Where things get messy on a Slow Sunday...

Hello ... another week where I wonder how did 7 days get past me???  I did stuff... just not the stuff I thought I was going to do...and not as much stuff as I hoped I would do... so I guess it was a pretty normal week...

We had several lovely Spring-y days... such a change from the week before... all the snow in my yard has melted and there is a nice crop of daffodils poking up... can't wait to see yellow blooms. The warm sunny days motivated me to pack up the snowmen for this year... I impressed myself by getting everything back into the 3 bins it came out of... lots of times I need one more bin at the end of the season than what I started with... but this year I don't think I bought a single large piece of Winter decor... of the 7 big snowman pieces I have, 6 are cookie jars... they are the first items I put out on my displays and the first items I put back in the bins... I take their heads off and fill their bodies with as many littler snowmen as I can fit inside... this year it seemed like they all could hold more than before... maybe they got fatter too during this pandemic...LOL

And when those bins were returned to the storage rooms I ...well actually my son... brought up the bins of Spring decor from the basement storage and the bins of quilts down from the 2nd floor... lots and lots of bins... now usually I show you pictures of nicely arranged knickknacks and stitching...that will not be the case today... today we have the cold unvarnished reality of what my living room currently looks like...

ACCKKKK!!  I try to keep it behind the sofa as I can't see it from my chair when it is hidden there... Nick got it all out for me on Friday and I pawed through things a bit...I'm always pleasantly surprised when I unpack the bins because I rediscover stuff I forgot I bought and remember items I've had for years with sentimental memories...

I didn't realize how many bunnies I have and how many are just heads... that's a bit weird... somehow they reproduced like.... rabbits... LOL... I crack myself up ... and speaking of cracking myself up there are a lot of chicks too... oh I'm too funny... not...

My goal today is to get my displays arranged in the living room... that still leaves the porch and the back hallway and the basement... Rome wasn't built in a day...

And speaking of the basement, Dan my handyman came over on Saturday to tackle the new bookcases I want in my sewing studio...now I have 5 IKEA Billy bookcases ... they are stuffed... and they are dark... and I've been changing all the furniture in that space to white... I like how it brightens up the room ... and with  some re-arranging we are going to be able to get 6 bookcases on the wall ... so I'll have more space... but there was a bit of a snag in the project...

Dan put together the first bookcase and started to bolt it to the wall when he saw that the new bookcase, which is the same height and width as the old ones is not as deep... in fact it is about 4 " shallower.... insert bad four letter words spoken by yours truly... how could that be???  How could I have purchased 6 bookcases of the wrong depth?  Well it was easy... seems that IKEA has stopped making the ones that are 15.75" deep and all but a handful of the Billy configurations are now only 11.75" deep.  The height and width are the same... I never read the teeny- tiny  fine print that had the depth... I only looked at the height and width. 

ARGGGGHHH!!!  We talked about what we could do but there really wasn't any other solution but to go ahead with the shallower bookcases... the amount of time/labor and money it would take to paint the five bookcases  I have isn't worth it... and it would still only be 5 units... 

I had thought this would be an easy project... Dan would put together a bookcase... I would empty a bookcase and when he had the new one in  place I'd refill it... one bookcase at a time...easy peasy... 

well I can get all the fabric back on the shelves but the bins and baskets I used stick out... and the fabric as it is folded comes out to the very edge...no room for all my little knickknacks I had displayed on the extra 4"...now I could refold all the fabric to a shorter length, but that will make the stacks taller and I've already got almost every shelf stuffed to the brim... I think it is time for a thinning out of the stash... I've thought about doing it but like lots of things I think about (like buying a new car) until I'm pushed to the wall I don't actually do it. 

My plan at the moment is to just get the fabric back on the shelves... Dan is coming back on Monday to finish the job... and then I need to go through and do some purging and some rearranging... in the past I have re-folded my stash twice ...and each time it took me about a week... it will probably take longer this time as the older I get the slower I seem to get... but it can be done... big sigh...

As for something I actually accomplished I will show you the beauty of having UFO's and orphan blocks... on Saturday while I watched Dan work I made 3 little quilts... two are table runners and one is just a small 16" square quilt... they are all made from blocks left over from a quilt I started back in 2011... OMG that is 10 years ago!!  Anyway I began making the blocks back then... the fabric line is Verna from Kate Spain and the blocks were suppose to be Jam and Jelly from a Fig Tree Quilts pattern but I assembled mine incorrectly and additionally some rotated left and some rotated right... arggh..again!!

Here's what I did yesterday...

I should have added a border at the ends of that top table runner but it didn't occur to me until after I had it quilted... it does look more balanced on the smaller table runner... but for 3 quick projects I happy with the results. 

Anyway in 2014 I did assemble some of these blocks into a wall quilt ...  you can see it here at the moment... but I only hung it in 2014 but I'm planning on bringing it back this year... I'm into the softer colors for the living room and I'm going to hang the bright little tulips from Lori Holt's Quilty Fun  book.. you can see it here...  in my sewing studio... changing things up a bit...  

As for cross stitch I worked on another chart from the Jellybean Jubilee but it isn't finished... and I worked on the second sock for the one I did last week... turns out that the second skein I purchased didn't repeat the color sequence in the first sock... not even one time... I unwound the whole skein searching for the pattern ... not there... there is a bit of a repeat in the first skein... hopefully it will be long enough... if not, oh well... it is just a pair of socks...not world peace...and the second skein will make a cool shawl... so it won't go to waste...I did stitch a little on the stocking... sat out on the sunroom porch for the first time in ages ... I've missed sitting out there... looking forward to more sunny days that are above 40 degrees...the porch stays about 10-15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature... no insulation, just the windows and storm door...but I have a space heater and if I turn it on, the temperature rises quickly... I had it up to  72 degrees in about 15 minutes... but I miss having the Dude keep me company out there... it was his favorite spot... 

So I'm taking it easy today... doing dinner on Monday with my son and his family... babysitting on Tuesday, got a hair cut on Wednesday, and appointment with my younger son on Thursday and I think on Friday I'll take him to do lunch with his friend... doesn't appear I'll have a lot of time to work on re-arranging the fabric shelves this week...oh well... it won't go anywhere and sewing fairies won't drop in to help... it will be there when I get around to it...

Hope you have a good week ahead... better weather is here for us in SW Ohio... above average temperatures... I love the sunshine ... I'm already plotting my bedding plant purchases and my box of seed purchases keeps getting fuller...can't wait to get something colorful planted!!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... always enjoy seeing what others are up to... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Weather and some stitching for a Slow Sunday...

Well that certainly was a week of weather most of us could have done without, wasn't it? My prayers go out to all of those in the South suffering with no heat and burst water pipes and the rest of the country shivering with snow and ice... my fingers are crossed that that was the last gasp of bad weather... our forecast shows warming temperatures and I'm all for that... there is less than a month to go to SPRING... I know we are all looking forward to that... bring it on Mother Nature!!

The weather here was snowy and a bit of ice and plenty cold... one day blended into another with snow storm after snow storm after snow storm... I'm lucky that I didn't have to go out in it... and I have a great guy who takes care of my lawn in the Summer and my driveway and sidewalks in the Winter... he was here at least 5 times last week making sure I could get out if I needed to. My new car didn't get out of the garage for days last week... and I didn't get out of my pajamas either... several days didn't warrant putting a bra on... no where to go and no one coming to see me...  less loads of laundry too...LOL

And while I always believe that I'll get SOOOOOOO much done on days I stay home, I actually spent waaaaaaay too much time mindlessly scrolling the internet... a little knitting, got a sock done... a little crossstitch... worked on the Prairie Schooler Garden ABCs but didn't get close to being finished... I  did do  two charts from the new booklet by With Thy Needle & Thread called Jellybean Jubilee... now this is the CUTEST bunch of charts I've seen in a long time... I got my copy here at NeedleCase Goodies...

Here's  pictures  of the covers of the booklet...

My friend Darlene is trying to stitching all 7 ... check out her Instagram here and see what's she done... last I checked she has  think she's got 5 of the 7 finished... I don't know that I'll get them all done,  but I want to do the bunny or chick from each chart... I think they will be adorable as little pillows to scatter around my Easter/Spring display... here's what I've gotten done...

This one is called Easter Parade...

And this one is called Penelope and Peeps...

and here's a close up of that adorable bunny with the carrot balloon...

both are on a piece of 32 ct linen I painted for some other chart and changed my mind... the color here is reading more blue than it is ... think greener... DMC 164 and a tad darker... anyway I like a lot... don't know that I have enough to do everything I want from this booklet so I may have to paint/dye some more linen...now I will never get it to match what I did because... I didn't write anything down...I have great admiration for people who dye on a commercial scale... I don't keep track of anything and I don't measure anything... I look at the dye recipe's on the Rit Dye site... you can check it out here... and I kinda follow it ... but invariably I'll add a bit more of this or that so each piece I get is pretty unique... I'm okay with it... my take on it is, if it doesn't work for one project something else will come along... gotta roll with it...LOL

As for the Prairie Schooler Garden ABCs I'm up to the letter S...

I have cross stitched every day this week but some days I only put in 10 stitches before I fell asleep holding my needle... oh well, every stitch I put in is one more than I had before... right??

Here's the sock I knit... a plain vanilla stockinette sock with a solid purple heel... but oooooohhhh I love this colors ... 

this yarn is from Austermann and called Murano and I thought it would be primarily a blue and gold sock ... but when I unwound some of the skein I discovered this gorgeous berry pink moving into a purple and green and then  gold and then blue... the skein has even more colors in it so you'd get 2 very mis-matchy socks ... and usually I'm all for that ... but this time I want to get a second sock that has the same colors in it but in reverse order... the second sock is going to start with the blue section at the toe of the first sock... to accomplish this I ended up buying a second skein of this yarn... I don't know that there will be enough of a repeat of this wash of color in the first skein... and with two skeins I can play with another pair of socks in a different color wash... nice mindless knitting with pretty yarn... oh I checked to see if this was still available but it looks like it it gone... 

I spent Saturday working on the needlepoint stocking... those ornaments take a lot of time as there are so many color changes in each one... I promised myself all week that I would work on this, but it took till Saturday to get to it... it is going to be very pretty ... I've decided to eliminate some of the elements on the tree...there are strings of little gold balls ... but it is impossible to give them a rounded shape with as few stitches as they are painted with... grrrr... and they way they are painted they would also need a string added after the tree part was stitched...so I'm going to paint them out... I may add a simple ornament here or there if it is needed ... here's the front of the stocking... it is really hard to tell what I've done...

so here's the back... a little easier to see... I've got about 11 of those multi-color ornaments and couple of the 2 color ones done...

here's a close up of two of the multi-color ornaments...

My plan of action here is first stitch the big multi-colored ornaments, then do the simple round ones that take or or two colors, then the ribbons, then the candles and finally the tree... I go back and forth about stitching this stocking... some times I tell myself I should be monogamous to it and get it DONE... but monogamy is hard... other times I tell myself to work on it for 15 minutes every day... and other times I tell myself to devote one day a week to it... and other times I just avoid it all together... needlepoint is hard on my hands... lots of pulling and tugging of threads... I try to use as small a needle as I can... and while the smaller needles is thinner, the eye is smaller and it is hard to impossible to get some of the fibers threaded... yesterday I broke the eye of two size 24 needles ... pulled too hard ... went back up to a size 22 ... easier to thread but needs more effort to pull it through the canvas... oh I am whiny about this, aren't I?  I want to do this project but it isn't my favorite kind of needlework ... I think my strategy is going to be to devote a good chunk of my stitching time to it the rest of this month and March and see where I am at that point...I will stitch a couple of those cute chicks and bunnies from Jellybean Jubilee to break things up... seems like a good plan...wish me luck!!

This upcoming week looks semi-busy... need to take my son to the doctor on Monday, babysit on Tuesday and maybe a lunch with a friend another day and maybe take my son up to his friend's  house for lunch and ice cream... depending on the weather, which is is suppose to improve... warmer temperatures, maybe a bunch of rain... that should melt those piles of snow... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... doing brunch with my son and his family and then a trip to Krogers for some fruit and veggies... and maybe a bouquet of tulips... my Valentine's gift faded but they were so pretty I think I'll get myself some more.

I hope that your upcoming week is a good one... I'm working hard to focus on positive thoughts... not always easy... saying lots of prayers for lots of people... still have some down moments ... need Spring to come early for soooo many reasons...

take care

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Some Unexpected and Some Unpredictable on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello - first off, let me start with wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day!!  I hope that there is a bit of sweetness in store for you today... I was gifted with some beautiful flowers from my son and his family...

Tulips are my favorite flower and since I can't grow them in my yard, because they are just candy for the damn deer, I'm always thrilled to receive them as a gift...

Last week was a crazy one filled with unexpected events and it appears that next week is going to be filled with unpredictable happenings... I had hope to have another productive week like the last two but I should know, that was pushing it...  third time was not a charm... I did get some things done but not as much as I had hoped... but then my plans are always bigger than the time I actually have... I also found that if my Monday is really productive the rest of the week tends to follow and last week Monday just got away from me... ending up running errands and had no energy to get anything done here in the house... 

Tuesday we got an unexpected snowfall. Now I say unexpected because so far this winter every time they predicted snow it fizzled out... this time the forecast was for 1-3 inches... in my neighborhood it was about 8 inches and some places got 10... it messed up the my son and daughter-in-law's schedules and so I ended up babysitting later in the day which meant another day I didn't get much done... I was going to do more deep cleaning but only got some more samplers wiped down and a couple of drawers cleaned out in my bedroom.

As for crafty stuff I did get a couple of cross stitch pieces FFO'd just in time for Valentine's Day... here's my little tier tray from Target all decked out in Valentine goodies...

at the top is a freebie from Lizzie Kate I did a couple of years ago... 

the new pieces are this adorable angel from Brenda Gervais' Love Notes...

I found the frame at Michael's  and added a bit of sparkly ribbon and wooden rose medallion from a garland I think I picked up at Target a year or so ago...she's a tiny little thing... only 2 inches high on 32 ct.

And then stitched the Be Mine piece... also from Love Notes... a bit of organdy ribbon and a rose button...

And the third piece from the Love Notes pattern... called Key to my Heart... 

here I randomly tacked down some light pink organdy ribbon... I like the soft fluffy look of it... and notice my copious use of those adorable JABCO (Just Another Button Company) pins... I treat myself to their once a month delivery of a 3 pack of pins and a cut pincushion pattern and I've gotten some really cute ones... I love adding them to my pieces. Here's a link to their Pin Lovers monthly club...

Oh all these pieces were stitched on leftovers from other pieces... I save every scrap of the linen I paint or dye and sometimes it is the perfect size for a small... the colors aren't exact matches piece to piece but they are similar and I think coordinate nicely... IMHO

I LOVE stitching but I'm not as fond of FFOing (fully finishing objects)... but I am happy with how these 3 pieces turned out. I've been using a different interfacing for my smalls ... I was using a non-woven interfacing on the back of the stitching and the back of the backing to give them a little structure... now I'm using Pellon fusible fleece... I think the number is 987F... I'm fusing a piece on the back of both the stitching and the backing ... little tip... to get a really good bond you need to leave the iron on the fleece for a good 10 seconds... which doesn't seem like a lot of time until you are doing it... anyway with the fusible fleece on both sides you don't need as much batting inside and I'm getting a flatter finish, which I like... here's a side view of a small pillow finish I did back at Christmas... 

I just stumbled upon using the fusible fleece because it was still sitting out on my cutting table after making  several of these Japanese Rice Bags (Komebukuro) ... a pattern from KZ Stevens which you can find here...I made several of these for my quilty ladies group and one for me using fabrics from the  Flea Market Mix and Flea Market Moxie collections from Cathe Holden...

As you can see from the last picture I'm using mine for my knitting but you could put anything inside and I've seen pictures of people using them as purses... I LOVE that Cathe Holden fabrics... all kinds of vintage ephemera ... all my friends were particularly enamored with the fabric that looks like gum wrapper chains... we all have memories of making those ...  I stumbled on this pattern from IG and if you go here to the hashtag  #komebukuro you can see lots more examples...  and now I'm not sure why I was talking about this bag...oh yeah... fusible fleece... I used fusible fleece in the rice bags... I wanted them to have some body but not too much body... I used the fusible fleece in the sides and the bottom and I did some straight line quilting on the pieces before I assembled them... like I said go look at the hashtag... there are cute bags starting with an orphan quilt blocks or pieces of stitching or vintage linens or denim fabrics... the possibilities are endless...another rabbit hole I fell into...LOL

So along with the little unexpected things that happened last week a BIG unexpected thing happened too... my car has been making a funny noise ...pocketa pocketa pocketa... for about a week... I was due for an oil change so I took it to the dealership... BAD NEWS... the noise was the result of oil leaking into the radiator and other areas it shouldn't be in and the damage was upwards of 5K...  accckkkk!!! I've had this car for almost 10 years.... it has 137000 miles... the Blue Book value is barely above 5K... there was no way I could  put that much money into a car that also needed new tires, new brakes and some body work, soooooooooo... I had to buy a new car... now I talked about buying a new car with my finance guy probably a year ago, but decided I didn't want to spend the money (I know some of you get excited about a new car and I am a bit excited but mostly I just  look at a car as transportation to the fabric store and drive through windows and carting home flats of flowers)... I should have realized then that the only way this was going to play out was that I'd have to have a kick in the butt like a car that is dead to buy a new one... I'm lucky that is didn't just stop running when I was out and about... anyway I bought a 2021 Subaru Forester... Horizon Pearl Blue... here's a picture of what mine looks like...

my friends will immediately notice it looks a LOT like my old Subaru... I like blue cars and I figured if I got a different color that I would be standing in a parking lot and not remember what color mine was... my older son went with me to purchase this car and was an enormous help and he accurately surmised that what I wanted was a new car that was as similar to my old car as was humanly possible... I didn't want change and he is correct... that said OMG all the new technology is daunting... before I left the lot I  did have them show me how to open the back hatch and put gas into it and hook up my phone to the Bluetooth... the dealership has a program where they give you a little notebook and tell you to drive the car for  2 weeks and whatever you can't figure out, make a note... and they set you up with an appointment before you leave for 2 weeks out to come back and they will walk you through your issues... I will be taking them up on that offer... at least I hope to if the weather cooperates, because...

We are predicted ...and this is the unpredictable part... to get possibly 10 inches of snow starting tonight and into Tuesday and then another storm or TWO at the end of the week... I'm going out this morning to hit the deli and then I have a feeling my new car will not be leaving my garage for several days... I have plenty of projects to keep me busy, but I feel for those people who will have to go out in this. Last week's unexpected little 2''snowfall on Wednesday came at rush hour... and commutes that were less than 20 minutes turned into 4 hour treks home... I remember those days and do not miss them... 

So I hope that your upcoming week is manageable but I think a lot of us are going to have a a considerable amount of unpredictable coming our way... hope you can stay safe and warm... I'm already thinking ahead to Spring and have ordered a BIG bunch of flower seeds and dahlia tubers... I looked back on some of the pictures of my yard from the Summer and can't wait to have all those flowers again... a couple of weeks ago a neighbor left a card in my mail box thanking me for making the neighborhood look so pretty all summer... WOW... it brought tears to my eyes... I garden because it makes me happy and I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the colorful flowers and it makes my heart happy that it makes others happy too... I have had people stop their cars and tell me how they look forward to driving past my house... my garden isn't formal... it isn't planned ... it is a just a GIANT mish mash of what I think are pretty things... maybe next month I'll  see the daffodils ... all that yellow is so pretty... only downside of gardening this year is we will be visited by the 17 year cycle of cicadas...UGH UGH UGH... now I know they are harmless... but oh they are UGLY UGLY UGLY and they are noisy... I have a feeling my neighborhood will have a lot of them as it is an older neighborhood that originally had an oak tree planted in every front yard... only a few of the original trees are still standing (but I can see 2 of them out of my windows right now) ... the cicadas usually burrow near the base of trees so it probably not going to be pretty... anyway ... got off on another tangent, didn't I?  

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... I think I'll have lots of time this week to blog visit... stay safe... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Cleaning, organizing and fluffing....on Slow Sunday Stitching...

 Hello - so we've made it through another week... not sure I like to think of life in that manner but it is what I'm feeling at the moment... but it was a good week for me ... I attacked another project I've been putting off for months and months and I completed it... and yes I will spend lots of time in this post patting myself on the back...LOL... and this project like the DMC organization before it took waaaaaaayyyy longer than I thought... and this is a bit of a depressing thought because in my former life, long long long ago, I use to plan, format, schedule and implement large scale projects across many departments for a large business... obviously my skills are rusty ... and why was it easier to get other people to do my bidding than it is to get me to get my butt in gear???  

So here is the project... settle in... you may want to get a beverage... lots of pictures and lots of chatter...        I cleaned and reorganized and fluffed my small upstairs office/craft room... AKA  the small bedroom (there is no bed in there) ...AKA the Green Room (because it is painted a lovely shade of green)... as I mentioned before this is not a big room... about 110 sq ft ... but I have a TON of stuff packed into in... and if I say so myself and I do ... it is nicely packed  and arranged...

Here's my view as a I enter the room...

You get a glimpse of all four walls... I'm going to start with the wall on my right....I tackled this one first as there was a lot of cleaning to do...

Starting at the tippy top I took down every piece of McCoy pottery I have up there and washed it... they were filthy dusty... ugh...but now they actually shine... and I wiped down all those small IKEA storage boxes... they have stamps and dies and what nots I use for card making...  and I love that I could tuck in a piece of cross stitch on this wall..

This is from Blackbird  Designs ...when I stitched it, it was called Early Morning Read and was in the book Weekend published 2011 (it was primarily quilt patterns with a bit of cross stitch) but then it reappeared in 2019 in the book Ooh La La and was called A Bit of Spring... the colors on this are so pretty... pale rosy beige and the flosses included Crescent Colors Jakey Brown... my favorite pink floss!

Then I moved onto that cube unit... a Kallax from IKEA... I had cardboard storage boxes before... they hold my charts ... my linen... my UFOs that we will not speak of ... and the paper and ink supply for the printer... I've had the cardboard boxes for years and they were not holding up to the wear and tear and the weight of the stuff I was putting inside... sooooooo a trip to IKEA was on the agenda on Monday... 

Now this was the best trip I've had to IKEA in over a year... everything I went looking for was IN STOCK... I got 8 of those new bins... they are Lekman boxes... you can see them here...I assumed they were a solid cube... they are NOT... they come flat packed and you have to snap together 5 pieces... unfortunately my wrists are not what they use to be and this was hard to do ... luckily my son came to my rescue and assembled them for me... I like them a lot... they are sturdy... they have strips of felt on the bottoms that lets them glide in and out smoothly... I'm not afraid when I pick one up that the bottom of the box is going to fall out... to fluff them a bit a put a sheet of cardstock in the front... alternating a gold and an olive ... coordinates with my new rug which I'll show more of further down this post.

And in the corner I put an IKEA Raskog cart...this one was tucked away in my furnace storage room... it is a creamy beige-y white... they don't have this color anymore...now they have just white, black and a gray-y green....

anyway... here I've stashed lots of WIPs and a few projects that are just kitted up and waiting for me to release them from their plastic storage bags...

 I got the bags here on Amazon... I like these ... they are a step up from the Ziploc bags I've been using for years... I know lots of people are into the fabric project bags of different sizes and fabrics but I like the  orderliness of having the same kind of storage... makes me feel like I'm in control (even though I know I'm not...LOL) 

I've reserved that bottom bin on the cart for stuff I buy for Elliott... books, Hot Wheels, toys... I'm always picking things up and dumping them in this room... now I can hopefully remember what I purchased and get it to him, bit by bit... I often bring him a little gift when I baby sit him on Tuesdays... he is into twucks ( R's are hard to say) and  types of construction equipment... he particularly likes diggers  or I think the proper term is excavators... I have a several of books on those topics to give him... Gwamma is doing her best to spoil him... I take the job very seriously...

Okay, moving on to the next wall... I wiped down all those samplers... oh I LOVE samplers... and yes some of them aren't hanging straight... I'll get to that ...

I have plans to add more samplers to this wall this year... In organizing the WIPs I found several partially completed samplers... I want to finish up a couple and stitch a couple more..

As for all the drawers... these are Sterlite 2093... they are a 3 drawer unit and I've placed 3 units  on top of each other to make one "stack" ... and as you can see there are 5 "stacks"... these hold scrapbook paper and envelopes and stickers and buttons and embellishments and ribbons and ephemera and tape and you get the idea...I had a piece of finished masonite board cut to span the top which gives me a nice work surface when I make cards... and after fluffing my DMC boxes I had to FLUFF these drawers...

I put pretty paper in the front of every drawer and I added pieces of ephemera.. birds, butterflies, leaves... here and there...  I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this looks... why didn't I think of this years ago???  All of this stuff came from my stash (and yes I have a nice stash of papers along with my stash of fabric, yarn, charts, threads, linens, etc... do we see a pattern of behavior here?  Good think I'm not into drinking, drugs or gambling...LOL)... 

And I put some pretty washi tape on the edge of the shelf (oh washi tape is a new  obsession collection in my life... soooooo many pretty designs ... we won't speak of it now... okay?

And another thing we won't speak about right now is all the charts in that white basket... I have designated it to be the spot I drop charts into that have just snuck into my house (they are quite clever and squeeze through the mail slot on a regular basis) and charts I have gotten out, looked at and need to put away in their new Lekman boxes... there is quite a bit of filing to do here, but it is in loose alphabetical order... I may get to it later today... 

A tangent... I haven't purchased a lot of scrapbook papers in the last couple of years... and it appears that lots of the designers I liked are no longer producing papers... Basic Grey, October Afternoon, K& Company, Brenda Walton... makes me a bit sad... but instead of hording storing it I'm glad I'm using some of it... All of the papers I used in the drawer fronts were Brenda Walton collections... I know she is still producing art but I couldn't find any new paper when I looked online...  and yes there are labels on ALL of the drawers... gave my label maker a good workout... I had labeled these drawers a couple of years ago but the labels had gotten yellow... nice fresh clean white one are the finishing touch here... and yes my OCD is showing...

Under the window I have one of my 2 Juki sewing machines and a small ironing space...

There is nice light in this room even though I'm only a few feet away from my neighbor's house... I do have a view of their back yard and bird feeder... I like that... and I LOVE looking at this piece from Brenda Gervais called Needle and Thread...

This is one of my best painted pieces... I figured out how much room the grass would take on this piece and instead of stitching ALL that green I painted that area and then added a turquoise blue sky... this piece has EVERYTHING I LOVE about stitching... there is a bit of an alphabet and the scissors and the thread spools and some quilt motifs and  the vintage pearl buttons... now stitching that skirt was a bit of a slog but definitely worth it!!

Moving to the last wall,  another desk unit (this one is a bit bigger, the top was custom cut by my handyman Dan) and a Billy bookcase...

And yes that is a yellow cutting mat... I got it here at Create for Less ... and it flips to a light green on the other side.... above I have 2 pieces that I finished last year...

The top one is Vintage Birds by Jeanette Douglas and the bottom one is Faith of the Heart from With Thy Needle & Thread... this one speaks to me as the mother of a child with a disability... and this wall has empty space too ... and you know what that means... MORE SAMPLERS!!! LOL

Here's the Billy bookcase with my thread stash and a wreath hangs on the closet door with another piece from WTN&T...Bluebird out my Window...

That was one of the first pieces I FFO'd myself... oh we aren't opening that closet door... it is STUFFED with more paraphernalia...  it is semi-orderly... it has my dyes and my paints and more paper stuff ... I told you I had crammed a TON of stuff into this room and I wasn't lying... LOL

And finally the floor... a new rug from the company FLOR... 

I love their stuff and have a floral carpet from them under my dining room table and in my hall way and a plaid on my sunroom porch... it comes as large squares (19" square)  and you can arrange them as you like... and they stick to each other with large adhesive dots ... they aren't glued to the floor... I LOVE that you can get patterns....

Another tangent... when I was about 13 I went to a new friend's house for dinner... her mom had the most gorgeous carpet in the living room... it was a deep blue with flowers all over it...now this was 1966 or so... the era of avocado green and harvest gold shag carpet (which was a prominent part of my Mom's decor)... I had never seen anything like it... and as life went on carpet became waaaay more beige (and I do have some beige carpet in my house) but colors and patterns are waaaaay more interesting to me... oh this patter is called Among the Wildflowers and the colorway is Ivy... 

So this room is tidy and inviting ... I hope to do a little sewing in here this week as it is suppose to get frigid here and the basement will be a bit chilly... hopefully those single degree temps will come with sunny days... I can take the cold if the sun is shining...

On the stitching scene I didn't get a lot done... I stitched a small Valentine piece that needs to be FFO'd ... I'll show the 2 small Valentine displays I plan on doing next week... and I did put some stitches in a WIP from last April... this is Prairie Schooler Garden Alphabet No. 61...

Excuse the wrinkles... it is stitched in DMC on an unknown 32 ct mottled yellow linen from my stash... I'm halfway done... I'd like to add this to my Spring display in March ... one square a day should get me there... but I think I want this one professionally framed... doable ... and I want to put some time in on the needlepoint stocking... I still have several BIG projects I want to get to... cleaning my kitchen and making new curtains has moved up the list... but not sure I'll start it next week.. I'm waiting to hear from Dan,  my handyman... he texted last week and said he'd planned on coming this week to put together the 6 bookcases and attend to several other projects I have for him... but he's always busy and his plans change... I'd love to have him come but when I does I don't get anything else done and the bookcases will need my attention to unload and reload all the fabrics... perhaps I could give my bedroom and the sampler walls in the hallway a good cleaning... dusty there too... 

Plans are for a belated birthday dinner for my older son today... requested prime rib... and I'm also bringing a pasta salad and that Chinese coleslaw salad and asparagus wrapped with prosciutto and those yummy Kings Hawaiian rolls... should be a nice meal...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and browse the blogs there today... just have to get the prime rib in the oven and do the asparagus before we drive over to see the rest of the family... not sure what this week will bring... I have a 6 month check up at the eye clinic on Thursday... I thought this was the appointment without having my eyes dialated but the appointment reminder says otherwise... and while I always want sunny days an hour or so of cloudy when I get out of the doctor's office would be appreciated... 

Hope your week is a happy one... I think for most of us in the US it is going to be a cold one, so stay warm!

happy stitching-

carol fun