Procrastination on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well replace "today" with "the last entire week" and the meme below is an incredibly accurate description of my current situation...

I don't remember a week where I did more hemming and hawing and back and forth and  dithering... lots of dithering... now I'm trying not to beat myself up over this... trying to give myself permission to just veg out sometimes... but I really do like being able to come here on Sunday and have something to show for my week.... sigh...  I did sew... a little... I did work in my yard... a little... I did knit... a little... and I did cross stitch... very very little. 

What I did a lot of was mindless scrolling, but in my defense I didn't feel great Wednesday or Thursday... and Wednesday night we had torrential rain and lightning and thunder and tornado warnings... my phone kept going off and I got very little sleep ... and I had to be up early (for me, 9:00 am) to let my cleaning lady in... she usually doesn't do my house till 10:30 am or later... I like that better ... but her schedule got rearranged... so I got up, but I all day Thursday I needed a nap ... and I never got it. 

Friday was a lot better. Nick and I went out for an early lunch and when we got home I had every intention of going downstairs and sewing, but I totally forgot I had told a friend she could come over and look through my patriotic charts ... and we had a really nice visit ... but I never got any time to sew... and I had  promised a family member I'd take them to dinner that evening...and I did. After that I came home and worked in the yard a bit... staked some dahlias in the yard... a job I've procrastinated about for several weeks...so at least that got taken care of.  The dahlias in the raised beds are kinda hit or miss... every single tuber I planted had an eye... a sprout... and they should all  be growing... but they aren't... not sure but it may be that I got them planted late... trying to figure out what to plant in the open spaces ..it's too late to get more tubers, everyone is sold out... so the procrastination has moved from the yard to the raised beds...sigh...

Saturday I finally did something productive... yeah me!!   After procrastinating all week,  I fortified myself with a bag of Almond M&Ms and  I sewed up the last six 9 patch blocks I needed and got going on sewing the whole quilt top together.  It needs to be  sewn  in vertical columns...got the first 2 columns assembled and then sewed the wrong edges together... drat drat drat!!!  All 30 intersections had nested perfectly... grrrr... picked out the entire 63 inch seam and got it back together...  and I persevered ... column after column after column  and here's where it is now...FINISHED!!!

I really like it...  it is 54" x 63"... a "small" quilt for me... LOL ... 68 different fabrics and  here are some of my favorite blocks...

I have 2 pieces of Debbie Mumm that I'm going to use for the back... I've gotten into a groove where I like the back of a quilt to be the same designer as the front and since I have a ton of Debbie I had no problem finding suitable fabrics ... both fabrics are busy... but well aged and in my mind FREE!

LOL... any fabric that I've owned so long that I don't remember what I paid for it is FREE... actually  by that logic, this whole quilt top is free as I have no clue what I paid for it...all I  know is I didn't pay what good quality fabric is going for these days... I remember getting bargains back in the 90's... a couple of dollars a yard... I even have a 3 yard piece of Cranston Printworks fabric that I paid $1.00 a yard for... it is going on 30 years old... I doubt I'll ever use it but I keep it on the shelf as a good memory!!

Oh and procrastination figured heavily in the creation of this quilt... I started this back in July of 2022... almost 4 years ago... sheesh... 

I like making scrappy quilts, however...scrappy quilts are messy ... and here's the evidence... 

and here...

and here...

and here...

I think the best description of  my sewing studio is "there appears to have been a struggle"... 

While I was playing with the 9 patch quilt, I did get some more of the DM hexagons cut... but as I was sewing I got another idea... along with the hexagons I should cut some squares... say 6" ... I've got another DM quilt in mind... alternate a DM print square with a DM background square... simple sewing but lots of variety... ooooohhh.... I like this idea... I like it A LOT!!  So the  plan is to get all the hexagons  and the squares cut and then clean up the mess... this is gonna take a while...  Rome wasn't built in a day... LOL

And in going through the bins I found this...

I LOVE this Halloween panel... it's not creepy or scary... I'm going to have Delinda quilt it for me...something with a spider web... it will look great in the back hall. 

I got some knitting done... a nice Fall-ish looking sock... I'm alternating these 2 yarns ...

oh and you have to go and watch this video... here's the link... this doctor says that your favorite handcraft  hobby might be one of the most powerful brain protection tools ever studied. Researchers tracking adults over 60 found that people who regularly knitted, crocheted or did similar handcraft activities had significantly lower rates of cognitive decline. Now I also stumbled across another guy (not a doctor) who poo-pooed this study and while I don't believe knitting and handwork can totally eliminate your chances of having dementia, it certainly isn't going to harm you... and my takeaway is,  Woo hoo! I think I just got permission to buy more yarn! It will improve my health!!

And it's a great thing that someone thinks yarn is good for you because these 3 skeins snuck into my house yesterday....

I need to find another set of circular needles as I want to cast on another sock using these pretties!

I know I'm showing my patriotic decor very slowly... trying to make sure I have some content  in case  my crafty productivity wans... here's the little telephone niche in the hallway... it is small but packed with patriotic pride...

From left to right... first up a tiny little girl with a head of red curls waving her flag... she came from the Sheepish Design chart called Eagle. This is an old chart but you can still get a copy as a PDF here from 1884 Stitchery...they have a lot of Sheepish Designs charts. Also notice this little gal has Debbie Mumm fabric on the bottom... there is no escaping the DM influence in my house!!

Next is Annie Beez American House Sampler... I made the house yellow instead of white...

and then I have Betsy Ross stitching on the flag... this is snippet from another Sheepish Designs chart appropriately called Betsy...

and rounding out the niche.. a patriotic stitching chicken who happens to be a Debbie Mumm piece that was sold at Joanns but I never saw it there... but I did see it on eBay and now it lives at my house!

Below on what would have been the place to put your telephone book, I have Patriotic Tiny Town by Heart in Hand... I finished this as a kind of soft pillow log... this has been waiting to be FFO'd since last year... procrastination personified. 

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments about the blog... I will continue to ramble and bounce around like a BB in a boxcar (that was my Dad's favorite description of me)... after 12 years of Catholic education I have been instilled with a healthy sense of responsibility and guilt to get something done every day... which then allows me to come here and tell you all about it!!

My schedule next week includes working out with Anna, an appointment to get my teeth cleaned and spending some time with Elliott... I'm looking forward to hearing about his vacation. He FaceTimed me one day to show me a new Rubik's cube he had gotten... it was very cool as it changed into a Transformer toy... I think he had a good time at the beach. 

And as always I plan to get lots and lots and lots of stuff done... hope springs eternal.... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and see what everyone else is up to... gotta get groceries for a family member and then I hope to still be energetic when I get back home... might work in the flowers, might do some cross stitching, might knit, might take a nap!

Hope your week ahead a good one!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Where one thing leads to another on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well the week wasn't loaded up with lots of appointments ... which gave me a nice amount of free time... but I really think I should have more to show for it... however it is what it is... the weather heated up and we had several days in the upper 80's and low 90's accompanied by a healthy amount of humidity... too hot, too darn early in the season  IMHO... it isn't even officially summer!   I'm happy I got all those dahlias planted in the raised beds and my attitude about the garden improved when I found the little zinnias I love for sale at my local Mejiers... I got 3 flats and Nick helped me get them planted on Wednesday along with about 2 dozen of the dahlia tubers that I found languishing in the Costco buckets...fingers crossed that they like being planted... I also spread some totally foul smelling stuff that is suppose to repel the deer ... and I have seen some rebound growth on a couple of plants so hopefully it is effective. I did pick up a flat of begonias that I still need to get into the ground... and I've found a home for the rose bushes that I don't want anymore... my trainer Anna said she'd like them and she just moved into a new home with a big yard... so that will work out great. 

As for decorating,  here's some more of my patriotic stuff... on the wall...

I LOVE this quilt... I even used a pic of it as my avatar on a social media site... all the fabrics are Debbie Mumm ... it was larger originally... it had that bunting border on all 4 sides... but that was too big for this space so I cut them off and the repurposed border pieces ended up leading to table runners and little quilts... here's a close up of the eagle surrounded by 13 stars...

I certainly had a lot of different blues, red and creams at my disposal back then. 

In the tier tray...

I have 2 patriotic houses from Melisa at Pinkernpunkinquilting... she does such wonderful designs and then so graciously gives them away for free... thanks Melisa! Also there is a little Uncle Sam.. I took him from a bigger design by Priscilla from Stitching with the Housewives and the sunflower in the back of the truck is from Red White and Bloom by WTNT...

Here a look across the room with another DM patriotic quilt on the back of the couch... that couch makes a great quilt rack...

On the wall next to the front door I have  Summer ABC's by Little House Needleworks... I think it kinda resembles a firecracker with this frame and the pompom on the top... the original chart has apples charted next to the letter B but when I went to stitch it someone had added bunting next to the B and I copied them. 

and this is my back hallway... the entry that everyone uses... this is the first time I've decked it out in patriotic gear...

 The quilt is a vintage Debbie Mumm panel I found this year on eBay... and I remember when this was a current piece of fabric... it got marked down at my local quilt shop to a ridiculously low price and I bought yardage of it... which I used as the back of the Debbie Mumm eagle quilt on the wall... what goes around comes around, doesn't it? and one things leads to another...

As for crafty stuff, I retreated to the basement on a couple of those blazing hot days and pulled out all the Debbie Mumm 9 patch blocks that I had made...

 and it turns out that I had more sewn than I remembered and I had cut out enough to make a 54" square quilt... but I want it more rectangular so I'm adding 2 more rows - 9 blocks- and it will be a great lap size quilt ... I just need to make  6 more 9 patches. 

And as I was pulling out some more fabrics for that 9 patch I decided I should cut out more hexagons for the Debbie Mumm quilt I first started a year ago this week... here's what I have cut so far...

and I found this note... OMG... I actually wrote down what I had planned!!!  I didn't think "oh I'll remember this"... which never  actually happens...LOL...

According this I need about 20 hexagons from each of those color families ... I know I have plenty of Debbie Mumm fabrics ... and the collections were heavy on red and blue so the extras I need should be easy to get to. ... here's a bit of what the layout should look like...

not sure I have enough to of the bee fabric for the triangle points ....  this is probably my favorite DM fabric ...

it also came as bees on blue, and green and red ... oh, there was also a lady bug fabric that I adored but I've used up every little bit I had...sigh...  on one hand I hate to use it all up all of the bees,  but if I don't use it now, when will I use it??? I ain't getting any younger... were any of you Debbie Mumm fans? As I recall her peak years were the late 80's to the early 90's but I collected her fabrics for as long as they were printed. I do like the earlier collections better... at the end she was doing fabrics for Joanns and the colors were lighter and brighter and didn't coordinate well with the earlier collections... but even so I still bought a bunch of them... one collection leading to another and another and another... and now they live in small plastic bins in my root cellar closet... LOL

So while searching my memories of DM I did a little online search and found that the ceramic buttons she designed are still available here... OMG... I remember making lots of jumpers and having those ceramic buttons down the front... and they were so comfortable... and hid a multitude of flaws... gosh I loved them!

It was a weird week for hand work... I didn't put in a single cross stitch...instead I knitted  wool socks... the perfect project for a 90 degree day right??? Anyway these are scrappy socks using the little mini skeins of Opal yarn I got in the Advent calendar last December...

I love knitting socks like this... I alternate 2 different skeins so I never know how it will turn out... I like when the same color comes together on both skeins and I get a solid swath here and there... it mixes things up nicely with the stripe-y parts...  and as soon as I finished this pair, I started another pair, cause one thing leads to another... knitting socks is mindless and soothing... something I need more of in my life... 

The upcoming week has lots of little things to do... Elliott and his parents are vacationing and I need to go over and check on their cat... another neighbor is feeding it but Chris likes when I look in on their furry friend... I need to drop Nick off to lunch with a friend on Tuesday and I'm doing lunch with a couple of the quilty ladies on Wednesday... I need to get groceries for  a certain family member and change their glucose monitor ... the weather is supposed to be a bit less hot and humid so I should be able to get those begonias  and the last of the Costco bucket dahlias in the ground ...after that I just want to veg... knit some more, sew a little and stitch a little and nap a little... hopefully that will come to pass.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... I always like seeing what is happening on the blogs posted there... and I want to thank everyone who still blogs... I've wandered away from IG... there wasn't any particular reason why, but I did... as you can tell I like the blog format where I can ramble endlessly about the mundane happenings in my life... I just checked and I've been posting on this blog for 16 years... lots has happened and I'm glad I was able to record it... cause the memory ain't what it used to be... LOL

Hope you have a great week ... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Changing things up on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - where do the days go?  I swear someone stole a day from me somewhere in the middle of the week., but somehow I can recall that I did do something every day ... so I guess they didn't steal any...LOL

I'm happy that I got some things on my "to-do" list done but I'm not sure exactly how I accomplished that as there was still a lot of running here and there...Monday had me helping a family member with groceries and their glucose monitor... Tuesday I took Nick to get a haircut and   I hung out with Elliott but only for a couple of hours as he is going to a day camp this week...Wednesday I finally attacked the seasonal decor and put away the birds and got out the patriotic stuff... oh and there was a spur of the moment dinner with my older son and that was nice... Thursday a friend and  I went to see Delinda... she only had one of my quilts done but I dropped off the Too Ra Loo Ra Irish chain I showed last week... and I fixed the mistakes before I took it to her.

Friday got real crazy as the sprinkler guys finally showed up... it was only at 9:00 am... I was still in my PJs... (no one told me they were coming) and they got the irrigation in the raised beds... I had about given up on them... and in hindsight, seeing how they put in the irrigation... it is  emitters that spray in a circle... I could have gone ahead and planted up my dahlias... darn. 

In the afternoon on Friday, Nick and I went to a food truck festival with friends... it was hot but there was a lovely breeze and the food was soooo good... got a lobster roll and a warm peach cobbler with cinnamon ice cream... sooooo yummy... and we sat and talked and ate and had such a nice time... on the way home Nick said it was a great Summer memory... and it was!!

So after picking up some more soil for the raised beds, on Saturday morning,  I attacked planting them up  fortified with electrolyte water and Flaherty's English toffee... don't judge, LOL... I got all 5 raised beds planted up with 160 dahlia tubers!!! They are planted very close together as I'm following the lead of a guy I saw on IG that plants his this way. They seem to need less staking so I'm going to try it out.   Now I purchased about 190 ... but there are always some duds and I still have about a dozen left unplanted, so it worked out well. I also checked on the tubers I "saved" last year... actually all I did was dig them up and toss them into  giant Costco buckets. I intended all winter to take them to the basement furnace room which would have been warmer than the unheated garage, but I never got around to it... and to my surprise, when I looked into the buckets quite a few of them survived and have put out a new sprout...and if they survived that neglect they should do great when I get them into the ground. Which leads to the change I'm making in the yard.

Right now all the gardening is giving me fits. The deer have been absolutely voracious... remember when Nick helped me plant all those 1 gallon perennials?  Well except for the coreopsis and the lavender the deer have eaten EVERY single plant and in some cases even pulled them out of the ground!!!  I sprayed some nasty smelling stuff on everything the other day but we have rain in the forecast every day next week so,  I'm not sure if that will be effective very long... and I planted about 8 striped cannas which normally do well for me but they all look awful... I haven't seen much activity with the seeds I spread... and the marigolds are not taking off either... the only thing looking good are the dahlias in the ground I planted a couple of years ago,  the petunias in the window boxes, and the cleome and the nepeta I planted... I am seriously considering streamlining the whole front yard... lots of nepeta up front, cleome in the middle and dahlias in the back... so the more dahlia tubers I have the better this will be. The dahlias I plant in the yard seem to do just fine and I know the deer and the rabbits don't bother them. I know it is only June, but I feel like I'm losing  the battle with the garden this year...sigh...  also the rose bushes I got last year aren't doing well either... I may throw in the towel on them, and then I could open up the patio as there wouldn't be any tasty treats for the deer to munch on in the back... I'm thinking this is another change I should make...change can be good, right?

And for more change, my knee replacement has been re-scheduled  to the end of July.  I forgot to factor in the 4th of July holiday and that messed up the rehab and if needed, more pain meds... and that my older son, who will be my transportation, has out of town guests coming right after the 4th... so pushing it back is easier logistically for everyone concerned... 

Well lets move on, shall we...  I changed my seasonal decor and here's some of the patriotic stuff I got out... let's start out on the sunroom porch which is where I'm writing this post from... the sun is shining and the fan is going and the chair is comfy... I LOVE it out on the sunroom porch!

The little shelf unit is chock full of patriotic goodies...

Up top, left to right my treasured autographed patriotic Debbie Mumm angel and Marcher of the Flag from Melisa at Pinkernpunkinquilting and the other little flag waving gal is from Chessie and Me's Lady Liberty... Chessie always includes a cat in her pieces but I subbed in a chicken... my bit of personalization, dontcha know...and in the wagon I have another Lady Liberty and an Uncle Sam from With Thy Needles and Thread's book Red, White and Bloom.  

Here's a look at the middle and bottom of the shelf unit...

Lots of knickknacks... the patriotic cow and chicken plates are vintage Debbie Mumm...  and my favorite Lady Liberty shelf sitter is keeping a cute Lady Liberty pillow company... the chart is from SewEmma's Patriotic TypeFACE... someday I want to do the other little pillows in this pattern...there is an Uncle Sam and an eagle...and on the bottom shelf I have Flagmaker which is a freebie from Notforgotten Farm  and a cute chicken I made eons ago from patriotic Debbie Mumm fabric... the bunting piece is also Debbie Mumm and if you've been here any time at all you know my undying devotion to Debbie Mumm... fabrics and plates and teapots and cookie jars and fabrics... I LOVE ALL OF THEM... in fact I just bought a vintage Debbie Mumm cookie jar off of eBay last week... it is a Halloween one and I have never seen it before... I'll show it in a week or two as I'm thinking of moving on to Fall and Halloween stitching... trying to get ahead... LOL

Back to the patriotic decor... this is the 2 shelves in the middle section of my TV cabinet... 

The theme here is patriotic transportation... in the red,white and blue tricycle I have Colonel Sammy... he's another patriotic freebie from Notforgotten Farms...and the little Liberty pillow was from Lizzie Kate...and on the bottom I got the Prairie Schooler No. 8 American Primitive Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam FFO'd... I thought about pillows but they are pretty big - 4" x 6" so I went with a double frame instead...

The frame was white plastic and I think I put about 5 coats of paint on it but it still keeps chipping off...oh well... 

Getting the birds put away and the patriotic stuff  out was a lot of work... I couldn't do it without Nick toting stuff up and down the stairs...but I felt so good getting this checked off my to do list... and I did get my sewing room straightened up a bit... not totally... but enough to motivate me to do some sewing... and I reassessed a couple of projects and some change is involved here too... remember those 16 patch blocks I was sewing with the fusible web backing and the American Jane fabrics?  Well the original plan was to make  bed sized quilt of them and my calculations were I would need 121 blocks... that's A LOTTA blocks... so I've decided to go with a different plan... I still need 121 blocks but half of them are going to be plain blocks ...  I don't have enough of the Riley Blake Pin Drop fabric (even though I bought yards and yards of it)... I can't find the multi colorway anywhere... I assume it is OOP... but the Riley Blake Blossom fabric in a rainbow colorway will work nicely...

 

I think this is a change for the better... and less sewing will be involved... so far I have 40 16 patch blocks (I sewed 10 more after I took this picture)... so I'm over halfway finished...yeah me!!

And less sewing of the 16 patch project means I can play with some other projects... in straightening up I unearthed a Debbie Mumm 9 patch project I'd like to get back to... not sure how big I planned on it to be...I need to count how many blocks I've sewn and how many are cut out and go from there... I have more blocks than in this picture ...

 and I found some large hexagons of Debbie Mumm that I cut out...

again,  not sure how big  I planned to make it... probably thought I'd make it bed sized but I'm trying to curtail those thoughts... lap size is okay...lap size is okay...lap size is okay...  that's my new mantra as quilts seem to get away from me...  it would be good to work on both of these Debbie Mumm projects pretty much at the same time as all my Debbie's are in plastic bins ... and I will have to lug all of them out of the root cellar closet ... who am I kidding, Nick will have to lug them out of the root cellar closet... he's such a good kid... but then I'd be able to see all the stuff I have. In my old house I had enough shelf space that I could keep them out all the time, but I have half as much square footage now... and that's okay... another change that worked out well...

As for cross stitch, I've decided that I'm done stitching patriotic stuff... I'm happy with what I've gotten finished ... and I looked through my many many many WIPs and decided to stitch on one of the projects I started for my "7 for my 70th birthday"... Blackbird Designs Crowns & Shields....I'm only doing about 3/4ths of the chart so it will fit in a certain spot ... here's where I am now...

I'm doing this in a monochromatic colorway... DMC 829, 830, 831, 832, 833, 834... and I'm contemplating who's initials I'll put in the 6 cartouches... there are several possibilities... and this is nice easy stitching...in pawing through my stash of wips,  there is also a Halloween piece that caught my eye and a Thanksgiving piece that is kitted up but still needs linen... it would be good to get a jump on my Fall stitching as  the days do fly by, don't they?

Soooo next week... like I said, forecast is for some rain Sunday through Friday...I'm chomping at the bit to get the rest of the dahlias in the ground and the rain  may curtail that activity ... but it opens up time for sewing....it shouldn't take too long to do another 20 of the 16 patch blocks but I don't have the alternate block fabric yet... and once I get it I'll probably want a break from that project... soooo right now the Debbie Mumm projects are top of my list...but it could also change... LOL... always something changing, right?? I don't have a lot on my calendar, working out on Monday, Elliott on Tuesday and a haircut on Thursday... I keep telling myself that I should block out an entire week and make no plans and stay home... but I never follow through with that because something always calls me out of the house...usually eating out... one of my favorite things to do...LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... after I get the grocery shopping done for a certain family member I should have the rest of the day free...Nick's making penne and meat sauce for dinner... a favorite meal of ours ... and I think I'll go out and stitch on the sunroom porch and watch the birds.

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Not what I planned on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well that week didn't go as I planned... not at all... it started out nicely on Sunday and Monday and I got some sewing done... and Tuesday is always nice with Elliot... but the rest of the week was a mess... Wednesday had me going to a physical therapy appointment that I thought would just be a conversation about training and scheduling and turned into a full blown work out session... I was pooped after that...

And then came Thursday... and it was a disaster. Family member fell and was complaining of back pain that they said was a 10... went to the ER... when we walked in I knew I was going to be there a looooooooooong time... as I looked around the lobby I saw lots of people who had been taken back for some triage, but then returned to the lobby... tell tale signs were the tabs/leads from a EKG and the connections that a blood draw and/or IV had been started... my first impression was correct. I struck up a conversation here and there and everyone I spoke with had been there 3-4 hours... yikes. I heard rumors that the hospital was full... no beds available... and it wasn't a rumor. Finally got called back after sitting 5 hours in the lobby but never got inside an ER exam room. The entire evaluation was conducted in a hallway in front of the nurses station... and we weren't the only ones there... young women in a bed right next to us was getting an IV and her mom was sitting on the end of the gurney.  Family member did get x-rays... nothing broken, no concussion... that was good news... sent home with a lidocaine patch and some ibuprofen... total elapsed time ... 7 hours.  And since the hospital had no beds there were people in the ER exam rooms who had been there over 40 hours!! ... when we left there was a hallway of old women in wheelchairs waiting to be seen and someone was trying to sleep on the floor...and this was one of the highest rated hospitals in the area.  It looked like a 3rd world country and this is the hospital I normally go to ... not sure I'll be coming back.

Needless to say I was exhausted on Friday and had a splitting headache... and I don't get headaches very often... and now it is Saturday and I'm still not feeling great... achy and tired... and as you've surmised I did not get much crafty stuff done this week. I started another small patriotic piece...an Uncle Sam... but I have made several errors and I put it in time out... I did finish knitting a sock while sitting in the ER lobby...I need to cast on its mate... 

And here's what I did get done... my Too Ra Loo quilt top ... pattern here from Jen Belnap....

And drat!!! there is not one, not 2 but THREE  four-patches turned the wrong way!!! I will fix them but I'm not going to pin it back up and take another picture... I've done all the ladder climbing  today that I want too... I made this bigger than the pattern... it is about 88" square... and when I started out the low volumes were quiet... but they got louder and louder as I went on... and it is quite busy busy busy... but I'm okay with that ... I like having a lot to look at in a quilt and lots of the fabrics talk to me...

Like the spools of thread and in the upper right hand corner there is a print with the names of lots of trees.... I love trees... I had 5 of them planted in my yard and I'd plant more if I had more room... luckily the neighbors have some nice trees too... there is a 70 year old oak across the street... sorry tangent...

And the chickens and those cute little smiling snails and the pink polka dots...

And some lobsters... I'm really craving a lobster roll... not an easy thing to find here in the landlocked Midwest...

And this Lori Holt quilt of pattern pieces... reminds me of my Mom sewing clothes for me... and dragonflies...

And do you remember dot-to-dot books... I loved them as a child... need to find some for Elliott... and another sewing related print from Lori Holt...

And vintage cars...my dear brother who's been gone 7 years now, had several of these kinds of cars... in fact when he passed he had a pole barn building filled with vintage cars... I miss him a lot... 

And another thing I miss is going to a BIG fabric store and shopping for novelty prints... since Covid it hasn't been the same... Fabric Shack in Waynesville OH was my FAVORITE store... and it is still in business but just as an online retailer...although recently they are allowing you to come and pick up fabric orders in person... I'm hoping they may go back to being a brick and mortar store ... now I have no problem buying fabric online but it is NOT the same as walking the aisles and fondling bolts ... it just isn't...

And I've got this wide back for it...

Now I just need for Delinda to say she has my other quilts finished and I can run up to her place and pick up and drop off.  And I need to clean up and straighten up my sewing studio...

A scrappy quilt like this one makes a mess but there are a whole lot of other project bits and pieces strewn around... and if I tidy up the cutting table and around the sewing machines, my cleaning lady always vacuums the space when she comes... that is so nice... she's just supposed to do the bathrooms and the kitchen but a clean floor in my sewing area always makes me happy!

No decorating was done... and I  attempted to FFO 2 pieces of patriotic stitching...and neither is totally finished...sigh... maybe this upcoming week will be more productive...maybe... I have an appointment of some sort M/T/W/F... and I had to cancel an appointment last week that I need to re-schedule...not sure when I'll fit it in as I really really really would like Thursday to stay appointment free and maybe I can start re-decorating... 

Weather wise we got a lot of rain last week... total for May was over 6"... not a record but a lot of wet stuff...my sod is looking good but the petunias in the window boxes need to dry out... I want to fertilize them but the don't need anymore water right now... and I'm itching to get my dahlias planted in the raised beds...however I haven't heard back from the sprinkler people and I assume they'd like to put the drip lines in without my having a bajillion dahlia tubers already planted... I'll bug them again Monday...

So Sunday plans are lunch with our dear friends and I may putz in the yard a bit... there are always weeds to pull and the marigolds I planted didn't get off to a great start... I still have a tray or two that I could plant... and there will definitely be a nap on the sunroom porch... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts...always pretty stuff to see there...

Hope your week ... and my week... are good ones!

happy stitching-

carol fun