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 

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