Weather guys tell stories on Slow Sunday Stitching....

Well I had every intention of doing a blog post last Sunday but the weather guys told me a story... that I believed... and it wasn't true. Let me explain... for at least 5 days  before the weekend they predicted a snow apocalypse for last Sunday... we had 2 family events scheduled to celebrate my older son's 34 birthday (disclaimer: I have no idea how he got to be 34 as I'm positive that I haven't aged that many years.... but then I believe a lot of things that don't turn out to be true... like the weather guy's story... back to it)... I believed the weather guys... they had two of them doing the forecast on Saturday night... a tag team which always means serious weather. It was snowing as I went to bed , so I was sure that all the events we had scheduled would be cancelled and I would be staying at home in my pajamas all day and then I could write a post.

But I woke up on Sunday morning and while there was snow on the ground, the streets were plowed and there wasn't any ice and I was out of the house all day... no pajama time at all!!  We did have a great day... dim sum for brunch and Cincinnati chili for dinner... both favorites of my son... but I was pooped by the end of it all ...

Now this Sunday is also busy... this evening there will be 7 people for dinner at my house to do some more celebrating. It is a joint party for my niece, my son and a remembrance of my brother as they all have January birthdays. I've made lasagna and a white chicken ziti dish that everyone likes... my niece is bringing a Dairy Queen ice cream cake and I know we'll all have a good time.

After starting last week discombobulated the rest of  the week continued to have me mixed up ... Monday was MLK day, and Monday holidays always have me confused as to what day it is for the rest of the week. There were lunch dates and a hair cut and a medical appointment and  dinner out and I just didn't get a lot of  crafty stuff done.

I did finish this pair of socks... I used two different yarns alternating each round...one yarn was a green Opal and the other is a self-striping On-Line yarn ....

And for  cross stitch  I've continued working on WTN&T All Bundled Up...

And the color on this is soooo off... argh... the background is a beautiful olive-y green and I've taken about a hundred pics of it this morning in various locations around the house and I can NOT get it to come out even when I play with filters on my phone. The background color is better (but not much)  in this pic from 2 weeks ago... I swear the camera in my old iphone was way better than the one in this phone.

Anyway, I have everything on the right hand side of done... the snowman's head is taking a while... I've already used an entire skein of Gentle Arts Pineapple Sherbet. I am getting good coverage and I'm glad I still have 2 more skeins in my stash. When he is done I'm moving on to Spring stuff. I love my snowmen but I already have a lot of them and I want to add more stitched pieces to my Spring decor. I spent a couple of hours going through all my charts and picking out things I'd like to stitch this year. I came across several pieces that got started last year and need to be finished, so I want to work on them too. Here's just some of the ones I picked out to work on...

and these...

and these...

This isn't all of the ones I'm liking at the moment... I pulled about 25 charts in all... and a lot of them are smaller pieces... that's my plan for 2019...we'll see how it works out.

And I can finally show these little  Lizzie Kate sleds...

I had them stitched since before Christmas but didn't gift them until  a week ago.. our little group waits till January to exchange Christmas gifts ... they came out cute.

This week has a similar forecast to the story the weather guys told me before but with the added touch of below zero temperatures. I'm again hoping for a pajama day... a day to stitch and knit and maybe go downstairs and sew. We'll see if it actually happens... in the mean time, the Dude is keeping an eye on the world for me... since it has been too cold to go out on the sunroom porch he's had to make do with perching on top of the chairs in the living room... not as comfortable as he would like...

Meanwhile, I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and hope that between getting dinner n the table and straightening up the house I can find a little time to read some blogs and stitch a bit. Hope you have a good week ahead. I know lots of places are expecting bitter cold temperatures... stay safe and warm. I'm taking comfort in the fact the Opening Day for my beloved Cincinnati Reds is only 60 days away... and they got a new coach and a new pitcher... hope springs eternal that this could be a good year... and by that I mean a year with less than 100 losses... we shall see...

happy stitching -
carol fun

Snow snow snow snow snow on Slow Sunday Stitching...

Cue Bing, Danny, Rosemary and Vera... Snow snow snow snow snow....

We got a couple of inches yesterday and a bunch more today... heavy and wet and I'm glad I didn't have to shovel it...my yard guy came with his snow blower and shovel... nice clean sidewalks and driveway.

Now you know I love snowmen... but on the inside of the house...without the cold ... and since I banished Christmas to the basement all the snow guys have come out to play.

Here's the display shelves in all their snowy glory...now I did have some trouble working in my large cross stitch pieces... the one on the top shelf barely fits and the one on the bottom had to be reworked. But I am happy with the results and that I worked in lots of bits and bobs I picked up at the Target Dollarspot during the Christmas season.... those flat trees in the back  and big snowflakes... the little metal buildings with the snow covered roofs ...and the toboggan that's taking my Jim Shore snowpeople for a ride! I took these pictures in the evening with the battery operated candles all lit up... I got a bunch of the little ones that work on a remote... don't have to reach into the house and turn them on...easy peasy... got them here at Amazon after seeing them on a video by Auntie Coo Coo...

Here's another pic ...and you can make the pics bigger to see more details...

I added the Prairie Schooler Winter season and there is a little needlepoint ornament with a cardinal that I made for my sainted Grandma over 30 years ago...

and the lower shelves with quilts and a small sled... did you notice the small red polka dot ornaments... I think they add a pop of color and I have several decor items that repeat the dots... the scarf on the snowman on the lower shelf... and this display ...

I had forgotten about the polka dot candles and found them when I was poking around bins looking for other items...and speaking of forgetting things... I had quite a bit of stuff put out but had a nagging feeling I was missing some snow people...and then it hit me that I hadn't found my Jim Shore snow garden person... she's little and cute and was no where to be found.... where could I have put her??  And then it hit me... do you see the large snowmen on the display shelves?  They are cookie jars and as such are hollow ...and I had stuffed them full of little snow people and totally forgotten about it... old age is definitely here...LOL

And I'm glad I found all the little guys, as what would I have to display on my tier table if I didn't have them??

Most of the little guys are Hallmark ornaments from the Mitford series of books by Jan Karon... I need to re-read them some day soon... they are so cute!

And I have the tier tray decked out...

A lot of stuff I used last year... I did add Alfred the snowman from Heart and Hands design and that snowman head at the bottom right was a Dollarspot find.  I put a string of the snowflake lights around the tray... they look so pretty at night.

Here is where I'm going to display my monthly calendar pieces for Hand on Designs A Year of Celebrations...

this is on the cabinet that has my tv on it and is directly in my line of sight... I like that!!

And I did a bit of decorating on the porch...

Another cookie jar on the top shelf...and the white houses are left over from Christmas and on the bottom shelf is a after Christmas bargain from Micheals...that large snowman head with the glittery aqua  and red scarf was originally $25... cute but waaaay too much money... snagged him for $5 the other day... perfect price!

And I love this vignette I put together... the tobacco basket is going to stay there year round and I'm going to change what I display in it... those skis came from the Dollar spot... $3... and the skiing snowman ornament with the glittery red hat was in my stash of decorations...

So I'm all winterized indoors for a while... I love all my snowmen... last count had me closing in on about 90 beady eyed little guys... and as my older son always commented ...can you make them stop looking at me...nope...can't do it...LOL

On the stitching front I only worked on All Bundled Up and have made some progress...

the leaves are all filled in and he has a face and arms... gonna work on getting the cardinal outlined (those are tiny gold boots for the bird on the top of the stovepipe hat)...and start doing the fill in. Not looking forward to all that white...white is always the hardest color to get to lay evenly... I try to get it as nice as I can but in the end you just have to go with the flow. As my sainted Grandma would say "it will never be seen from a galloping horse"...and it won't... because I'm not letting any livestock in my living room...LOL

So I'm not going any where the rest of the day... my son and his wife will trek the 2 blocks from their house to mine for dinner tonight... rotisserie  chicken from Costco, parmesan noodles, roasted asparagus, salad, strawberries and those King's Hawaiian rolls ... simple ... the calm before the storm of next week. There is an appointment I have to go to every day next week... why does it work out that way?? The Monday dentist appointment was made 6 months ago... and I have tickets to the theater which were purchased months ago to see Fiddler on the Roof on Tuesday...Wednesday the car needs an oil change and I'm pretty sure some mechanical work (I'm trying to prep myself for the price), Thursday my son has another appointment and it is the 3rd Thursday of the month when I get together with my quilty friends and Friday I'm taking my son to meet a friend of his... I am already looking forward to next weekend... there is nothing on the calendar for Saturday and only a brunch out on Sunday... I'm thinking I should take a week real soon and just tell myself I am on vacation and out of town...and not put anything on my calendar... I want a nice quiet week with nothing but stitching and knitting and sewing...and eating out... I like eating out...LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today....I'm sure there will be some pretty stuff there to check out.

Hope you have a nice week ahead...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Okay, now I know what day it is on Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all... have the last two weeks got you  mixed up as to what day of the week it is? It has done that to me... thank goodness my phone tells me the correct day... Wednesday seemed like Monday. so when Friday rolled around it didn't seem like it could be Friday yet... but it was... but today, today I know it is SUNDAY... back on track!!

We've had some beautiful weather ... 50 and sunny... for January in Ohio???   I believe Mother Nature is more mixed up than I am ... she's not sure what time of the year it is...but I am soooo okay with that. I've sat out in the sunroom several days... and each time I took my stitching out there on the porch and each time I just ended up napping... not complaining ... it was lovely... but I haven't accomplished as much as I wanted to... but then that is true of every week ... nothing new there...

I did put the last stitches into February for Hands On Design A Year of Celebration...

these are so much fun to stitch... can't wait to start March... I do think I'll be able to get each month done before the month starts and I can use them as my monthly intro post on IG.... cross your fingers that I can keep it up.

Stitching on My Christmas List was very lackluster... I usually work on this one as I wait for an hour for my son's therapy appointment...but it got cancelled... so I just did a little on it last Sunday... and there isn't a noticeable difference so we will wait on an update pic.

And then this shiny squirrel snowman caught my attention... All Bundled Up by With Thy Needle & Thread...

I painted some 32 ct linen with Apple Green Rit Dye... and when it was dry I decided I liked the back side better than the side I had painted... it was a bit lighter and more mottled... here's my progress so far...

Started this Jan 1... have the hat done (had to stitch it twice as I miscounted and was off by 6 stitches...you can't fudge 6 stitches)... outlined his BIG noggin... stitched his large scarf and have almost all the leaves outlined... still need to get the cardinal in and the flowers and his face and then there will be a lot of mindless fill in stitching... I'm good with that.

I changed all of the flosses on this one. I pulled the overdyeds and just wasn't impressed with the  depth of color on the skeins I had. I went with DMC for all of the colors except for the white of the snowman... for him I'm using Pineapple Sherbet by Gentle Arts... a snowman made of ice cream... how can that be wrong???  I do wish I had substituted Anchor for the hat... I seem to get better coverage with the darker Anchors on 32 ct but like I said I've already stitched the hat twice ...not gonna happen again.


I got all my Christmas decor inside and out, taken down and put away....YEAH!!!  And the BIGGEST accomplishment of my week is this...

what is it you ask?  It is my entirely decorated Christmas tree, wrapped in an old tablecloth sitting in my basement storage room. My younger son carried it down for me and this will save me so many many hours of decorating time now and in the future. My sainted Grandma use to do the same thing... for years she would wrap up her tree in a white sheet  (it may have been a bit smaller than this 4.5 ft one) and take it up to her attic after the holidays were over...then the next year she'd bring it back down and take off the sheet... plug it in and she was good to go... this may make me official OLD but I don't care... I think it is one of the best time savers I've ever done!!

So now I'm working on getting out the snowmen... I only have bits and pieces done as my display shelves are presenting a problem for my cross stitch pieces... this new unit that I got last March is wider and has an additional shelf...more room for decorating... but the shelves aren't as tall as the older unit and 2 of my 3 major winter pieces are too tall for the shelves...ugh.... I'm redo-ing the one I put together last year... but the one that was professionally framed will have to find a new home. I keep telling myself that I need to stitch more small pieces as they are easier to find spots for... but I don't listen to me which is evidenced by the fact that I'm stitching All Bundled Up ... it will finish almost 8" x 12"...NOT small.

I did FFO this Prairie Schooler Winter piece...by the time I finished stitching this last year winter was pretty much over. The fabric is a 16 ct Aida I painted with Rit dyes... I tried to get a darker greenish cast to the path area... not as successful as I had hoped but done it done...and done is GOOD!!

I've been looking at the pieces Priscilla whips out and realize that she does mostly smaller charts... which doesn't fully account for her lightening stitching speed but it may have a bearing on the matter. I'm going to take some time and go through my stash and pick out some smaller pieces. I have a couple of Prairie Schooler snowman charts and there may be some Lizzie Kate...my new mantra should be "think small"... LOL... doesn't sound motivating, does it?  OMG... I just checked this wrap up post of Priscilla's ... you can read it here... she FINISHED 82 pieces of cross stitch and 2 punch needle pieces last year... she amazes me and depresses me all the same time... LOL

Did you see that I actually posted on Monday last week?  I'm having fun and making a huge mess in my sewing room with the Moda String A Long ... I've got two more blocks together and will show them tomorrow... but I should be working on a baby quilt for my soon to arrive grandchild. There is a baby shower for my daughter in law beginning of February. I found the fabrics I purchased years ago for a special little someone but I have had a devil of a time making my mind up as to what pattern I want to sew... I've changed my mind at least 6 times and that is so NOT like me...usually I decide very quickly what pattern I want to do ... this dithering is driving me nuts... and I have no one but me to blame it on... I want the quilt to be "special" ... and interesting... but not too labor intensive ...and I want it to show off the prints  and not be gender specific... the fabrics are primary colors so I think I'm okay in that category. I need to cut the fabrics ... that will seal the deal and get this ball rolling. I want to send it off to be quilted so I need to get my butt in gear.


I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... it is a quiet Sunday... not doing dinner tonight with the kids...now we do dinner on the first and third Mondays as it works well with my son's jobs. I think I'll go out to lunch with my younger son and return some of the plastic bins I purchased to Target... didn't need as many as I thought...

Hope you have a great week ahead... the Dude and I are going to enjoy the lovely weather while it lasts...which probably won't be much longer... I know this Mother Nature will also figure out what day/season it is and give us the "proper" temperatures for January.

happy stitching-
carol fun