Rambling on and on and on and a seasonal rant on Slow Sunday Stitching...

Let me start this post by thanking all of the veterans who have served  so selflessly to protect this great nation and other nations of the world. This is the land of the free because of the brave and I am so grateful to all those who have been in the military. My dear departed Dad and all of his brothers and several of his cousins all served in the same unit at the end of WWII. They never spoke much about what they saw in Germany, and I never asked. I wish I knew more about their service but I know they all served honorably and I am proud of them. Thank you Veterans!!!

So I'm back for another Sunday update... it was a busy busy busy week... there was some appointment or obligation every day that took me out of the house. I hope to stay put more this week... at least on this Wednesday I know I'll be home... I set up an appointment for my HVAC guy to come and look at the furnace. It has gotten a work out already as it is COLD here in southwest Ohio...remember that beautiful tree full of yellow leaves I showed last week... and here it is this week...

the leaves are GONE GONE GONE...I don't remember it happening that quickly in the past but the low temps we've had couldn't have helped. I'm sad to see the colors disappear.

So to keep up my spirits I put together a really quick Christmas  quilt top...

The pattern is a free one from Fat Quarter Shop called Fat Quarter Cubes and you can find it here... I made mine smaller than the pattern but it still came out over 80" square... so much for keeping my quilts smaller.  I used the Sugarplum collection from Heather Ross which you can see here.  Now this fabric, particularly the reds are way brighter in real life than these pictures show...think tomato-y orange red of the 50s'... I've been taking pictures with my iPhone and haven't been happy with the capture of colors... so I had been tweaking them a bit on my laptop before I posted them... but then I dropped my laptop on the floor....ugh...now the laptop still works just fine except for the screen ... the colors are all messed up ...everything is hot pink and lime green ...kinda like a bad Pucci print from the 70's... so I'm using my back up little Chromebook to do this post and so far I haven't found an easy to use and free program to tweak the colors... 

Here are some close ups of the cute mice and peppermints in this collection...

I  really like this collection for its polka dots and those cute mice and the plaid and the yellow peppermint print... that one is my favorite.... I got enough of it to do the sashing and the back... and I shipped the top out on Thursday to Quilting by David ... can't wait to get it back!

And I FINALLY finished binding  the quilt for my son... 

It is a very generous sized quilt for his bed and I backed it with minkee... Quilting by David did the quilting and my son picked this panto called Kindling... he liked the flame look...

and  he says the quilt is wonderful to sleep under... it has a bit of heft to it and he likes that.  I'm glad I've gotten this guilt project off my list of things I should do. He waited patiently and has decided that all quilts I make for him from now on need to be backed with minkee.... I can do that!!

On the knitting front I finished the second sock to the one I showed last week, got all the ends woven in and even wore the socks this week...

The heels and toes are showing up kinda black but in real life they are a dark olive green... I love that I got lots of little dotty stripes in this pair...

I cast on another sock using more of my little Opal minis... this scrappy knitting is a lot of fun!!

As to cross stitch, not a lot got accomplished... I put in a couple of stitches on In Santa Claus Land by WTN&T...snow snow and more snow...

I WILL finish this before Christmas...

And I picked back up the Lizzie Kate Christmas ABC that I started back during StitchMaynia... got a few more words and motifs done...

I am happy with how this looks on this painted fabric...but I wish I could remember why I thought it had to be stitched on 36 count... not having fun seeing the holes ... 32 or 28 count are my favorites. I WANT to have this one done by Christmas too...and there is the Silver Creek Sampler's Christmas List which you can see here...  I would LIKE to have this one stitched this year but I don't think it is going to happen... but it will be stitched for next year....that is my solemn vow...OMG are you laughing out loud... I never make promises to get stuff like this completed as it usually means it will take a decade for me to get it done... but I do LOVE the piece so maybe I will hold myself to my promises... and I'll call it a promise not a resolution of any kind cause I don't make resolutions... I just break them...LOL

Well last week I didn't get in my semi-annual rant about the time change...probably because I posted early and the full effect hadn't hit me yet... but after  a full week my vehement hate of Daylight Saving Time continues unabated.... JUST LEAVE THE TIME ALONE!!!  Yes it will get dark early as the season progresses. Being pitch black at 5:30 is down right depressing... I know there are those of you who love it being lighter earlier... I am NOT a morning person...never have been, never will be... I've trained my friends not to call me before 10am... I'm almost human at that hour... so the light in the morning isn't anything I will ever willingly participate in. I'm the person who only wants afternoon appointments at the doctors or for service calls... you can have all the time slots before noon... my internal clock has me up till 2am or 3am and then in bed till around 9 or 9:30am... I consider those civilized hours and now that I no longer have to take kids to school and I'm officially a senior citizen (got my new Medicare card in my wallet) I'm not ever getting up early again if I can help it. Okay...thanks for letting me get that out of my system. I really shouldn't get my blood pressure up like that, now should I?  LOL

So this week I'm going to make a concerted effort to stay home and stitch and maybe start another Christmas quilt top. Plans have been made for Thanksgiving and while I will be cooking prime rib and pasta salad and stuffing, the celebration will take place at my daughter-in-law's parents' home... no extra house cleaning for me. 

Our family Sunday dinners have been in flux lately for a very good reason... my dear daughter-in-law is pregnant and has been suffering from lots of nausea... I feel so sorry for her... so we have been doing dinner out as she never knows how she will feel till the last minute... which is fine...there are lots of nice restaurants in the city and we still get time to get together and talk.  This golden child ...the first grandchild on either side of the family ... is due in April. I was told not to make anything yet but that admonishment was useless as I already have several quilt tops I made years ago in anticipation of my then yet to be conceived grandchild making an arrival.  Just need to decide which ones to get quilted first...and then there will be a sweater or two ... and some booties ...and probably a dozen cute hats to be knitted. If this child has a head which takes after his father (my son) no standard baby hat will fit... custom will be the only solution. My son had a large noggin as a baby and still has a large noggin...as a child he loved hats which proved to be a problem as most just kinda perched on top of his head. One year for Halloween he wanted to be Indiana Jones... we had an old leather jacket and a whip but he wanted a fedora... the only one that would fit was a man's size 7 5/8... I got in in at the JC Penney's in Modesto CA...  he was 7 years old... my son often teases me that I suffer from "puny head syndrome"... that somehow his large head is the normal standard... I don't think it is but my puny head hasn't come up with any definitive reasoning to the contrary... LOL

As I wrap up this rambling post,  I will link up with Kathy's Quilts, and  I shall leave you with a pic of Big Dude inspecting that latest pair of scrappy socks...

it is good thing I have his supervision for all my projects to keep me in line... LOL ... hope you  have a great week ahead!

happy stitching-
carol fun