Friday, June 29, 2012

On the needles....

They say if you want God to laugh, tell him your plans. Well, God must have tears running down his face he's laughed so hard this week, cause I got nothing done I had planned to do. I've spent most of my week helping my oldest son to purchase his first house and driving my youngest son here there and everywhere. Not that I begrudge them a moment of the time I spend with them but, it is pretty difficult to be sewing up quilt blocks while you are driving 65 mph. Just saying.

So about the only progress I have to show for my week is this sock.


I'm so glad that socks are portable and when you are doing plain stockinette, fairly mindless. I've knitted these while I've waited here there and everywhere.


This is Fabel by DROPS yarn just like last week. Isn't this colorway yummy. It is number 677p. I love the green and the purply blue in this one. I purchased it at Nordic Mart you can click here.

On today's agenda is more driving around, some house related and some for other pursuits. Hopefully I will be able to stay home this weekend, but I'm not making any plans cause God needs a breather.

And I'd like to leave you today with a gratuitous picture of Big Dude doing what a Big Dude does -sleep, on my cutting table. Seriously? There are lots of other more comfy surfaces but I find him here at least once a day.


And I'm off ..... hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead.
Happy stitching-
carol fun

Monday, June 25, 2012

Blocks come and blocks go on Design Wall Monday

Some sewing was accomplished last week but no project was totally finished. Blocks were put on the wall and blocks were taken down and others replaced them.

First up, 20 of those adorable mini granny square blocks...



I would have made more but I ran out of Kona Snow for the background. I got some at Fabric Shack but I miscalculated how much I need so more will have to be purchased. The tutorial for these can be found here on Trish's blog.

So I switched gears and played with those yummy new Kaffe Fassett/Westminster Fabrics. Nine 36 patch blocks were assembled. I need 36 blocks total for the quilt I have planned.



I did these with 2 1/2 inch strips so the blocks will finish 12". These are two of my favorites so far. Polka dots and a dotty yellow...



Polka dots and a limey green.



I have a plan for how to set these but I need background fabric. I think I'll wait till I have them all made and then return to Fabric Shack to make my final selection.

And then guilt made me work on the little Dresdens to finish up my Sugar Dish quilt.



Five blocks completely machine blanket stitched down and five to go. I need to have the Sugar Dish top done by next Monday since that is Ohio Valley Quilters Guild meeting night. It shouldn't be a problem.

So 20 of these, 9 of those and 5 of them.... a substantial amount of production for someone who kept wandering from one project to another. Focus has never been my strong suit - LOL!

It suppose to get hot hot hot this week, which will be perfect weather for me to hunker down in the basement and sew. Its nice and cool down here and the AC is doing its best to keep it that way.


Hope you are keeping cool and getting something accomplished! Happy stitching!

carol fun

Sunday, June 24, 2012

An encore presentation of hobbies combining

Another week has blown by me. I did get a little more time at home but still not enough. Hope springs eternal that this week will have me staying home as much as possible. On the cross stitch front, I don't have anything new to show today. I'm still working on Willie's Quaker Sampler and I'm looking forward to starting something new when I get the last stitch in it.

Last week I show a little sampler that had a quilting design and one of you lovely people asked if I had ever used any of my cross stitch in my quilting. This piece is the only time I can remember doing that. It is a sampler that is a little quilt.



I know I've said this before but I have to repeat it again, I have no idea what the name of the is chart was. I vaguely remember it came from BHG Cross Stitch & Country Crafts. I do remember that they didn't have a ceramic button for every letter of the alphabet but the OCD in me could not rest until I found a button for every single solitary letter.



Doing it this way I covered up a lot of the stitching on the lower case letters - oh well. I do love buttons! That clown one for the letter C was a fun one. The pumpkin on the J is a jack-o-lantern. Yes I did manipulate the buttons to make them what I wanted them to be -- that's artistic license, right?? LOL



And finding buttons for some letters was easier than others. Using a "nut" for the letter N was a difficult one. O is an ornament and Q is the heart on Q is for "quilted".The last button I found was the little cross stitch in the hoop with the x's. I looked high and low for a xylophone, but there didn't seem be be anyone who made a ceramic button like that. Imagine that??

This little quilt/cross stitch piece is hand quilted. That should tell you how old it is since I haven't done any hand quilting in the last decade, maybe two.



I am pleased that I didn't cut off the points on the little Ohio Star blocks in the corners. These little darling finished a smidge less than 3 inches. You won't find anything that small in any of my current quilts. Lately my mantra has been bigger is better - LOL!

Summer has definitely arrived here. Yesterday the humidity was down and it didn't feel like it was upper 80s'. However the forecast I saw for next week was flirting with 100 - yikes. So so glad the AC is working.
Hope you are staying cool!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Friday, June 22, 2012

Barely on the needles for Friday

As you can see these are barely on the needles. All I need to do is Kitchner the toe and weave in the ends and I'll have another finished pair of socks.



These are my favorite kind of non-thinking knitting project. Plain vanilla stockinette socks done with self-striping yarn.



This is DROPS Fabel yarn. I got it here at Nordic Mart.



This is colorway 903p. I love the colors - rosy pink, dusty violet, apricot and a little lime and sand. This yarn has 25% nylon and I like that in a sock yarn. It keeps them nice and stretchy.

Now it is a good thing that these are just barely on the needles and almost done. Look at this picture.....



Yep, one end of the circular needle is veering off at a rather acute angle. I figure this happened when I was taking the project out of the car. I must have closed it in the door but didn't see it till I sat down to finish the sock. Oh well, this has happened to me before and will probably happen again. Thank goodness these are the Knitpicks fixed circulars which are quite reasonable in price. I called my friend Cathy who works at a LYS and she says she can pick up a replacement pair for me. I have other sets this size (2.75mm) but I like having a couple of sets on hand since this is my "go to" needles size for socks.

My Summer Flies shawl is still on the needles. I'm up to section 6 Knotted Openwork. I love that section and I still have lots of yarn so I'm adding a bunch more rows of this.

Hope your knitting is progressing nicely!

carol fun

Thursday, June 21, 2012

I meant to behave...

Source: via Carol on Pinterest


Okay, who am I kidding, I didn't even try to be good. I went to the NQA show last week in Columbus on the hunt for Kaffe Fassett fat quarters and boy did I score!!



I came home with 40 Kaffe Fassett/Phillip Jacobs/Brandon Mably Westminster Fabrics. And I got a 2 yard piece of this....



it was marked down at Quilt Trends and was the end of the bolt.

Now I do have plans for this fabric. In fact I have plans in my head for at least 3 quilts. First, off I want to finish my Swoon blocks - I need 2 more. And then there is a string pieced quilt I saw that used Kaffe fabrics and black and white prints - love it. And then there is a 36 patch block variation that is talking to me too. Hopefully if I get all these tops made I will put a dent in my Kaffe/Phillip/Brandon stash. Right now it is escaping the bonds of its little (24 quarts is little isn't it?) plastic bin. My goal is to use enough of the fabrics to get the lid to snap on. I have no illusions that I will use all of them up, heck - I don't want to use all of them. They are so pretty that I need to have some around just to pet and admire.

PS- I've found in general that it is more fun to misbehave than behave at quilt shows so something like this is bound to happen again.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

What I'm working on this Wednesday

Its another scorcher here today, but at least my AC works, which it didn't yesterday. I noticed on Monday evening it was 81 degrees in the house, a substantial amount higher than the thermostat was set at. Engineer husband "checked" it out and found ice on the lines inside and outside the house and declared that it could be fixed by turning off the AC and letting the ice melt and then restarting it. No..no that doesn't work. A call to several repair places revealed that we were one of many with AC issues. Several would be happy to add us to their schedule.... on Friday. No... no that doesn't work. Luckily Sears was able to work us in. The AC dude showed up around 3pm (much earlier than I expected) and spent 2 hours working on the units both inside and out and got it up and cooling. Thank you AC guy! He was a really nice guy -even complimented the quilts I have displayed in the basement - and stoically put up with Engineer husband looking over his shoulder the entire time he was here. What a trouper!

I LOVE AC!!! I really do. Engineer husband did not think that it would be a big deal to wait for repairs till Friday, but then he went off to work in his air-conditioned office and I didn't. Big Dude was also very grateful for some cool air. When you tip the scales at more than 25 lbs and wear a very dense fur coat you do not like temps in the 80s.

I hunkered down in the basement where I normally hang out, and it was okay as long as I sat in front of the fan which I did. I got some sewing done and some stitching. Here is my Willie's Quaker Sampler.



And you have perceptively seen that it is not finished. I know I said I wanted it stitched up by last Saturday (June 16) so I could use that marvelous Michaels coupon at Joanns - 60% off plus an additional 10% off. I don't think I've ever seen one that good before. Well, it was painfully obvious on Friday evening that there was no way I could complete this piece. I went up to see my framer, Bev, at Joanns and brought a smaller piece that I was going to use the coupon on. I couldn't let it totally go to waste. I brought along Willie for Bev to see and she said "you can use that coupon on the big piece." I can???? Yep, all I had to do was pick out the frame, she could figure out how much was needed because I had the alphabet all stitched (wasn't that a brilliant move on my part? oh you know it was!)

So I perused all my choices and picked out a lovely piece of molding that turned out to be solid cherry.... and pricey too. But utilizing the wonderful Michaels coupon, I saved..... wait for it.... drumroll please.... $140!!! That's correct, I saved one hundred and forty dollars!!! The total cost for this frame which will be about 30 inches in length came to $84. I am soooooo happy! My hope was that it would cost no more than $100 but I also thought I was probably deluding myself. I had no idea I could frame this for less than $85.

Now it still isn't finished, but I'm in the home stretch and the molding won't arrive till the end of the week, so I have time. Bev told me to bring it back when its complete. There is no rush on her part since the framing is already paid for and I signed that I retained the "art work" until the time it can be completed. I just finished up this motif...



I love the pumpkin-y floss color and that the little motifs around the star look like flying geese - another cross over of hobbies and you know that makes me happy. So tonight I will plop my butt in my chair and watch the Reds play baseball (and they better play better than the last 2 games) and stitch the evening away in cool air-conditioned comfort. Life is good!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Bright, bright sunshine-y day!

Today is certainly bright and sunshine-y - it's going to be 90 degrees!! So, I dragged out my Made in Cherry quilt to take some pictures.



I'm calling my version Queen Anne Cherry because Queen Anne cherries are yellow and red like this.....




and we won't discuss where the red might have gone in this quilt - okay? I love the all over quilting pattern and my long arm gal, Cass, used a lovely yellow variegated thread. She knows how much I love them and keeps her eye out for any new ones - she's so nice!



I used an assortment of tone-on-tone yellow and yellow print fabrics. Lots of flowers - tulips, daisies,roses, daffodils. Hoffman Fabrics florals have always talked to me, and they always said "buy me", so I did.



Hope you can stay cool where you are - the 90 degree weather is predicted to hang around all week here!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Monday, June 18, 2012

A few plates short of a full set on Design Wall Monday

I had hoped for more sewing time than I got this weekend, but I'm happy for what I got. Saturday night I listened to the ball game (my Reds beat the Mets - yeah!) and I got all 80 pieced blocks sewn into rows for my Sugar Dish quilt.

.

I am very happy with these blocks. I love all the different fabrics and as far as I can tell no two blocks have the identical fabric combination. Do you do that? Sometimes I get way too anal over things like this. It does helps when you have lots of different fabric choices to play with.






I got another little Dresden together but I'm still a few plates short of a full set. Five more to go - another hundred or so little blades that need to be cut and folded and sewn. I might have gotten more done but I got distracted by this great tutorial on Trish's blog Notes of Sincerity - click here.

And that lead to putting these little cuties together from some of the scraps on my cutting table.



Oh my goodness, these are sweet! This is Trish's take on the granny square block that has been sweeping the blog world. I've thought about doing a granny square quilt for a while but somehow I never got my butt in gear. Now I'm glad I waited because I like this version so much more. You only need 3 fabrics per block and the squares are cut 2.5" which means it is charm square friendly. I'm not sure how big this quilt will get but I plan to use the fabrics left over from my Sugar Dish and see where that leads me. I want to use that $250 fabric (in her dreams) for the border of this one.

Right now I have so many quilt ideas buzzing around in my head. I keep thinking that with a summer break things will slow down and I'll have more time to sew. Last week didn't have a lot of free time, but hope springs eternal that this week will be better. Here's crossing my fingers that you and I will have lots of time to sew this week!

carol fun




Sunday, June 17, 2012

A little bit of crossed hobbies on Sampler Sunday

So I looked at all my samplers and I can't find one that speaks to Father's Day so instead I'm showing this little piece that has a very slim Father's Day connection.



Now I have no idea what the name of this piece is. I suspect it came from BHG Cross Stitch & Country Crafts back in the mid-80's. The colors I used - dusty teal and rose- were the colors of our bedroom back then, and I remember finishing this little piece up on a Father's day. Now my husband has no interest in my hobbies and can't differentiate between any of them. He calls everything I do "needlepoint" because that is the first hobby I did when we were married. And he totally doesn't understand my love of samplers. Once years ago, he commented "don't you think we know our ABC's by now". That was probably 40 samplers ago. Really the only time I can think of where he sort of noticed my samplers was when I took about 20 of them to a local shop for an exhibit. What he noticed were the empty nails in the walls. He had no recollection of the samplers and in fact asked why I had put so many holes in the wall. (Can we see why I involve myself in crafty pursuits??)

Anyway what I loved about this little piece (beside the fact that at the time it went so well with my decor) is that it combines 2 things I love - samplers and quilts. I have this charts waiting for my attention that falls into this category - Quakers & Quilts from Rosewood Manor. I'm definitely using the Valdani threads for this one.



And in the other direction here is a vintage quilt that looks like a cross stitch piece. Click here for the info. It being offered for sale.


I've been giving serious thought to doing a quilt like this. It won't be hard to graph out the letters and sew them up. However, the question of what fabrics to use that is still under consideration. I think I've got it figured out, but there are a couple of other quilt projects I want to get to first.

Either way I love when I see quilts and cross stitch combined, I think it is a winning combination.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Friday, June 15, 2012

On the Needles for 6/15/12

Well Friday isn't over yet, so I'm in under the wire. I actually have a project that is on the needles this Friday. This is the shawl Summer Flies, a free pattern here on Ravelry.



All the project notes said this one knits up fast and they are correct. I started this last Friday evening and I only have about 20 rows to go. Now I am loving the section I'm doing now, the Knotted Openwork. I have oodles of yarn left so I think I'm going to make this section larger. The yarn I'm using is called Summer Sunset and it is a hand-dyed yarn from a local knitter, Mindy Wilkes. Her company is called Ewe3 Yarns. She has a etsy shop but it is empty right now - darn it. This yarn is 70% alpaca, 20% silk and 10% cashmere and it feels wonderful. The colors are pale yellow, peach and sand. I will need to block this to get all those eyelets to open up.

It has been a busy busy week. I've had places to go every day this week and now I'm looking forward to spending the weekend at home. I have lots of fun projects to work on - this shawl, my Sugar Dish quilt and the Willie's Sampler cross stitch, just to name a few. And I have several new project ideas that I can't wait to start. I am one lucky girl!

Have a great weekend!

carol fun

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

So which came first???

The dotty chicken fabric or the fried egg pincushion??




Well in this case it is the egg, but it should have been the chicken fabric because it was mailed first. Aren't both of these adorable? I see you shaking your head up and down - very good.

They are both gifts from other bloggers - quilty crafty bloggers are some of the nicest people. Terry at Terry's Treasures made the felt friend eggs pincushion with the smiley little face. And Melinda at Melinda Quilts ETC gifted me the wonderful chicken fabric. Thank you both from the bottom of my polka dot heart!!

Now I just was able to let Melinda know that the fabric had arrived, even though it has a postmark from over a week ago. Melinda's package won the weekly mail mix up lottery. I live in a neighborhood with lots of duplicate house numbers, but different street names and we have had a succession of mail people who don't seem to pay too close attention to this fact. Every week I get at least one item that belongs to someone else in the neighborhood but has the same house number. I usually just take the item and drop it in the correct person's mailbox. However some neighbors mark it "wrong address" and send it back to the branch post office and let the item do another rotation in hopes that this time around it ends up where it should have gone and this adds several days to the delivery time. Sometimes things never show up and I wonder if the people who received it accidentally opened it and then kept it. We've had all kinds of things disappear and it is annoying.

Well I can't believe it is already Wednesday. I've had stuff going on every day. Last night was a fun event. I went and saw these guys...



they put on a great show even if these do look like this...



There were over 10,000 people there and we sang every Beach Boys song. It amazes me how many of us aging Midwestern baby boomers still love tunes like Surfin' Safari and and Catch a Wave and Surfer Girl.

Hope your week is going well - happy stitching!
carol fun

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

How much???

Isn't this a pretty piece of fabric? It is an OOP from the Swell collection by Urban Chiks. I found a 2 1/2 yard piece of this in the bottom of a plastic box I have been aging.



In googling this fabric I came across this etsy listing -- click here. Read carefully.... she's asking $25 for a fat quarter of this fabric. OMG!!! that makes my piece worth $250! Now I know that a item is only worth what someone will pay for it and she is probably being very very optimistic about this price, but sheesh.... my stash has increased in value exponentially at that rate. That's a better rate of return than we got on our stock portfolio!

Anyway after seeing that price I don't think I'm going to use this as a back. I think this is the motivation to make another quilt with this fabric to go with the Sugar Dish quilt on my design wall.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Monday, June 11, 2012

Deja vu on Design Wall Monday

Does this look familiar? It was on my Design Wall last July and I have no idea why I took it down and didn't finish it, cause I LOVE it!



The pattern is Sugar Dish by Cluck, Cluck, Sew. Of course my version is larger than hers but you know it is a once in a blue moon rarity for me to make a quilt smaller than a pattern.



The fabrics are from Urban Chiks by Moda. There are 2 collections here and I know one was called Swell and I think the other was called Hullabaloo. I love the soft vintage quality of the colors -kinda like sheets from the 70's. I remember when printed sheets came into fashion. My mother who loved fabric and color as much as I do embraced this new trend and threw out all the plain white sheets in the linen closet and bought printed sheets for all of our beds. Mine were a yellow floral - I've loved yellow since I was a child!



I didn't iron these (as you can clearly see) I just slapped them on my design wall to see how many more I need. Only 7 of the pieced blocks and 6 of the dresdens. The pattern has that row of dresdens at what would be the foot of the quilt, but I moved them up. I often put a second quilt at the foot of the bed and I don't want to cover these darlings up.

Now when I released these blocks from their hermetically sealed plastic casket box I realized I have enough of these fabrics to do a second quilt. I need to think about that. Perhaps another one, not as large as this one in a different pattern. It would be pretty draped over the rocking chair in my bedroom.

Hmmm...I know this isn't a chicken quilt but it certainly has lots of chicken connections - Urban Chiks, Cluck, Cluck, Sew- maybe that's why it makes me so happy! Oh I wish I was going to have more sewing time this week but boy there is a lot on my calendar. Hopefully I can finish up the pieced blocks. Check back next week and see how far this progresses.

Have a great time checking out the design walls today!
Happy stitching-
carol fun

Sunday, June 10, 2012

A work in progress for Sampler Sunday

Where does the time go???? Sunday, already??? Seriously I think someone is stealing hours out of my days. And that's my excuse for why I don't have a finished sampler to show today. I am making progress on Willie's Quaker Band by Monastarium Design.



I love the look of this sampler, I just wish I could stitch faster and find more hours in the day to stitch. In trying to remember what it was I did last week, there wasn't too much that was memorable. I did help my son get a small couch moved into his new office at work - and it looks very nice. And I helped my other son study for his final exam of the quarter - and he did well. But the rest of the week was a blur of errands and laundry and running around.

And looking ahead, this upcoming week doesn't look any better. In fact, there is even less time available for stitching from what I can see. Which leads me to believe that I will not get this done in time to use the super coupon for this sampler. I do have another smaller sampler, so it won't go to waste. But I may have to hold out for another super duper coupon to get this one framed. Oh well, such is life.


Here's some close ups of what I've completed.



I love the Quaker motifs and the little leaf and bird and crown make me smile.



I did stitch a couple of evenings into the wee hours of the morning. I would have a motif started and tell myself that it had to be complete before I went to bed. I have no idea why I tell myself this stuff or why I make myself do it - I certainly wouldn't let anyone else boss me around like that - LOL! Tonight there should be some stitching time in front of the tv watching the baseball game - Cincinnati Reds versus Detroit Tigers. They are both playing good baseball, but my heart is always with the Reds. As I kid I spent many an evening listening to the ball game on the radio with my Grandma and now even though I have it on tv, I listen more than I watch.

So I hope your week has some quality stitching time and if anyone finds the hours I've lost I'd love them back. (I know I'm delusional but it is a nice little world - LOL)

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Friday, June 8, 2012

On the needles

Okay technically this is off the needles, but then when have you ever known me to follow the directions?? However, this is still in its unblocked state and I'm expecting a whole lot out of it when I get around to blocking it.


The shawl is Charlize which I found here on Ravelry.



I'm not certain exactly which combination of sizes of lace part and edging part I chose to knit. What I do remember is that this lace pattern while not technically difficult drove me CRAZY! I couldn't "read" it at all. I did lots of counting and recounting and recounting what I had recounted. And while I like this shawl/scarf I will NEVER knit another one like it. I don't think the results were worth the effort - does that make sense? For something I slaved over I wanted it to be a "WOW" and it is just a "nice".

Now I do like that row of eyelets before the edging. In retrospect I kinda wished I had knitted that part in a contrasting color. It might have elevated this project.



The yarn is Malabrigo and the colorway is Turner, a lovely mottled olive and very very soft. I need to have a blocking day here soon. I have another little scarf that needs attention and I'm almost done with my Whippoorwill shawl. Check back next week.

Thanks Judy for starting this link-up. Design Wall Monday always gives me the kick in the butt I need to be productive on the quilting front and hopefully this will do the same for me in knitting.

Well, it is heating up here in southern Ohio -gonna be 90 by Sunday. Think I'll be hibernating in the AC doing a little knitting, a little cross stitch and a little sewing. Have a great weekend!

carol fun

Monday, June 4, 2012

Sunny side up on a Design Wall Monday

Rise and shine! We have fried eggs, sunny side up on the menu, I mean quilt, today.



It took waaay longer than I anticipated to get this border on the quilt. I didn't really know how many fried eggs I would need and after putting them on the design wall I knew I needed to make more.



I had planned just to put them on the upper and lower corners but instead I opted for randomly spaced fried eggs. I'm thinking that a great motif to quilt between the eggs would be strips of bacon.



I think you can see in this picture the fabric I used for the eggs has a swirly design in it. Kinda like the texture of real eggs. It is a new Kona fabric called Dimensions. They have it here at Fabric Shack.

And I've been thinking of names for my fine polka dotty hens. I like old-fashioned ones like Agnes or Beulah or Tillie and I think I'll do some kind of name placards when I get the quilt back from the quilter.



This one is definitely my favorite. That addled look and the appearance of the third eye lead me to believe she needs a special name. My oldest son is quite creative and he looked at her and said we should call her "Cher" - pronounced like "chair". He said it was short for Chernobyl. OMG!!! I know that it is kinda sick but I think it is funny. I feel for her, I really do.

Have a great day and I hope you got a good breakfast!
Happy stitching-
carol fun

Sunday, June 3, 2012

A long sampler to start off Summer

Well I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and today I do have a Sampler for Sunday. Several people commented how long the Willie's Quaker Sampler is that I've been stitching but it is a short one compared to this piece. This sampler is almost 6 feet long.....


and it is only about 6" tall. (You can click on the picture and make it bigger.) Each letter was a separate little leaflet and I can't for the life of me remember who the designer was - Lizzie Kate or Heart in Hand or Bent Creek - I'm drawing a total blank and the charts are long gone. (Stasi if you remember who designed these please let me know!)

Anyway I think most people just stitched one or two of these or if they did them as a group it was so many rows and so many columns. I don't know what possessed me to stitch them as one long row, but once the idea was in my head it would not leave! At the time I got all my cross stitch goodies at Twisted Threads in Madeira, a suburb of Cincinnati, and they ordered the linen for me. They charged by the square inch and I don't remember what I paid but I was impressed that I could get a continuous piece of linen. Each chart was sold separately and I remember going to a couple of shops before I could collect all of them. This was pre-internet shopping so the hunt was all done by car. This piece hangs in my breakfast nook way up high where I can see if from the table.

I took these pictures standing on a chair and I have cropped them but some of the angles are skewed but I didn't want to take it down as it was a bear to hang and get straight.

Here we have A-apple, B-bee, C-cow, and D-daffodil...


Okay I repeated the D so ignore it, E-evergreen, F-fish, G-goose...


H-house & heart, I-ice skate, J-jingle bells, K-key...


L-lamb, M-mitten ,N-nest, O-owl ,P-pineapple...


Q-quilt block ,R-robin, S-strawberry, T-teacup, U-unicorn...


V-violet, W-weathervane, X- xylophone, Y- yolk, and Z-zebra.


Now the way I stitched this was I started with the letter Z and worked my way to A. I stitch starting at the upper left side of charts and work to the right. I don't use a hoop and just hold the linen in my hands and this way I'm not squishing up work I've stitched, just the linen I haven't gotten to yet. Does that make sense? Anyway it works for me. With this piece I rolled the finished parts up and put a safety pin at the top and bottom to keep it out of the way.

So you can see that my love of the BAP - big a$$ project- has a long and storied past. Among my UFO are several other BAPs including the Houses of Hawk Run Hallow, And they Sinned, BBD Anniversaries of the Heart, and all the Prairie Schooler letters done on one piece of linen. My son thinks I'm enamored with large samplers and large quilts is to compensate for my being short. I think he took too many psychology courses in college.

Okay, I'm off to stitch some more on the Monastarium piece. I'm still operating under the delusion that I can finish it by the 16th. Stay tuned..

Happy stitching-
carol fun