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