Hello - so how was your week? Mine was pretty good... and I'm starting this month (okay I'm a little late but anyway) with a new outlook... can't take credit for this thought but it has propelled me into some planning and hopefully productive action.
Half of 2025 has passed. The other half is a gift to do better every day.
As you know from reading this blog I always have plenty of things I want to do... lots of seasonal stuff because I love changing the decor in my home to fit the holidays and the weather... and you also know that I'm obsessed with the weather... LOL... and it is either too hot or too cold or too rainy or too dry... yeah I'm never totally pleased... except for those brief interludes in Spring and Fall when I can turn off the HVAC stuff and open the windows and tell Duke Energy to take a hike!
Also I'm prone to tangents as you've just witnessed... ok back to the thought that has got me wound up right now... everything takes time... and while the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago...and the next best time is today... the time to work on Christmas projects is NOW!! Sooooo I picked back up the Noel Sampler... here's where it was last time I released it from it's project bag...
and here it is now...
I had to spend a bit of time trying to figure out how to get this back on track... I made an error on the house...and then I counted lots of other motifs off of the house... and while some were definitely wrong others weren't... don't ask how I did it, I just did ... and the more I worked on this the more errors I've made... argh... it is a good thing that the motifs are spaced out....anyway I spent a substantial amount of time with this last week but it is really coming along... the red on the front side of the house is almost done... then there is the brick on the side and the roof... but I'll probably move down to the next line of alphabet for a break... sooooo much red.... LOL... it needs to be finished in time for it to be framed by the end of November...oh and I think I've decided on the 3rd piece I want for the wall on Christmas... this is Blackbird Designs The Bells on Christmas Day from the book of the same title...
I might add a little turquoise into this and I want to stitch it on a green background like the Feliz Navidad sampler I already stitched.... and yes I am being quite ambitious with my Christmas plans!
I thought about taking the Prairie Schooler Christmas ABC's to Hobby Lobby for framing... but that is as far as I got... just thought about it... sigh...
Next on my agenda of stuff I want for Christmas is a new quilt for my bed and my current FAVORITE fabric collection is Tiny Christmas by Lizzy House... I've ordered a FQ bundle and some background fabric and a back but it hasn't come yet but OMG...insert happy squeals!!
there are elves and candy canes and stamps ... I LOVE LOVE LOVE the stamps... I collected them as a child and I still love them. As a kid I would go to the post office with my Grandma and she would ask to see what stamps were available and told them she wanted to see the pretty ones... and now I'm an old lady and I do the same thing!! I love that there are floral stamps and holiday stamps and stamps of people I knew of and people I have no clue about... in fact I purchased these stamps recently...
I HAD to have the dahlia ones ...
and I contemplated some tulip ones... and I'm getting ahead for Christmas with these...
but I'm inclined to put Christmas stamps on lots of stuff that isn't even Christmas... cause they make me smile!
Anyway... that was another tangent... I'm looking at patterns for this Christmas collection ... I want something to show off these fabrics... but it has to be simple... cause that's all I'm up to these days and at the moment this pattern that I've done that I've done before is in the running.... hmm... can't find a pic of this totally finished... but this is it...
It is called Double Square Star from MSQC and you can find it here... I haven't done many quilts with pink in them but the last couple of years I've definitely been smitten with pink Christmas stuff... you may recall that I decorate the sunroom porch with a pink theme... and this year I want to do my bedroom in a pink theme... I'm could make those little sashing stars pink!
And another quilt I'm considering is this freebie from FQS called Fat Quarter Cubes... you can see the pattern here... and I've already made a Christmas quilt with this pattern and the Heather Ross SugarPlum collection of fabric...and somehow I can't find a finished shot of this quilt either... but it is done...
Hopefully the Tiny Christmas fabric will come soon and I can make a decision and jump on this.
I've been in this house for 11 years come October... where does the time go?? I'm ready for a little update... and to that end I'm hoping to put down this carpet today with the help of Dan the handyman...
it is from FLOR and it comes in 17" squares... this is 4 of the tiles... no 2 are alike and you get a random pattern... I like the bits of rose and blue and turquoise in with the gold-y yellow... I've used this brand of carpet in my sunroom porch, my dining area and the craft room I call the green room... I like it because it colorful and highly patterned and is easy to adjust the size of the rug to the area you are dealing with...
and along with the carpet I'm going to hang these drapes...
a golden yellow velveteen with pom pom trim... I LOVE pom pom trim... anyway I think this is going to be very pretty and kinda girly and I've never done that before... at if I don't do it now when will I ever get around to it?? I'm going to get Dan to help me hang them today and I can steam out the wrinkles tomorrow.
And I got off on another tangent this week... sewing one... I haven't touched my sewing machine in ages but this week I was smitten with a block kit I saw on Avalon Bloom.com ,.. kaleidoscope blocks made from Tula Pink's collection Untamed... and the particular fabric is Hello Dahlia in the Moonbeam colorway... I've never purchased pre cut blocks before but I love kaleidoscope blocks and I know how much time it takes to cut them out... so I was intrigued... now this block can only be put together one way so that eliminates the time and dithering about how to orient that pieces and it definitely makes the sewing go faster... the blocks come in sets of 12 and I got 4 set..I got carried away...LOL.. and I already stitched one set before I took this pic...
and here are the first 12 blocks I did...
and I LOVE them... now the kit included fabric for the corners ...you can see the fabric in the pic above this one... but this is brighter than I want... I'm thinking of going with something in a lavender... I've never used much of that color before but I'd like it... I don't know if I will get any identical blocks out of the other packages.. I'm okay either way as I'm not sure how I will set this or how big it will get...
So the weather guys lied to me again... we didn't get nearly the rain they said... in fact, as of writing this on Saturday we've gotten one nice downpour and one weak sprinkle... and with temperatures pushing 90 I've had to water the flower boxes and the raised beds and the pots... but I did figure out how to use the sprinkler system... actually I was pushing the right buttons in the right sequence I just wasn't waiting long enough to see the way it works... I was thinking ALL the sprinklers would pop up at the same time on the AUTO setting... wrong... they go off sequentially... zone 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 7, 8, 10, 11... zones 1 and 9 are the drip irrigation and it also does it sequentially... and it has worked beautifully this week. The outlook right now is almost identical to last week ... lots of rain forecasted... but we know how it actually played out... so my sprinklers will probably be used again... but that's why I bought them, right??
Next week looks pretty calm... Elliott on Tuesday and I'm sure there will be a lunch or dinner or two with friends. Now I really need to get the basement storage room cleaned up and the garage... but the weather is not going to be conducive to the garage clean up so perhaps, just perhaps I can do something in the basement. I know how I want it all to look when it is done but stuff is scattered here and there and everywhere... I need to get it organized... but it is work and there are much more fun things to do like stitch and sew and knit and nap...
Hope your week is a good one... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... Dan the handyman is suppose to be here in a bit and I have a bunch of things I want him to help me with...
happy stitching-
carol fun