Lots and lots and lots of stuff on Slow Sunday Stitching...

 First off ... thank you for all the kind comments about Big Dude's passing... they touched my heart... I still miss him A LOT!  I miss him greeting me at the door when I come home... I miss him waiting for me to haul him up on the bed at night... at times I still think he's just in the other room... I wanted to share the thoughtful gift I got from my son and daughter-in-law... she had this hand painted by an artist she knows...

This canvas is  6" square... such sweetness ... I love how the artist captured his chubbiness! 

And while I was gone it was my birthday...we won't dwell on the number of birthdays that I have passed, will we??  My family hit it out of the park with my present....

This is a one of a kind Cat's Meow village wooden cutout of my house... it is about 3" tall and 7" long... my son took pictures of my house one morning when I was still asleep ... you can see their website here... years ago I collected Cat's Meow village pieces... I think I left them at my old house... they are probably still there in the storage room... anyway I love this piece... my window boxes and the landscaping looks great... was a special gift!!

As for the crafty stuff, well I've been monogamous to Elliott's stocking and I'm happy to reveal that it is just about done...

All I have left to stitch is this little area... the bow on the bear and the mane on the hobby horse...

Now this has not been without drama... about 3 weeks ago it became clear that I was going to run out of wool for the background... I hadn't finished the heel area and I hadn't put a stitch in the area with Elliott's name... so I jumped through hoops to go to the shop I purchased the stocking and the wool from... they didn't have any of this color...they said they would order it... I've checked back with them twice and I've haven't heard a single word.... arghh... so first I went online and found a shop in California that had the wool... I purchased several skeins, but while it was the same color it wasn't the same dye lot and it was noticeably different... ARGGGHHH!!!  So I finally thought to call the other local needlepoint shop to see if they might have some wool ... and THANK YOU LORD... they did ... and it was the same dye lot... I rushed over and bought all they had ... I ended up using 2 of the 3 skeins I bought ... I'm annoyed at the shop I purchased the stocking and wool from for several reasons... first they grossly undersold me the amount of wool I needed. This is why you go to a shop... for expert advice... when I went back to try and get more wool they were not helpful and suggested if  the new wool didn't match it would be okay... NO it wouldn't be okay... and then there is the poor customer service in getting back to me... needless to say I won't be taking it there to get it finished.   The new shop I went to was waaaay friendlier and helpful. 

As for seasonal decorating, I've done quite a bit... the weather here has cooled down nicely... highs in the upper 60's and low 70's... my favorite kind of weather...  I don't have any new Fall stitching to add to the displays this year and I decided to try and mix it up from what it looked like last year... now some pieces are so big they only fit in one spot in my house, but I was able to rearrange things and I'm happy with these updated displays.

The yellow cabinet...

A close up of the Lizzie Kate Autumn piece...

The view across the living room...

The quilt on the back of the couch is called Butterscotch Scrap Jar Stars... I made it back in 2012... and the quilt on the wall is my "original" design... I used a panel from Sandy Gervais' collection called Tranquility and I improv pieced the alternate blocks...

Here's a close up of the tier tray... I'd like to have more cross stitch on this ... need to do some smalls...

I had fun re-doing the shelf unit... I moved things around that were in other places like the wagon and added that picnic tin...

And here are some close up of the shelves...

Here's a view of the sunroom porch decor... so hard to take a picture as the room is only about 7 ft wide and 10 ft long ... but it is a favorite spot of mine to sit and stitch and watch the birds...

I tried to color block these shelves... green on the top, turquoise in the middle and white on the bottom... I wish I had a piece of cross stitch with a Fall theme on a turquoise linen for that middle shelf... I may be able to get something small done after I finish the stocking... fingers crossed...

Also the main function of that crossstitch piece is to obscure the electrical outlet... LOL ... and if I can find a cute white squirrel I'm getting that for the bottom shelf... I think I saw one somewhere but I don't remember ... I did get out to do a little shopping last week... was surprised that several places still didn't have much inventory... only my beloved Hobby Lobby was really well stocked... 

So are you still hanging in there with this giant post???  While I've been monogamous to Elliott's stocking and haven't done any crossstitch, I have done some sewing and got some tops started and a quilt bound ... first is my Fall 2 x 4 quilt... David did a great job on the panto... I picked pumpkins...

I made some new pillowcases to go with quilt... I used fabrics from Sandy Gervais' new collection from Riley Blake... and that pillow with the cute bird and pumpkin came from Hobby Lobby... I ogled for a couple of weeks before I broke down and bought it. 

Here's close up of one of the blocks and the panto...

And Saturday was National Jelly Roll Day... I always love this event and I never have a lack of jelly rolls... I thought long and hard about what I wanted to sew but in the end I couldn't make up my mind and chose between 2 different projects... what to do, what to do??  Well I ended up starting both projects... this first one was a night owl choice... I started around midnight and worked on it till around 2am... pretty much my normal bedtime... 

The fabric is from RJR, a collection from Alex Anderson called Mirage... I have no clue where I got this ... probably somewhere on line... the pattern is TipTop from Melanie at A Bit of Scrap... you can see the pattern here... I'm sashing this with some lime green Grunge from my stash... and I was able to find some yardage of this fabric and got enough of that print on the far left hand side to do a border... 

When I got up on Saturday I switched gears and started my second choice... another Fall quilt... because you CAN NOT have too many Fall  quilts... that's a FACT... like the sun coming up in the East... really, it is...LOL... anyway  delusional thoughts aside, I'm using a 2nd  jelly roll of Sandy Gervais  that I've been letting mature in a plastic bin... it is vintage... the price tag says $27.50... wonder how long ago that was?  I paired it with a new Grunge called Elafin...does anyone know what Elafin means?  It is a pretty color... a nice gold with some rusty red and tan highlights... I like it A LOT... and I'm happy to see another yellow/gold added to the Grunge line... 

This pattern is from a freebie from quiltjane  called Jelly Roll Whirl... you can find the pattern here... and she has several other free jelly roll patterns on her blog... now the pattern has the blocks set straight but I'm liking the look of it on point... I will have to figure out how to complete the pinwheels that would happen on the edges ... and while I thought this would just be a throw, right now there is a high probability that it will be a bed size quilt... because I rarely listen to myself when I say I'll make a throw... LOL... also I ended up adding fabrics from my stash to the jelly roll... I wanted more variety than the jelly roll had...Sandy Gervais did some lovely teals and purples in her later collections  and I wanted to include them... I'm also liking the light pieces ... I think it will make add a bit of sparkle... 

And while I had plenty of other things to work on ( 3 quilts to bind and 2 more quilts that just need backs) I played with another pattern about a week ago... this is one block from a QAL done by Fort Worth Fabric Studio...  here's a link to the all the patterns in the  Absolute Autumn quilt... I only used the acorn...

Each acorn is a different Grunge fabric... it still needs a border... but it is only a throw... so perhaps I can keep quilts down to a reasonable size every now and again... LOL

Soooo... that's what I've been up to... I'm looking forward to doing some crossstitch this upcoming week... while I haven't had time to stitch I have had time to buy some new charts... and there are some old charts I'd like to stitch too... just need more hours in the day...

A side note... didn't Blogger say you could stay with the old format?  I was avoiding changing over but when I logged in today it gave me no choice but to use the new format... I think I've figured it out, but I'm just trying to get it to work the way it use to... I'm an old dog and I don't want to learn any new tricks... fingers crossed that  all the links I put in work... 

I hope things are going well for you... I still have my up days and my down days... between the uncertainty of what's happening in the world and the passing of the Dude there are times I'm fed up with all of it... I am glad that I have my hobbies and my garden... my yard is still looking pretty good... some flowers are fading but my dahlias are just starting to bloom... don't know why they are so late this year... I do have zinnias and cosmos that are taller than me ... and I'm 5 ft... I know the seed packs DID NOT say I'd get such gargantuan flowers... and I didn't even fertilize that much... they are pretty... I was pleased that several people have stopped and told me how pretty my garden is... while I was out watering yesterday a car stopped and two young girls complimented the flowers... that was nice... I do it because I enjoy the flowers but it is nice to know that others enjoy it too. 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and check up what everyone else is up to... I'm sure I'll see something that catches my eye ... and leads me down a path to something else I'd like to do... take care...

happy stitching-carol fun