Stoppin to smell the roses----AND some quilting, too :0)

As Amanda joked in her comment, "do I ever stop to smell the roses?"
Well, today, as stated last night, I had intentions of having some time with the girls today since DH was going to be working.
However, plans changed a bit earlier than expected, because DH decided to just TAKE THE DAY OFF. Wooo-hooooo! We had a relaxing morning, some coffee, cereal, cartoons, and the lot. By 9:00, it was time to get the day started. All three girls headed outside with "Dad," so I took ONE HOUR for myself downstairs finishing up the 4-blocks for Cathy's 60th quilt.

Candace came in from outside around 10:00, so it was time for a mid-morning snack. Yogurt was the snack of choice---that and apple juice. While she was snacking, I snapped a few photos of the Scarecrow wall-hanging that had been resting on the back of the couch. (And yes, now you can see that ugly styrofoam wall I was talking about the other day. The walls obviously haven't been finished yet downstairs).
The satin stitch can now be seen :0) I also did a little quilting; the pumpkins were outlined and some of the shadowed lines were enunciated with stitch lines; the jacket was outlined; and I'm still thinking of adding some REAL buttons to the jacket directly over the painted-on ones.













Post snack, Candace and I headed back outside to see what Dad was up to. He was putzing in the garden; so I grabbed a hoe and started weeding/hoeing the rows of corn. The day was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!! Slight breeze; mid 70's; partly cloudy. For the next hour or so, we worked on the garden, weeding, and even though it's almost July, we decided to plant yet a few more rows of beans, corn, and some peppers.

Lunchtime was at about 12:30, where I fried up some potatoes, and we had some Chicken fingers and pear slices. Afterwards, I can't really recall what all took place. But throughout the rest of the afternoon, I floated between relaxing with the girls inside and "putzing" outside in the garden with DH. I ATTEMPTED to get Candace to relax and try to nap, but HMPF! That didn't quite happen.

By 5:30, it was supper time----brats and hotdogs on the grill. Naturally, Candace was getting a little whiny; so it was NO SURPRISE that after supper, she ZONKED out on our bed. I took that opportunity to head outside with DH once again---this time to clip Champions' (horse) hooves---they were SO LONG! Cassie took THAT opportunity to jump up on Eddie and try to stroll around the meadow bareback with him. However, Eddie is stubborn, and doesn't enjoy riders---he didn't budge much! Once Champion was clipped, though, she climbed up on him and enjoyed about 20 minutes strolling around the pasture. He's such a good horse! (pony).

By 7:00, I was able to have "me" time, and headed (of course) downstairs to work some more on Cathy's quilt. Since all the 4-blocks were completed this morning, it was now time to tackle cutting all the strips into half-triangles and quarter-tris. The magazine that has this pattern also offered a FREE "Triangle Corner Template," but now that I've been using the Easy Angle and Companion rulers via Bonnie's patterns, I set the little "marti-mitchell template" aside. (sorry Marti).

Once the triangles were cut, it was time to start piecing again......
....and piecing is a "piece" of cake with this lovely seam-guide!!!

What was I piecing???? LOTS and LOTS of flying geese!



72 of these...........










Then came 72 of these---which I reallllly only thought I would get pieced, and leave behind the machine in a lovely chain to tackle tomorrow.


But then, BLESS Cassie's heart---she came downstairs around 9:00 (hey---it's Saturday---I'm not so picky on bedtime on Saturdays) and decided to help me cut the chains apart and stack them in piles of 10.




So this second batch of flying-geese went together by 9:40. Yeah....... (Cutting all those dog-ears really can get annoying, though).




To end the evening, I couldn't NOT put together at least ONE complete block. So.....here it is....ALMOST perfect....one little black corner doesn't match up (bottom part of the block), but I'll take it :0) The border around the block (almost not noticable) is the green fabric we (MIL and me) chose to use as the sashing.



Tomorrow's plans??? Don't know. DH IS going to work on some side jobs with a buddy, so it will only be me and girls. I was thinking of having Cass calls some friends to see if they want to come over for "pony rides." :0)

Productive day...

When I headed downstairs, I still wasn't quite sure what I wanted to work on. However, I really DID want to start on "Cathy's 60th" quilt (the quilt that needs to be made by the end of August for the friend of the family. For lack of a better name right now---Cathy's 60th is it! since it's her 60th birthday.)

But, lo-n-behold----I hadn't washed ANY of the fabrics yet. So...off to the machine----and what to do in the meantime???

Putz, of course!

First, I thought I'd add some simple little hangers to the trial block I made. Now I just need to find a nicer hanger than just this little dowel :0)










Then, I really felt inspired when I came across these pieces I had cut out and stored in one of my Grandma's "old" quilt books. The book is downstairs right now, but (going from memory) the block is called Mohawk Trail. I had SO MUCH FUN using the blanket stitch feature on my machine. Ohhhhhh......it's soooooooo easy to do applique with a machine that handles a NICE blanket stitch! For now, the finished block (17.5" unfinished) will sit until I decide what to do with it. I don't know if I'll feel inspired to create an entire quilt of these blocks, or if this block will join in with other orphan blocks for a crazy sampler quilt.

By this time, the fabrics had been moved into the dryer----so more putzing.
DH has asked me to make a quilt for his head-contractor, Scot, for Christmas. Naturally, being a hunter of all sorts, a Camoflauge quilt was requested. I've been slowly adding to my camo stash since about last Christmas, and these are the fabrics I have chosen for him so far. I've also been looking around for different patterns, and I might actually make a "controlled" Chunky Churndash.


Lunch time! DH threw this recipe together a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted something quick, so I made the "mini-bagel-pizza" for lunch. Very simple-----throw half a bagel in the toaster; then layer with pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese. Put under a lo-broiler for a few minutes, and v'iola! Instant "easy" lunch that the kids love!!!


Post-lunch: A few weeks back, this was a goodie that I won as a give-away. Still waiting for the fabrics to get dry, I figured I'd tackle getting this sandwiched and basted. And of course, even though the dryer timer went off while basting, I couldn't just LEAVE the darn thing laying out on the floor-----it needed INSTANT quilting. So----Not only did I have a day with my lovely Blanket stitch earlier----now I could try my first real SATIN stitch. Ooooooooo------so COOL!!!! I don't have pics yet, but will put them up tomorrow for sure. I just received my Connecting Threads order, where I had ordered some "Fall Virigated" (sp?) thread. PERFECT! But---boy! It sure took a long time to go all the way around the edge of the scarecrow.

So, finally came the time when I needed to take a break from down-stairs. DH was home early due to being "rained out" (even though it wasn't raining by us). So, the girls got their suits on and headed out to the "turtle pool" again; DH headed to the garden, and I WAS going to get some mowing done, but the mower had other things in mind. The belt needed replacing, and we didn't have the correct belt handy to get it going---so....... (now, here comes the whining)----it was TOOO MUGGGGGY for me! I had no ambition of helping in the garden, so, back downstairs I went, fabric from the dryer in tow.

I wasn't downstairs long when "drama" was breaking out upstairs. Ooooo----those girls can drive each other crazy (and ME too!) So, for the next couple of hours, I was upstairs, toggling between preparing supper, refereeing the girls, and ripping out the baby blanket quilting. (Slowly making progress on that---but no big hurry!)

By 8:00, I was able to head back downstairs to finish up the ironing. I even cut out ALMOST all the pieces. Well, all the pieces are cut out, but some of the strips need cutting yet into half-triangles, etc.

At 9:00, I took a quick time-out to shush the girls off to bed. Sorry---bad mommy tonight; no stories. They were all pretty much pooped out anyway, so bedtime wasn't a struggle tonight! Whew......

To wrap up the evening, I needed to get SOME piecing done on Cathy's quilt, so I took the mauve and cream strips, pieced them, and make about half of the required 4-blocks needed.

Oh---and that reminds me! This pattern REALLLY over-estimated the fabrics needed. The picture above showing all the pieces----yeah, well, on the left of that picture is all the excess fabric I have! I can definitely see some pillow shams being created!!!!

Whew----Nice productive day :0) Tomorrow needs to be a family day, though. DH will be working on some of his side-jobs, so it'll just be me and the girls again. However, I need to do something "organized" with them to keep them sane. Baking cookies is on the agenda for sure---not sure if the day will involve an "outing" or not.