. He drove today as well. Only Grandma is coming over tomorrow for Easter as my step-FIL is not feeling well with a cold and my FIL doesn't like to stray from home anymore. Since the kids are not too crazy about ham, and Grandma and Greg don't care, I offered an alternate meal and everyone liked that better. So, we will be having Brats and Burgers on the Big Green Egg tomorrow. We have not used the Big Green Egg in a while, so Aidan opened it up and got it burning hot last night to clear things out. He'll clean the grill grate tonight and has already scraped out all the old charcoal and bits out so we can put some fresh in. They are going to cook the salmon on the grill tonight for them. I'll be making some soup with the prime rib bones - some beef and vegetable barley I think. I might have picked up another Prime Rib from Publix today.... to cook off tomorrow and then seal a meal slices for the freezer. 

Arkansas Traveler block

 I had picked out fabrics for the purple AT blocks a couple of weeks ago. I finally got a chance to sew them together today. I still need to work on the middle join, but I'm happy with how these blocks are turning out. 

Yesterday, the kids had a half day at school. No horses for us this week as the trainer has her daughters in town for the holiday. Nex weekend, we will be at a Girl Scout Encampment on the gulf. Kyra, the girl Emily rides with on Saturdays had a photography project and asked Emily to model with a horse for it. This was the only day that worked before it was due, so after picking up my kids from school I headed across town to get Kyra and then in a different direction to go to the new stable. They spent a good hour there in the rain, playing with the horses. After the finished with the first horse, Emily pulled this guy out and I snapped this photo of her and Pal, the Palamino she rode last weekend.   

This is Doc, he was the main model for the photos for her project for school. I hear Doc was in one of the Pirates of the Carribean movies. I guess I need to watch them again and see if I can see him. He is a big guy, but a beauty.

I've got a 'small' Prime Rib in the oven. Hubby will be in charge of taking it out at the right temp while I go get the kids. I need to grab another one from Publix, while the price is on sale for the holiday. It seems Emily now pulls a slice from the freezer to eat as an optional dinner option when she doesn't like what I make..... so I need to get another one so we will have some in the freezer for the next few months. 

RSC recap

 It has been a productive week for me.

I was able to get the Scrappy Kites from last years RSC quilted and bound this week for a finish. This one is a 42x50 finish and hopefully will be donated as part of the Hands2Help this year.

Then I moved onto sewing the split nines from last year together into this top. It is 48x54 with each 6 inch finished block. 

I finally made a chicken block in purple! I used the pattern from Sew Inspired. I made the red part a little different. I sewed them right sides together and then turned it out. I see I need to 'fix' that part on the lower
left to make sure it is sewn securely together, it must have come undone a little too much when I turned it. 

I will be making my Arkansas Traveller blocks today, but the fabrics are already picked out and ready to run through the Accuquilt Die, so the hard part is done!

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

Sewing time

 Thursday's are my day off working, and today I spent most of the time in the sewing room.

First, I sewed all these split nine blocks into a quilt top. I did not measure it but it should be about 48x54 with the 6 inch finished blocks.

Then I did some searches and worked on something for the Table Scrap Challenge... but it is not done yet, so you'll have to wait on that one!

I then pulled down some purples and cut out the sizes I needed to create 3 of the Arkansas Traveller blocks. I have not run them through the Accuquilt cutter yet, but that will be quick. Picking out the fabrics usually take the time. Purples have such a variety of hues, so I was trying to put the like hues together into the blocks. I'll probably run them through the Die after dinner (going easy with chicken and broccoli alfredo - a jar of sauce, already cooked grilled chicken strips and broccoli with pasta shells.)

Lets see - Monday was goulash for dinner. I did not add the cheese to mine but Emily does to hers.

Tuesday I was in a Gumbo mood and the sausage was on sale at Publix last week so I put one in the freezer and had one to make Gumbo. I used the recipe from the New Orleans School of Cooking cook book and it turned out pretty darn good. I put some frozen chicken breasts into the instapot to cook for the chicken and then a package of the andouille sausage. With a little rice, yummy. I've had it for lunches the last 2 days.

Wednesday was a pot luck meeting for Emily and I. I had made some deviled eggs, but they didn't look good enough to bring - I tried using a plastic baggie to fill them and I like the look of the spoon filled that I normally do much better!). I also made a banana bread so I took that one with me instead. The boys were on their own. 

I've got another set of eggs hard boiled. It seems Aidan likes them with a little homemade Italian seasoning dressing and then put on sourdough bread for a after school snack!  

Split nines

 

I think these will be the next block collection to become a top.  I might swap things a bit. We will see if animals modify the layout before tomorrow.

I played and like this better.