Sewing mojo makes an appearance on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well this is the third time I've tried to write this post... somehow mid -way through rambling on I deleted what I wrote twice... arghhh... let's hope this third time is a charm... overall it was a nice week... only had one medical appointment to chauffeur a family member too... it did take up almost all day but it is done... and the week presented me with two days to spend quality time with my sewing machine... woo hoo... I'll show what I accomplished a little further down...

The weather has morphed from the threat of Winter  continuing, to cautiously optimistic that Spring is going to sprung... started the week with some snow showers but ended with temps in the 70's ... I opened all the windows in the house and aired it out... I love doing that... and the fact that I didn't have to run the furnace or the AC... that brief blissful interlude where Duke Energy doesn't gouge me...also makes me happy! The forecast for next week looks pretty good ... things are still going to be soggy but warm...except for Thursday... Thursday looks cold... 30 degree drop in temp from Wednesday but then rebounds on Friday... sounds like another good day to spend with my sewing machine so I'll take that as a win.

The gorgeous weather on Friday (we hit 80 degrees here in SW Ohio) had me removing Winter decorations from the window boxes and plotting what I could put out until I can actually plant stuff in them (which realistically isn't till May...sigh). I found some cute bunnies and Easter egg cutouts that I ordered from Amazon... should be here today... I'm contemplating getting out my bunny driving a carrot car inflatable... it is less than a month till Easter...might be a bit too soon... I went looking for a picture of my inflatable and stumbled upon not 1, not 2 but 3 other bunnies driving carrot cars... OMG... you can see them here, and here and here... and then I found a 6 ft carrot that rotates here... and a reclining bunny here... and a 10 ft TALL rabbit here... such temptation... not sure I can resist all of them... I think at least one is going to be coming to my house...stay tuned...

As I write this I am doing a great job avoiding the task that needs to be attended to... I started last night to put away the snowmen decor... right now I'm staring at this line up ...

they need to go into the bins first so I can squeeze everything else in... all but one of them is a cookie jar and I stuff as much as I can inside each and every one.  All the stuff came out of 3 bins and I need it to all fit back in those 3 bins. The goal last year was to downsize each season by one bin... and I did...and the goal for this year is to keep it to the number of bins I started with.  

And I just realized I never showed what my big display looked like this year... so here's a quick look...

Lots of Jim Shore snowmen...two cross stitched snowmen heads from With Thy Needle & Thread ... and a scattering of cardinals.  I enjoyed  them but it is time for them to hibernate for another year. 

I hardly picked up a needle to cross stitch this week but I was productive in my sewing room. 

First I got the borders on the American Jane Daisy quilt...

now I'm not totally sold on that outer border. It isn't as dark in real life as it is showing up here...but it seems heavy... it was an inch wider when I first put it on and I cut it down... and when I get it back from Delinda I may cut it down again. 

Second, I sewed all the blocks for the Skylight quilt with the Gingiber Henhouse fabrics... 

I went with a kinda positive/negative color layout... except for that bottom row when I realized there are more darks than lights in this collection... and there were a lot of directional prints which HAD to be in  the proper orientation for my OCD... the panto I picked for this looks like chicken wire... which I think is very appropriate. 

I got back 2 quilts from Delinda they are both Easter/Springy and I want to get them bound this week so I can display them.  I really enjoyed sewing this week... haven't felt like that in a while... and I want to do more of it. This coming week looks like there might be time to sew on Monday/Thursday and Friday... Tuesday I'll be hanging with Elliott and Wednesday I work out in the morning with Anna and I have an appointment to get a steroid shot in my "good" knee. I've been babying the bad knee which has put more strain on the "good" one... I'm glad I have at least one good one at the moment. 

Have you checked out the new offerings at the Nashville Needlework Market?  There are some lovely pieces but so far I'm only tempted by this one from Teresa Venette called  A Cheerful Heart..

This was a retreat piece and I LOVE so much about this one... there is an alphabet which is a must for me... there are chickens ... there is a bird as big as the house ... and on the roof of the house is a sewing machine... OMG... it is perfect!!!

And I want this book from Blackbird Designs called Remember Me... this is the back cover and it shows the 9 little pieces that are inside...

Since there is no alphabet in this collection I think I'd like to do these as little pillows.  There is a woman's name in 8 of the blocks ...not sure if I'd include them... maybe put in the names of my Mom, and my 2 Grandmas, my 2 great aunts and the 5 aunts I have on my Dad's side of the family... needs some thought. 

There might be something else that catches my eye  that I haven't seen in any of the previews ...but I think I'm going to wait on ordering any of the winter charts I've seen. Teresa Kogut has 2 snowman booklets that are cute... but I'm over winter at the moment... and nothing that is coming out now is an exclusive ... I can order in the Fall... right? 

 I can't believe how virtuous I'm being at the moment... but I spent some time the other week going through my stash and I have soooooooo many beautiful charts I haven't gotten to yet and soooooooo many projects I've started ... I've always been a really good starter... LOL ... need to get better at finishing.  

And if you gotten this far and thought that I forgot to rant about the time change you are mistaken... this is the one I DETEST... we lose an hour of sleep... it has been documented many many times that the number of heart attacks and traffic accidents and workplace accidents INCREASE in the week after this change.

Fact I found today...

Using four categories of cost (heart attacks. strokes, workplace accidents and traffic accidents) it is estimated that the total economic cost of DST for the US is approximately $672 million annually. 

The sun sets 2 to 3 minutes later every day... so in about 3 weeks we'd be right where we are today... doesn't anyone have any patience anymore?  sheesh... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... and will be envious of Arizona and Hawaii who do not participate in the stupidity of DST... hope you have a good week ...nice weather and time to do something fun!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Too much running around on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - I'm writing this on Saturday afternoon as I sit on my sunroom porch... the sun is shining  and it is 68 degrees out here with no space heater on... so far today I've gone out for a delicious cheeseburger at the newest Cincinnati location of Shake Shack and I've eaten a good portion of a box of chocolate covered toffee... and I'm resting... because it has been one heck of a week again... according to the calendar in my phone where I keep track of all my comings and goings, I attended to over 25 separate errands/appointments/tasks in the past 5 days... some were enjoyable ... others were not... but everything needed to be done and they were completed... looking at next week (fingers crossed, not trying to jinx things) there is way less on my calendar... only one day stands out as a pain in the butt... and I'll deal with it. 

So  as you can surmise I didn't get a lot of crafty stuff done because by the time I got back to my comfy stitching chair I was tired...and on several occasions annoyed at life and situations that I'm involved in but don't have real control over... I'm sure you've all found yourself in similar situations... sigh...

However I did continue on my theme of patriotic stitching and I finished Uncle Sam from the Prairie Schooler No. 8 American Primitive... he's looking quite dapper if I say so myself...and I do!

and I got a few (very few) stitches in his companion Lady Liberty.  When I finish typing this I'm going to work on her out here on the sunroom porch... the light is wonderful!

I got the blocks and the side setting triangles  together for the Fresh as a Daisy quilt top I showed last week... however as I went to trim it up I realized I cut every one of those triangles wrong... there is bias along the entire outside edge...arghh... well too late now to change them as I don't have enough of that fabric and I'm in no mood to unsew all those pieces... I'm going to starch them and add a small 2" finished border before I put on the outer border and that should keep the rippling to a minimum.

There were a couple of open hours in my day on Thursday... and I hadn't received the border fabric for the Daisy quilt... and there were other UFO's I could have attended to .... BUT instead I started a new quilt... BECAUSE I WANTED TO!!!

I had a layer cake of The Henhouse by Gingiber... I love the chickens in this one!! 

I decided that I wanted to do something simple (cause I don't have the time or the brain power for anything complicated at the moment) so I chose the Skylight quilt pattern from Missouri Star as it only needs a layer cake... no extra fabric ... and it makes a nice throw size quilt  even if you leave off the borders...which is my current plan.  You can purchase the pattern here  or watch the video here ...  Hint: all the info needed to make the quilt was in the video...  

Here's where I am so far...

a little more than halfway done... not the final arrangement of blocks but I'm happy with what I'm seeing. 

Here are a couple of my favorite blocks so far...

and 16 blocks  I have left to sew...

and I even have some fabric with little red chicken feet prints that I can use for the back! This was a good mental health project for me and apropos as I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off this week...LOL

I'm trying to find the time and energy to put away the snowman stuff and get out some Spring/Easter stuff. I was able to pop into Homegoods this week while I was out running around... haven't been there in months and months... found TWO bunnies driving carrot cars ... that brings the fleet up to 6 or 7 vegetable vehicles...

Well the weather for Sunday and Monday isn't going to be as nice as today but the end of the week has a forecast of upper 60's... Spring may be on it's way... however the dreaded time change is next Sunday... you know how I detest the time change and this is the one where we lose an hour of precious sleep... who thinks this is a good idea?  Just leave the clock alone. The sunrise/sunset will change by about 2-3 minutes every day so in less than 3 weeks we would end up in the same spot we will on Sunday... a little patience wouldn't hurt anyone... IMHO... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I want to get the borders on my Daisy quilt this week and if possible get the blocks done and assembled on the Skylight quilt... lately I'm really wanting to sew and I don't want this mood to slip away. 

Hope your week ahead has a nice amount of crafty time in it!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Less drama means more craftyness on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well last week was for the most part, better than the 2 weeks previous... Monday had a rough start... took family member to 2 medical appointments... now said family member needs to take the meds prescribed and eat... something they weren't doing before... as of now they seem to be following the doctor's orders and on Wednesday appeared improved... hope this continues...

As there was less drama and trauma this week I actually had a couple of afternoons to indulge in crafty stuff... which made me happy!  I'm still in a patriotic groove where cross stitch is concerned...

I finished Heart in Hand Liberty House... a petite patriotic sampler...Fat

and I stitched up this little flag... it measures 2" high by 3" wide... 

it is on a piece of 18 ct Aida I found in my stash... I like the color but oh it was so soft... I don't like soft fabrics for stitching... anyway I think it turned out  well... as you can tell I like doing smyrna crosses... which is a good thing as there are 247 Smyrna crosses in this little piece!

Then on Wednesday I turned my attention to another patriotic chart that I love...Prairie Schooler No. 8  American Primitive... this was a unicorn chart for me for many years... the copyright is 1985... which means it is the same age as my older son... 41 years old... sheesh... where does the time go??  I stitched the Double Eagle Sampler from this chart back in '24. 

And I always planned to stitch all the other pieces from this chart... so I dyed up some linen with Evening Blue Rit dye and grabbed my favorite patriotic DMC flosses and got to work... here's how far I am on Uncle Sam...

I outlined his hair and jacket so now I can stitch and watch the Olympics at the same time... after he's down I want to do Lady Liberty and then the donkey and the elephant... I love how timeless Prairie Schooler designs are... and how comforting they are to stitch.

Friday I worked out early with Anna, came home and ate lunch and went down to my sewing room... haven't done that in eons... I wanted to sew up the first block in the FQS's Sewcialites 3 QAL... you can read all about it here... the plan is to release one block every Friday from now till the middle of August. You can make the blocks 3" or 6" or 9"... I'm doing the 9" size ... and I'm going to make it scrappy with Lori Holt fabrics... here's my first block...

I haven't made an Ohio Star block in a long long long time... but I think it came out pretty good... and it will be fun to use a lot of different fabrics in this quilt. I have a sizeable stash of Lori Holt fabrics so I'll have lots of variety. I like using a lot of her more "novelty" prints... in this block I fussy cut the little typewriters in the center and paired them with the little yellow tulip print... yellow tulips are my favorite flower... unfortunately they are also a favorite snack of the deer in my neighborhood so I don't grow them... I just like to sew with them and buy them at the grocery store... LOL

Well the Sewcialites block went together fairly quickly and I looked around my messy sewing studio and decided I should work on a project that was already started... and had been hanging around for quite a while... I started this in 2020... the pattern is Fresh As a Daisy... you can find it here... and then it languished in a plastic bin when it briefly saw the light of day in 2024 only to return to hibernation... and then re-emerged again about this time last year... and now I'm calling it done! When I started this I planned on making it big enough to fit my full size bed... my plans have been downsized and now it is going to be a lovely throw size quilt...

I really like those setting triangles being a different fabric... it makes a nice frame for the blocks IMHO... here's a couple of close up of the blocks... 

some daisies are monochromatic and some are scrappy ... there are so many American Jane fabrics that I love! I found fabric for a border on this site, American Jane, which is run by Sandy Klop's husband. They have a lot of inventory of older collections Sandy designed... I hope to get these blocks sewn together this weekend... cause next week is gonna be busy, busy, BUSY...

I have  at least one appointment to attend to every day next week... some days have multiple things going on... I'm tired just thinking about it... last week had some lovely weather... but it was a faux Spring... and I knew it...we all knew it... things changed yesterday and while there were 50's on Friday, as of Sunday we are back to typical winter weather... temps in the 30's... but there is hope on the horizon that by the end of the week we will see 50 again... the first day of Spring isn't till March 20...got a couple of weeks to go... I popped into Costco last week and one location did have a small rack of dahlias... but they were pretty picked over... I was only able to find 3 varieties I wanted. The lady at the front desk said more are coming and she was correct... this is what greeted me at Costco on Saturday...

four GIANT racks of flora and fauna goodness... there were elephant ears, caladiums,  begonias, astilbe, peonies, calla lilies, cannas,  asiatic lilies and my favorite DAHLIAS!!! I got there about noon and I will be that these were just put out that morning... oh I had so much fun... Nick looked all over the racks and I think we got 2 bags of every variety of dahlias that they put out...and some elephant ears and cannas... 26 bags in total... Nick called my cart the Mother Lode...LOL

I am so HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!! I know I have to wait till mid to late May to plant them but they are now sitting on the shelves in my garage, waiting more patiently than me, for their time to shine!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... need to go grocery shopping and hit the pharmacy for the family member ... and then I hope by the time I get back home I won't be worn out so maybe I can sew or stitch a bit... hope your week is just how you like it!!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Some patriotic puttering on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well the last week wasn't as dramatic and traumatic as the previous one... but it had had its moments.  A lot of my physical and mental energy has been channelled to help the family member in need... and it is frustrating... said family member expresses that they don't want to be a burden... but in the current situation they are a burden and a worry... and at the moment my son and I don't see a way to change things and said family member is unwilling to change things ... but we know they will change... and we are just waiting with a knot in our stomach.... sigh...

Well at least the weather has improved... we are having a "faux" Spring... sunny days with temps in the 50's and even 60's... I will enjoy them as I know it will only last about a week and then Winter will return from wherever it was... it ain't done with us yet.

Needless to say from my reading my first paragraph you have surmised that I haven't done a lot of crafty stuff this week... I did finish that final band on the Erica Michaels God Bless America...

this is as big as it is going to get. Not sure if I put buttons in each of those open motifs... I think I have a gold star button that I'd like to put in the middle and that may be how I complete it... gotta find the button...

And I could have picked back up Primrose Cottage American Sampler... but I didn't ... instead I whacked off the linen that was at the bottom of God Bless America and I started this sampler.... Liberty House by Heart in Hand...

now this was a small kit ... there are some cute little triangular buttons to put in that space under q and r and above the w...

 I ditched the linen that was in the kit and substituted DMC for the called for flosses.... I like it on the blue linen better than the beige that was included. This little kit has been aging and maturing in my stash for a looooooong time... the inventory sticker on the kit is dated May of 2002... I purchased it at Twisted Threads in Maderia/Cincinnati Ohio and that shop has been out of business for a looooong time... it was and still is my favorite cross stitch shop... was so  sad to see it close.  Anyway just have to fill in the windows and the flag and add those little triangular buttons and it is done.

I've gotten a bunch of emails this week showing the new stuff coming out at the Needlework Market the beginning of March... lots of wonderful patriotic pieces and samplers that I like... so far I've got a list with charts from Teresa Kogut, Theresa Venette/Kitten Stitcher and Brenda Gervais/With Thy Needle and Thread... and I've been reminding myself that I don't have to purchase all of them right away... they will be available for quite a while... but it certainly is fun to get them as soon as they are released... patience is not a virtue I possess a lot of ... 

Did you have a nice Valentine's Day?  With the happenings of the last 2 weeks I did not get out my Valentine's decorations... just wasn't feeling it... but I did get a lovely Valentine card from Elliott... he calls me Grandma Carol...

and some lovely flowers from my boys...

and I treated myself to a box of that toffee that I got at Christmas from a friend... it was delicious!!

As for next week... 2 doctor appointments for the family member... and an appointment for me to get my teeth cleaned... and hopefully I can work in 2 sessions with Anna... good for my physical and mental health. 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I hope your week is a good one!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Some whining on a Slow Sunday...

Hello- well this is going to be short on craftyness and long on whining... just so you know. 

It has been a heck of a week... it started last Sunday afternoon when a family member (who I have a very complicated relationship with) suffered a medical emergency that came exceedingly close to being a fatality. They were taken to the hospital by the EMTs and stayed a couple of days... but not nearly long enough in my humble opinion. They were sent home with a new medical device which is supposed to  help the situation but in fact is causing an immense amount of frustration and anxiety.  And while I am no doctor, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express anytime recently, I feel the pharmaceutical regime they were sent home with isn't adequate. I would bet big bucks that when I take this family member back to their primary on the 16th there will be a significant change in the dosages. 

Add to this it snowed twice this week... the first event had every school in the area closing ... and the snow turned out to be a big nothing burger...not the 3 to 5 inches that was predicted but only about an inch of the white stuff and it melted on contact with the road.  Elliott did enjoy his snow day ... he told his mother that it was okay because he taught himself at home... and he did ... he spent the day playing with his numberblocks and watching videos which explained negative numbers and prime numbers... remember... he's 6... the other day I watched videos with him for funnsies that talked about fractions.... my head hurt... LOL... and the he came home from school last week  mad at his teacher. We assumed he had been disciplined for some improper behavior but his beef was his teacher wouldn't teach him more about negative numbers... I don't think that math level appears anywhere in the state mandated first grade curriculum. 

The second snow was not nice... and I ended up out in it trying to take the aforementioned family member to a doctors appointment. It took me twice as long to get to their house than normal and the doctor's office was another 20 minutes away if it was a good day... as it wasn't critical to do this office visits, I decided the appointment could be rescheduled.  I haven't had to drive in weather like that for a long long long time... but I quickly remembered how much I dislike driving in that kind of weather. 

Needless to say the entire week has left me physically and emotionally exhausted. Oh and did I mention that my favorite heating pad, the one that wraps around your neck and shoulders that would have been immensely helpful dealing with all the knotted muscles in my neck die?  And I can't find an identical one anywhere on the web?   That was the topper to my week... sigh... and sigh again. 

So,  I only picked up my needle once or twice and the extent of what I got stitched are the two little bands under the words "Land that I Love"... this is God Bless America by Erica Michaels...

I want to add the wider band that has the buttons to the bottom... you can see that tiny start on the right hand side. 

Well the sun is shining today even though it is bitterly cold... we haven't gotten about freezing in over a week. However there is a forecast of mid -forties for Tuesday... oh I hope that's right... the snow has turned to concrete and the piles I see in parking lots aren't going to melt till April the way things are going. 

I'm going to help said family member with some grocery shopping today and then try to relax a bit... have plans to meet friends for dinner on Monday evening. Don't want to skip my workouts with Anna on Monday or Wednesday... so far there is nothing else on my calendar for the week but I'm sure something will come up. 

I did go and read a bunch of blogs this week as that was all I was mentally capable of... saw several people working on Blackbird Designs and I'm getting a hankering to pick back up one of my many many Blackbird Designs WIPs ... that maybe the change of pace I need.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts with my puny productivity today ... there's always inspiration there which makes me smile... I hope your week ahead is without drama... calm, peaceful, serene... taking deep breaths now...

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Snow issues and stitching on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well we are surviving the snowmaggedon... well as humans we are ... as garden chickens maybe not so much...LOL... 

We got about 10 inches....Dan and his crew came Monday afternoon and cleared my driveway and the sidewalks... I didn't leave the house till Tuesday ... my day to pick up Elliott from school and hang out with him ... his school district closed for only one day... lots of other districts were closed for 3 or more days... my son only got one day off of work but he and Elliott thoroughly enjoyed the time off.

I had big plans for piles of productivity... they did not materialize... there is something about the presence of snow that makes me sleepy ... and crave carbs... so I did a prodigious amount of napping broken only by the need to seek out brownies and cheese danishes...sigh

There were plumbing issues on Tues/Wed... my kitchen faucet is on an outside wall and as I've mentioned before there is no insulation in the walls of my 1953 home... just brick over cinder block... had I realized the implications of this when I was renovating the house 11 years ago I would have had the contractor install insulation in the kitchen walls... but that ship has sailed... so I've been keeping the water dripping and that has kept the water running... BUT... the water in the drain froze and the sink would not drain... arghh... called my favorite plumber but they were swamped with work so they referred me to another local plumber... the plumber who had cleared this same drain of gunk 2 years ago... (and this is one of the reasons I talk about everyday stuff on this blog... I was able to go back and figure out that it was 2 years ago I had a problem with this same drain)... anyway by the time the plumber got here on Wednesday the drain had thawed... he told me to run more than a drip and to keep the water hot... (my water heater is turned up on high so that's not an issue)... so far everything is running and draining... so along with the astronomical gas bill I'll be getting next month,  my water bill will be hefty too... but I figure that is better than dealing with frozen pipes. 

oh sorry I wandered off there... as for crafty productivity I concentrated on cross stitching as it is easier to doze off with a needle in one's hand versus falling asleep at one's sewing machine... I contemplated starting something new but that would have required me to extract my butt from my comfy stitching chair and find some linen and flosses... instead I picked back up a couple of patriotic pieces I started last year... and I FINISHED one!!!

This is American Sampler House by Annie Beez....

now I made the house yellow instead of the white it was charted in ... and I left off the border on the right hand side as I wasn't going to have enough fabric on that side .... an error in counting made at the very beginning... I have a frame coming from Amazon tomorrow that I think will be perfect for this piece.

After completing that project I turned my attention to American Sampler by Primrose Cottage... 

that house took a while to fill in... I'll do the windows in a bit but I really want to move down and start some of the alphabet... 

I circled back to the 2026 Blessing sampler... Alpha-bits by Wild-Heart Designs and settled on doing the hearts below the O in simple cross stitch... the heart shaped buttons I had were too big, as were the heart shaped beads I ordered....I'm good with this ... now to get my butt in gear and get this to the framer... 

Here's how I decorated the little telephone nook in the hallway... some stitchery from WTN&T Snowball booklet... knickknacks from Johanna Parker ... and the Snowy String from Lizzie Kate.

On one hand it seems like January has been 1000 days long ...on the other hand it has blown by and February is here... I want to get out my Valentine's day stuff ... there isn't a lot but it looks pretty on the TV cabinet.. a task for today... I'll get Nick to bring up what I need. 

Forecast for the next 10 days only has one day getting above freezing... brrrrr... not a lot on my calendar which is fine with me... I was going to get another of the PRP, plasma rich/stem cell shots in my left knee... but, and here's where my dithering about life on this blog helped me out again, I read what I wrote when I got the shot before... they had a devil of a time even getting my blood (I'm a hard stick) and for over a week after the shot my knee hurt worse than before and you can't use NSAIDs  for 6 weeks afterwards... Tylenol doesn't cut it for me... I need ibuprofen or naproxen...and right now I've got the pain under control with them...I'll just tough it out this way until I can get my knee replaced which right now I'm planning on doing in July.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I hope that wherever you are the weather is to your liking... I have had my fill of snow and freezing temperatures but I doubt my feelings have any effect on Mother Nature... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Pondering planting and productivity on a SNOWY Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well as I sit here on Saturday morning I swear I can hear the shark theme from Jaws playing somewhere... Snowmaggedon is imminent here in southwest Ohio... I know by the time you read this many many many of you will have been impacted by this winter storm and I hope that you are okay. Right now we are forecast to get a foot ... or maybe a bit more... of the white death... arghhh... I'll be fine... I have no where I need to go till mid-week and even that isn't vital... I have plenty of food in the fridge and plenty of projects to work on... I just worry about all the people who have to go out in this mess and the people in areas of the US that just don't normally  have to deal with  this kind of weather... I've lived all over the US and spent several winters in NE Pennsylvania... that was wicked weather... at this moment I'd bet big bucks that no school in this area will be open on Monday and lots won't open for days... and many businesses won't be open early in the week either... and while I'm already hoping that the snow that hasn't even fallen, melts quickly, the long range forecast is for frigid temperatures for at least a week more... sigh...

It is no wonder that I've spent lots of time pondering what I want to plant in my garden this year?  I've been looking online at lots of places that sell dahlia tubers ... but I haven't ordered any... yet... I'm chomping at the bit to see what Costco is going to get in. I've seen 2 YouTube videos where people have already seen the dahlia tubers in their store but they were on the west coast... I checked the blog and last year they didn't show up in Ohio till late February.  My plan for my raised beds this year will require LOTS and LOTS of tubers... I found this guy...   dahliamandrew    ... WOW... go look at the videos on his IG... he plants his tubers 6" apart versus the 12" to 18" I've always been told about... my raised beds are 3' wide and 6' long... right now I'm thinking of doing 3 long rows in each bed and putting at least a dozen tubers in each row... so 36 tubers per raised bed... and I have 4 beds  where I want to do this... so that's 144 tubers ... now I did dig up what I planted last year so some of them may be viable for this year... and I'll still need some more tubers to plant in the other parts of the yard... because you can never have too many flowers... or too much fabric... or yarn... or floss... or linen... or charts... or... well you get the picture.

 Speaking of floss and linen and charts... I'm calling my Blessings Sampler Alphabits finished!!

It measures 34" in length...  Here's some closer pics...

I went back and fixed my errors under the Q and I did find the heart shaped shell buttons I thought about putting under the O... but they are too big... so I ordered some smaller beads that should come on Wednesday... not sure what I'm going to work on next... I got out my bag of patriotic charts the other day as an IG post of a beautiful  Teresa Kogut piece was posted and I couldn't remember if I had the chart or not... update... I did have it... it is a whole book called Hello America and the pic I saw was of the cover piece... and check out 123Stitch... there are lots of cute patriotic charts from Teresa... 

And I saw where someone else finished stitching this one by WTN&T... Liberty House... it has been in my stash for a looooong time... 

I'm pondering how to spend my time here at home the next couple of days in the most productive way possible... do I finish up some projects that have been languishing?... or do I start something new?... what I don't want to do is fritter my time away watching videos online and doom scrolling IG... which will probably happen...here and there... sigh

As for snowman decor which is so appropriate this week... here's my small shelf display...

Up top I have this gorgeous snowman cookie jar that Nick found for me in a thrift shop and the Lizzie Kate's Winter Alphabet. 

And to the left is a cute little sled shelf filled with more snowmen...

Below there is a little cross stitch and my collection of snowman heads... just the head...LOL

In the middle is The Drawn Thread's Welcome Winter... and mine looks totally different from the model since I stitched it on that turquoise linen... 

And I have a little snowman from WTN&T...Holiday Hoopla... I like him in the little tin frame.. I left off the stocking cap he had on the chart and added some snowflakes as I like my snowmen wintery not Christmasy...

On the other side I have Alfred by Heart in Hand... he's cute and my Dad's middle name was Alfred...

That bottom shelf could definitely use some cross stitch pieces... perhaps I could use my time this week to FFO a couple of the snowmen I have already stitched up... that would be productive...

Good thing I got my running around done last week... the ortho doc confirmed I need a total knee replacement for my left knee...I'll do that this summer... trying  to coordinate with Chris and the vacations they have planned... they  want to do a Florida trip this year... they were supposed to do it over a year ago but it got cancelled when Chris started his current job as a county magistrate... I'm thinking July would be a good time to do the surgery as my garden will all be planted by then and with the drip irrigation and the sprinklers there isn't as much to deal with.

So I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... and I'll say a prayer for all of you who are in the grips of this snowstorm... I hope you are safe and warm inside with a nice project to work on...and remember there are 53 days till the Vernal Equinox... gotta be hopeful.. 

happy stitching-

carol fun