I was off to a fast start...and then the wheels got wobbly... on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello - so how are all of you doing?  I had a fantastic start of the week... did a lovely carryout dinner with my son and daughter-in-law and Elliott... he is still super adorable... and then on Tuesday  I had 2.5 cubic yards of topsoil mix delivered to my house... that's the equivalent of about 67 40lbs bags... but this was a bulk truck load... which was dumped on my driveway... to fill the 4' x 20 '  raised bed...

oh for those who asked the raised bed came from Costco ... I had seen it in the store but purchased it online, however, when I went to find the link today it is gone, sorry... it was around $85 for a 4' x 12' bed... I ended up buying 2  sets to get the length I wanted but still have additional pieces that would make another smaller bed... if I had somewhere to put it... insert frowny face... anyway it was 89 degrees on Tuesday but at least there was a breeze... my younger son was a HUGE help in getting the dirt moved along with my friend Bill... I could not have done it without them... and I knew I needed to get it off the driveway and into the bed on Tuesday as Wednesday was forecast to be rainy (and it has been rainy a lot here) I didn't want a muddy mess on the driveway... it took about 4 hours but we did it... and then I took a break and went back out and planted all 70 of the dahlia tubers I had and a bunch of zinnia seeds... here's what it looks like now...

 see the little green sprouts... those are the zinnias... I think I might get a few more seeds as now I can where tell where I put them.

As I expected Wednesday was rainy  so I did lunch with a friend and shopped a bit at Micheals and came home and sewed... I've been working on this Chamomile quilt for a while and I want it DONE... the blocks were fun to do... just squares of low volume prints ...and lots of them are novelty fabrics... zoom in to see birds and bicycles and cars and clothes hangers and clothes pins and lobsters... the triple rail fence sashing with the 9 patch cornerstones really makes this quilt...(you can find the pattern here...)

except that the triple rail fence sashing and the 9 patch cornerstones take FOREVER to sew together... all it needs now is a small outer border and it is complete... I even got a deal on an extra wide back yesterday at Joanns... 50 % off one regular prices item...usually when I have that coupon the only regular price item I can find that I want only cost  $2.50...not worth using the coupon. I like the quilt ... it is very cool and summer-y looking  for my bed in August.

Also I finally finished a top I last worked on in June of 2017...yes I know that was 2 years ago... you can see pictures and read my post back then here... when I went to sew the top half and the bottom half together they did not match.... arggghhhh.... so I put it n time-out... a very very very very long time-out... I finally took it apart and got the top and bottom lined up correctly... I then decided this quilt does not need a border... it is big enough...which was a good thing because the back fabric I purchased would not have been large enough if I had added borders... I boxed it up and sent it off to Quilting by David... I even made the binding for it when it returns... I was feeling very good...

Wednesday night I was productive in finishing up a couple of cross stitch pieces... the guy from With Thy Needle & Thread Farmyard Parade... I got the girl done last year...

and I finished up the June edition of Hands on Designs A Year of Celebration...

just need to get it FFO'd ... this little monthly chart is was an easy stitch ... I made mine more turquoise as it went better with the linen I painted... and I have a confession to make... do you see those flags in the upper right corner?  Well when I was looking at the chart...not the picture... to me they looked like stylized flamingos... LOL... I didn't see the flag pole and they are stitched in a flamingo kinda color... which set me on the search for some  flamingos to display with this piece and I found a cute set of salt & pepper shakers at Cracker Barrel that I'm going to decorate with... flags ... flamingos...  6 of one half dozen of another...

So late late  Wednesday ... actually after midnight, so on Thursday things started getting wobbly... I felt nauseous but thought if I went to bed I could sleep it off... I was wrong... I did sleep a bit but woke up and well... lost my dinner... and usually you feel better after that but no... I was achy and still nauseous and so tired... I ended up sleeping about 20 hours on Thursday... I finally hauled my butt out of my bed and into the shower and into my stitching chair, but fell asleep again and woke up and returned to bed to sleep until 8 am on Friday... and I might have slept even longer but I knew I needed to be up and dressed as a new mattress and box spring would be  delivered for my son's room and they said they'd be here between 8:30 and 10:30 am... after they left around 10 am I putzed a bit and got a shower and got myself together as I had a previously scheduled doctor's appointment for a yearly check up and I didn't want to reschedule it... it went fine and I came home to veg some more... and that's about all I've done since then...

Luckily the rain has been enough that I didn't have to water ... but I do need to go out and deadhead some flowers and figure out what to do about the squirrels and the wave petunias I've put in the ground... they've dug up several that I planted around the base of the trees in my yard... oh I use to love squirrels even though I know they are just rats in nicer fur coats but all of that has changed this year... they have still been gnawing on my window boxes... I'm wondering how much I'll have left if this keeps up ... the flaming squirrel oil seems to keep them out of the feeder ... don't know if I could coat the boxes with it ... I may try...

So I'm feeling a bit perkier today and there is nothing on the agenda... we do dinner on Monday nights the first and third week of the month as my older son works as the prosecutor for our little town and does mayor's court those days... it is just up the street from my house and he never knows when it will be over ... but we meet when he done and go out to dinner then... there is babysitting on my calendar this week... I'm watching Elliott for a couple of hours so mom can go into the office and do some paper work... should be fun!!

The weather has moderated ... highs in the 70's and some cool nights so I can open the windows... I love that... however the rainy pattern continues... I swear we haven't had 3 consecutive dry days in months... I'm beginning to think I've been moved to Seattle... I know we are having more than normal rainfall for this time period... so I figure it will be hotter than blazes and dry as can be in August so in the end the average will be... average... Mother Nature is no fun at all...

So my plans for the week are to get those borders on that Chamomile quilt and get the June piece FFO'd and get some linen painted for the Summer version of the Little House Needleworks' ABCs and some linen for a small Lizzie Kate Summer piece... and then I want to get some stuff together for some more patriotic pieces... there are so many cute ones I want to do...

Hope you have a great week ahead... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts as usual...

happy stitching-
carol fun