Some porch sitting on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all -- did you have a good week? Mother Nature decided to make amends for her bad behavior and gave us a glorious week of nice temperatures and low humidity... I spent lots and lots of time sitting on my sunroom porch stitching and napping and knitting and reading and more napping... great way to spend a day.  I still had to water most evenings but I didn't come back into the house feeling like a wet dishrag... so that was good too...

One of my window boxes that was looking a little sad perked up... the other one went completely belly up... but I did find some fresh petunias to pop into the boxes at Lowe's... I was pleasantly surprised to find they had some nice looking annuals this late in the season... most places have given up on annuals and it is still too early for mums... I LOVE mums... but not this soon.

My dahlias continue to get taller and have lots of buds and a couple of blooms... this first one is a dinner plate dahlia called Bodacious... the color in real life is gorgeous... the petals are rose-y red on the front and yellow on the back...

it is about 7" wide here... I was going to show a pic of my hand next to it for comparison but my older son reminded my that I have "little gypsy hands" so I'm not sure it would help... however those little gypsy hands are helpful in getting into small spaces when needed... LOL

And this one is called New Dimension...

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It is a fimbriated-laciniated dahlia... I have no idea what that means I just found it on the web...  I assume it describes the spiky frilly petals...it is about 6" across ... the edges are pink but the base is yellow...very pretty... and there will be more to come.

On the stitching front I got several pieces finished up... now some of these only needed a bit more time but got put aside for other projects... first up is Rise and Shine by ScissorTail Designs...

I used 32 ct linen I dyed with Rit dyes and DMC flosses... I have an idea for displaying this on a little galvanized piece I picked up a Hobby Lobby...

And then I did a snippet from Hands On Designs Fresh Eggs Farm...

again 32 ct linen ... I used Rit Evening Blue...now I changed the truck to a turquoise color to coordinate with the ceramic truck I got at Hobby Lobby (and yes I do spend too much time and money at Hobby Lobby but it is so much fun!!) ...not sure how I'm going to FFO this one.

And I have August stitched for Hands on Designs A Year of Celebrations...

You know what I'm going to say... 32 ct linen this time painted not dyed with Rit... this one has a definite hot summer sunflower vibe... and I made my picnic blanket yellow and white checked instead of the blue that was called for... if I was buying a picnic blanket you can be assured it would be yellow... not sure about the ants on this one but stitched them anyway...

And last evening I started this piece by Nikyscreations called Summer Scissors Sampler..

the colors are off here ... that grayish area is actually a light olive green and to the left it is yellow... I swear my old iPhone took way better pictures than this one... here's what the chart looks like...

I think it is a cute one ... and she has done other seasons too... shouldn't take too long to stitch and I want to get it done as there are 4 new Brenda Gervais With Thy Needle & Thread Fall/Halloween charts I want to do...

OH my goodness... I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE all of these... realistically I can probably get the first 3 done for Halloween ... that black cat may be more than I can manage ... but we will see... and if you are interested in these charts check out Kitten Stitcher... here is a link... these charts may have jumped into my cart last evening... she has reasonable shipping costs... and lots more charts I want to add to my stash... some older Sheepish Designs caught my eye too...

So there is always plenty to stitch and sew... I got a few more blocks done for my son's Quilty Stars quilt... I would have done more but the weather was so nice it was hard to leave the porch to go downstairs and sew... maybe this week the weather will force me off the porch... suppose to get more humid... but then it will be the beginning of August ... oh how did it get to be August already???  I ready somewhere last week that there were less than 100 days till Halloween... don't even want to think about Christmas yet, although my Hobby Lobby was gearing up for it big time when I was there yesterday...

I think dinner is going to be carryout tonight... I'm lazy and don't want to heat up the house to cook... got a couple of things I have to do on my agenda this week but hope to find plenty of stitching and sewing time too... I'll  link up with Kathy's Quilts and check out what everyone else got done last week... hope you have a good week ahead!!

happy stitching-
carol fun

One of these things is not like the other...

c'mon... sing it with me... you know you want to... one of these things is not like the other... one of these things just doesn't belong... (credits to Sesame Street which I obviously listened to waaaay too many times)...

This is my design wall this morning... I LOVE this block!!  It is the pattern Quilty Stars by Emily of Quilty Love and you can  get the pattern here...

I found this pattern on Instagram and there is QAL for it... I need to post to the group ... you can see all the wonderful variations of this pattern here and here too... so many many ideas ...

As you may have surmised I am making 2 different quilts using this same pattern... the blue green stars with the beige crackle background is for my younger son... he helped pick out all the fabrics  from my stash...

oh my goodness... it was a trip down memory lane for me... there is vintage Jinny Beyer, Elly Sienkiewicz, Jennifer Sampou, Pat Campbell,  Hoffman...my son is 29 years old and I think some of these fabrics are as old as he is... and how come I can remember the names of fabric designers and their fabrics from 2 decades ago, but I can't remember where I ate dinner yesterday???

Now this isn't a palette I would normally work in but I have to say it is really pretty... it has a outdoor forest-y feel... cool green trees and blue skies...  I'm going to do 4 rows of 4 with sashing and a nice border... he wants minky for the back...

I have all the star points / half square triangle units  sewn together ... I used a new to me ruler/trimmer...  Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmers by New Leaf Stitches... you can find them here on Amazon... although I think I got mine as a Daily Deal from Missouri Star ... they have them too, right here...

I like them a lot...  you do all the trimming before you open up the HST and the dog ears are cut off too...

So that block that isn't the same... well that one is for me... I'm going to make a new Christmas quilt for my bed... same layout - 4 rows of 4 blocks... very scrappy...

I have a TON of Christmas fabrics... the pinks and aqua ones are newer additions... I want to add more blues into the mix and I even have some yellow Christmas fabrics I want to add... imagine that...LOL... says the woman who rarely met a yellow fabric she didn't like... I got the idea for a Christmas variation from this IG post...  such a great idea... but I don't think that I'll stop at 2 quilts from this pattern... I think it is a wonderful scrap quilt project and I'd love to do it in other fabric collections... maybe some Kaffe Fassett or all yellows or Fall or Halloween or Basic Grey Christmas... and I have plenty of fabrics to do any or all of those... Oh I think I've fallen down a wonderful rabbit hole... I chided myself a bit saying perhaps I don't need several variations of the same pattern... but then I remembered that I've made the Vintage Star pattern by Jen Baker  FOUR times ...

 along with a variation of my own on that pattern...

 so yeah... I'm good with making the same pattern numerous times... You can find the free Vintage Star pattern by Jeni Baker here... and I talk about my variation which used a layer cake here...

I'm not sure exactly what has sparked the return of my sewing mojo but I'm glad it has come back... I certainly enjoyed the time I spent this last weekend with my sewing machine... and I should be able to get some more productive time in this week... not too many things on the agenda...

I haven't done this for a while but I'm going to link up with a couple of blogs... Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday... Quilting is More Fund than Housework for Oh Scrap!... and Love Laugh Quilt for Making Monday...

Hope you have a great week ahead... local weather wonks have promised much nicer weather... might even be able to open the windows and turn off the AC... woo hoo... and maybe I'll venture out to the garden centers looking for those replacement petunias I want... yesterday I sewed instead of going shopping in 95 degree weather... and the sewing was a lot of fun!

happy stitching-
carol fun

My rocky relationship with Mother Nature on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all ... let me get this out of the way....Hot enough for you???  We've been sweltering for the past week or more... upper 90 degree temperatures with sky high humidity... the air you can wear... it is suppose to break today with rain this afternoon and then next week they are forecasting seasonal weather... temps in the mid  80s with lows at night in the 60's... oh that would be heaven... last night I went out to water and it was 89 degrees at 8:45 pm... ugh... now I want to believe the weather guys but last week they forecast rain for Wednesday... and it did rain Wednesday...but it also came down in buckets on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday too... none of those days had rain in the forecast on the 11:00 pm news...surprise surprise surprise... said in my best Gomer Pyle voice...

And because of this horrendous weather my flowers aren't doing well... I've lost dozens of wave petunias... some were in the ground ... some were in containers ... but they just keep dying and dying and dying... I've watered and fertilized to no avail... and then there were the Japanese beetles ... and the deer... this little guy greeted me last evening when I came out to water...

don't know where Mama was... so Mother Nature has given me scorching sun, torrential downpours, Japanese beetles, ravenous deer, squirrels and bunnies ...I'm not happy with any of these presents... I am already looking forward to Fall... cool, enjoyable, open the windows up and breathe the air... I hope Mother Nature make amends by September.

I have my fingers crossed for my dahlia bed...here is what it looked like a month ago...

and here it is today...

the zinnas in the front are still lagging, but almost all the tubers I planted have come up... and here is one of the first blooms...

so far the deer/squirrels/rabbits haven't bothered them... I sprayed for insects and I've watered and fertilized... we shall see... we shall see...

On the stitching front I did a couple more patriotic pieces... first is this little Betsy Ross... just a snippet of the Sheepish Design chart called "Betsy"...

this is the first time I did a flat finish like this with and arched top... it came out pretty good. Now when I went to stitch this I realized the chart had the wrong flag ... it was a flag with lots of stars like now...not like it would have looked back then... so I made some adjustments  and made it a Betsy Ross flag... here's a side view of this piece...

next time I may add a layer of batting to the front... I just attached the stitching to sticky board on the front and some cotton fabric to sticky board for the back, hot melt glued the pompom trim to the front and sandwiched the pieced together... I'm displaying it on a accent table in my living room...

hard to get a good pic with the sun coming in the window... and I added these cute Jim Shore birds...

the piece was called Red, White and Bluebird... got it on Amazon.

I also stitched up this freebie from Notforgotten Farm called Flagmaker...

I think this is Betsy's daughter...both pieces are stitched on 32 ct linen I painted with Rit dyes.

On Monday two quilts returned from Quilting by David and wait for it... I got the binding on BOTH of them by Wednesday... OMG... I have 2 modes for binding quilts ... it  is to either quickly get a quilt bound or wait 18 months... I'm happy I didn't wait on these... first one is Chamomile ... you can see the pattern here...

love the soft clean look of the low volumes... the sashing really makes this quilt but it does take time to get all those intersections to match... the panto is called Songbirds and here's a bit of a close up...

I love bird stuff as evidenced by the bird pillowcases I made a couple of years ago...they do coordinate nicely with the quilt.

And the second quilt is a little nine patch done in American Jane and those reproduction prints ... a friend of mine refers to the repro prints as looking like men's boxer shorts fabrics... and they kinda do...LOL

I made all those little 3" finished 9 patches years ago... I "planned" to add an applique border ... however years  and years have passed and it ain't happening... finished is better than hanging around... this one is about 55" square ... a nice throw quilt.

Getting those bindings on kick started my sewing mojo and I spent a couple of productive days down in my sewing studio... check back tomorrow for a rare Monday posting of what I'm working on...I've got 2 quilts going at the same time and a couple more ideas I can't wait to start...

Well I already dined with Elliott and his parents ... we did brunch... I might venture out and look for some petunias to replace the ones that went belly up... or I might just stay home and sew a bit more... not sure yet ...

Hope you have a productive week ahead... and a cooler one too... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts ... and then I'll check out what everyone else is doing... I'm sure to see some great projects...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Do you remember Emily Litella? and Camelot?? on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello - so 2 weeks ago I whined, ranted, complained, let's say talked about how wet and gray and rainy the weather was.... well as Emily Litella would have said... Never mind... if you don't remember Emily Litella was a character on SNL back when it was funny played by Gilda Radner... she would go off on rants and when brought back to "reality" would reply... "never mind"...

With a click of a meteorologist's remote we've left wet and gray behind and zoomed into HOT HOT and dry... it has been almost 90 or above every day.. and I've been watering like crazy...what I really want is the weather they talked about in Camelot...

It's true! It's true! The crown has made it clear

The climate must be perfect all the year

A law was made a distant moon ago here:

July and August cannot be too hot

And there's a legal limit to the snow here

In Camelot

The winter is forbidden till December

And exits March the second on the dot

By order, summer lingers through September

In Camelot

Camelot! Camelot!

I know it sounds a bit bizarre

But in Camelot, Camelot

That's how conditions are

The rain may never fall till after sundown

By eight, the morning fog must disappear

In short, there's simply not

A more congenial spot

For happily-ever-aftering

Than here in Camelot

Camelot! Camelot!

I know it gives a person pause

But in Camelot, Camelot

Those are the legal laws

The snow may never slush upon the hillside

By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear

In short, there's simply not

A more congenial spot

For happily-ever-aftering

Than here in Camelot

Note to self: SW Ohio is not Camelot... not by a long shot... however my flowers seem to be liking the warmer temperatures....

My hollyhocks... these are new this year... snagged them as gallon sized plants for $4...

My little corner garden...

now I watched a video that said if you want a cottage garden look you should have a color scheme... great idea... but I buy perennials cause they are pretty and they are cheap ... but looking at this it appears that I do have a color scheme... hot yellows and orange and some pinks... I like it!!!  The dahlias in the front of the garden came back from last year... I didn't dig up any of the tubers I planted and figured they wouldn't make it through the winter... 4 plants came up here and 4 more different ones sprouted in the front... And you can see 2 of my 5 window boxes... love the purple and white petunias!

And a mixed pot with some coleus and some more petunias...

And the marigolds are looking fine...

they are swallowing up the rose bushes ... I may rethink this arrangement next year as I'm losing the battle with the deer and the rose bushes... may have to plant something else here.

On the stitching front I got several things completely FFO'd... that's a fully finished object... and got my patriotic display all arranged before the 4th of July...yeah me!!

Here's the display shelf ... at the very top is the Summer Welcome from The Drawn Thread and
below that  I have Liberty by Heart and Hand...along with Birds of a Feather's Liberty... I didn't realize till now they both have the same title...

I'll be re-using the grater as a display piece ... everything is just on with foam tape ... and I think it will be perfect for lots of little pieces.

Below that is The Drawn Thread's Free and Brave along with a vintage Longaberger basket I forgot I owned...And below that is Prairie Schooler's July and a Blackbird Design piece that I can't recall the name of... it was in a book with lots of summer-y charts...

Going around the room, I finished July by Hands on Designs A Year of Celebration... that makes 7 months completed...

aren't he little Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty wood cut outs cute... got them from The Sawmill Shop.

Flanking July is Grand Olde Flag by With Thy Needle & Thread...

I mounted this on a cookbook stand I picked up at Target's Bullseye's Playground last Fall... you can see what it looked like before I  modified it here.

On my tier table I'm displaying  Farmyard Parade by With Thy Needle & Thread...

the double frame has clips that you can't see under the ribbon... it came from Hobby Lobby... I'm calling them Ole and Lena...

And I FFO'd the Summer ABC's from Little House Needleworks...

my son thinks it looks a bit like a firecracker... it really is straight ... I took this pic from an angle... you can see more details here.

Last but not least my Eagle quilt from probably 20 years ago and the three tier tray....

I'd like to add some small patriotic cross stitch pieces to the tray... maybe I'll get some done before July is over...

So I'm very happy with my July decor but I'm thinking ahead for Fall and Halloween and  Christmas... I've got lots of charts I want to stitch and I've seen sneak peeks of new stuff that looks intriguing... just need more hours in the day, don't we?

Well we are going out tonight for dinner at a local Chinese buffet...and if it doesn't rain I'll need to water again tonight... I won't be looking forward to see the water bill this month.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today for Slow Sunday Stitching...not sure what I'll get done this week... need to take the car in for an airbag recall and my son has a doctor's appointment and I'm sure there is something else I'm suppose to do but I can't think of it now... oh well...

Hope you have a great week!!
happy stitching-
carol fun