Productivity overload on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well there was an overload of productivity here last week... and no one is more surprised than me... not sure how it happened but I got some sewing done and some stitching done and some decorating done and had a couple of dinners with friends... and an ortho appointment to get much needed steroid shots in my knees...but let me start with my grousing about the time change... it has been a week and I'm not adjusted yet... and I knew I wouldn't be ... but it still ticks me off... leave the clock alone!!

As for sewing I got the binding on 3 quilts... OMG... I'm not accustomed to that much finishing... my talent lies in starting stuff... starting LOTS of stuff... LOL...first I got the binding on this beauty that my friend Darlene made for me... I'm calling is Darlene's Dots!

The dots which are hand appliqued are all American Jane... except for one according to Darlene... but I still can't figure out which one it is... the backgrounds are a mix of American Janes and Lori Holt fabrics and they play so well together. The panto is called Marmalade and Delinda from The T-Shirt Quilt Company did the quilting...

I LOVE this one and while I took this "glamour" shot out on the porch (cause the lighting was so much better) it is living on the chair in my bedroom where I see it each morning when I wake up... Thank you so much Darlene!!

Then I moved onto getting the binding on my Jelly Roll 18 patch quilt... this used 2 vintage jelly rolls from my stash both by Chez Moi... one called Sophie and the other called Lulu...I like how fresh and Spring-y it looks...

I'm usually not much for pink but it is definitely growing on me and I love it in this quilt... the panto for this one is called Vintage Vanilla and was stitched in a pale turquoise thread, again by Delinda...

And the 3rd quilt I got bound is this panel by J. Wecker Frisch... I do LOVE vintage images!!

This uses the same panto as the JR 18 patch ... a vintage panto for a vintage looking piece!

And I even got a bit of cross stitching done... this is Lady Liberty who is a companion to Uncle Sam from the Prairie Schooler No. 8 American Primitive...

She's supposed to be holding a  flag, which I still have to do,  and then I'll do all the white stitching. Not sure what I'll move onto next but there are several more patriotic pieces that are calling my name... 

And my sewing mojo was super strong this week. After getting the bindings on those 3 quilts I started a new quilt with some very Spring-y fabrics.... the pattern is called Vivian by Kitchen Table Quilting...

now this caught my eye for a couple of reasons... first if Elliott had been a girl, they would have been named Vivian... I love the name! Second this design reminds me of bar charts... the kind I created years ago when I was an Economic Analyst for a major department store chain. The office I worked in published a monthly review of economic trends and back then the charts were hand drawn ...by me... anyway I like the graphic quality of this pattern and I broke out a jelly roll that is a minimum of 10 years old... Tucker Prairie by One Canoe Two...I'm a little over half way done...

I'm using a Grunge fabric for the background in the colorway Composed... the pattern calls for the blocks to be sewn together in rows but I think I'm going to assemble it in columns... it would be easier to get the bars to line up, in my opinion... and instead of long continuous sashing, I'm going to go block by block and add little corner stones of the same Grunge fabric ... that should make the blocks line up horizontally and vertically and after it is quilted you won't even notice the piecing... at least that's what I'm telling myself. I'm feeling semi-virtuous since I'm  using a well-seasoned jelly roll... and I saw another jelly roll pattern I want to play with as soon as I get this one done... and I have 2 other well-seasoned jelly rolls that would work great with that pattern. Fingers crossed that my enthusiasm and sewing mojo hangs in there a while longer... next week doesn't have as much free time in it, but I have all the pieces cut out for the Vivian quilt so if I get a moment I can just sit down and put together a block or two... I haven't had to pin the pieces as I assemble them so that speeds up the process a lot. 

As for decorating... I got all the snowmen back into their plastic bins and busted the bunnies out of theirs... and the expression they multiplied like rabbits is true even for non living bunnies...LOL... boy do I have a lot of them!

Starting out on the porch... 

Up top I have that vase I bought last year from William Sonoma... and I found those gorgeous  alstroemeria at Kroger's  for $5!  They are so bright they seem to glow...and they last a long time... 

to the left is Prairie Schooler March and the little pin pillow with the daffodil is from Sub Rosa Designs appropriately called Hello Spring!

Moving down the bunny heads took over... if you think about it too deeply it is a bit ghastly... but I do like the heads... and this year I found a new little one wearing glasses ... got him at Target for a buck... can't beat that...the cross stitch pieces of just a bunny head is from WTNT called Hoppy Easter...

More bunnies and a Prairie Schooler Spring piece from Seasons book No. 50 and the little yellow pillow is from WTNT Jelly Bean Jubilee. 

I even decorated the window ledge on the porch because I had so many bunnies! This is the collection of turquoise Easter stuff... which goes well with the carpet in the room.

And on the wall I have Little House Needleworks "Needleworks ABC's"... this was the first in the series and I've stitched all of them!

Inside the house,  on my tier table I pinked it up... a lot... I like how the pink shows up on the yellow table!

Up top I have Holiday Hoopla  Easter by WTNT in a cute tin... 

and Tulip House by Melisa of PinkernPunkinquilting... this may be my favorite of all the houses of Melisa's that I've stitched!

Below I have my Blessing Sampler from 2025... this is Ninon by Jardin Prive... 

and a bunch of pink bunnies!

I have more to show you next week... my fleet of vegetable vehicles ...aka carrot cars piloted by bunnies has expanded... you don't want to miss that do you? LOL

I will say that I dawdled and futzed with this decor... last year I did Spring stuff and then changed to bunnies but with Easter being April 5 I ended up doing Easter first and then after that is over I'll change it out and do more Spring and birds... at least that is my current plan...but all my plans are subject to change!

I even got my act together this week and got the Blessings Sampler I did in January off to the framer... she found a really pretty green molding for it... can't wait to get it back and take one of the many pieces I have finished to be framed when I pick it up. 

This upcoming week is a busy one... something every single day...  a  workout session in the morning and an eye appointment in the afternoon on  Monday, Elliott on Tuesday, lunch with my quilty friends on Wednesday and dinner with other friends that evening, a haircut on Thursday and a dinner with another set of friends on Friday.  The weather forecast is nothing to brag about.. windy, cloudy, a high one day of 70 and 48 hours later the high is forecast to be 31... brrrrr... at least they took out the chance of snow on Monday...the magnolia and dogwood trees are blooming... and it seems that year after year we get a cold snap that browns up all the blossoms... they are so pretty when they get to bloom! I hate to see them get zapped...Mother Nature can be quite the pain in the butt...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I have to run out and do some grocery shopping for a certain family member but I'm hoping to get some more time behind my sewing machine today... I don't see the upcoming week being nearly as productive as this last one was... sigh... but I'm glad I got done what I got done! Hope your week is a good one!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

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