Where StitchMaynia is Superfluous on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello all - did you have a nice Easter holiday?  Mine was low key and lovely... an appetizer brunch at the home of the new baby... Elliott was the perfect host and slept through most of it... followed by a 2 hour nap that I took when I got back home... no wonder I didn't post last week. The days are flying by and I've had several lovely visits with Elliott... his mom and dad have pushed him over in his fancy stroller when the weather has been nice... and one night my son and I took him for a car ride... he was a bit on the cranky side but fell asleep after a short while... he's gaining weight and growing into his wardrobe of cute clothes... and I have several new places bookmarked... Carter's and Oshkosh... are 2 of my favs at the moment.

With few days left in April lots of cross stitch aficionados are gearing up for StitchMaynia... the  "rules" are quite broad... some people start a new project every day for 19 days... others for 31 days... some commit to working on one project for the entire month... others are doing a mix of WIPs and new starts... it's whatever your heart desires, just stitch stitch stitch...

Well last year I started with a plan of a mix of WIPS and new starts but I didn't last long... my attention wanders here and there and here and over there and what is that shiny thing waaay over there... so I'm not going to participate... and really StitchMaynia is superfluous to me as in the last 2 weeks I have worked on 6 different projects at least... and I'm fairly certain that this behavior will continue indefinitely as there are at least a dozen more charts I want to stitch...NOW!!

Sooooo... I do have some stuff to show... first off the completely stitch Little House Needleworks' Spring ABC...

It is so hard to get a good pic of these... 32ct linen I dyed with Rit dye... a mottled shade of cantaloupe... my pick of DMC colors... can't wait to get it FFO's and hung ... here's a closer look at the top and bottom half...

Excuse the shadows at the bottom of these pics... didn't see it till I went to crop them... anyway this will be a nice addition to my Spring decor and if the current weather is any indication we still have a lot of Spring ahead of us... I could use some sun and warmer temperatures.... but at least it isn't snow...right???

And with that one stitched I turned my attention to Pineberry Lane's Mrs. Maguire's Hen House...

I still need to backstitch between the siding I satin stitched on the coop and add some legs to the coop and it will be complete... 32 ct painted with Rit dye Apple Green and Lemon Yellow and DMC flosses of my choosing...

And with that one almost done I picked up the With Thy Needle & Thread  When Flowers Blossom...

I have been itching to start this one even though it is pretty big... 194W x 129 H... on 32 ct it is going to be about a 12" x 8"...  I had it all kitted up and ready to go and spent a lovely afternoon sitting on my sun porch with this one... didn't get as far as I had hoped as the sun made me sleepy and there was some napping going on too...

Started in the upper right hand corner... got a bee and 2 of the 3 big flowers on that side ... this will be great for my summer decor...


Then one afternoon, I forget which day it was, I decided that I needed to dye/paint some more linen... I stumbled across this fabulous new sampler from Blackbird Designs called O Joyous Day...

Isn't this GORGEOUS??? You can only get if from Stitchville USA...here's their website.... I called them ... on the phone...  I haven't done that in years... and ordered it ... I expected a week or so delay but it came in about 5 days and it is even more gorgeous in person... so I thought about what fabric I wanted to stitch it on... 32 ct is a given but what color... at first I dyed a piece a sort of yellow with some orange but it just wasn't working .... so it got darker... lots darker... like olive green darker... not suitable for this sampler.... try again... okay got a light yellowy green ... think Anchor 842... I liked it a lot but it wasn't good for these flosses... so third try... decided to go with a mottled grayed turquoise... now this I like...

I again started in the upper right hand corner...I want to continue stitching the zig zag there in the middle and be sure I have enough fabric width... this is also a BIG piece... 175 W x 211 H - on 32 ct that makes it 11" x 14"... and every time I dyed fabric for this I did a BIG chunk of linen... now what to do with the "rejects".... thinking.... thinking.... thinking...

and then it hit me... I've been watching lots of people start A Saviour's Praise by Shakespeare's Peddler... 

This sampler is FABULOUS!! and I bought the chart... but I know I will never stitch the entire piece... and what I LOVE LOVE LOVE most about this is the border... all those little motifs and the words ... it is just so wonderful... and then it all came together... I could cut up the big piece of yellowy green linen I dyed and LOVED and stitch snippets of the border as small vignettes and make them into little pillows...and this is what I have so far...

this time I started in the bottom left hand corner... I changed the little flower to a bee and made the scissors a gray...

and then I moved up and did the next snippet...

I pinked up the flowers and added a bee again to fill up some open space... these are about 2.5" wide and the height will vary... resourcefullness is 4" high and piety is 3"... some of the words like kindness and honesty will be even taller ... and I want to do a couple of snippets in the horizontal orientation... I envision these little pillows residing in a dough bowl or a cute basket ... will be on the lookout for a great display piece for them.  This way of stitching this sampler makes me so HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY... I can't wait to start another snippet...

but then I remembered that May is just around the corner and I haven't put a stitch in the May Year of Celebrations by Hands On Designs... yikes... so who needs StitchMaynia??? I've already got plenty of my own mania ...LOL... either way I am very happy sitting on my sun porch stitching and napping...life is very very good!!

So tonight we are celebrating my younger son's birthday... carryout from Olive Garden... we already went out for a Chinese dim sum brunch at 11am... and there was chocolate cake ... a little Bill Knapps cake, remember those? ... I love that restaurant... and I'm feeling a bit sleepy... and I did see a peek of sun a minute ago... so I'll wrap this up and take my stitching basket and relocate to the porch... don't know what to stitch on first but there will be stitching today...

Hope you have a great week ahead... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and check out what everyone else is up to...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Exciting news on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello ... well it has been a very interesting week... and not because of any of my crafty stuff but because our family got the BEST gift in the whole wide world... a new grandbaby!!!  Elliott Damon arrived on Friday April 12 a bit after noon... he is ADORABLE... he is a bit of a peanut...only 5 lbs. 13 ozs. but we know he'll be a bouncing baby boy in no time.  His name has connections to both sides of the families... Elliott was his great great grandmother's last name on his mother's side and Damon is the last name of his great great grandmother on his father's side. He looks a lot like his father as many friends and nurses have commented... genetics... you can't fight them...  Mother and baby are coming home from the hospital tomorrow... Father has 6 weeks of family leave so they have plenty of time to settle in. Spring weather is upon us so there will be walks to the park in Elliott's fancy new stroller and lots of time for grandparents to come and cuddle him. I'm the winner of the location lottery as I'm a mere 3 minute walk to their house... I'm so lucky. Now to dive into making things for Elliott. I found all the novelty blocks I made back in July of  2015 for a fun quilt...  I hadn't sewn them into rows as I had one block that was more girl oriented and one that was boy oriented... now I know which one to use!  This is a pic when it was on my design wall...

I'll be getting some minkee for the back of this and send it off to Quilting by David this week!!   And then are are some cute onesies I want to embellish and little sweaters to knit and stuffed animals to make... I'm gonna be busy busy busy!!!

In the meantime I made my first purchase from the wonderful world of Target's baby section... I have resisted even walking through that part of the store until Saturday when I went to buy some onesies and this adorable outfit just had to come home with me...

and Elliott is so handsome and huggable!!  More cute stuff will surely find its way home with me... location is again in my favor as it is a 6 minute drive from my driveway to Target's parking lot... they make it soooo easy....LOL

Needless to say with all the excitement of Elliott's arrival I didn't get much crafty stuff done... I made some progress on the LHN Spring ABC's...

All of the letters are done and there is one more word to do... I'm a little over halfway  finished...maybe before this week is over.

And something haven't shown in quite a while....

Socks!!!  This pair used two different Opal yarns from the Claude Monet collection. I alternated 9681 and 9685 and added some blue heels. I really like knitting this kind of sock as I have no clue what patterns are going to appear. As soon as I kitchnered the toes on this pair I cast on another pair using two more colorways of the Monet collection... I do love Opal yarns!!

So lots of things to do this upcoming week... as I said before Elliott come home to his kingdom tomorrow, I've been asked to help them settle in... and I have appointments Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and I'm taking my younger son to meet his friend for lunch on Friday...need more hours in a day.

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts and checking out what everyone else is up to... along with everything else going on I want to go walk through a garden center or two... I know it is way to early to plant but I spied petunias and marigolds at one of my favorite garden places when I drove past today... want to start plotting and planning what to plant.

Hope you have a happy and productive week ahead... I'll be sneaking in some stitching and knitting in between cuddling Elliott ...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Pretty stuff on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all... sorry about skipping out last week... I just could not get my act together and felt I had nothing blog-worthy... this week I'm happy to report that I have lots of stitching to show... weather has shown definite signs of SPRING... my daffodils are up ... my hyacinths are blooming... the trees are budding... all good things... however the rain has been way too abundant... and it is going to rain again today. I'm sitting out on the sunroom porch...my favorite spot in the house and the wind is whislting, the clouds are darkening and I just got a weather update on my phone... a shower is expected in the next 15 minutes.

An update on my squirrel problem... a friend ... hi Meredith!... suggested a product called Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce that you mix with the bird seed... here's a link to it on Amazon...

Notice the flames coming out of the squirrel's head... it has no effect on birds ...just mammals... like squirrels and deer... I consider repelling deer a bonus as they have snacked at my feeders too. Anyway, you mix this stuff with the seed and boy is it potent. Meredith warned me to wear rubber gloves and don't breath it in... you mix it up double strength to begin with and then after about 2 weeks you can do the normal dose. I am happy to report that the birds haven't noticed any changes but the squirrels have been pretty few and far between. I saw one the other day work very very hard to get onto my platform feeder...and once he got there he took one bite and whoosh... he was gone!!!   YES YES YES!! I've even spread some of the "sauced" bird seed on the ground around the feeders as they have munched there in the past. I am making my house as inhospitable as possible to the little rats in the nice fur coats... and I am thoroughly enjoying watching the birds... I have a pair of doves and I've seen several cardinals in addition to the numerous sparrows and robins.  I talked with my handyman about the window box problem and he suggested he could make covers for the boxes in the Fall from wood ... if they gnaw the wood he can repair them ... I think that might save the boxes from further damage. Now I can't wait to get them re-painted and planted up ... but it is still way too early ... another 4 to 5 weeks and then PETUNIAS!!!

Okay back to what you came here for... stitching!!! I FFO'd my April piece from Hands on Designs A Year of Celebrations...

A nice little Spring-y display... need to get started on May soon.

And I stitched up Pineberry Lane's Sister's Farm Fresh Eggs...

I'm loving how this one looks... I got that chicken wire frame at my LQS Homegrown Homesewn... it is from Darice and I also  found it here on Amazon... it comes as unfinished wood but I stained/painted it with undiluted Rit dye in Apple Green...ooohh... I found lots of crafty Darice stuff on Amazon...have to go peruse the offerings later....

I attached a wired ribbon burlap bow and added a pretty Prima flower I found in my card-making stash along with some cute leaf straight pins...

It is GOOD... very very GOOD to have a stash of crafty stuff!!  Now some people use magnets and washers and hot melt glue to attach the stitching to a frame but my preference is for  Scotch double sized foam tape... it looks like this in the package...

No burnt fingers and it is easy to use... a couple of strips on the back and press it down... I've been using it to mount all my stitching to frames and cut small pieces to attach bows or flowers. It holds very well and it easy to remove and redo a frame.  Sometimes I pick it up at Krogers and other times I order it from Amazon...here's a link... can you tell I LOVE Amazon Prime?...LOL... 

Anyway I think Sister came out nice... of course I painted the linen ... 32 ct... with Rit dye... Apple Green and Lemon Yellow... I changed most of the flosses ... used primarily DMC except for her dress which was  GA Raspberry Parfait... I did Smyrna crosses for the middle of the flowers and the band of trim on her skirt, along with some satin stitch... and I added hair... she was bald as are most of the Pineberry Lane prim gals... I think hair is an improvement...LOL

And this productivity of stitching and finishing had me starting two new pieces... first off, another Pineberry Lane chart, Mrs. Maguire's Hen House... this is how far I've gotten...

I used the same Rit dyes but they look brown-er here... IRL much lighter and clearer... there are more chickens to add and her apron and the henhouse needs to be sided... I'm doing it in satin stitch... five stitches high... I think it will look great!

I also painted and dyed more linen last week... so many things I can't wait to get to... I've been waffling on doing the LHN Spring ABC's... I've done Fall and Winter and the first one that was sewing related and have the perfect spot by the front door to display it...but I've tried and tried to get the linen right for it and failed several times...but this time I think I got it... instead of painting the linen I smushed it in a mason jar with a mixture of Rit Lemon Yellow and some Coral... be very sparing with the Coral... I've found it is a very intense dye... anyway I came up with a piece that is a lovely shade of cantaloupe... and here is my start on this piece...

It is hard to get a good pic of these long narrow pieces...now I started with the K...why there? Well for some reason there was a splotch of light green dye right where the roof of the house is ... I started there and covered it up and then worked up to the A... I checked my math numerous times and I should have plenty of fabric to complete the piece but just to be sure I'm going to stitch ALL the letters before I fill in any motifs. I'm using  the DMC conversion on the chart with a few changes... a different shade of green and I'm substituting a turquoise for the blue... yesterday when I stitched the F I wasn't sure I liked the turquoise I picked ...thought it was too bright but today it looks ok... yesterday I was looking at it in the sun, today is cloudy... I'll think about it a bit more ...easy enough to change it at this stage. 

Well I told myself that I'd be good where new charts are concerned... but I lied... I lie to myself a lot... I couldn't resist the new ones from With Thy Needle & Thread and while I didn't order them all at one time, I have gotten almost every new one she took to market. She has a great style, doesn't she?  There are just so many pretty charts and scrolling through Instagram I am constantly tempted ...and I have no willpower where pretty stuff is concerned... life needs all the pretty it can get!! 

And I've gotten sucked into a couple of new quilting projects... I've got one on my design wall ready to sew the rows together... I'm using some blocks I'd already sewn in a configuration I found in a new quilt book...and I got sucked into a QAL... you can see it here... it is for the Chamomile quilt...I want to make it big enough for my double bed so I need 25 blocks... each block has 16 squares... 25 x 16 equals 400 squares... and I have a nice stash of low volume fabrics... over 100... so if I cut 4 from each piece I'd have a lovely variety...and a humongous mess...LOL...which is exactly where I am now... tune in tomorrow and I'll share more ...even include pics of the mess ...hopefully it will make some one feel better about there messy sewing room...

Okay... I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today... doing carryout for dinner so nothing to do here... the weather guys jumped the gun...no rain yet and even a peek of sun... very nice... next week has a couple of things I have to do but hopefully nice amount of stitching and sewing time will be on my agenda...hope you have a great week too!

happy stitching-

carol fun