A dinner menu for Design Wall Monday

Thanks for all the get well wishes- I do feel so much better today. Yesterday evening I had perked up a bit and decided to see if I could finish the Coleslaw quilt and it is DONE!

It measures about 85" square and I am very happy with this one. I'm glad I ordered the extra fabric for the border. It really sets off the blocks.

And here are some of the blocks. I'm going to bind this in the same fabric I used for the cornerstones. And I'm ahead -I already made the binding nd put it in a safe place. (Let's hope I can find it when I need it- LOL!)

And now that the coleslaw is done, I think I'll move on with this dinner menu of a plan and stitch up some more chicken blocks.

I'm planning on doing a dozen dotty chickens and then 6 pieced blocks in the Hens and Chicken pattern. I also want to do a fried egg border. This will be a lap-sized quilt to hang in my kitchen.

I had the best intentions to do the Schnibble for this month's Another year of Schnibbles but it didn't happen. I'm looking forward to see the parade this month and finding out what it the choice for May. Hopefully I'll be able to get that one done.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Flying by with a sampler for Sunday

I'm flying by today with my latest framed piece, A Flock of Birds, from the book, My Heart is True by Blackbird Designs.

This is a small sampler, it stitched up about 5" X 8". This is the first time I've used the overdyed gingham linen, but it won't be the last. I really like the look of it. Now when it comes to the thread colors,well, I think I changed almost every one. I used a selection of Weeks and Gentle Arts from my stash. The alphabet is Rhubarb from GA and the tree is Dried Thyme. I must have at least 6 different shades of Dried Thyme. I realize that it is hard to get exact duplication of hand dyed colors but I've never seen as much variation as with Dried Thyme. And it is a color that is used in lots of BBD pieces. This little piece allowed me to use up one of my many little bags of leftover Dried Thyme.

I stitched my boys initials in a contrasting floss, and I replaced one of the birds with my initials and the date. The frame is rather plain but oh what beautiful depth of color it has in real life.

Now I had big plans for my weekend, but on Friday afternoon my stomach decided it had other ideas and I spent the next 48 hours between the bathroom and my recliner and nothing much was accomplished. Oh wait I did do something... I think I pinned about 300 new items on Pinterest. I do like how sitting and pinning crafty things makes you feel creative and lets you forget that you just lost another 6 hours of you life. Oh well, it did make the time pass pleasantly. This evening we are celebrating my youngest son's birthday - he turned 22 yesterday. Boy does time fly! Its a good thing he prefers a cake from Grater's - my order was ready for pick-up yesterday afternoon and my oldest son picked it up.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Thoughts on Thursday... inspiration abounds!

I have a love/hate relationship with the cyber world - on one hand I LOVE all the inspiration it brings to my laptop, on the other hand I'll NEVER get to make all the wonderful quilts I read about.

And speaking of inspiration here is a link to the winners of the AQS show in Paducah, KY that opened today. Now I suspect that this slideshow of winners was compiled from the book that AQS prints and sells at the show, because they don't show any real detail and you just know that the quilting on most of these is divine. My take was that most of the winners were of the traditional style - what you expect a quilt to look like and that's fine by me. My 2 favorites were Blooming with Hope by Junko Yazawa of Tokyo, Japan and Pat's Promise by Patricia Isaman of Harrodsburg,KY. Both of these were whimsical and Pat's Promise included polka dot birds. That would get my vote every time!

And have you checked out Moda Bake Shop today - this quilt is WONDERFUL!

It is called Twisted Charm quilt and is the design of Cindy Sharp of Tops to Treasures. Click here for her great directions - very clear. And I love this setting. I will definitely be using this idea in a quilt. This would be great for using my rather large stash of black and white fabrics and throwing in lots of brights. It will be fabulous (and yes I am opinionated - LOL!)

So armed with more ideas that my little pea brain can hold I'm off to sew!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

WIP for Wednesday... a continuation from trouble on Tuesday

Not only did I take a nap yesterday, I took one today too. It was a good choice. I let the evenweave sit for a while and realized I didn't like it. The darker color was good and I don't mind splotchy, in fact I like splotchy but I didn't like the dark dots from the walnut crystals soooooo.....try try again. This time I used the dye I have the most success with - Rit liquid dye in the bottle. I particularly like the cocoa brown, it has lovely rose undertones. So I got another piece of evenweave out and wet it and put it in a plastic bag with a glug of cocoa brown and a smidge of tan and I got a nice subtle mottled beige. I tried to take a picture of the whole piece but the camera doesn't pick up the rosy tones so you'll have to take my word for it.

Here is my start on Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor....

I'm really liking the Valdani threads but I have to stop myself from re-plying the 3 strands. Old habits are hard to break. I thought this was 28 ct but this piece is more like 26-27 ct which makes it very easy on the eyes. The Valdani threads are very rich colors with lovely shading. This is going to be a fun project.

I plan to spend the rest of my evening with my butt in my recliner working on this sampler - life is good!

happy stitching-
carol fun

Getting into trouble on Tuesday

So there are plenty of projects that are already started that I could work on but none of them is calling as loudly as a new project- like the Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor. I got out some 28 count evenweave that I had in my stash and started stitching and after 2 little bitty motifs and a partial letter I decided that the linen was too light and too plain and too blah. So what's a girl to do but dye it!

I had a small jar of walnut crystals that been sitting on my cutting table for months, a garbage can full of dry cleaning plastic bags and a brand new spray bottle from the dollar spot at Target, which can only lead to trouble. So I mixed up the walnut crystals with some hot water and I sprayed and smushed and sprinkled more crystals and sprayed some more and rinsed and smushed and sprinkled and smushed and rinsed and sprayed and well you get the idea. Now I have this.....

a sopping wet piece of linen that is splotchy and blotchy. I've ironed it a couple of times in between the spraying, smushing, sprinkling and rinsing and I think it would be better if I walk away and leave it alone for a while. Do you know how HARD it is to leave it ALONE???? Did I mention I have no patience? Patience would help. The only reason it is sitting is that got a couple of phone calls and decided to write this post - saved by blogging - LOL!

Now I could sew on the setting squares for my Coleslaw quilt, or I could start this month's Schnibble - Summer Day. I have the pattern and I was thinking in the shower that instead of using charm squares I think I'd like to use some of my Debbie Mumm stash. Or I could work on my Blackbird Design Anniversaries of the Heart, or put the binding on my Schnibble from last month. Choices, choices, choices.

Or I could take a nap....

that would be nice too!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Additional Coleslaw Assembly Required on Design Wall Monday

I had some sewing time yesterday and got the sashing on all 60 blocks of the Coleslaw quilt. However, I didn't get the rows sewn together as I still need to cut the outside setting triangles and by the time I thought to do that my brain was mushy. I'll cut them tomorrow.

I am loving it. It is turning out just as I envisioned. The sashing has made it quite yellow and you know yellow makes me very very very happy! After I get the setting triangles cut and the rows sewn together, I'm planning on an additional inner yellow border, and then the outer border will be the cabbage fabric and I want to bind it in the same fabric as the cornerstones.

And in continued saga of great Phillip Jacobs fabric for SNW I have these two wonderful fabrics in my sewing room. This first one is Cactus Dahlias in Blue.

And this is Moon Flower in the Sky colorway.

The flowers are HUGE... the Cactus Dahlias are about 8" across and the Moon Flowers are 7". Now both of the beautiful fabrics belong to my BFF Stephie. Stephie is going to have to surgery on her shoulder in a few weeks and while I don't think she could cut the fabrics I think she can push them through the sewing machine. I'm going to stack and whack them for her. She want triangles out of the Moonflowers and something with 8 repeats with the Cactus Dahlias. I'm thinking maybe the diamond for the Lemoyne Star or there is another 8 repeat I did that I need to find my pattern for but it is an elongated triangle that makes a block like a Mexican tile. Very pretty.

So I have my work cut out for me this week (ohhh... bad bad pun). I want to get the Coleslaw quilt assembled so I can hand it off to my long arm quilter at the next guild meeting. And I have a project to help with for my younger son. Looks like I need to get off the computer and get to work!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

A 5-peat for Sampler Sunday

Well all 5 of the cross stitch pieces in this picture are things I have shown before. I think they look lovely together on the table in my foyer. This little arrangement is the first thing you see when you open the door.

And you can tell how much I love Blackbird Designs as 4 of the 5 are their creations. First is the Prairie House Sewing Case from A Stitcher's Journey.

Next is Summer Basket which was Loose Feathers #38.

And then I have My Quaker House from With Needle & Thread.(I couldn't find this one anywhere online. It was published back in 2007 and I guess it is OOP.)

This little bird is with the alphabet is Gathering Basket. I just picked up that stand at Joanns yesterday with a 50% off coupon. And the little porcupine cushion is from one of those little cards from Prairie Schooler.

The table is topped with a runner I made from the Verna collection by Kate Spain. And the yellow candles, forsythia and bird are from Michaels. The bird was a gift from my BFF Stephie. All in all it makes a display that I enjoy walking by throughout the day. My house has a circular flow around the staircase and I find myself walking so I can look at the cross stitch rather than surveying my kitchen which always has something that needs to be picked up. Looking at these pretties is good for my mental health!

I did get the Tournicoton piece finished and I took it to Joanns yesterday so I got to use that great Michaels framing coupon. I was on their website a minute ago and they still have a coupon for the 60% + 15% here. Joanns signs all say they take competitors coupons and I have no trouble at my Joanns.

Now what should I stitch? Last night I was too tired to pick up a needle but tonight should have some stitching time. I should work on my AoH but I'm itching to start the Rosewood Manor Quaker Diamonds with the Valdani thread. I need to look in my stash for some linen for this one.

Hope you have a great week!
carol fun

A finish for Friday

It is another glorious day here. A bit windy but sunny and 70 and I'm not complaining. So I decided to drag out a quilt I finished a while ago and take some pictures. I have 2 good ones and 47 wind ravaged ones - so we'll just stick with the good ones. This is my self proclaimed "Carol's Star" quilt. Its really just a big sawtooth star with a 16 patch center.

Lots of tone on tone yellows and lots of big scale floral prints. All from my stash - a FREE quilt! (We aren't going to talk about the fallacy of the FREE label. I have an Econ degree I know there is no such thing as a free lunch or free fabric and I will blithely ignore the reality of price -LOL!)

My long arm quilter did another lovely job - a variegated yellow thread and a nice overall pattern. I love how it looks after laundering. It isn't quite big enough for a queen size bed but it would be okay on a double. I like it folded at the foot of the bed, layered over another quilt so I can use more than one at a time.


Well Big Dude has joined me on the screen porch and while I'm enjoying the day he seems a bit agitated by the number of birds (I filled the feeders again) who are taunting him on the other side of the screen. He's been on alert for a while so I'm betting he'll be napping soon. Its a good day for a snooze.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Thoughts on Thursday

Source: avintageposter.com via Carol on Pinterest

Oh yeah I totally agree - and this is only the mess sitting to the right of my computer, you don't want to see the rest of the room - LOL!

Years ago I worked with a guy who's office looked like an episode of Hoarders and he had a little sign on his desk that said "Chaos is a sign of genius". He was a genius - I'm not. But I'd like to think that my clutter contributes to my creativity. I do know that making stuff makes me happy!

Happy stitching-

carol fun

Work in Progress for Wednesday

I have been pedal to the metal to get this sampler finished by this Saturday. Why you ask? Because Michael's had a coupon for 60% off plus and additional 15% off framing, that's why. That is a great deal and I can use it at Joanns, since they take competitors coupons,and my favorite framer Bev will do a great job on it.

It is a French chart from Tournicoton called Historie de Lettres. It has been a pretty quick stitch. I started this on April 6. I love how the Gentle Hearts hand-dyed floss looks - bright splotches and darker ones and all the little motifs a nice touch. Now stitching all those little motifs is a bit trying since I'm either rethreading with a new color every 2 minutes or jumping from one place to another and trying to be sure I didn't leave any stitches out. There is a section of stitching over one that I've been putting off for days, but I think I'm going to have to tackle it tonight. And then there will be thinking to do (and I try to avoid thinking where my cross stitch is concerned) since I want to make the little cat (done over one too arghh!!) look more like Big Dude - with gray and white splotches.

So I've parked myself out on the screen porch, as it is a lovely day, and I'll stitch till dinner time. I refilled the bird feeder so Big Dude will have bird TV to watch. Right now all I can hear is a woodpecker and some song birds. It is unusual not to hear lawn mowers or leaf blowers, so I need to soak up this peace and quiet. Oh crap, somebody just started up a lawn mower!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Tidbits for Tuesday (and yes I do love alliteration!)

I had a great weekend of shopping at the International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is coming back again next year and if you have a chance to go, take it. There were tons of vendors and great quilts in a wonderful venue. Now I know some people got a bit turned around downtown but I believe my fair city is pretty easy to navigate. However, it might be because I've been shopping in downtown Cincinnati since I was 12. Yes it was another era - the dinosaurs still roamed the plains - but it was safe for a group of young girls to take the bus from the Kentucky side of the river to shop at the numerous downtown department stores. Good memories! Anyway do you wanna see some of the stuff I bought? You can click the pictures and biggify them.

I got a rainbow of fat quarters lots of them dotty!

And I know this was a quilt show but I got a lot of cross stitch-y goodness. I've never heard of this designer before- Rovaris - its Italian, like me! Those are little silver charms that you can attach to the piece, but I'm thinking about using them on a bracelet.

Barnwood Buttons by Rosewood Manor. I've been lusting after this one for a while and when I saw the buttons in person I had to have it. I'm planning on using a pale blue linen so it looks more like sky and I may replace the saying with an alphabet.

And what can be said about Quaker Diamonds that hasn't already been said. It is gorgeous! I've never used Valdani floss before but I can't wait to thread up my needle.

After the quilt show I drove back up to Fabric Shack in Waynesville as they were having a tent sale just for the show weekend. There were some great bargains. Older collections of layer cakes for $15 and charm squares for $5. Some yardage for $3/yd. I picked up this Chrysalis line by Sanae, one of my favorite designers for Moda. And I got this month's Schnibble pattern, Summer Day for "another year of Schnibbles". I'm not yet certain I'm using these charms squares for it - still on the fence. Oh did you see that Schnibbles can now be purchased as PDFs? Check here on Carrie's blog.

There is some more fabric to show but I'm waiting to use it for a blog anniversary giveaway next month. Now what I don't have to show is any pictures of the quilts. Several displays were "NO PHOTOS" and you were admonished to stop if caught. However, check out Everybody Loves Clark here. She has some nice pictures of the quilts.

Another random thought - have you used PicMonkey yet? I've never used a photo editing program before and I have to say this one is pretty easy. You can do a little tutorial kinda look but I find that just putzing around works best for me. So my helpful hints are when you want to start with your pictures click on the photo of the sunglasses (although I think anyone of the photos will work). Then look down the list on the left hand side and see where it says "upload". You can bring up your pictures and then play with them. I'm keeping it simple "crop" "exposure" and "color". I was able to brighten up my pictures quite quickly. Then hit "save" and then my software takes me back to my photo file where I "save" it again where the original photo was. Karen at Sew Many Ways... has a good post on PicMonkey.

Wow I sure rambled on today - think of it as a BIG tidbit - LOL!
Happy stitching-
carol fun

Coleslaw for a Design Wall Monday

Here are all 60 different Stack N Whack 4-patch blocks that I trimmed to 7 1/4".

And here is the Phillip Jacobs fabric I started with. It is called Brassica and it is the pastel colorway.

Here are some closer shots of the blocks.

I'm very partial to those yellow-y pink-y ones that look like roses and peonies. I've got a lovely tone on tone yellow for the sashing and a deep rose for the cornerstones. I'll let this sit on my design wall a day or two before I start sewing the rows together and see if I want to move any of the blocks around. By now you may be asking where does coleslaw come into this design. Well my oldest son looked at the fabric and the blocks and thought about it and said "Isn't chopped cabbage, coleslaw?" and it is!!! So this is the Coleslaw quilt.

And you would think that sewing up 60 SNW blocks would have gotten this out of my system but I don't think it has. While shopping this weekend my BFF was also smitten with the new Phillip Jacobs fabrics and she found this....

and I could not resist either and bought enough for another 4-patch SNW. I can't wait to see how these will turn out.

Have a great week!
Happy stitching-
carol fun

Another bunny for Sampler Sunday

Today I have a sampler that has a special place in my heart and my home, The Enchanted Alphabet from Told in a Garden.

This is a large piece - about 25" X 10"- framed. I stitched it at least 17 years ago and used a pale blue evenweave as the background for the DMC flosses. It was a sampler I fell in love with as soon as I saw it. The child with the head of blond curls reminded me of my youngest child when he was a toddler. As odd as it may seem, my son, who's ethnic background is Italian, German, Catalan and Chinese, had blond curls until he was around 5.

And this same son brought me to tears over this sampler. Of course it was a long term project and I was so happy when I finally got it framed. The leash from the child to the bunny is a tiny satin ribbon and is attached at the child's hand and the bunny's neck. My son who has Asperger's syndrome has always been inquisitive and had great fine motor skills. The sampler was sitting on the table in the dining room. Somehow he climbed up and untied the ribbon from the bunny. When I saw it I had no idea how I would fix this without completely taking the piece out of the frame and I was quite upset. After a day I decided to attempt to thread the ribbon and try to poke it back through. It took quite a few tries but I got it attached and had just enough slack to tie the bow. I quickly hung it in my bedroom over my bed and out of his reach and I get to enjoy it every day.

On Thursday and Friday I attended the International Quilt Festival in my fair city, Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a wonderful show and I got a little of this and a little of that. In addition to all the quilting paraphernalia there were 2 vendors selling cross stitch - Keepsakes, a shop in Sharonville a suburb of Cincinnati where I live, and Rosewood Manor. I'll take some pics of the 3 pieces I bought and post them later this week. I left a chunk of change at the show and even picked up a little something for a giveaway,as my blog anniversary is coming up in May. I was too busy shopping and looking and talking to take any pictures but if you search the web I've seen several blogs with some lovely photographs.

Well it is a lovely day here today and I'm planning a nice Italian dinner for my boys, along with catching up on the laundry. Hopefully I can reward myself this evening with some stitching. Have a great week!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

More fun with Blogger (I'm joking)

Ok- it all started when I tried to delete one blog from my blog list. I got this warning message that a particular blog contained malware. Soooooo, I thought I'd delete it so as not to infect me or anyone else. Somehow Blogger deleted my ENTIRE blog list and after banging my head on the wall for about an hour I got my blog list back. Now I'm getting the malware message when ever I try to access a blog that has content from Amy's Creative Side. Is anyone else getting this? I'm also wondering if any of you are getting the malware message when you come to my blog. Of course I'm hesitant to go to Amy's blog and I wonder if she even knows. I'm leery because yesterday I got the blue screen of death. It hasn't happened in a while so I wasn't too worried and I restarted without any problems. And I just realized that if you got the malware message on my blog you probably haven't read this far. Argghh - Blogger is not fun.

carol fun (but I am! really I am!)

WIP Wednesday

And now for something a bit different in my cross stitching life, I'll show you this sampler I just started on..

It is a French chart from Tournicoton called Historie de Lettres. I don't think I've seen any other samplers that have this almost cursive style of lettering and it really appealed to me. It is about 180 degrees different from the BBD stuff I've been working on and it is a nice change of pace.

It calls for DMC flosses which I'm using except for the letters themselves. Instead of DMC 815 I using Sampler Threads The Gentle Art Claret. I don't know how clearly you can see it but I love the border. It has an edging in a lime-y green (DMC 166) and a light lavender (DMC 211) - colors I don't think I've ever used before but I particularly like that lime-y one.

And now for a little (well maybe not so little) rant - when I purchased this pattern I saw a lovely photograph of in on the vendor's website (I don't remember who I actually purchased it from online). But when the pattern came the "picture" on the cover is a computer generated kinda sketch that really isn't attractive at all. If this was all I had to see when I chose it, well I wouldn't have chosen it. I keep having to go and look up a photo of the piece online to see how it is shaping up. In fact the cover of the pattern is so "sketchy" you can't even make out what some of the motifs are - is that a bird or a shoe???

Also do not trust the labels on the hand dyed flosses that say "Colorfast". I'm always skeptical of any reds and even those this Claret said "Colorfast" I gave it a quick dunk in water and laid it on a paper towel and there was definitely dye run off. Ugh -- so I rinsed it several more times and it seemed to help. I had a bad experience years ago with a burgundy hand dyed floss that ran so I always check out the bright ones before I stitch with them. I rinse, put them on a paper towel to see if they run and repeat the process if they do. Then I fold then in a clean paper towel and use my steam iron to set and dry them. I haven't had any problems with dye running when I do this. Since I don't use a hoop my pieces get quite wrinkly and the only way I know to get wrinkles out of linen is to use a little steam so I need to know that the floss won't be affected by a bit of moisture.

And to finish this rant - what's up with Blogger again? I upgraded reluctantly to their new format, I'm using Google Chrome and I can't get this post to show up as a preview. Some how it is easier to see any errors when I view it in "preview" so I hope this one is ok.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

What's on my bed?

Oh this is perfect timing since I did wash the sheets and put a new quilt on my bed just the other day. Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville's Quips & Snips! is hosting a linky party showing what is on your bed. Here is my entry....

this is my just back from the long arm quilter, bound and washed Giant Vintage Star from the In Color Order blog. A tutorial for this quilt is here.

Here is a little better picture I took in my backyard (ignore the dandelion - I thought I had picked all of the ones that would show up in the shot but I missed it- sheesh- I'm not the lawn guy - LOL!)

The fabrics are from the happy mochi yum yum line by Monica Solorio-Snow - the Happy Zombie- by Lecien. I think it has a sort of vintage sheet feel to it. Here's a close up of the quilting too.

It is a lovely all over design done in a pastel variegated thread. I love variegated threads! It finished around 83" square. A bit small for my queen sized bed with its puffy mattress, but I'm planning on getting full size bed in the near future so it will be fine. This was a super simple quilt to make, and after quilting for over 25 years every now and then it is nice to do something easy. It has such a lovely "Spring-y" feel about it. I really love how one simple, single (albeit very large) block has such an impact. It makes me smile.

Hop over to Bonnie's blog and check out the other entries - there are some wonderful quilts!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

How assumptions determine quilt decisions on Design Wall Monday

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter. My plans for a big meal at lunch time were altered to a big meal at dinner time so my oldest son could go into work for couple of hours. The beef tenderloin was lovely and we had lots of tasty side dishes. By 6pm everyone was napping which I take to be the sign of contentment. Life is good!

So yesterday afternoon I had a little time to play and I decided to get out that lovely Phillip Jacobs cabbage print and whack it!

I had decided to do 4 repeats since the square gives you 4 different possible design combinations and I like possibilities. So I examined the selvedge edge and marked off 4 repeats. As I went to cut them apart it I thought "Wow, these are big repeats. Maybe I should measure them." Oh noooooooo...... the fabric isn't an 18" repeat it is a generous 24" repeat. I figured out how much fabric for 8 repeats based on 18" and if you do the math correctly with 24" I am over a yard short- acckkkk!!!! Well, my totally inaccurate assumption on the length of the pattern repeat has made the decision for me - any quilt made with these fabrics will be no more than 6 repeats. So I sighed and measured and whacked and I got 30 blocks out of 4 repeats. Not bad at all.

And I think they are wonderful! It doesn't look like cabbages, it looks more like roses and that plant with the pretty leaves - begonias I think. Here are a couple of my favorite blocks so far -

My first thought was this would need a aqua-y green sashing, but after putting them on the design wall I'm thinking another color would be better. You know where I'm going, right??? Yellow- yellow sashing would be lovely and a pale mottled yellow for the setting triangles. Oh I'm loving this plan. I'm not sure about the border. I'd love to use the cabbage fabric but I won't have enough of it unless I piece it. I need to see what solution I can come up with. I hope to have some time later today to whack the other 4 repeats.

Well off to do the Monday driving event. No guild meeting tonight so that cuts out some miles and gives me more time at home. I love the time I spend at home. Check back this week. I have some socks that are almost finished and I started a new sampler that I need to take some pictures of. It is a very different style from the BBD's I've been doing.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Happy Easter from the Polka Dot Chicken!

Hope you got a basket full of goodies!

carol fun