Good bye 2019 and hello 2020...

Well another year has sped by hasn't it?... and the end of a year always has me trying to figure out what I did do last year and what do I want to do next year... actually I know what I want to do next year... I want to do more of what I've been doing... stitching, knitting, quilting, gardening and complaining about the weather... I'm really really good where that last one is concerned... LOL

Now I haven't been a great blogger this year...with this entry I'll have done 43 posts for the year... a whopping ONE more than I did in 2018... and I'm not making any resolutions that 2020 will be a lot better... I'm really trying to post once a week... but maybe instead of Sunday I might do Saturday... Sundays tend to get busy busy busy... so perhaps if I shoot for Saturday  and then perhaps it will be ready on Sunday...maybe...  I've considered not blogging and just doing Instagram ... you can find me here at carolfun53...but then when I want to figure out what I've done and when I did it I usually search the blog for the answer... so blogging is a diary of my crafty life... and that is very helpful because the memory ain't what it use to be...

I've kept a little better track of what I've worked on ... a paper list by my stitching chair... and this was definitely the year of  cross stitch ... according to my list I've done 53 individual pieces of cross stitch... most have been on the small size as I've been doing seasonal decorating pieces rather than large samplers... my smallest piece was the little gnome in the middle... he's about 1" tall...

and the largest piece was probably this one...

All Bundled Up by With Thy Needle & Thread... I started this in January and I just put the last stitch in it yesterday... boy he has a big head... and he will be a nice addition to my snowman decorating...and the background color is off... IRL it is a lovely mottled olive green...


As for quilting I've completed 14 quilts... but some of them were started in previous years and just finally got completed in 2019.. and several were small in size... but done is done... and I've got 2 tops waiting to be quilted and one top at the quilter... so lets call it 17 total ... I'm closing the year with this top... Kringle& Klaus Meet in the Middle...

and a recurring complaint of mine is I hate the camera in my phone...  the color is way off on the big picture... this close up is a bit better...

my phone is an iPhone 8 and it has never taken great pictures... I'm seriously considering upgrading ... my daughter in law just got an iPhone 11 and I'm blown away by the pictures she's taken with it... professional quality ...and it doesn't hurt that she is taking lots of pictures of the best thing that happened in 2019... the cutest baby in the world (and I'm not biased...not at all ...LOL) was born... here is a picture she took the other day at the park...

now tell me he isn't adorable!!! Elliott is as sweet chunk of a boy who is a mini-me of his daddy... my justification for a new phone is I want better pictures of Elliott and my stuff...I actually made an appointment to go to the Verizon store yesterday but couldn't even get a parking spot and a look inside showed it was packed... I'll try again next week...

So I have a quiet evening planned for tonight... a steak dinner at home with my younger son...and I'll ring out the old year and welcome in the new year some cross stitching, some sewing  and some knitting... oh I forgot about a tally on the knitting... I haven't been as diligent in that area... I think I've knit about a dozen pairs of socks and I've started a hundred shawls...ok maybe it only 6 or 7 ... but none are finished... you can check my IG to see the scrappy socks I did finish....and I will try to complete a couple  of shawls before 2020 is over...

I hope that 2020 will be wonderful year for all of you ... thanks for stopping by and reading this blog... I shall try to update in a timely fashion (and my version of timely may be a wee bit different than one would think) and I'll continue to rant about Mother Nature... on that you can depend...  I already have garden plans for next year and ideas for what I want to accomplish in other crafty areas... I don't make resolutions... other than my mantra to always try to try... but I never clarify what it is I'm trying... keep it vague and no one can blame you...LOL

Happy New Year and Happy Stitching-
carol fun

Merry Christmas!!!

Hello all... I hope that each of you has a very Merry Christmas!!  We are having a low key celebration with an open house of appetizers at my son's home and relaxing with Elliott on his first Christmas...

the Dude is doing what the Dude does best... I think a nap will be on the agenda today too!!

Hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas!!

happy stitching-
carol fun

Need more time on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all... I know I skipped posting last Sunday... I didn't have my displays finished and I was feeling yuckky from a cold...this week the cold has subsided and I think the displays are as complete as they are going to be... I always want to add a little more here and there but time is not on my side... I have Christmas cards to work on and some baking to do and I'm not done shopping yet.... but  instead of doing the things I should do, I've been knitting on a shawl ...mindless knitting... a great predestination project...but back to what is finished... Christmas displays...

I'm starting with the biggest display ... my shelf unit... I looked back at the pictures I took last year and  then mixed things up as I had some new pieces to add...  here's the whole unit...

from the top ... on the wall my Bent Creek Quaker Noel Row... notice there is no "L"... a little joke Noel... I didn't get it until I friend stitched it and pointed it out... it was charted all in one color and I added in the gold and red...on the top shelf my 35 year old Nativity scene... I needlepointed this in 1984... the designer was Polly Carbonari... I thought it would be the perfect kind of Nativity scene for a small child... soft and non-breakable... I showed it to Elliott but he's still at the stage where he needs to put everything in his mouth... so we kept a little distance this year...

Next shelf is a silvery forest... I had a couple silvery glittery trees and I picked up a few more this year... from left to right... a little lady from Pineberry Lane, Merry Little Stitches, I left off her Santa hat... freebie deer from Prairie Schooler... another little lady, this one from With Thy Needle & Thread , Peppermint and Holly flanking the Christmas Bird also from WTN&T... an additional lady from Pineberry Lane, A Sprig of Holly  ... and finally the Merry Christmas sampler from Blackbird Designs... the PS deer and the Christmas Bird have been stitched for a couple of years...they just saw the light of day and framing this year... picked up the frames at Hobby Lobby and sparkled them up with some glitter paint... I really like this shelf...

Below that is my J'Arrive by Tournicoton... stitched him last year... a cute snow globe tin and a sleigh full of gingerbread men...next year I'd like to tuck a bit more cross stitch in... Note to self: need to stitch some little pieces...should write this down somewhere...LOL

I was surprised that I could squeeze that small tier tray on the shelf... the tray came from Target's Dollar Spot/Bullseye's Playground... I'll be using that again in my displays as it lets me cram more stuff in... and somehow I have a small collection of Santa head.... 3 pieces makes it an official collection....the one with the real poinsettia was just purchased last week...I love the little poinsettias... the cross stitch piece is Little Bits of Christmas from The Drawn Thread... frame from Hobby Lobby was shiny gold... I toned it down by over painting it with a berry red craft paint...

And on the other side of the space is the little yellow cabinet...

I bought that reproduction ceramic Christmas tree at Hobby Lobby... I remember my Mom like everyone's Mom made one back in the late 60's/early 70's... don't know where it went but it does bring back happy memories... and the little retro TV came from Walmart... it plays music as the train circles by... and I finished Oh Christmas Tree by All Through the Night  ... very happy with this one... I think the addition of a little red and gold adds a lot.... totally lucked out with the frame... from Hobby Lobby, of course, can't beat half priced frames!.... it was already painted that shabby yellow.... just what I was looking for...

And I did finish December from  Hands on Designs A Year of Celebrations... all 12 pieces stitched and finished... yeah... I'm proud of myself for keeping up with the series...

Well I think I'll stop here... I still have a bit more to show but I'll save it for next week... I amaze myself with how much I can stuff into my small home... but then I go and look at Priscilla Blaine's house ... you can watch her Christmas home tour here... and  I don't know how she does it...so many Christmas cross stitch pieces!! I've had conversations with a couple of friends in the last week and we've all said we want more Christmas stitching so we are going to try and stitch Christmas all year long... I'm planning on putting together a basket with small charts kitted up and ready to go so I can have more smalls... there are several Prairie Schooler pieces I'd love to have... such classics!


Soooo... I hope your Christmas preparations are going smoothly... my goal for today is getting the Christmas cards done... and later this week some baking ... and I want to totally finish my Christmas shopping... a couple of things I wanted to get are out of stock... and there are people on my list who are very hard to shop for... however Elliott is not one of those people... OMG... I have so many things for the little guy...he is such fun to shop for... I know my son and daughter-in-law will tell me I got too much but they have no idea how much I didn't buy...LOL


Here's a wish for a productive week for all of us.... I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts  and  looking at what everyone else has done this past week....the deadline of Christmas certainly makes us speedy rather than slow stitchers...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Procraftinating on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all -- hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving... we didn't celebrate until Friday and oh did I eat too much... we all gathered at my daughter-in-law's parents home... they supplied turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and peas... I brought prime rib and pasta salad and dressing and rolls... plates were piled high... and then there was dessert... my younger son made a chocolate eclair icebox confection and my daughter-in-law's mother made a heavenly pumpkin pie with a pecan streusel topping... oh my!!  I got a piece to take home and it made a yummy breakfast on Saturday... hey, don't judge ... pumpkin is high is beta carotene ... how can that be bad for you ???

I enjoyed a quite day at home on Thursday... my younger son and I had a tasty lasagna dinner and I contemplated what projects I should work on ... there are several Christmas pieces and some snowmen and a winter welcome I want to do... and there several quilts waiting to be bound and a couple to stitch up... so what did I do??  Well, not any of those projects... instead I dug out a large Blackbird Designs project I had started back in September of 2017...  it is the 9 charts that comprise the Loose Feather series "For the Birds"... this is  gonna be LARGE... the stitch count is approximately 285 x 285... on the 32 ct linen I painted that will make it finish about 17 3/4" square...  here's what it looked like the last time I had it out of its plastic bin...

and here's what it looks like now...

I was motivated to pick this project back up from an Instagram post by Laura of  @maudeandmozart... she proposed a SAL after seeing this masterpiece by Lori Bryant Bylsma @loribyslma at The Attic...

Sorry these aren't great pictures... I could only do screenshots... if you go to their IG accounts they are a bit better...

Even with the less than perfect photos you can see how wonderful this project is... I love the little border Lori added but I don't think I have enough fabric for that ... not sure what I was thinking when I cut the fabric 21" square... there won't be a lot of extra fabric but there will be enough to have it framed... I have been wanting to do another Blackbird Designs piece for a while... the last couple of years I've done more seasonal decorating pieces ... which I love ... I think they add a lot to my displays... but in my heart, samplers are my first love... when I started cross stitching 35 years ago I told myself that I would only do samplers with houses... I thought that would limit the number of charts I'd have to chose from... ROLFMAO... how clueless was I???   As for the samplers with houses I've stitched over 75 different charts... the walls of my house are liberally decorated with them... I enjoy looking at them every day...  my plan for this project is to complete it by the end of 2020... I think that's a reasonable goal along with all the other stuff I want to do...

And while I was stitching this Thursday and Friday,  I was ignoring that the Fall/Thanksgiving decor needs to get put away and the Christmas stuff needs to come out... by Saturday I got a bit more Christmas spirit and got the Fall decor stuffed back into their plastic bins... didn't take as long as I thought it would... so I started getting out my Christmas goodies... and I am very pleased to announce that my Christmas tree is up and decorated... took about 10 minutes... and how did I achieve this feat??? Remember last year when I wrapped a tablecloth around my tree and had my son take it down to the basement storage??? Well he brought it back up and plugged it in and EVERYTHING worked!!!! All the light and motion ornaments worked... and the bubble lights work... and while a couple of ornaments fell off, none broke so we just put them back on... Oh I am sooooooo HAPPY with myself!!!  My sainted Grandma use to to this with her tree... such a smart woman... now the tree isn't a big one... I'd say it's 4.5 ft tall ... but I sit it on a small table and it looks like a big one from the outside in my front window...now I just need to find the angel tree topper... has to be in one of the Christmas bins, but which one???

This part of my decorating is complete... I like adding those Christmas quilts in Basic Grey fabrics to the back of my chairs... each one has a "golden" fabric in it which goes with the pillows ... you know that I will find a way to add yellow to any holiday decor... it makes me HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!! Now I still need to do my display shelves and my tier tray and the porch and the little cabinet and the kitchen... my younger son brought up the plastic bins and I'll work on it later today and tomorrow and the day after...

I did get the bindings on two quilt for me this week and got them washed and dried... here is Fall Fizz... not sure why I picked that name because none of the fabrics are leaves ...just Fall-ish colors... paisley and floral and vines and dots... an old collection from Chez Moi  called Fresh Air... you can find the free pattern I used for this here... it is from the blog Runnstitch...

And here is a pic of the panto called Almost Paisley from  Quilting by David...

And I'll be having visions of sugarplums dancing in my head this month... here's my finished Christmas Quilty Stars ...

A block or two...

The panto called Peppermint Palace from Quilting by David...

And the back which makes me hungry ...

This afternoon we are going to see the train display at Union Terminal in Cincinnati... I've taken my boys to see the trains every year since they were born... my older son adores trains and this will be the first viewing for his son...my adorable grandson... Elliott... I'm sure Elliott will grow up to love trains as much as his Daddy...

So I hope you and I both have time this week to get our holiday decorations out... I have several pieces that need to be FFO'd... and some new stuff from Target's Dollar Spot I want to include... it will be fun ... need to put on some Christmas music and light a cinnamon candle...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... I'm sure there are some interesting projects to browse...

take care... happy stitching-
carol fun