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 

 

I need to pick a side on a Slow Sunday...

Hello- how was your week?  Mine was all over the place... just like the weather here in SW Ohio... we had snow showers and wild whistling winds and  teeming rain and as I type this on Saturday, glorious sunshine... and as you read this on Sunday we are suppose to hit 80 degrees!! But then it is going to rain again and drop 30 degrees...  Mother Nature can't make up her mind and neither could I this week.  I'll explain in a minute. 

I did a lot of running around as I had at least 2 appointments/places I had to be every day ... but I got them all done ... and somehow ... and I don't know how it happened... I got a fair amount of crafty stuff done.  Continuing the theme of last week I've been spending a lot of quality time with my sewing machine ... now I started the week concentrating on the Vivian quilt  by Kitchen Table Quilting and I got 3 columns sewn together...

this is working for me so I can keep those strips lined up fairly well... and I'm liking how this is looking. It is  quite a "modern" quilt for me ... I'm thinking my son and daughter-in-law may like it too... to motivate me to get this done (all the pieces are cut out) I even went ahead and found a pretty wide back for it and ordered it. 

Now you may wonder why I'm worried about losing my motivation to finish a quilt that is 3/5ths done... well... it is because something else that's new ( to me ) and shiny appeared in my sewing room.  

Have you seen the videos of the fusible gridded patchwork?  Google it and you'll find lots of videos... anyway I had bought some of the 2.5" gridded fusible a while ago  but never did anything with it ... then a friend said she was having trouble finding the 2.5" size, oh I have that... so I gave her some... and then thought maybe I should play with this too... so I did... I love the look of blocks made up of lots of squares... but I'm not as fond of sewing them together... all those seams that need to match... and now I know how to get the look I love with NO pinning... ok lets see if I can show you what I did... 

I started with a piece of the gridded interfacing 4 squares by 4 squares... so a 16 patch block...

and I cut 8 2.5" squares of my focal fabric and 8 2.5" squares of my background fabric... in this case it is American Jane fabrics from Riley Blake and a 2020 collection also from Riley Blake called Pin Drop... I loved this fabric when it came out and bought yards of it... and then the store I bought it from marked it down and I bought more!! You can never have too much pretty fabric!!

then you lay the fabrics close to each other  on the fusible (bumpy side up) and press them so they stick...

can you see that they are close together but not perfect... that's okay... here's how it looks on the back..

take that to the sewing machine and fold the block along each row and sew a quarter inch seam...

when you have all the rows done in this case that's 3 seams you clip the intersections... there are 9 of them...

then fold the block in the other direction and since you clipped the seams your seam allowance will alternate directions... sew in the other direction ... 

when you've sewn all the seams in the other direction it looks like this...

the intersections are nested and you can press all the seams in one direction... turn the block over ...

and voila! you are done and every single corner intersection is PERFECT!!! you didn't use a single pin ... and I timed myself... I can sew, clip and sew,  an entire block in about 2 and a half minutes!   OH MY GOODNESS!! I am beside myself .. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this technique!!  

And to show how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE this technique this is how many blocks I sewed up this week!!

I'm not sure how big a quilt I'm going to make ... I'm  using 2 layer cakes of American Jane.... Simple Pleasures and Always in Season... these are the 2 collections that she's done with Riley Blake.. I think the colors in these collections are bit clearer than the collections she did with Moda... and I really like how they look with the Pin Drop fabric...

I can think of several quilts where this technique would be incredibly helpful... and I can see me doing LOTS of them!! But first I should finish this one...LOL!!

So this is how my entire design wall looks and I need to pick a side!!!!

Let's see what happens this week... it looks like I will have time to sew...maybe I can work a bit on both sides?

As for cross stitch, I stalled out on the Prairie Schooler Lady Liberty because I got my copy of A Cheerful Heart by Shakespeare's Peddler in the mail and I couldn't wait to start it... 

I painted a piece of 32 ct linen with a mixture of Rit Dye Golden Yellow and Tan...and I'm very pleased with how it turned out... 

and so I HAD to put some stitches in it... I started in the upper right hand corner and worked my way across the top...

oh I think this is going to be sooooo pretty!!!

As for decor well let me show you my fleet of vegetable vehicles... aka bunnies driving carrot cars!  As far as I can tell I purchased my first carrot car back in 2020 and this is where I am now.

This is the small shelf display....

up top I have  little vignette of knickknacks...

and to the right I have a Bent Creek piece called Hip Hop... I stitched this when Nick was in 2nd grade... don't know why I remember that but I do... Nick is now 35... darn I'm old...

Down below I have the bulk of the carrot car fleet... the left side... I have a snippet of a piece from Blackbird Design in the  middle ...

and on the right a little group of ducks swam into the display...

there are nine carrot cars if you count the cross-stitched piece by Lila Studio...

and there is one more vegetable vehicle on the large shelf display... I'll show that next week... I had no idea that it would get this large back in 2020 when I picked up the first one... I think they are hilarious... and yes I have an odd sense of humor...

This is the little telephone nook in the hallway... I love putting stuff in here and I pass by it many many times a day... The pink bunny in the back is from Emily Call, the white egg was a gift from a friend and the long pillow is Spring String from Lizzie Kate. 

Out on the TV cabinet I have this  bunny shaped tier tray...

on the top level is a piece from WTN&T  Jellybean Jubilee and on the bottom are Prairie Schooler bunnies from book No. 178. 

In the middle section of the TV cabinet  I went with a primarily yellow theme...

The bunny on the top shelf is from Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting, she designed it as sitting in a mason jar but I left that part off... and on the bottom is Spring from Seasons of the Heart by WTN&T. 

I'm so happy that I got all the bunnies out!  they are making me smile!

Next week is suspiciously open... working out with Anna, spending Tuesday with Elliott and an appointment to have a guy come and clean out the dryer vent... that's all I have written down... that should mean that I will have a lot of time to sew and stitch... oh I hope that's right and I haven't overlooked something important...which I could have... LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I need to do a grocery run for a family member on Sunday but after that the day is mine... the weather looks more seasonable... no snow is forecast... my favorite garden center opens on Wednesday... it is waaaaay too early to get any plants ...and they won't have a lot of annuals yet... but I would like to go and walk around ... it makes me happy!!

Hope you have a great week!

happy stitching-

carol fun