Happy 4th of July weekend on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - How was your 4th of July?  Mine was great... lots of fireworks in my neighborhood... just went outside and stood on my porch and enjoyed them... and then I came inside and watched the festivities from Washington DC on my TV... OMG... what a FANTASTIC fireworks show!!!  I loved the pyrotechnics and all the songs that were sung. Our military has some fabulously talented musicians.  I particularly liked when they sang Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" and my favorite Neil Diamond song, "Sweet Caroline".  I'm so grateful to be an American... on my father's side I'm only 2nd generation. My grandparents came from Italy as children and they were so proud to be Americans. My spouse is a legal immigrant to this country... came from Taiwan in 1976... so my kids are only 1st generation ... and we all are thankful that we've been blessed to live in the USA with all the opportunities we've been afforded. 

So to kick off this post I want to show you my big shelf display... I really love how this looks!

At the very top I have Welcome Summer by The Drawn Thread.  I think this looks so good on the yellow linen.. those colors just pop!  And I love that Uncle Sam shelf sitter... got him at Micheals a couple of years ago.

Moving down I have 2 pieces I just stitched for this year....  a portion of God Bless America by Erica Micheals and  American Sampler by Primrose Cottage...and in front of them one of several patriotic pieces from Jim Shore... I love his stuff ... along with my Debbie Mumm patriotic stuff!

To the right I have Libby by Heart in Hand... she's mounted on a cheese grater.. an idea I got from Priscilla a long time ago... one of my most unique display formats.

And speaking of a unique display format I have Grand Olde Flag from With Thy Needle & Thread on a cookbook stand I picked up at Target... I painted it blue  to cover up the printing that was on the stand...

 

In the middle I have Flag Folk by Notforgotten Farm ... when I painted this linen I had to idea it would come out so good... I love how the yellow lights up the piece...

And to the right I have Hurrah! from Pineberry Lane... this is the whole chart and I stitched the little flag waving lady a second time as a little pillow... I like her enthusiasm ! And another patriotic piece from Jim Shore and the little Statute of Liberty is a salt & pepper shaker from Cracker Barrel... a 99cent bargain. 

The shelf below has plenty of patriotic passion... let start with the Blackbird Design piece on the pedestal, that is Summer Song... it is in the book Souvenirs of Summer... it was OOP for a while but got reprinted in 2024... I saw someone on eBay selling what I assume was an original printing for  $50!!... be careful... a bunch of old BBD charts have been reprinted and they are the same as the originals.

And the sampler with the star is a freebie from Samplers & Santas called Liberty Star... you can find it  here... along with several other great freebies... and the eagle on the circle disc is a portion of Summer in Baltimore by WTN&T, 

In the center is July from Prairie Schooler.. as I recall this is the first patriotic chart I stitched... and it certainly got the ball rolling...LOL... every year when I get out my patriotic stuff I'm surprised by how many pieces I've stitched for the 4th of July...

And last but not least... Star Spangled by WTN&T...and yet another patriotic piece from Jim Shore..

Right now my plan is to leave the patriotic stuff out till the 3rd week in July... and then I'll get out  my chicken/Summer stuff which will hold me over till September when not matter what the temperature I'll be getting out the Fall stuff.

And speaking of temperature...what a smooth transition...LOL... it has been HOT here in SW Ohio... over 90 degrees and mostly over 95 degrees every day for the last week... it is supposed to "break" Sunday... highs only in the 80's...  I'm glad I have my sprinklers and my drip irrigation, but I've still had to go out and supplement the watering... the window boxes aren't on the drip and I have a bunch of pots that need watering pretty regularly... I've been going out in the evening every other day to give everything a drink... and I come back in the house soaked to the skin in sweat... not my favorite activity... oh I found this meme that sums up gardening nicely...

The truth hurts...LOL

As for crafty stuff well I wasn't as productive as last week... and a week like that probably won't happen again any time soon... but I did get some stuff done... I wanted to play with the new Opal yarn I got a week or so ago... so I wound a smaller ball from 2 of the skeins and started a new sock...

but it became apparent to me that this combination of sock yarns was going to have too much repetition for my taste...  I was about 3" down and it was already repeating... and I realized this is because both of these yarns came from the same collection... Lieblingsplatz... it means favorite place... and they are dyed in the same sequence...here's a video about how Opal yarn is made... you can  change the language in the closed caption section to English but just watching is pretty explanatory... I also wasn't real thrilled with the patterning... a phrase I haven't heard for a while came to mind... "clown barf"... yeah, yuck...  so I frogged the sock back to the cuff and found another skein from an older Opal collection but with similar colors and started again... here's where I am now... more stripey... I like that... 

I'm using  Knitpicks Stroll yarn in the colorway Patina for the heels and I think I'll use it for the toes too.  I am getting repetition but it is just now showing up so I can live with that. For the second sock I'll rewind one of the balls so there should be a similar but different pattern.  Sock knitting is perfect for when I want to veg out and scroll on the internet... and the week had a significant amount of vegging.

I spent a little time cross stitching... here's where the Bent Creek Autumn Soapbox was last week...

and here is where it is now...and this is a better pic of the true color of the linen... 

you can see I haven't touched that big pumpkin... maybe I'll put some stitches in it this week. 

As I already said it was HOT here this week... so I spent a considerable amount of time in my basement sewing spot ... where it is cooler... and I got all the blocks done for the pattern Marbled Cheesecake from the book Jelly Filled by Vanessa Goertzen...

The background fabric is Grunge in the colorway Curry and all the other fabrics are from several different Fall collections by Sandy Gervais... some are Riley Blakes and others are from when she was with Moda... they all play nicely together. I got a wide back for this coming in the mail next week so it will be ready to take up to Delinda... and speaking of stuff to take to Delinda... I found this panel... also by Sandy Gervais from her latest Fall collection called Bountiful... excuse the wrinkles...

I LOVE the vintage look of this and I don't remember ever seeing a panel for Thanksgiving... so many people jump right from Halloween to Christmas decorating that Thanksgiving gets lost in the shuffle... this will fit nicely on the door in the living room and go great with my turkey and Thanksgiving decor. 

So what's on the agenda this week... working out on Monday, Elliott on Tuesday and a pre-op appointment on Friday for my knee surgery... so there should be some time for sewing and knitting and stitching... I'm still mulling over my choices of what I want to work on after my surgery... I'm optimistic that I won't be laid up much more than 2 weeks. I keep seeing videos on FB from my surgeon who shows patients in his office only a week out from surgery being able to bend and straighten their knee, several walking without a cane and all reporting minimal pain...fingers crossed that is my experience too. 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... I have a quiet day planned ... don't have to do the grocery shopping for a certain family member this week and Nick has penne and meat sauce on the menu for dinner... very tasty! I'm hoping we get some rain this week... there is some forecast for almost every day but it is a small amount, but I'll take it... 

Hope that your  week and my week have lots of  productive hours doing crafty stuff!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Procrastination vs. Patience on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well I'm feeling quite full of myself today as last week was surprisingly productive!  And along with what I got accomplished I have a new theory on procrastination... I've found a convoluted way to change it from a negative to a positive... from now on I'm going to think of it as not putting things off but taking my time to get them done... having patience... and patience is a virtue, right?  LOL... I will continue to drag my feet on certain projects but now I'm going to think of it as giving them time to mature and when it is time to be finished... they will be finished... and to that end I have a great story of patience I'll tell you about in a bit...

And a head's up ...this is a looooooong post... I have a lot to talk about this week!

First I want to go through my week... Monday started out great... I went and worked out, took Nick to lunch and came home and worked in the yard. I dug up all the dahlia tubers that didn't seem to be growing and some were duds but others still had signs of starting to grow... so I put them back in the ground and we'll see what happens in another week. I also finally got that flat of begonias  planted and stuck an assortment of bulbs/corms/tubers that I still had in the ground here and there and over there and wherever. 

Some flowers are blooming nicely... I like this patch where the cleome are backed up by the cannas...

The cleome are often called spider plant and this variety has re-seeded itself in my yard ... spreading here there and everywhere... and I'm okay with that because I LOVE how they look and the deer do not eat them!!! Here's a close up of one that planted itself right by my house...

Along with this pink one there is a purple variety. I planted this variety about 2 years ago and I haven't been able to  find it at the garden centers for a while so I'm very very happy that it has taken it upon itself to propagate in my yard. 

Several of the dahlias that I planted in the ground are already blooming... this big yellow one is called Kelvin Floodlight...

that bloom is about 9" wide... and I don't remember for sure what variety this one is... maybe Penhill Watermelon... it is also about 10" wide and no matter what it is called, it is gorgeous!!

Tuesday I was pooped after working outside for  several hours in the heat so I took it easy. I picked up Elliott from his day camp and we chilled for a couple of hours. He wrote me out an algebraic equation that he developed to find white holes in space... he knows there are black holes and he thinks there are white holes that have yet to be discovered ...and he came up with an equation... complete with the symbol for infinity... and remember he's only 7 years old... waaaaay smarter than me... but luckily still a little boy who can be happy with an ice cream sandwich cookie...which I provided. 

Wednesday was hot and sticky so I went downstairs to my sewing room and put into motion my new theory turning procrastination into patience... I had a stack of quilts that needed binding... and binding is my least favorite part of making a quilt... but I surprised myself and got not 1, not 2, not 3... but FOUR quilts bound... let's take a look at them ...first is this one ... the pattern is a freebie called Checkered Brick which you can find here... and the fabrics are a collection from Sandy Gervais called New Beginnings...

It finished 78" square after I washed it... I know it looks rectangular here but I took the pic standing on a ladder looking down on it as it was on the floor... the next quilt I got the binding uses the Gingiber fabric collection called Henhouse and the pattern is called Skylight... if you watch this video you will find all the info you need to make this pattern...

and for a quilting panto Delinda had this great chicken wire pattern...

Next up I put the binding on the Fresh As a Daisy quilt...here's a link to the pattern... done in American Jane fabrics...

now my quilty friends saw this prior to it being quilted and thought the pink blocks looked like bandaids... so they've been calling this the band-aid quilt...LOL... I shall continue to call it the Daisy quilt and to that end I had Delinda use a panto called ... He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not ... featuring daisies with missing petals...

And now for the quilt top that personifies procrastination being turned into patience... and yes I am delusional here LOL... my Stack N Whack quilt using the fabric collection The Quiltmaker's Gift... a quilt that has been 24... yes I said TWENTY FOUR... years in the making!!  Ta Dah!!

It is a very good thing that I have this blog because it let me search as to when I started this quilt... and it was before I ever had the blog... the book, The Quiltmaker's Gift was published in 2001 and the fabric came out like a year or so later and I bought it right away and started on this quilt... which makes it 24 years old at a minimum... every hexagon was cut from a repeat of this crazy quilt print..

And here is a close up of some of the hexagons... they really are pretty and remind me of millefiori.  

This has been quilted for the last 2 years just waiting for a binding...and now the procrastination has evolved into patience as it patiently waited to be FINISHED!! Gosh I'm proud of me...ROFL!!

Well, not only did I bind FOUR quilts, but I worked on cutting out more  Debbie Mumm hexagons and some Debbie Mumm squares for 2 quilts I've been thinking about... here's a pic of the notes I've made for both of them to keep track of how many of each shape I need...

By my calculations I need 105 8" hexagons and 145 6" squares... and each piece will be different... and yes I do have a large enough stash of Debbie Mumm fabrics to make that happen!!  As to when both of these major projects will be complete, is another exercise in procrastination turning into patience... it's gonna take a while. 

And due to my ADHD behavior along with binding quilts and cutting out hexagons and squares I also pulled out a project that I started in September of 2024 for a National Jelly Roll Day.. the pattern is called Marbled Cheesecake and it is from the book Jelly Filled by Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique... 

I'm almost halfway done... the fabrics are lots of different Fall collections from Sandy Gervais... she does great Fall stuff ... and the background is Grunge in the colorway Curry... easy peasy blocks that don't require any pinning as you assemble them.  The upcoming week is forecast to be HOT and steamy so retreating to my underground lair... AKA the basement sewing studio... will be a good plan. 

Are you still hanging in there?  I told you this was a looooooong post ... and I wasn't lying... how about a little patriotic decor?  I'm saving the BIG shelf display for next Sunday...which I just realized is the day after the 4th of July... sheesh... I swore it fell on Sunday, not Saturday... oh well... onward... here is the small shelf unit, which has a nice amount of patriotic pieces...

So up top I have Blackbird Designs Stars & Stripes on the big red stand (a bargain from Hobby Lobby years ago) and the little pillow is a freebie from  La-D-Da called Flag City... I left the Flag City part off and just added  some more stars...

 

To the right I have a little quilted flag made with Debbie Mumm fabrics (as if you didn't guess) and the little metal basket has a piece with patriotic chickens from Scissortail Designs called Rise and Shine...                                                                                                                                                                               

Down below on the left hand side I have Yankee Doodles by Lizzie Kate and in the middle a great patriotic piece from Rae Dunn (remember when that was the craze?)  and on the bottom I have the Double Eagle Sampler from the Prairie Schooler No. 8 American Primitive  and in the middle of that bottom shelf I have Liberty from Birds of a Feather. 

Moving to the right hand side of this shelf unit I have Free and Brave from the Drawn Thread and below is  portion of the pattern called Eagle from Sheepish Designs. 

Over on my yellow tier table I have a cute patriotic trio of birds that are from Jim Shore and and old old kit (that I can't find anywhere on the internet) called Liberty House Sampler from Heart in Hand that I stitched this year, and below is Farmyard Parade from With Thy Needle & Thread. 

I've enjoyed all my patriotic decor and I'm mulling over how long I'm going to keep it out... I'm thinking I'll change things over to my Summer chicken stuff just before I have my knee replacement... then I can enjoy that till September rolls around and I break out the Fall stuff. 

And speaking of Fall stuff... nice segue wasn't it... I pulled out this piece from Bent Creek... Autumn Soapbox ... it hasn't seen the light of day since last year... 

I also pulled out a Halloween piece I started last year but I didn't put any stitches in it... I'm thinking that I'd like to get a jump on the Fall stuff and since it is going to hotter than blazes next week (temperatures in the 90's with humidity to match it) stitching Fall stuff should give me cool thoughts... LOL... more delusional thinking on my part... but it makes me happy!  

Well that was quite the post wasn't it?  Don't expect this much content every week... these super productive spells are few and far between but I'm glad they come around now and again. Plans for next week include working out with Anna and I think I have Elliott all day on Tuesday... as I recall, the day camp is closed for the week... we haven't decided where we want to go to watch fireworks on the 4th of July... just sitting on the sunroom porch we can see lots of pyrotechnics from 2 different little towns ... and I want to watch the big fireworks show from DC... it starts at 10:30 EST and is supposed to last for 40 minutes and is billed as the largest fireworks show ever!!  Definitely a must see!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I need to go and get groceries for a certain family member and Nick is making dinner for us... he prepped a pan of lasagna yesterday... that will be a yummy meal! I hope whatever plans you have for the 4th of July are fun ones... I expect a ton of fireworks in my neighborhood... probably starting tonight... there is an enthusiastic neighbor, one street over who likes to shoot off fireworks for every occasion... and he goes all out  for the 4th. 

Happy 250th Birthday of the United States of America!!

and happy stitching-

carol fun 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Procrastination on a Slow Sunday...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and here...

and here...

and here...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope your week ahead a good one!

happy stitching-

carol fun