Zoned out on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well as I expected this week wasn't nearly as productive as the last one... but it was certainly busy busy busy for me. When I wrote last week's post I thought I was going to pick up my quilts at Delinda on Friday but that got moved to Monday and Monday was already stacked and  packed... I left the house at 11:00 am and I didn't get back home till 7:00 pm... I worked out, had lunch, drove 30 minutes to pick up and drop off quilts, drove 30 minutes back, came home and picked up Nick but never left my car, drove 30 minutes in a different direction to have a lovely dinner with friends, drove back home ... collapsed into my comfy chair and zoned out... 

Tuesday is my day to hang with Elliott... always a good day but I come home pooped... collapsed into my comfy chair and zoned out... 

Wednesday I finally got some energy and banished the bunnies to their plastic bins, but it took waaaaay longer than I anticipated... and yet everything any more, takes more time than I anticipate... I think it is called getting old... sigh... I'd work on collecting the bunnies and some of the cross stitch and a knickknack here and a knickknack there and knickknack everywhere...and then I'd take a break and put my feet up in my comfy chair... and it was tough getting back to the task at hand... so it took all day Wednesday to get the bunnies buttoned up in their bins and then I collapsed back into  my comfy chair and zoned out...

Thursday I was determined to get out my Spring and bird decor... the weather was glorious this week... more like Summer than Spring but all that sunshine has been so nice... and Nick was a big help bringing up the bins from the basement and bringing down some bins with quilts from the 2nd floor... and I put in several hours of futzing until I had to leave for my hair appointment... and then after that I popped into one of my favorite garden centers for the first time this year... I didn't get any flowers because I'm not being fooled by Mother Nature... she gave us a week of lovely weather but as I write this on Saturday it is raining and the forecast has lows in the 30's for the next couple of nights... however I did get this...

yes that is a rather rotund metal chicken... she's about 18" high and when you touch her she bounces... insert squeal... I could NOT leave her behind as there was only one more like her... and I suspect there were more of her but they already found their new homes... I'm not sure exactly where I'm going to place her... right now I'm thinking of putting her at the bottom of the front porch steps... my Ring doorbell has a good view of that spot in case anyone gets the idea of kidnapping my chicken... she needs a name... hmmm... I'll have to give it some thought...

Friday started with attending to a family members glucose monitor... it needed changing... then I took them to lunch, came home and finally got all the rest of the Spring decor out... it is heavy on birds... and I know that isn't everyone's cup of tea but I LOVE birds... and I may have as many birds as I have bunnies... LOL... but I got everything pretty much out and then I collapsed into my comfy chair and zoned out... 

Let me show you some of what I did... every time I change the seasonal stuff I'm always hesitant to start ... I don't want it to look exactly like it did the year before but some items only fit in one spot in my little house... but once I get into it I really enjoy trying out new arrangements and I'm happy with how it has all turned out... here's a little display in my TV cabinet... 

I went with a turquoise/blue theme here... my thought is that having the same colors keeps it more cohesive... the little bird pillow was a pattern I found on Pinterest years ago... the HOPE pillow was a freebie during Covid from Liz Matthews... below I have 2 giant birds I got at Hobby Lobby and the Bluebird Sampler from Threadwork Primitives... now I stitched this in 2013 and I just framed it YESTERDAY... good things come to those who wait, right??  It just barely fits into this frame and I considered painting it blue but I think the wood tone looks nice ... but I still may paint it... here's a close up ... I stitched the C and the N in blue to represent my sons Chris and Nick and the F in pink for my last name... 

Out on the sunroom porch I went with a green and white color scheme...the sunroom porch is only 7ft across and 10ft long so it is hard to get baaaack to get a wide shot ... this is the best  I could do...

The shelf unit...

Up top is the Alphabet Hill by With Thy Needle & Thread... one of my favorite samplers as I LOVE that tulip border...

In the middle I have my abbreviated version of Liz Matthews Bower Birds... I like the tone on tone look with the dyed linen and floss being almost the same color...

On the bottom shelf I have Brite Birds by Kathy Barrick ... as I remember it was a freebie I found on Pinterest...and I did the tone on tone thing again with this piece...

and last but not last a pear from Annie Beez... I want to make more of these...

On the wall I moved the Alphabits sampler from the other side of the doorway ... I like how it brings in more green tones to the display... 

I have a couple of cross stitch pieces I need to FFO and I want to include them in my other displays... stay tuned and see if I git 'er done. My plan is to leave up this Spring stuff till early to mid- June and then break out all the patriotic stuff... and speaking of patriotic stuff I did get a little  time in on Primrose Cottage American Sampler... where it was...

where it is... and the color on both of these pictures is off... need to get a good pic in daylight...

I had hoped to have it finished by now but the decorating took up most of my time ... and I also got distracted by this... Bit of Honey by Notforgotten Farm...

she is the companion to this guy... Bee's Knees by Notforgotten Farm..

I found a scrap of linen in my stash that I think came from the same piece I stitched Bee's Knees on... it is tiny ... barely 3.5" x 4.5"... but she will fit ... but I'm not sure if she'll be as tall as her buddy...  I can see she's going to have a very scant seam allowance.  Here's where I am at the moment...

I've got Bee's Knees in my tier tray and I want to add her ASAP... 

 As for quilting I somehow squeezed in sewing up  one block and slapping up 2 more blocks on my design wall ... 

The pattern is Hush Too-ra-loo by Jan Belnap...

I'm using lots of low volume prints and the blue is Thatched by Robin Pickens in the colorway Cornflower... go here to see a better capture of the color... it is a blue with a lavender undertone... periwinkle blue ... I bought about 5 yds of this a couple of years ago and I've been saving it for the right project and I think this is the right one!  The blocks are BIG... they finish 18" ... so to make a quilt for my double bed I need 16... I have all the blue fabric cut out and all of the low volumes for the smaller squares... I still need to get the larger squares and the sashing cut... now at first I was only going to use quiet low volumes, but my stash is full of noisy low volumes... lots of novelty prints... and it will make a busy top ... which will make me HAPPY! 

I have no business working on this quilt... I have at least 4 quilts that are waiting for binding and I really should get started on the patriotic quilt I want for my bed... I'm going to use Lori Holt's Americana collection, and a print from  Riley Blake's Blossom collection in the colorway Uncle Sam... and the freebie pattern from FQS called Jelly Roll Relish... and while I want to get it started this week I'm not sure that is gonna happen... there is something on my calendar every day this week from working out, to hanging with Elliott, to lunch the quilty ladies, to a medical appointment, to a semi-annual meeting with my financial guy... we shall see how things play out...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... after attending to a family member's grocery shopping I should have some me time... might go downstairs and start on the patriotic quilt... might go out on the sunroom porch and stitch... and might collapse in my comfy chair, zone out and take a nap... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Busting my buttons on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well how was your week? Did you have a nice Easter?... we celebrated with a bunch of my daughter-in-law's family. Now, that week before Easter was quite busy but this last week has given me lots of opportunity to sew and stitch.... and that's exactly what I've been doing... and I'm busting my buttons here over what I've gotten accomplished... I finished not one but two quilt tops and made significant progress on a sampler and got one sampler picked up from the framer and another dropped off ...lots of creativity combined with a weather pattern that makes me hopeful about Spring... warning there are several tangents in this post... my mind just wanders off some times... actually all the time... LOL

So thinking of Spring, I'm already considering  what color combo I want in my window boxes this year... I like to change it up... last year I did peach and purple ... this year I'm thinking of pink and yellow... but it will probably end up being whatever looks prettiest at the garden center and if they have enough of what I want... there are 5 window boxes that have 12 equal divisions and I usually put 3 to 4 plants in each division... and then some greenery on the ends... I'm fond of asparagus fern... I saw them unloading some petunias at the one garden shop I like the other day when I drove past... and in looking at the blog I see that by the end of April last year I had acquired quite a few plants.  We still have a chance of frost up to May 15, but my habit is to live fast and loose (LOL) and plant stuff before then in the boxes... and I'm waiting for the sprinkler company to come and turn on the sprinklers and add more drip irrigation to my raised beds. They said they'd come and check it out and let me know what it is going to cost... in hindsight I should have had them put drip in the raised beds last year when they installed the rest of it. Brian told me they could do it but I didn't think I needed it... but I do... I love my garden but I don't like spending 45 minutes to an hour watering every night... I'm old and lazy... 

I haven't taken down my Easter stuff yet so no decor this week... I plan on banishing the bunnies and adding birds in the next week... so let's get onto the crafty stuff... as I said I finished TWO quilt tops and I dropped them off to Delinda, my long arm quilter on Friday... 

First is this easy one ... the pattern is a freebie, you can see it here, called Checkered Brick.. I used a FQ bundle of Sandy Gervais' New Beginnings... 

this is a generous sized "throw"  72" x 85" ...and it should look very nice out on my sunroom porch when it returns home.

The second top took a bit longer... but I persevered ... LOL so proud of me...this is Vivian by Kitchen Table Quilting... I love how she uses women's names for her pattern... and this one makes me think of Vivian Vance and the fact that if Elliott had been a girl he's have been named Vivian... such a pretty name... anyway I did this one with a jelly roll from One Canoe Two called Tucker Prairie...

this is a generous twin size... about 80" x 90" ... I'm thinking I might give this to my son and daughter-in-law... I think they'd like these colors and this is a bit more modern than I usually make... 

Not sure what I going to work on next... I still have a bunch of those 16 patch blocks with the Lori Holt fabrics ready to stitch up ... and I want a patriotic quilt for my bed this year... so I should get started on it... and lately I've found several other patterns I want to play with ... I will never run out of crafty stuff I want to do!!!

As for stitching... I finished Lady Liberty from Prairie Schooler No. 8 American Primitive...

and turned my attention back to the American Sampler from Primrose Cottage... here's about where I started...I had a couple of letters of the alphabet done but I didn't take a picture ...

and here is where I am now...it is getting there...

I want this done ASAP so I can have this one finished before July...

I saw this was a sort of exclusive release at the Needlework Market and knew I HAD TO HAVE IT...I'm going to do it in DMC and on a plain white 32 ct linen... and then I'm want this to have a really interesting frame... I went back to the framer that isn't always the cheapest but they do the best work  and they have a ton of great frames and a two week turnaround... the older I get the more I realize you get what you pay for... and the days of great inexpensive framing from Joann's is a thing of the past...sigh...

And on a weird tangent... do you feed the birds?  I love having my bird feeders visible from my comfy chair on the sunroom porch but until recently it has been  a constant battle with the d*mn squirrels... my DIL is also into feeding the birds and she turned me on to this bird seed...it has the hot pepper chili oil already mixed in...

I got it here from Amazon... the last couple of years I've tried coating the seed with the chili oil but it is messy and the odor is quite potent so I'm not fond of doing it myself...now the first couple of days I did see a squirrel checking things out but after a week he seems to have given up... and the bird seed has lasted 2 weeks!! I've never been able to go that long between refills... and yes it is more expensive but I'm definitely using less seed and it is less work for me... so again I'm getting what I paid for ... and I'm okay with that. 

Oh back to the crafty stuff... here is the sampler I picked up from the framer... Every Opening Flower from With Thy Needle & Thread... this was the first sampler I worked on from my " 7 for my 70th" birthday celebration that fizzled out mid- month when I ended up in the hospital on 2 different occasions. 

I like this frame as it picks up the rosey colors of the floss and it is small... anymore I'm conscious that I don't have a lot of wall space so I need to keep my samplers compact... 

Here's some close ups...

This is definitely one of my favorite samplers!!

I was thinking back on my "7 for my 70th" and I only got 3 samplers started... and I've finished 2,  Every Opening Flower and Prairie Schooler Garden Sampler ... the 3rd start was Blackbird Designs' Crowns & Shields, I do want to finish that... as one of the 7, I had also selected  the Noel Sampler from WTN&T  which I picked up and completed in 2025... there is one sampler of the 7 I picked that I've changed my mind  about, which leaves  2 others still to be started...maybe... someday... we shall see...sigh... like I said, I'll NEVER run out of crafty stuff I want to do!!

I wrote most of this post on Friday as this has been a busy weekend... is the celebration of Elliott's 7th birthday and he is so psyched for it... he has been waiting ...not patiently for a particular gift... Numberblocks set 31-40 and it has been procured ... and I have a large Lego set to give him... Saturday is a kids party at an indoor playground that reminds me of the ball pit places I took my boys to years ago... and Sunday is a family party... 

Next week's calendar has 3 dinners out with friends... Nick and I have gotten popular...LOL.. Elliott on Tuesday... I have a haircut and color next Thursday... I'm going to work out with Anna Mon/Wed...  and on Friday I have to attend to a family member's medical issue...I'm hoping to get some sewing time and the weather looks good for some sitting on the porch cross stitching time. It is suppose to warm up into the upper 70s... last week we had 2 nights of freeze warnings... sheesh... the weather in Ohio turns on a dime... 

Tune in next week and see what I get done... usually if I have a productive week it is follow by a non-productive week...sigh... but I'm hoping for the best. 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... hope your week goes just the way you want it to!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Happy Easter!!

 

Happy Easter!! 

I'm just cruising by in my latest vegetable vehicle this morning... no time for a crafty update as I still have eggs to devil and a prime rib roast to attend to... we are doing dinner at my older son's home and at last count there will be about a dozen people for a noontime meal... I spent Saturday afternoon making a couple of salads and marinated tomatoes and  some little bundles of asparagus wrapped up in prosciutto ... those are always a big hit... I hope you all have a lovely day no matter how you spend it!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Plans got changed on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well another week of roller coaster weather... Thursday was Opening Day here in Cincinnati for the 2026 baseball season and the weather was PERFECT!!  Sunny and 80 degrees...however the final score of the game left something to be desired...no worries ... there are still 160 games to play... I love listening to baseball while I stitch or knit or crochet or sew ... and Thursday I spent it out on the sunroom porch with my current cross stitch project and my radio ... I had all the windows open and there was a lovely breeze! Then Friday showed up and I had to find my winter coat and turn the furnace back on... sheesh... but by the time you read this on Sunday warm weather should return... 

Last Sunday I thought this week would be relatively easy... and it was overall ... but I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I anticipated... plans kept changing and something seemed to come up every day that had me out doing something unexpected... some were fun like a music program Elliott performed in... and some were annoying but necessary like picking up my tax return from the accountant and paying him and seeing how much I have to pay the government... ugh...  I did get a little stitching done and some sewing ... but not the sewing I thought I was going to do last week... I'll explain...

First let's start with stitching... I made a little progress on A Cheerful Heart by Shakespeare's Peddler ... here's where I was last week...

and here's where I am now... 

And I picked up my Alphabits Blessing Sampler from the framer ... and I LOVE how it turned out!! 

Here's a overall pic....

it fits perfectly in this spot out on the sunroom porch and I love how you can see the shifting colors of the linen...

here's some sequential pics and you can see the frame better...

the framer put this molding down and I could tell it was perfect!   It has a bit of a mottled silvery green gray tone  which I think goes so well with the linen... and they did a wonderful job with the framing... that was not an easy piece to do. When I picked it up I dropped off another piece for them to do... Every Opening Flower by WTNT... here's what it looks like.

I picked out a narrow frame with a burgundy tone and a little gold edge... I think it will be perfect! They should have it back to me in about 2 weeks and then I'm going to take them another piece... forced efficiency on my part so I don't have to drive back and forth so much. 

As for sewing well last week I was trying to decide which side of my design wall to work on...and I started out sewing more of the fusible gridded 16 patches together... but then I got a wild hair on Monday and went in an entirely different direction... I removed the 16 patches from the design wall.... this little batch of fat quarters was talking to me... this is New Beginnings by Sandy Gervais... as I recall it came out at the beginning of 2025 and I love all the Spring-y colors...

21 FQs... how could I make the most of this???  weeeelllll... I remembered this YouTube channel called Moonkin Stitchery... you can find it here... she has a ton of concise videos with patterns for all kinds of precuts... and they are all FREE and most of them give multiple sizes!  I selected this one called Checkered Bricks... which you can find here...and it was super easy... the sewing is a breeze .... HOWEVER... I found out pretty quickly that factory cut FQs play kinda fast and loose with that 18" measurement. The first 2 FQs I cut there was about an 1/8" extra... but several others were barely 18" and a couple were NOT 18"... they were 1/8 to 1/4" short... grrrrr... luckily for me the one FQ was was woefully short was one that I had bought yardage of for a border or back ... 

and here's what I made...

this is a generous twin size quilt... 72" s 85"... it took 20 FQs and there was nothing left over but some schnibbly threads.  It shouldn't take too long to sew these 20 blocks together... and yes that is the Vivian quilt folded back on itself so I had room for this quilt on my design wall... sheesh... I have several other of  the Moonkin patterns bookmarked...  some using layer cakes and some using jelly rolls and I have a nice stash of both of those.  It felt good to use some fabric in my stash that has been hanging around for a while...

I'm telling myself that this week I will finish the Vivian quilt as it only needs 12 blocks and it is all cut out... but then I tell myself a lot of things that may or may not be true...LOL

So Easter is next Sunday... not sure where March went to... and here is the last of my Easter decor... the big shelf unit..

.

up top in the cute McCoy tulip bulb vase I have 3 little pieces from  the Lori Holt stitch cards... along with the carrot car that started the fleet and a bunny head basket that I got years ago... I think at Hobby Lobby...

Moving down I have Spring Alphabet by Lizzie Kate... I've done all 4 of these and I love them as! I'm not sure where the bunny on the left came from... I think he might have a been a freebie. 

the shelf below from left to right has Easter Rabbits from Stitchy Princess Black, Hollyhocks from  Blackbird Designs and Ah Tis' Spring from Notforgotten Farms...

bottom shelf of stitching has Bower Birds from Liz Matthews, Sampler Hill from With Thy Needle & Thread and Tribute from the BBD book Women of Grace and Charm that is OOP. 

and down on the very bottom is a new purchase this year... a giant chick wearing bunny ears... I got her at Homegoods cause she was too stinking cute to leave on their shelf!

On the wall I have my Fig Tree Jam & Jelly quilt... I love the tulip fabric on the border ... this is an old Kate Spain collection called Verna...

the tier tray has Emily Call's Be Hoppy... and the bunny on the egg and the  Easter pillow are from WTN&T Jellybean Jubilee book...

and last but not least is this display in my back hallway... I love that carrot wreath... got it at Target a couple of years ago and the little bunnies on the shelf make me smile. 

Sooooo looking at next week... I have to take a family member to an appointment on Monday... and I'm watching Elliott most of the day on Tuesday... he's on Spring Break but Mom and Dad both have to work... will probably do lunch one afternoon with a friend to celebrate her birthday and I definitely need to go to Costco  and Krogers... we are doing Easter lunch at my son and daughter-in-laws house... I'm signed up to bring prime rib, pasta salad, broccoli coleslaw salad, marinated tomatoes, rolls  and deviled eggs... so Saturday I'll be in the kitchen prepping stuff...I do want to get back to my sewing machine this week... I've seen several quilt patterns I want to at least make one block and see if I'd like to do more... and I want to get the Checkered Brick together (that might happen this afternoon) and as I said I want to finish the Vivian quilt.. hopefully something shiny won't turn my head... LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... gotta do a grocery run for a family member and Nick is making meat sauce for dinner... and depending on the weather, if it sunny I'm going to sit on the sunroom porch and cross stitch... and if it cloudy I'll go downstairs and sew... I'm good either way....

Hope your week ahead is a good one!

happy stitching-

carol fun