Gardening and Birds and Stitching on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - remember last week when I said the upcoming week was going to be busy?  Well I underestimated how busy it was going to be... there were the engagements I had on my calendar and then there were a bunch more things that came up that had to be attended to... right now!!  Looking ahead I think (fingers and toes crossed) that this week is going to be less hectic. 

Nick continued to be a BIG  BIG help to me getting stuff done in the yard... we didn't get to the window boxes until Monday ... we put in lots and lots of petunias... pink, lavender and yellow... I have high hopes for them. Then on Thursday, I was sitting out on the porch thinking "I should call the garden center and see if they have any sod available today"  and the next thing I knew a guy from the garden center called me and said, "If you want sod you need to get up here right now, as we only  have a limited amount and it is going fast."  I thanked him for calling me, got dressed and Nick and I drove up there (about 15 minutes) and snagged the last 10 rolls of sod they had that day. Then we went home and we watered the ground and the back of the sod and Nick cut it with a shovel and he got all 10 rolls (they were 24" x 36" so each one is 6 sq ft) placed in the yard.

It was fortuitous that the day before Brian from the sprinkler company came and turned on the sprinklers... and we've been watering the bejesus out of the sod ... this is my 2nd time to do this and the 1st time I let the sod get dry and it died... luckily I only had about 4 rolls put down ... we pulled them up and replaced them... I hope this time I can keep it growing. As I write this on Saturday it is raining... yeah!!!... but the forecast has upper 80 degree temps for the next 3 days... yuck... the sprinklers will be going non-stop... and I still have more I want to plant, but first I need to clean out the front beds of dead daffodils... there is always something to do in the yard during the summer ... but for the most part (exclude the cleaning out the beds) I like working in the yard... and all the neighbors enjoy the flowers.

So you may surmise from that saga that I did not get a lot of crafty stuff done, and you would be 100% correct. I did put some stitches (actually very few) in Bobby by Kathy Barrick...

then I turned my attention back to The Red Bird Sampler by Three Sheep Studios as it was sooooo close to being done...

and now it is.

And then something shiny caught my eye... a patriotic piece that carolinacajuncreates on IG was working on... you can see it here... I have done a couple of those long samplers from Bent Creek and I realized I had this pattern in my stash... Patriotic Row...

so I pulled out a piece of linen that I had dyed and selected the flosses I like (I think I changed every color except one) and got to work on it... here's where I am after one evening of stitching...

As of now I think this will be my last patriotic piece for the year... I want to get out my patriotic stuff by Memorial Day, as I plan to keep it up till probably the end of July... and I need to dedicate a chunk of time for finishing the pieces I already stitched.

In the meantime I will enjoy the birds for another week or so... here's the big display shelf... 

At the top I have Bent Creek's Spring Row Sampler... below from left to right I have 2 Blackbird Designs featuring birds... the one on the pedestal I can't remember the name of, the one below with the parrot looking bird is from the book in Friendship's Way and is called August (as I recall it was in honor of a grandchild's birth, and the square on in the middle is from The Drawn Thread called For the Birds. 

Moving down I have a grouping of blue themed samplers... from left to right again...from the BBD Abecedarian Loose Feathers collection this is Forget Me Not...

In the middle Lizzie Kate's Spring Alphabet...

and on the right side from Cedar Hill Designs  the Country Flower Sampler that waited for 13 years to be framed...sheesh...

And at the bottom I have Notforgotten Farms Ah Tis Spring, a little lady holding a giant tulip from Pineberry Lane, and two more bird pieces from BBD that I can't remember the name of... but in the book they were done as heart shaped pillows...  

and last but not least BBD Hollyhocks from the book Sewing Club. I got to thinking and I do believe that there is some kind of bird in almost all of the Blackbird Design pieces... which  would make sense since the word bird appears in their company name... and it makes me happy because I LOVE birds!!

On a side note, I got 2 new bird feeders for Mother's Day from a company called Roamwild... here is a link to their website...

these are the feeders and I do believe that they are actually squirrel proof! I've watched the squirrels try to access the feeders from top and from the bottom and in each try they were unsuccessful!!! YEAH!! and the little perches are set so that only light birds can sit on them... little songbirds... not those greedy grackles ... so far I'm very impressed...and my bird seed is lasting a lot longer

Another side note, I got some emails and chatted with some other people about the Jiffy Knee TKR technique I talked about last week... and I did  even more research.., and I'm going to have it done this way. Right now it is scheduled for July 1. I went and got a CT scan of my knee on Friday so they can fabricate the implant. I'm still working out with my trainer ... she moved from just down the street to about 25 minutes from my house... so I've gone from working out 30 minutes twice a week to 45 minutes once a week. And I'm using a recumbent bike at a pretty good resistance several times a week. I want to be as strong as I can before the surgery. Wish me luck!

So I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today...  I may get out and work in the yard a bit today... my knee can only take a little and then I need to rest it... looking forward to not worrying and babying this knee... hope your week ahead is a good one!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Lots of flowers on a Slow Sunday...

Hello and Happy Mother's Day!!  By the time you read this I will have indulged in a Mother's Day brunch at my oldest son's house and if the weather holds, my younger son will be helping me plant up my window boxes... see the pretty petunias I got... pink, lavender and yellow... a nice color scheme for this Summer.

I didn't get a lot of crafty stuff done this week... and I just realized it has been at least 2 weeks since I even turned on my sewing machine... sigh... but I have been busy with flowers... buying them and planting them... I've visited several garden centers... some I've been to multiple times... the fear of missing out on the good stuff  is very real!  LOL

Fingers crossed the threat of frost is behind me and I started with my shelf of petunias... and as I'm a big fan of indoor decorating, I'm also a big fan of outdoor decorating... and my plan for the petunias is color blocked shelves... yellow, orange, pink, purple...  here's how it is starting out... make the pics bigger for a closer view... 

I was surprised that I found five different shades of orange petunias ... and to celebrate that find I got some new orange pots for them... they are shinier than I thought but I do love the look! By my count there are 21 different varieties of petunias on the shelves... some pots got 2 different varieties stuffed into them... and I haven't decided if that is the final spot for that big pot of yellow petunias but I couldn't leave them at the garden center... I just couldn't...

Then I moved onto playing coleus... there are sooooo many varieties of coleus... from limey green to coppery red to burgundy and purple and I want one of everything!! Here's the ones I did bring home...

and there were at least that many different varieties I left behind. 

I always do a big pot of coleus in my front yard ... and again I play with the colors of the plants like I play with fabric ... and in this case I started with the limey green and then gradated with the ones that are green and red and ended up on the other side with the ones that are all red... 

After that I played with the area on my patio that fences it off from the yard... and this year I'm trying out a peachy-pinky vibe...

that large petunia on the left is such a pretty color...  I forget what the name of the spiky plant is but I tucked in some peachy coleus at the base... and in the tall planter I have Peachy Keen lantana with a coppery coleus in the middle and basil in the back... underneath the planter I put limey green coleus and some rosy pinky petunias... to the left that pink/green/cream striped plant is a cordyline ... and on the end (which got cut off )  some peachy dahlias and peachy osteospermum.  Like I said... outdoor decorating!

By my count I've potted up 75 4" pots and on Saturday Nick helped me plant about 20 1 gallon plants... cannas, foxglove, guara and some new stuff  I've forgotten the name of... however I still need to clean out the beds of the fading daffodils ... and then Nick helped me plant about 3 and a half flats of marigolds totally lining the beds... I think that works out to be about 120 individual little plants... Nick dug the holes and  put in some fertilizer and I put the marigold in and tamped it down... we ended up spending about 4 and 1/2 hours working and we were both pooped. In the past I've planted little tithonia flowers, but the garden center I usually get them out didn't have any... and it is the one garden center I drag my feet to go there as the parking is atrocious ... one trip to that one is all I have the patience for. We shall see how the marigolds work out...fingers crossed...

I haven't started planting the dahlia tubers ... I think the ground is still too cold and I'm waiting for the sprinkler company to come and put in the drip irrigation in the beds before I plant stuff... they are coming on Wednesday to turn back on the sprinklers and drip that I have now but I don't know if they are going to do the new stuff ... I'm happy to wait a couple of weeks as I have plenty of other yard work to do. 

Now I did stitch some more on The Red Bird Sampler by 3 Sheep Studio but not until I had to frog a whole lot of red... the chart calls for DMC 814 and 815 ... but there is very little contrast between them  and if you look at the picture the wings are definitely a brighter red... in fact I think there is an error because I frogged the 815 and replaced it with 816 and now it looks like the picture... here's where I was...

here's where I am...

And I am going to start Bobby by Kathy Barrick some time today...  here are the flosses and the linen I'm going to use... 

Next week is super busy... I have at least one  and sometimes two appointment every day ... and sometimes I think I should try to do more things in one day to free up another, but I'm always afraid that I will be late for the 2nd appointment if I do that... so I don't... 

And speaking of appointments... I spent Friday with a new orthopedic surgeon talking about a total knee replacement (TKR)... I've watched a ton of videos about TKR and while I definitely need it in my left knee (and probably in my right knee too but we aren't going to think about that right now) and last week I found out about a different procedure for the surgery ... it has been in practice for about 20 years but I never heard of it before.... so if it is new to me, it might be new to you and a lot of us are getting to the stage of having to replace different joints. The procedure is called Jiffy Knee (and yes my boomer brain immediately thinks of Jiffy Pop Popcorn)... here's a link to the website... jiffyknee.com... 

Instead of cutting the quadricep muscle and the tendons, this procedure moves them aside to do the joint replacement... it is less invasive and results in reduced post-operative pain, decreased swelling, and speedier recovery times. Patients are up and back to driving in 10 -14 days! And  the surgeon says I should be able to get back to my garden within a month!  Now I did a ton of research on this technique... a deep dive into AI with Grok... I found out about the technique and the background on my surgeon... as with any surgery there are still the issues of possible infection or blood clots but it isn't any more prevalent than traditional TKR. They also use this technique for hip  and shoulder replacement. 

As you can surmise I am seriously thinking about using this technique ... I could have the surgery on July 1 at a hospital that is less than 5 minutes from my home and right around the corner from my older son's house. I had myself pretty much convinced about the Jiffy Knee, and then had breakfast with a friend who's husband is a retired doctor (urology), and he's in the process of having a TKR and he didn't support the Jiffy technique... which has me internally debating my choice.  I'm going to discuss it with my older son as he is a very logical thinker... the idea of less pain and quicker recovery is at the forefront of what I want.  We'll talk more about this when the time gets closer but I'll definitely be asking for your prayers and positive thoughts... I'm not looking forward to it but it needs to be done. 

So I hope you are having a nice day and that the rest of your week is a good one too ... I will link up with Kathy's Quilts... and like I said I want to stitch a little and get the window boxes planted up... there is still a lot of cleanup I need to do in the yard... and lots of stitching and sewing I want to do... but Rome wasn't built in a day, right?  

happy stitching-

carol fun 

A bit of bird-brained brooding on a Slow Sunday...

Hello -well I can't decide if Spring has sprung or not around here... a week ago I thought it had but currently I'm skeptical as we have had 3 nights with temps in the mid to upper 30's... not a frost but definitely  concerning for the petunias I bought... so I hauled them into the garage and I'm waiting out Mother Nature. 

A couple of days ago I thought about getting more plants, but the garden center wasn't open ...and I'm taking that as a sign that God is looking out for me... sigh... around here I've always been told that it is safe to plant after Mother's Day... which is next Sunday... not that far away right?  I shall try to be patient... not my forte...

And thinking about the upcoming Mother's Day had me pondering, "what did I want to start to stitch that day?" For years I've given myself the gift of starting a new project, guilt free on Mother's Day... throwing caution to the wind and totally ignoring all the gazillion other projects I have started... and not finished... sigh... and let's not think about how I do that same thing other times during the year... I'm trying to make Mother's Day special ... LOL...  I went back through the blog to see which pieces I selected over the  years, and was pleasantly surprised that the starts I had on Mother's Day were pieces that I finished ... and I finished them in a reasonable amount of time... EXCEPT for my start in 2024... don't know what happened but I stitched on it Mother's Day and didn't put another stitch in it after that... and it has been languishing in a plastic zippered pouch ever since... oh my... so on Thursday opened up the zippered  pouch, planted myself out on the sunroom porch (it was a lovely sunny day) and put some more stitches in it... here's where it was when I opened the pouch with Red Bird Sampler from Three Sheep Studio... I purchased this as a PDF... I do love immediate gratification!

and here it is now...

not bad for 3 days of stitching... I made the C and the N red for my sons initials... appropo to acknowledge my boys on a Mother's Day piece, dontcha think? 

Now you know I LOVE birds... I even have a  small sampler wall that features birds... 

on the left there is The Red Bird Sampler by With Thy Needle & Thread...  I added an alphabet to the bottom of this one...

on the right is Vintage Birds by Jeanette Douglas... I love how the alphabet wraps around this one!

and at the bottom is Faith of the Heart from With Thy Needle & Thread...

as the Mother of a special needs child this one speaks to me ... "God Finds a Low Branch for the Bird that Cannot Fly" ...

and I'm going to add this bird sampler to the wall... just got it back from the framer... The Sweet Bird Sings from Blackbird Designs...

This is another piece where I added the alphabet at the bottom and I'm in love with this frame...lots of close ups...

So all this bird-brained brooding helped me in deciding what my Mother's Day project is going to be... bet you have a good idea what it is going to feature...LOL ... drumroll please... a BIG BIRD!!! Say hello to  Bobby by Kathy Barrick!!

Okay I love that great big bird in the middle and the alphabet scattered around... I need to go to Hobby Lobby and pick up the flosses and get a piece of linen painted or dyed by next Sunday... a very doable task... that certainly will be helped by the deadline of next Sunday...

As for decor, well I'm still enjoying my birds and tulips... here's the small shelf unit...

up top I have this little bird from Homespun Elegance called Delivering Posies... such a sweet little piece...

and on the other side by mini quilt of yellow tulips and a little pillow which is Hello Spring from Sub Rosa Designs..

below Good Deeds by With Thy Needle and Thread...

in the middle from the OOP BBD book Thank you Sarah Tobias the Pins & Tulips Pincushion where I stitched the front and the back on one piece of fabric... and the tiny gal with the flower is from Pineberry Lane she was a freebie called Wee Crowned Maiden in a field of tulip knickknacks!

On the bottom, the bird in the heart shaped frame is the very FIRST cross stitch piece I ever did... it was a kit and I remember tossing the fabric as it was a boring beige and getting this piece of sage green... don't remember the name of the kit as that was 40 years ago... and the bird with the spool of thread is Bobbin' Along by Notforgotten Farms... 

and over on the left side on the bottom is Prairie Schooler's Spring...

Oh the reason I got out the forgotten Mother's Day project was I finished Primrose Cottage American Sampler... yippee!!!

I dropped it off at the framer when I picked up the BBD piece... and while I still have some patriotic pieces I want to do, I needed a little break... along with pondering bird projects I've been overall pondering just what I want to work on at the moment... soooooo many many many things I want to do but there are only so many hours in a day... and even though I'm "retired" I seem to do a lot of running around... some of my choosing, some not of my choosing... such is life...

Next week has its fair share of running around... gonna work out with Anna, a lunch one day and a dinner another day with a friend, a doctor appointment about my knee and of course helping out a family member with stuff... oh and add in I do want to work in the yard... there is definitely some cleanup that needs to be done and of course I want to plant some stuff... I picked up some beautiful Coleus ... I'm still deciding about the window boxes... I'll probably pick a color scheme when I see what is available at the garden centers... they haven't got a lot of the wave-type petunias in yet... guess they are paying closer attention to that Mother's Day date for frost than I am...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... gotta do a grocery run for a family member and then Nick is making dinner for the 2 of us... hopefully I can get in some stitching or sewing... or I'm might opt for a nap on the porch... always a good choice!

hope you have a good week ahead...

happy stitching!

carol fun 

A Slow Sunday where procrastination appears again and again...

 Hello - ok... I can't believe it is Sunday already... the week flew by me at mach speed... something to do every day and then several surprise events came up too... some good, some not so good ... but as I type this I think everything has settled down ... fingers crossed. 

As for a good surprise I was able to spend an afternoon shopping for petunias ... and a few other plants... I know I'm pushing it... but the 10 day forecast doesn't have a single temperature less than 40 degrees... and I'm not putting anything in the ground or in the window boxes so if Mother Nature throws a temper tantrum and does give us a cold night I can rescue my precious petunias and bring them into the garage.

Here's my cart at the garden center... lots of petunias and some verbena and a potted dahlia peeking out on the bottom...

Here's what I got so far... 

again I'm going to color block the shelves ... yellow, orange, pink, purple... I found lots of purple varieties ... but I'd like to find more yellow, orange and pink... need to check out a couple of other garden centers and circle back to the 2 I already shopped at... neither one had all of their inventory yet.  I also purchased 3 big planters... 2 for next to the garage and one I stuck on the patio... yes I could plant stuff up like this myself, but the older I get, the lazier I get, and the pots I got are already filling out and looking pretty... I'll show them next week.

As for crafty stuff ... I FFO'd 3 items... two I framed, and one I sewed into a little pillow... starting with the framing... so last week I showed a sampler that I had stitched in 2013 and it finally got framed... this week I'm showing you a sampler I stitched back in 2011 and this is the week it FINALLY got framed...talk about procrastination... sheesh...

this is Country Flower Sampler from Cedar Hill Designs... and I can't find a copyright date anywhere on this chart but I assume it had to be prior to 2011.  The designer's name is Maria Gossard and at the time these patterns were printed she lived not far from me... but I didn't know that.  Anyway at the time I was stitching this one I was very enamoured with this style of sampler that combined the alphabet with flowers and I purchased several other charts... which I found in my stash!!!  OMG ... I really really need to take a day and look at everything I have filed away... more procrastination to be sure... LOL

They are well aged at this point and I still like them ... and it's not out of the realm of possibility that I might stitch another... that one  in the upper left hand corner certainly caught my eye...  and I like that long narrow one at the bottom... and you can never have too many samplers with flowers... IMHO... 

The other piece I framed was Here Come the Robins by With Thy Needle & Thread...

I picked up that cute scalloped frame at Hobby Lobby ... it was brown and I painted it green... next time I'm at HL I'm going to see if they still have that style and get another one... I think it is very cottage-y and I like that look. Since I finished this after I had everything else arranged I just kinda plopped it down here...

That is my favorite vase... it is vintage Mccoy pottery... the little pillow is from the border of the Shakespeare's Peddler chart A Saviour's Praise and those flowers are alstroemeria...also called a Peruvian Lily... they are always inexpensive at Krogers... $5 for a bunch and they last a long time. I saw a potted plant of them the other day at one of the garden centers... I've never seen them before as a plant. They had shorter stems than these do but I think I need to go back and grab a plant and see what happens. 

As for a little pillow, I was able to FFO the Notforgotten Farm Bit of Honey bee that I started last week to pretty much match Bee's Knees from last year...

and they both look spiffy in my tier tray tucked in with some vintage Debbie Mumm teapots and another little pillow which is from Pineberry Lane - Tansy, Yarrow, Rue...

Here's a WIDE picture  of the living room and it looks enormous... which it isn't...

these  happy yellow quilts certainly brighten up the living room... the one on the wall....

is the pattern was from Kim Brackett's book Scrap-Basket Sensations and was called Flowers for Nana's Girl, but I call mine the buttercup quilt... a throwback to the 1968 hit by The Foundations  - Build me Up Buttercup... I still know ALL the lyrics to that one... anyway every flower is a different tone on tone yellow... OMG... I just realized that I started this quilt back in 2011 and I didn't get it finished till 2025... what does that say about me?  That good things come to those that wait?  Or again, Carol, you are a world class procrastinator? 

On the back of the couch is a charm quilt that I started prior to having this blog... so maybe 2010... it was part of a QAL and mine got bigger than I planned... there are 362 different yellow squares... lots of novelties, such as frogs, monkeys, hearts... 

I've made several quilts like this... lots and lots of different fabrics over the years ... they are some of my favorites but they do take time... lots of time... and the older I get the more I want to get things done NOW!! It would also help if I didn't let the projects get away from me and grow to humongous proportions but they always seem to do that...LOL

As for doing any actual sewing or stitching, very little was accomplished. I'm still plugging away on the Primrose Cottage American Sampler... 

I got the flag stitched and some little bits here and there... I want this done ... and it seems like it is close to being finished... but every time I pick it up I see that there is more to do... 

As for sewing I sewed these 3 very simple  blocks...

this is the start of my patriotic quilt... the pattern is a freebie from FQS called Jelly Roll Relish..

the fabrics are from Lori Holt's Americana collection and the Uncle Sam colorway from the Blossom collection. By my count (and we all know the issues I have with math...LOL) I need 49 blocks to make this fit my bed... so I have a looooooong way to go... 

So there is something I have to attend to M/T/W/Th but Friday  is still open... I'm hoping to squeeze in some stitching, some sewing and some gardening... fingers crossed... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I need to take Nick to get a haircut  in a bit and I want to pop into the garden center and order some sod which a friend said he's pick up for me later in the week and then another friend said they'd put it the lawn... I have such nice friends... later today we are taking Nick to a Brazilian all you can eat steakhouse to celebrate his 36th birthday... how did he get that old? Better question,  how did I get that old???  I was his age when I gave birth to him... sheesh. 

hope you have a good week!!

happy stitching-

carol fun