Snowmania ... inside... on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello -- well this is the first week that has felt "normal"... things occurred on the days they were suppose to... and I like that routine... we didn't have a lot of places to go and I like that too... I did consign all the Christmas decorations to their plastic bins and my son toted them down to the basement... did a small purge and have a little pile of stuff to give to Goodwill... made a bit more room for more stuff... and I LOVE my stuff!!

It is taking longer to get out all the snowmania than in the past... couldn't be because I'm getting older and slower, could it??  No way... well maybe... and there was a bit of indecision on my part as where to put what... I didn't want the displays to be exactly like they were last year...which would have been the easy way out... I wanted to mix things up a little... and some things are in different places but other things returned to their previous location... oh well... I'm happy with the arrangement so far.. a rough count is at least 80 pairs of beady little eyes are peering out into my living room... good thing I'm not paranoid...LOL.. and copious amounts of fake snow have fallen here, there,  and everywhere... my family thinks they may need to stage an intervention ... I do love the look of the snow in the displays... but they are safe for the moment as I've run out of the fake snow... should have bought more after Christmas... will remember to do that next year as I don't see my fascination with the sparkly stuff diminishing any time soon...

Here's what I'm "done" with.. to start... my calendar display... the January edition of Hands on Designs A Year of Celebration and a Christmas present from my younger son... a snow/glitter globe... so cool!! ... and fake snow...

I moved the Prairie Schooler Winter piece to the other side of the entertainment center so it got a little more attention... and fake snow...

Moving around the room... the wall quilt and tier tray... this was a super easy quilt... it is a panel from Moda... I added the two borders on the bottom and had Quilting by David do a great Snow Crystals panto on it... I love his vintage 50's vibe...

the tier tray has a nice mix of cross stitch and snowmen ...

at the top a piece from Teresa Kogut...

next level has the Winter ABC's from Lizzie Kate

and my most recent finish... Holiday Hoopla Christmas... except I eliminated the Christmas elements... for me Christmas and snowmen are mutually exclusive... so I removed his hat and gave him a cute bow tie ... added some pompom trim and popped him into a little tart pan...

bottom level has Alfred from Heart in Hand Designs... I'd like to do some more small pieces like him to add to my displays...

I'm still working on the shelf display but I did get All Bundled Up FFO'd..... I love that polka dot ribbon... picked it up months ago at Dollar Tree... bought a couple of spools ... you'll see more of it ...

Another display is this two tier table.... lots of beady little eyes here... mostly ornaments ... I love all these little guys too... notice the artful use of fake snow... LOL

A new display area for me is in my kitchen... I got in trouble after seeing this chicken wire box shelf on IG... I pined after it for a while and then found it at my local Hobby Lobby for 50% off... sold!!!

it is a generous size and I was able to fill it with two snowman cookie jars which are both gifts from my younger son and lots of smaller snowmen who are food themed... you can't see it in this picture but there is a lip on the box and inside at the base is.... wait for it... fake snow!!

So while snowmania is happening inside Mother Nature has no clue what season it is... last week had a couple of lovely sunny days in the 50's and the last 2 days have been rainy and 65... we broke a 90 year old record for a high temperature yesterday... 70 degrees ... in January ... in Ohio... I'm not complaining because my furnace isn't running non-stop... forecast for next week is unseasonably mild temperatures... I'll bet we pay for this in February and March... Mother Nature always wins in the end.

As for what I got done in the crafty realm this week... well I finished knitting  a shawl I stumbled across in a ziploc bag... I have NO clue when I started it, but it is very pretty yarn and an easy pattern... I'll show it when I get it blocked... and that led me to another project which is totally captivating me... I can't stop knitting on this...

The pattern is a freebie called Taina and you can see it here.... the yarn is a new to me brand ...Urth Yarns  Uneek Fingering... I got it here at Jimmy Beans  Wool... I love that it stripes up and slowly changes colors... the beginning has a lovely olive and taupe stripe section...moving into gold and brown ...and now I'm knitting a turquoise and rust section...

 between wanting to get to a new pattern repeat and wanting to get to a new color section I can't put it down... lots of easy garter stitch and yarn overs... I'm using the 3002 colorway which you can see here... but I also bought a skein of 3020 ... you can't have a skein of yarn or a fat quarter of fabric or a pattern travel alone... its like with nuns... they have to have a companion with them... right???

I did make some progress on the Winter Welcome...

I'm shooting for a finish next week...

And in the meantime there is a lot on the agenda next week... lunches with friends and babysitting and dinner with friends and a birthday celebration for my older son... he'll be 34... boy the time flys ... for today we have a spaghetti and meatball dinner planned ... and we can break in the new high chair I got for Elliott... that should be fun...


Well I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and check out what everyone else is up to...there are quilt block on my design wall calling out for companionship ... I hope I can accommodate them later in the week...and I'm pondering several new quilt projects ... can't make up my mind which to start first...hope you have a great week ahead... I'm off to prep dinner and I had a thought where there might be another little bag of that fake snow... more snowmania...LOL!

happy stitching-
carol fun

Revisting the past on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all ...it is Sunday? Right??  With the holidays in the middle of the week I've been totally off on what day of the week it is... I like holidays but I am a creature of habit... I like my routine... eat, sleep, craft, repeat...

As I've said before I don't make resolutions but a new year does make you think of things you want to do... I know some people have made tallies of UFO's both quilting and cross stitch... ummm.... NOT gonna happen... I don't need to know the actual number of projects that are languishing in plastic bins and bags... I am content in the knowledge that they are dry and dust free and are patiently  waiting to be released from their plastic prison.... someday... someday...

However something came over me on January 1... I saw a new pattern on a blog and thought, oh I'd like to do that... and then I thought Carol you have lots of stuff already started, why don't you look at some of those... and I did ... and then I decided that I should work on them.... OMG... I've been abducted by aliens... what has gotten into me???

First I pulled out a top that hasn't seen the light of day since October, 2016... it is called Cutting Corners and you can see the pattern  here ... it was put in time out because it had gotten on my last nerve... its problem was I could not get the borders to lie flat... I had taken off the borders and shortened them and then put them back on THREE times... but I resolved to give it one more try... and I did ... and it still isn't perfect but it is better... here's a pick of what it looked like when it went into time out...

I don't have a picture to show of what it looks like now but it was improved upon... I decided that I didn't want to look at it anymore... I had fabric for a back and sewed that up and sent it off to Quilting by David... hopefully it won't drive him as crazy as it did me... I figure he'll stretch it when he goes to quilt it and fingers crossed it won't get too many puckers... but if it does I will be okay with that because it will be done... and done is waaaay better than perfect...

A caveat for this pattern... if I want doing it again I wouldn't do it the way the pattern suggests... you end with bias on the all the outside edges of the blocks ...which I believe is the root of the problem I've had getting the borders to lie flat... you are sewing a straight of grain piece - the border - to blocks that have bias on the edge... I did starch the blocks and stay stitch the edge but as you can see it didn't fix all my issues... just a warning...  I have seen other quilts using this pattern and they looked fine... however the pictures weren't of the top but of a finished quilt... I'm hoping quilting will help this one...


And somehow working on this top from the past got me thinking about another one I had worked on... I remembered that the fabric was funky prints and colors and I don't have a clue why I put it into a plastic holding cell... but I did... and I found it and released it... I had 2 more rows to sew on with sashing but the rows were sewn and the sashing was made and it didn't take much to get it together... then on Thursday I got the borders on it and I made binding for it... ta da!!!

This pattern is one of my own ideas... it is a riff on a pattern from Missouri Star called Diamond Dash that I made in Christmas fabrics back in 2016 ... you can see it here... anyway I still like the chartruese-y yellow and olive green and slate blue and peach... you hardly ever see peach colored fabric... and the mid-century retro line drawing and birds give me flash backs to the 50's...

the golden age of my childhood... I was wishing I had more of this collection from Jenn Ski... it was called Tiki Tok... and decided to search the world wide web and I found some yardage on an Etsy shop... it is winging it's way here as we speak and will made a funky pieced back...

Unbelieveable... two days into the new year and I had 2 quilt tops completed... and I'm thinking of releasing another one from its solitary confinement as I know it only needs a border... I just don't remember if it needs one or two borders... but it may see the light of day here soon...

I also have a couple of new quilt  projects I want to work on and I have way less guilt starting another new project since I've completed something from the UFO collection... and speaking of UFO I did look in the box that has most of my cross stitch UFO's... there are several samplers there that I'd like to break out and finish up... I'm currently working on this piece that I started on Christmas Day...

this is  Welcome Winter by The Drawn Thread... you can find the chart here... I'm stitching this on a 32 ct Opalescent linen that I dyed Rit Aquamarine ...  here's my progress...

I don't know if you can see it but it very sparkly even after the dyeing...

I've already stitched the Summer and Autumn Welcomes and I'd like to do Spring too... I love these charts except for the fact that they are charted for silks and I don't want to pay the price for silk for a seasonal piece... so I've  come up with my own conversion using DMC and one Gentle Arts and one Crescent Colors...  GA Ruby Slipper for the cardinal and CC Queen Bee (my favorite yellow) for the house... I also changed the shutters on the house to DMC 3371 and made the front door DMC 934... very similar to the actual colors of my little house... I'm happy with my choices... I'd like to have this done next week when I go to put out my snowmen for winter... I still have all my Christmas stuff up and I think I've reached the point where I want to put it away... however, I'm waiting for my new snowman wall quilt to come back from the long armer... it is just the Moda panel but he will be cute ... you can see the panel here... my decorating usually  starts with getting the quilt up on the wall and then I do the rest of the house... but there is no sign of the snowman and now I'm getting antsy to release the snow men... I will see what next week brings... think I'll start with just putting some stuff away...

For the obligatory weather rant ... the weather was lovely on New Years Day... sunny and around 50.. I sat out on the sunporch stitching for a while... great way to begin the year... however, things turned gray and rainy and yuckky... snow flurries but not sticking... so I shouldn't complain too loudly... forecast has some sun in it for today ... and right now it is sunny...yeah... I think I'll  crank up the space heater and sit on the sunporch...

Doing dinner with Elliott and the rest of the family... not a lot of obligations on the calender for this week... I like that a lot... not sure why I'm feeling energized to sew and stitch but I want to keep moving as I'm sure the feeling will pass...

Elliott is growing like a weed... he really really wants to walk... his daddy walked at 10 months and he is going to be 9 months old in a week or so... his parents are so proud that he has 4 teeth... Grandma is happy to see this...

curls... he has curls... his daddy has naturally curly hair and so do I ... a gene that I didn't think would get passed on this far, but it looks like it has... Oh he is too stinking cute!!!  Totally unbiased opinion... LOL

Well I'm happy I got this post together early... started  on Friday and worked on it Saturday and Sunday... perhaps that should be my new routine... we shall see... I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today... and maybe doing a recap quilt post for Monday... we shall see what I get done today... working on some snowflake blocks...

Hope you have a productive week ahead with plenty of crafty time...
happy stitching-
carol fun

Good bye 2019 and hello 2020...

Well another year has sped by hasn't it?... and the end of a year always has me trying to figure out what I did do last year and what do I want to do next year... actually I know what I want to do next year... I want to do more of what I've been doing... stitching, knitting, quilting, gardening and complaining about the weather... I'm really really good where that last one is concerned... LOL

Now I haven't been a great blogger this year...with this entry I'll have done 43 posts for the year... a whopping ONE more than I did in 2018... and I'm not making any resolutions that 2020 will be a lot better... I'm really trying to post once a week... but maybe instead of Sunday I might do Saturday... Sundays tend to get busy busy busy... so perhaps if I shoot for Saturday  and then perhaps it will be ready on Sunday...maybe...  I've considered not blogging and just doing Instagram ... you can find me here at carolfun53...but then when I want to figure out what I've done and when I did it I usually search the blog for the answer... so blogging is a diary of my crafty life... and that is very helpful because the memory ain't what it use to be...

I've kept a little better track of what I've worked on ... a paper list by my stitching chair... and this was definitely the year of  cross stitch ... according to my list I've done 53 individual pieces of cross stitch... most have been on the small size as I've been doing seasonal decorating pieces rather than large samplers... my smallest piece was the little gnome in the middle... he's about 1" tall...

and the largest piece was probably this one...

All Bundled Up by With Thy Needle & Thread... I started this in January and I just put the last stitch in it yesterday... boy he has a big head... and he will be a nice addition to my snowman decorating...and the background color is off... IRL it is a lovely mottled olive green...


As for quilting I've completed 14 quilts... but some of them were started in previous years and just finally got completed in 2019.. and several were small in size... but done is done... and I've got 2 tops waiting to be quilted and one top at the quilter... so lets call it 17 total ... I'm closing the year with this top... Kringle& Klaus Meet in the Middle...

and a recurring complaint of mine is I hate the camera in my phone...  the color is way off on the big picture... this close up is a bit better...

my phone is an iPhone 8 and it has never taken great pictures... I'm seriously considering upgrading ... my daughter in law just got an iPhone 11 and I'm blown away by the pictures she's taken with it... professional quality ...and it doesn't hurt that she is taking lots of pictures of the best thing that happened in 2019... the cutest baby in the world (and I'm not biased...not at all ...LOL) was born... here is a picture she took the other day at the park...

now tell me he isn't adorable!!! Elliott is as sweet chunk of a boy who is a mini-me of his daddy... my justification for a new phone is I want better pictures of Elliott and my stuff...I actually made an appointment to go to the Verizon store yesterday but couldn't even get a parking spot and a look inside showed it was packed... I'll try again next week...

So I have a quiet evening planned for tonight... a steak dinner at home with my younger son...and I'll ring out the old year and welcome in the new year some cross stitching, some sewing  and some knitting... oh I forgot about a tally on the knitting... I haven't been as diligent in that area... I think I've knit about a dozen pairs of socks and I've started a hundred shawls...ok maybe it only 6 or 7 ... but none are finished... you can check my IG to see the scrappy socks I did finish....and I will try to complete a couple  of shawls before 2020 is over...

I hope that 2020 will be wonderful year for all of you ... thanks for stopping by and reading this blog... I shall try to update in a timely fashion (and my version of timely may be a wee bit different than one would think) and I'll continue to rant about Mother Nature... on that you can depend...  I already have garden plans for next year and ideas for what I want to accomplish in other crafty areas... I don't make resolutions... other than my mantra to always try to try... but I never clarify what it is I'm trying... keep it vague and no one can blame you...LOL

Happy New Year and Happy Stitching-
carol fun

Merry Christmas!!!

Hello all... I hope that each of you has a very Merry Christmas!!  We are having a low key celebration with an open house of appetizers at my son's home and relaxing with Elliott on his first Christmas...

the Dude is doing what the Dude does best... I think a nap will be on the agenda today too!!

Hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas!!

happy stitching-
carol fun

Need more time on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all... I know I skipped posting last Sunday... I didn't have my displays finished and I was feeling yuckky from a cold...this week the cold has subsided and I think the displays are as complete as they are going to be... I always want to add a little more here and there but time is not on my side... I have Christmas cards to work on and some baking to do and I'm not done shopping yet.... but  instead of doing the things I should do, I've been knitting on a shawl ...mindless knitting... a great predestination project...but back to what is finished... Christmas displays...

I'm starting with the biggest display ... my shelf unit... I looked back at the pictures I took last year and  then mixed things up as I had some new pieces to add...  here's the whole unit...

from the top ... on the wall my Bent Creek Quaker Noel Row... notice there is no "L"... a little joke Noel... I didn't get it until I friend stitched it and pointed it out... it was charted all in one color and I added in the gold and red...on the top shelf my 35 year old Nativity scene... I needlepointed this in 1984... the designer was Polly Carbonari... I thought it would be the perfect kind of Nativity scene for a small child... soft and non-breakable... I showed it to Elliott but he's still at the stage where he needs to put everything in his mouth... so we kept a little distance this year...

Next shelf is a silvery forest... I had a couple silvery glittery trees and I picked up a few more this year... from left to right... a little lady from Pineberry Lane, Merry Little Stitches, I left off her Santa hat... freebie deer from Prairie Schooler... another little lady, this one from With Thy Needle & Thread , Peppermint and Holly flanking the Christmas Bird also from WTN&T... an additional lady from Pineberry Lane, A Sprig of Holly  ... and finally the Merry Christmas sampler from Blackbird Designs... the PS deer and the Christmas Bird have been stitched for a couple of years...they just saw the light of day and framing this year... picked up the frames at Hobby Lobby and sparkled them up with some glitter paint... I really like this shelf...

Below that is my J'Arrive by Tournicoton... stitched him last year... a cute snow globe tin and a sleigh full of gingerbread men...next year I'd like to tuck a bit more cross stitch in... Note to self: need to stitch some little pieces...should write this down somewhere...LOL

I was surprised that I could squeeze that small tier tray on the shelf... the tray came from Target's Dollar Spot/Bullseye's Playground... I'll be using that again in my displays as it lets me cram more stuff in... and somehow I have a small collection of Santa head.... 3 pieces makes it an official collection....the one with the real poinsettia was just purchased last week...I love the little poinsettias... the cross stitch piece is Little Bits of Christmas from The Drawn Thread... frame from Hobby Lobby was shiny gold... I toned it down by over painting it with a berry red craft paint...

And on the other side of the space is the little yellow cabinet...

I bought that reproduction ceramic Christmas tree at Hobby Lobby... I remember my Mom like everyone's Mom made one back in the late 60's/early 70's... don't know where it went but it does bring back happy memories... and the little retro TV came from Walmart... it plays music as the train circles by... and I finished Oh Christmas Tree by All Through the Night  ... very happy with this one... I think the addition of a little red and gold adds a lot.... totally lucked out with the frame... from Hobby Lobby, of course, can't beat half priced frames!.... it was already painted that shabby yellow.... just what I was looking for...

And I did finish December from  Hands on Designs A Year of Celebrations... all 12 pieces stitched and finished... yeah... I'm proud of myself for keeping up with the series...

Well I think I'll stop here... I still have a bit more to show but I'll save it for next week... I amaze myself with how much I can stuff into my small home... but then I go and look at Priscilla Blaine's house ... you can watch her Christmas home tour here... and  I don't know how she does it...so many Christmas cross stitch pieces!! I've had conversations with a couple of friends in the last week and we've all said we want more Christmas stitching so we are going to try and stitch Christmas all year long... I'm planning on putting together a basket with small charts kitted up and ready to go so I can have more smalls... there are several Prairie Schooler pieces I'd love to have... such classics!


Soooo... I hope your Christmas preparations are going smoothly... my goal for today is getting the Christmas cards done... and later this week some baking ... and I want to totally finish my Christmas shopping... a couple of things I wanted to get are out of stock... and there are people on my list who are very hard to shop for... however Elliott is not one of those people... OMG... I have so many things for the little guy...he is such fun to shop for... I know my son and daughter-in-law will tell me I got too much but they have no idea how much I didn't buy...LOL


Here's a wish for a productive week for all of us.... I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts  and  looking at what everyone else has done this past week....the deadline of Christmas certainly makes us speedy rather than slow stitchers...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Procraftinating on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all -- hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving... we didn't celebrate until Friday and oh did I eat too much... we all gathered at my daughter-in-law's parents home... they supplied turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and peas... I brought prime rib and pasta salad and dressing and rolls... plates were piled high... and then there was dessert... my younger son made a chocolate eclair icebox confection and my daughter-in-law's mother made a heavenly pumpkin pie with a pecan streusel topping... oh my!!  I got a piece to take home and it made a yummy breakfast on Saturday... hey, don't judge ... pumpkin is high is beta carotene ... how can that be bad for you ???

I enjoyed a quite day at home on Thursday... my younger son and I had a tasty lasagna dinner and I contemplated what projects I should work on ... there are several Christmas pieces and some snowmen and a winter welcome I want to do... and there several quilts waiting to be bound and a couple to stitch up... so what did I do??  Well, not any of those projects... instead I dug out a large Blackbird Designs project I had started back in September of 2017...  it is the 9 charts that comprise the Loose Feather series "For the Birds"... this is  gonna be LARGE... the stitch count is approximately 285 x 285... on the 32 ct linen I painted that will make it finish about 17 3/4" square...  here's what it looked like the last time I had it out of its plastic bin...

and here's what it looks like now...

I was motivated to pick this project back up from an Instagram post by Laura of  @maudeandmozart... she proposed a SAL after seeing this masterpiece by Lori Bryant Bylsma @loribyslma at The Attic...

Sorry these aren't great pictures... I could only do screenshots... if you go to their IG accounts they are a bit better...

Even with the less than perfect photos you can see how wonderful this project is... I love the little border Lori added but I don't think I have enough fabric for that ... not sure what I was thinking when I cut the fabric 21" square... there won't be a lot of extra fabric but there will be enough to have it framed... I have been wanting to do another Blackbird Designs piece for a while... the last couple of years I've done more seasonal decorating pieces ... which I love ... I think they add a lot to my displays... but in my heart, samplers are my first love... when I started cross stitching 35 years ago I told myself that I would only do samplers with houses... I thought that would limit the number of charts I'd have to chose from... ROLFMAO... how clueless was I???   As for the samplers with houses I've stitched over 75 different charts... the walls of my house are liberally decorated with them... I enjoy looking at them every day...  my plan for this project is to complete it by the end of 2020... I think that's a reasonable goal along with all the other stuff I want to do...

And while I was stitching this Thursday and Friday,  I was ignoring that the Fall/Thanksgiving decor needs to get put away and the Christmas stuff needs to come out... by Saturday I got a bit more Christmas spirit and got the Fall decor stuffed back into their plastic bins... didn't take as long as I thought it would... so I started getting out my Christmas goodies... and I am very pleased to announce that my Christmas tree is up and decorated... took about 10 minutes... and how did I achieve this feat??? Remember last year when I wrapped a tablecloth around my tree and had my son take it down to the basement storage??? Well he brought it back up and plugged it in and EVERYTHING worked!!!! All the light and motion ornaments worked... and the bubble lights work... and while a couple of ornaments fell off, none broke so we just put them back on... Oh I am sooooooo HAPPY with myself!!!  My sainted Grandma use to to this with her tree... such a smart woman... now the tree isn't a big one... I'd say it's 4.5 ft tall ... but I sit it on a small table and it looks like a big one from the outside in my front window...now I just need to find the angel tree topper... has to be in one of the Christmas bins, but which one???

This part of my decorating is complete... I like adding those Christmas quilts in Basic Grey fabrics to the back of my chairs... each one has a "golden" fabric in it which goes with the pillows ... you know that I will find a way to add yellow to any holiday decor... it makes me HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!! Now I still need to do my display shelves and my tier tray and the porch and the little cabinet and the kitchen... my younger son brought up the plastic bins and I'll work on it later today and tomorrow and the day after...

I did get the bindings on two quilt for me this week and got them washed and dried... here is Fall Fizz... not sure why I picked that name because none of the fabrics are leaves ...just Fall-ish colors... paisley and floral and vines and dots... an old collection from Chez Moi  called Fresh Air... you can find the free pattern I used for this here... it is from the blog Runnstitch...

And here is a pic of the panto called Almost Paisley from  Quilting by David...

And I'll be having visions of sugarplums dancing in my head this month... here's my finished Christmas Quilty Stars ...

A block or two...

The panto called Peppermint Palace from Quilting by David...

And the back which makes me hungry ...

This afternoon we are going to see the train display at Union Terminal in Cincinnati... I've taken my boys to see the trains every year since they were born... my older son adores trains and this will be the first viewing for his son...my adorable grandson... Elliott... I'm sure Elliott will grow up to love trains as much as his Daddy...

So I hope you and I both have time this week to get our holiday decorations out... I have several pieces that need to be FFO'd... and some new stuff from Target's Dollar Spot I want to include... it will be fun ... need to put on some Christmas music and light a cinnamon candle...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... I'm sure there are some interesting projects to browse...

take care... happy stitching-
carol fun

A serious case of startitis on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all ... excuse the lack of a post last Sunday but I really didn't have anything new to show... being out of the house every day of the week substantially cuts into the crafty time... and while this week had lots of out of the house activities I did do a little better in getting some things finished...and a bunch of things started... I'm an EXCELLENT starter... finishing sometimes eludes me... mostly because other shiny stuff comes along and I'm off in another direction...

So to finished things... always good to start on a high note... I got my Stone Street Stitchworks Turkey FFO'd  (fully finished) and priscillafied.... and put the tier tray together...

Here's the whole display with my Grungy Gourds quilt... my version of Cluck Cluck Sew's Pumpkins quilt... I do love all those Basic Grey Grunge fabrics...

The tier tray by itself....

Top  - Stone Street Stitchworks piece done on 32 ct linen I painted with Rit dyes...

Middle - Little sampler, Autumn ABC's by Lizzie Kate

Bottom - Tiny Turkey from Bent Creek... I stitched him years ago but only FFO'd him last week...

I was surprised at how many smaller turkey's I've collected ... quite a flock...I still feel like Thanksgiving should have been last week versus this coming week... it is going to be a very short time between this turkey dinner and the next... not that we're having turkey... we do prime rib... but you know what I mean.

So with the tray completed I worked on some Christmas-y cross stitch... I'm almost done with this piece, The Drawn Thread's Little Bits of Christmas...

Santa needs an eye and a lip and a pom pom for his hat and we're good to go... and with that complete I was going to move onto December from  Hands on Designs A Year of Celebration... the last one in the monthly series I need to do... but something shiny caught my eye and I thought I could put in a couple of stitches... and I did....

This is Oh Christmas Tree by All Through the Night...  you can see the chart here...I'm stitching it on a piece of 32 ct linen I found in my stash ...

not sure if I painted this with a particular chart in mind or what... but since I can't remember and it is big enough for this design I'm using it... the blue isn't as intense as is showing in this picture but I can't figure out how to adjust it... sigh... now I should leave well enough alone and just stitch the whole thing in the called for Valdani thread, which is lovely... the color is P2 Olive Green and there is so much pretty variegation... but I never take the easy path so I decided that the top  star should be gold... and maybe all the stars should be gold... and the little birds could be red... I think that would look nice and festive ... so that's my plan...


And while I was playing with Oh Christmas Tree another new chart was shoved through my mail slot... this is Yes Virginia by Remembering ByGone Stitches....

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!!!
I purchased the kit here from Country Sampler in Spring Green WI... and I had no idea it would arrive so quickly... I purchased it late on Wednesday  night and it arrived yesterday... and again I could not resist putting a few stitches into it...

actually quite a few stitches... the fabric is a lovely rosy color and the flosses are Gentle Arts Parchment and Weeks Flatfish... I'm stitching one ply over 2 threads and while I usually like better coverage I think it works for this design...Using 2 ply on this would be a lot more work to get the threads to lie nice and neat... this is way quicker ... and it give is a vintage feel in my humble opinion....

Sidenote here... as I was typing I had a thought... a dangerous situation for me... why did the kit include so much Parchment... 3 skeins... that seems like a lot of thread... and I looked at the chart again and it called for using one ply on 36 ct linen (a different one than the kit supplied but I like this better)  ... perhaps the linen in the kit isn't 36 ct... I re-checked the listing online and it says it is 36 ct...hmmmm... got out my ruler and pins and Mr. Magoo magnifying glasses and checked for myself... the linen is 32 ct.!!  So you could use 2 ply and you would probably need 3 skeins then.... I think I'm going to leave it as it is and continue on with one ply... reminder... listen to the little voices in your head when something doesn't look right... and listen when they say to get out of your chair and get a piece of chocolate... I never ignore that little voice...LOL

And another thing, in my humble opinion the chart could have been executed better... there are only 2 symbols and o and an s and where the two are mixed together in the Dear Virginia text over the beard they are hard to distinguish... I'm going to mark up my working copy to make them easier to see and plan to stitch the words before I work on the beard...also since I've figured out that this is 32 not 36 I may stitch the Dear Virginia words in 2 ply so they show up better... I know there isn't a lot of contrast on the model picture and I may like it to show more... will cross that bridge later...


So that's 2 new totally unplanned, no where on my radar cross stitch starts... but wait there's more... and it isn't a set of steak knives... yarn has been calling my name too... it has been cold enough to wear a shawl or a scarf and I have some lovely ones but I'd like a couple of new ones to add to my wardrobe... first I started off with the free pattern which you can see here called May I Borrow this Please?  I was using a lovely gray Madelinetosh with accents of lime green and turquoise  and purple... but the project met an untimely demise at the mouth of a hungry vacuum cleaner... so sad... my son was vacuuming the rugs and didn't see it on the footstool and there was a bit hanging down and he sucked it up... did quite a number on the shawl and the knitting needles... he was quite upset that I would be mad, but somehow in my old age I've gotten more mellow about this kind of thing where he's concerned ... I know he didn't do it on purpose and I do appreciate his help around the house... could have happened to me too... I tried unraveling the yarn back to a place I could pick up the stitches but it was so tangled I gave up.... and I already had another project on a different set of needles....

this is another freebie pattern called One Skein Wonder and you can see it here... it said it was a good pattern for a varigated yarn and this one is certainly that... purple, red, gold, green, a touch of gray and white... before I wound it in a cake I thought there was a lot more white than what is showing... it is a Blue Moon Socks that Rock yarn, lightweight and is called Christmas Balls...and why does that sound vaguely raunchy???   Anyway I like the yarn colors but have found when I use it for socks that the colors fade pretty rapidly with repeated washings... so I'm using what I've stashed for shawls... it is good mindless knitting... a four row repeat ... and I have two more patterns picked out and plenty of yarn to chose from that I'd like to get to...

Also I got back two quilt from Quilting by David this week... Fall Fizz and my Christmas Quilty Stars... I got the binding on the first one but it is in the washer at the moment and I have the binding ready to go for the Christmas one... I'll show them next week after I've laundered them and they are all nice and crinkly... I love crinkly quilts!

So I've got plenty of stuff to do and  the Christmas decorating should commence this weekend... we are doing our family Thanksgiving on Friday at my daughter-in-law's parents home... which is fine since none of us are Black Friday shoppers... maybe I'll get started on Saturday or Sunday... first I have to put all the Thanksgiving stuff away and somehow dispose of all that straw I used in my displays... I got a good run out of it... I put it out in August and its still here... I shall replace it with fake snow which should also be around for a while... I'm figuring December, January and February... by March I'm usually mentally done with Winter and will break out some Spring-y stuff whether Mother Nature cooperates or not... and then I can mess around with Easter grass... LOL...always something to play with!

And speaking of the weather...you knew I couldn't get through a post without talking whining okay, complaining about the weather... it has been blah here... a day or two of sun and "seasonal" temperatures but mostly gray and below normal temperatures... I still need to clean the pumpkins out of my window boxes and I have a couple of pots of frosted and dead mums to dispose of too. It was not a pretty Fall ... we had that early freeze and the leaves just turned brown... yuck... and lots of the trees are still holding on to their leaves. The local garden expert says the probably won't drop their leaves now till Spring when the new growth pushes off the old stuff... could make for problems if we get a heavy wet snow that will bring down tree limbs on power lines... not a good situation. The two trees I notice the most are the one in my neighbor's yard that I see out of my kitchen window... it did drop its leaves but it never turned that gorgeous orange that it usually does... and the second tree is across the street in another neighbor's back yard... it did turn yellow but it seemed to be much sparser than in years past... it is an older tree...probably 65 years old...I hope it hangs on ... I do enjoy looking out it from my living room stitching chair...

Well I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and see what everyone else is up to... between blogs and watching cross stitch and decorating and DIY videos on youtube it is a wonder I get anything done...hope you have a lovely week ahead... time to spend with family and friends and time to spend with you crafty endeavors...

happy stitching-
carol fun