Are you up for some sledding on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello all - thanks for stopping by again this week to see what kind of trouble I've gotten into... I do appreciate your reading about my projects as I prattle on and on and on... I'm really good at prattling... its a gift dontcha know...LOL Well this week I got a little bit done in several areas... quilting and stitching and knitting... and I got my Christmas tree up!!!  I always drag my feet when it comes to the tree ...why?  Lights... I don't like putting on lights. Now this little tree is pre-lit but I added a string with Hallmark Light and Motion ornaments and 2 strings of the old fashioned bubble lights...I really like the way they look, but I don't like futzing with them to get them semi-upright ... some lean no matter what you do...

Sorry for the glare... it didn't occur to me to close the blinds... You may think that the Dude is guarding the tree... don't be fooled...he's waiting to eat the icicle  tinsel....grrr... we've had several staring contests where he hopes I'll look away...but I don't... I suppose I shouldn't use it but I LOVE it... it is what we put on the tree when I was a child...back in the dark ages. I've seen trees with lots of ribbon and the garland tinsel and while they are lovely they just don't do it for me.

Anyway onto other stuff I've gotten accomplished... lets start with the quilting... I got the binding on my Christmas Weave quilt...here's a glamour shot on the sunporch...

and here is one of my son holding it up for me...

the colors are truer on the sunporch... the sashing is a lovely vintage-y gold grunge called Ginger Ale... it has splotches of olive and I really like it... this is my adaptation of the Villa Rose pattern called Rodeo... you can see it here... I substituted 4 patches for some of the smaller squares and oriented mine vertically. It was a quick quilt with a layer cake and some charm squares. The fabrics are Basic Grey Jovial and Juniper Berry...both older Christmas collections... I love Basic Grey's style and their Christmas collections are my favorites. I have a nice stash and occasionally I actually make a quilt with them... here's an oldie but goodie using Basic Grey on my couch right now...

This collection was called Aspen Frost... love the ornaments and the softness of the reds and the greens,...oh, sorry for wandering off there... back to the quilt at hand...

Here's a close up of the quilting on my Christmas Weave ... the pattern is called Poinsettia ... you can see a great pic of the quilting here on David's IG account...

I have one more to bind and hope to get it done this week. Last night I finished up this one and finished cutting out another Christmas quilt that I'm not getting done this year. I had it almost all cut out and knew if I didn't finish up and write myself notes about what I did and plan to do, I'd never make heads or tails of it next time I pulled out the bin... one of the biggest lies I tell myself is "I'll remember"... and I don't ... notes are a very very good thing...


And last week I said I wanted to do some small stitching ....and I did... and as much small stitching as I did I probably could have gotten half of the Lizzie Kate Christmas ABC's done...oh well... first I pulled out the Pineberry Lane pattern Merry Little Stitches... there are 3 charts in this pack and I did two... first  the one called Deck the Halls... you can check out their e-patterns here... I really like that you can buy the chart and download and print it out... love that instant gratification!!

I stitched her on a scrap of 32 ct I painted with Rit Dye - Aquamarine... I changed her hat... it was a Santa hat and added a band of red at the bottom of her dress... the holly tree looks like one of those that they hang upside down to me... need to get her FFO 'd and into my Christmas display.

And then I stitched A Right Jolly Old Elf...

now he's not totally done... there is some black at the bottom and some stitches at the top that I'm going to try to make little stars that needs to be added. I think he'll look good in my 3 tier tray.

And then I went sledding... not literally... I stitched some Lizzie Kate designs for those adorable little sled ornaments...

I totally forgot that I had these sleds... I found a bunch that I had squirrelled away ... these 3 came from two different charts  - Snowy Sleds and Sled Dudes... they are quick to stitch up on the perforated paper. I haven't done stitching on perforated paper for a while and at first  I couldn't remember how I did it... I started in on the full 8.5 x 11" sheet and it was obvious that wasn't going to work... too bulky... and I knew it didn't want to cut a real small piece as that would be hard to hold onto ... so I did this...

I cut a strip about 3" high the width of the sheet... I started stitching on the right hand side which leaves me an unstitched area to hold on to.  I'm going to do more of these ... there are several more LK charts with patterns to fit the sleds... I NEED ALL of THEM...LOL!!

So the weather last week was definitely wool sock weather... cold and gray...ugh... I HATE the gray days... I can take the cold ... pretty much... but I do like it to be sunny. I'm a Goldilocks when it comes to weather... I want it not too cold, not too hot, just right... say 65 to 70 degrees and sunny.  I got another pair of scrappy Opal socks completed...

I'm not sure how many different skeins I pulled from... at least 10 ... blues, some hot pink and some green ...along with some dotty bits... I LOVE the dotty bits!!!


Friday did give us some sun and temps in the low 40's... I cranked up the little space heater and sat on the sunporch to knit and watch the birds... except there was a floor show of squirrels instead... the Dude was as entranced as I was...

they got quite cozy sitting on the window box...

but after a short while the Dude got bored...

I can't blame him ... it was nice to snooze a bit sitting in the sun. Today has been sunny and they are promising more tomorrow... I hope to get out there again and enjoy it.

Still have some Christmas tasks to do before the holiday... want to bake some cookies, not that I need them, but I do like to eat them. Sugar really should be a major food group... along with chocolate and pasta and bread and butter... that would be a great food pyramid. We are having a family dinner tonight which will include several of those items... spaghetti and meatballs, salad, fruit, garlic toast ...and those yummy little eclairs from the freezer section of Krogers... two bites of bliss...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and check out what every one else is doing for a bit before dinner... meatballs are cooking... the sun is almost set... I HATE HATE HATE how early it gets dark... the other night I was out and thought "wow, you never go out this late at night anymore Carol"... it was 5:50 pm... sheesh... still time to catch an early bird special...

Hope you have a good week... we have a few social engagements but no appointments... and I'd like it to stay that way. Just want to sit in my chair and stitch or knit or sit in front of my sewing machine... that's the life!!

happy stitching-
carol fun