How new kitchen curtains made me feel OLD... on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well did you have the wild weather ride we did last week?  Monday was nice, Tuesday was really nice... I wore capris and sandals outside with Elliott... but then came Wednesday... OMG... we had a bit over 2 inches of SNOW... that was not nice Mother Nature!!!  The rest of the week was okay... cloudy.. a little rain, a little sun... trend is for some nice 70's this upcoming week. I should take last week as a warning from Mother Nature not to go and buy annuals... but it is now the last week in April... I've had stuff in the ground by now for the last 6 years and until last year I've been fine... I do remember un-planting stuff and covering my window boxes about 3 nights in a row back in May... oh I checked back... I had LOTS of things planted by May 3... and there several frosty nights around May 10...that was Mother's Day... around here the last frost chance is usually before Mother's Day... and the holiday is May 9 this year... so I'm probably pushing it if I plant stuff this week... however I believe a trip to a garden center or two or three or more would be good for the soul... 

It was a busy week for social stuff... dinner out 3 different nights ... and that was lots of fun... I did a little cross stitch but I'm going to hold off showing it till it is FFO'd... I think I only worked on the stocking one night...  that tree isn't going to be done by the end of the month... oh well... I needed a break... I did knit on a sock... and I got 2 quilts in the mail to the long arm quilter... I also got the bindings made so when they come back I'll be ready to finish them.

I put together the back for the Big Patch quilt... and I made 340 inches of scrappy binding ... need to get it to the post office tomorrow. And I started a new top... picked up a Songbook layer cake at my favorite quilt shop Homegrown Homesewn on Tuesday... stumbled across a great pattern, Skylight by Missouri Start Quilt Company... you can see Jenny's video here.  Got all the blocks cut out and a half dozen sewn together before my knee  screamed "enough standing"... sit down you fool... 

Which leads me to the even that really had me feeling OLD OLD OLD... so last week I finally got around to making new curtains for my kitchen... its been on my "list of things to do" for months... I had the fabric... a cute print from American Jane... I knew I could use the old sun-faded curtains as a pattern for a new set... all I needed was motivation and surprise!!... it stumbled into my house ... lucky me!!  Soooo the old curtains came down and I went downstairs into my sewing room... made 2 valances ...one for the 52" window and one for the 16" window... went back upstairs to hang them and see how I liked them... well to reach the tops of the windows I need a chair and then I have to climb on the counters... and it occurred to be that this was NOT a good idea... my son offered to put the new ones up and I took him up on it... while he was perched on my counters we both realized how cruddy and dusty all the decorations on the tops of the  cabinets were... YUCK... I know it has been a couple of years since I got up there and cleaned them... and the realization that I shouldn't be the one climbing on counters hit me ... the sensible thing is to let someone else do the climbing... someone younger... and I resigned myself to the situation, but it made me feel OLD... 

Good thing the curtains look great and that cheered me up (along with my son handing me down all the knickknacks, I cleaned them off and he put them back on top of the cabinets)... 

And here's close up of the fabric...Bubble Pop by American Jane...

I engaged in some online retail therapy last week and purchased a bunch of new Fiestaware pieces... you can see the new sugar bowls on the stack of bread trays... and yes there is no reason one needs this many sugar bowls but they are too stinking cute... I got them here... I think these have been discontinued... I love the shape and the cute lids...

I think I'm going to decorate my kitchen with my Fiestaware more often... I LOVE the colors!!!

As for other decorating I got my living room shelf unit completed... 

Lots of bird stuff ... and after using my some of my Fiestaware collection in the kitchen it occurred to me to use some of my McCoy pottery in my other displays... at the top behind my Lizzie Kate Spring String is the only piece of pink McCoy I have ... love the tulips!!

I kept some of crossstitch from Easter out for Spring... that WTN&T Sampler Hill piece is one of my favorite samplers... and  a friend found that BIG robin cookie jar for me last year... the price tag is still on it... $8 and we found one online for $80 the other night... such a bargain!!  Below is a little lady from Pineberry Lane, the Blackbird Designs and my newest cross stitch finish, Because it's Spring by From the Heart Needleart...  here's a close-up...

I had this picket fence in my stash... don't know where I got it... maybe Micheals... it was unfinished wood and I painted it white... 

These two big yellow birds are vintage McCoy...  it was nice to bring them out and display them with that yellow tulip piece from Blackbird Designs book Thank You Sarah Tobias...

Next shelf down has more Blackbird pieces...

Garden Friends from the BBD book Sewing Club...

And these two birds out of the BBD book For my Friend called Tweet Hearts...  they were the perfect size for this little two tier stand...

I have a bit more Spring decor to show next week... and now I'm moving on to doing some patriotic stitching for July... I've seen several  new cute pieces  and I have some charts in my stash that I'd love to add to my displays this year... along with at least one new flag quilt...maybe two... we shall see. 

I've been wanting to work on quilts ... my sewing mojo has returned ... the quilts I sent off last week were the first I've completed this year... I do tend to work in spurts... and since I cut out about 42 blocks...easy ones yesterday... I may get them together today or tomorrow... hey, I might even have another Design Wall Monday post... LOL

Nothing big on my calendar for next week... so far... who knows what will come up... I would like to spend some time on  the sunroom porch stitching... and like I said before a trip to the garden centers would be good ... I think I can make that happen. 

Hope your week is just the way you want it... I'll  link  with  Kathy's Quilts  and spend some time seeing what others are up too... a good way to spend my Sunday...

happy stitching-

carol fun 

A RARE Design Wall Monday with 3 little lost ladies ..

 WOW... I haven't done this is like FOREVER... but my sewing mojo attacked with a vengeance this past weekend and I made an entire double bed size top... now this was a journey... I had an idea I'd been kicking around for a while... I saw several quilts I liked on Instagram... you can visit the hashtag here for Big Patch Quilts... I like the idea of large pieces of fabric assembled in a sort of utility quilt fashion with some improv vibes but using pretty fabrics... this isn't my normal style... it is kinda boho... but I had several collections of fabric I thought would work well ... and I think it did, in the end... but it didn't end where it began... 

Okay...that was kinda cryptic... lets start at the beginning... first was the Big Patch Quilt idea which is a  pattern you can see here... I didn't purchase the pattern because I wanted to make a bigger version than the pattern had instructions for and I thought it was more of a recipe than actual dimensions which wouldn't have been applicable for me... but I do want to give credit for the idea to this maker, Hopewood Home. You can check her out here. 

Next I found this panel in my stash when I was refreshing my sewing studio...

I remember purchasing this panel at the International Quilt Festival  the only year it was held in Cincinnati Ohio... that was 2013... that was 8 years ago this month... the panel is by Cori Dantini by Blend  and the selvedge says Beauty is You... I didn't purchase any coordinating fabrics... as I vaguely recall they didn't have any to buy and I think they were just starting in the fabric business (but I may be wrong about that... the memory ain't what it use to be...LOL)  My starting point for my Big Patch/Improv  was to combine these little ladies with my leftover 10 year old  Basic Grey Curio collection from Moda and a new FQ pack from Tim Holtz called Eclectic Elements... you can see it here... I think both collections have a vintage vibe with some cool typography and ephemera images... 

So I did a little figuring and I wanted my quilt to be about 85" square... the ladies on the panel measured 22.25 inches tall ... I wanted to put one lady per row... that would give me approximately 66 inches of length... and if I added 10 inches top and bottom... 10 inches being the size of a piece of layer cake of fabric and I had a part of a Curio Layer Cake ... that would give me my 85" inches... maybe a bit more... 

And yes my math is always kinda loosey- goosey... but in this project it works fine... 

So I placed the girls on the design wall and started to add fabrics around them... some pieces sewn together and others just pinned in place,  and it looked like this when I went to bed on Friday night...

And yes to a lot of you and even me it is a big mish mash... but I'm diggin it... I know it is busy busy busy quilt... and I figured it would be ... I have a love of busy busy busy quilts,  but I just wasn't totally happy with it... and I know that lots of scrappy projects for me start out where I love the project... and then it slides into doubt... and moves on to meh...and dives into ugh... before it is resurrected into like and then finally I get back to love... I know I need to give it time and stay with it. Now sometimes this process takes days, weeks, months, years... but in this case it took one night's rest... 

When I got up Saturday I knew that as much as I loved the little ladies they had to go... I know this sounds strange but I didn't think they weren't  busy enough... OMG... I know you are shaking your head... not busy enough???  To my eye they jumped out ... but not in a good way... so I took them out and replaced them with more busy busy busy fabrics and now I LOVE it!!

I know it is a crazy jumble ... I like to think of it as boho eclectic ... it makes me happy and that is the only person I have to please.  I'm going to have it quilted and it will look great on my bed!  I even get a bit of a 70's vibe from it... when I was young...and stupid... and happy!!

Here's a couple of close ups of some  of the fabrics... it goes without saying I LOVE the Basic Grey Curio fabrics but I'm also in LOVE with this collection from Tim Holtz ... this is the second time I've bought the same package of FQs and I have enough left for another smaller quilt. 

I think I'll put the little  ladies on the back of the quilt... I know I'm going to have to piece it to get the back big enough so this will kill two birds with one stone... I want to pull together a scrappy binding before I put the leftovers away... and I can't wait to send this off to the long arm quilter...

 I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea but I it has the utility/improv vibe I was going for... I'm usually a make a bunch of blocks kinda quilt maker and this was different for me ... I like how it shows off big chunks of fabric ... and overall it was a pretty quick quilt to make... I may even do it again someday... 

But for today I'll link up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and Love Laugh Quilt... maybe I'll get back into this Design Wall Monday again... I have at least a half dozen quilt ideas kicking around in my head  ... I hope that this quickly finished project will spur my sewing mojo... fingers crossed...

happy stitching-

carol fun  

Banishing bunnies and breaking out birds on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well I am happy with myself as I planned to do a project or two and I actually did them!!  I stitched a small piece of cross stitch  and finished it. I got motivated on Wednesday and banished the bunnies to their basement bins and by Thursday broke  out the birds and re-did my displays... I'll show you a couple in this post.

Every time I re-decorate I'm always hesitant as I start... with the ability to look back at what I did in years past I tell myself that I don't want to identically duplicate what I did previously... but I also suspect that I will... but then I usually don't. Now going from Easter to Spring stuff I did re- use some items... and I moved some items from one spot to another...and while I have A LOT of bunnies, I also have a good stash of birds... I actually thought I had more birds than bunnies but as I put the bunnies/Easter stuff away it is clear that the bunnies have multiplied (I mean that has to be the reason right??? My buying habits have nothing to do with it, right?  This  is where you nod your head up and down, up and down and humor me...LOL)

Since I have additional spaces to decorate with the addition of the new white shelf unit in the living room, I feel like things are spaced out a bit more... and I like the look of it.  However I am afraid that more space will result in more stuff...eventually... I do know that every time I re-decorate I start out thinking, oh I have plenty of stuff, and halfway through I wish I had more cross stitch or another quilt or another knickknack or two... which eventually leads to shopping and MORE stuff... it is a vicious cycle, I tell ya...

This time I did not change the wall quilts upstairs or downstairs... I do have 2 new quilt ideas I'm playing with for another tulip quilt... a freebie pattern from Moda with their Sewcialites SAL ... block 24 called Abundant by Robin Pickins... you can see it here.... I'm envisioning a field of yellow and pink tulips, and I have yardage of a print with yellow and pink tossed tulips that I think will make a lovely background... and there is a new pattern by Pen and Paper Patterns called Sparrows that I want to do too... you can see that pattern here... now when I first saw the pattern I thought it was cute but I'm not a fan of solids so it didn't grab my attention...but then I saw this version... click here... LOVE IT!!   I'd like to make a  wall size version of this quilt for next Spring ... 

And these two quilt patterns ...along with watching this video which you can see here... on a the yet to be released County Seat Quilts ...which you can find a pre-order page here... has got me itching to do more sewing... Now the fabrics in the County Seat Quilts book aren't my cup of tea but I can see several of these patterns done in fabrics that are my style... one quilt is just crying to be done in grunges and another would look great in those Jen Kingwell fabrics I've been collecting...now to get down stairs and sew!!

I worked on the the stocking again this week. My goal is to have the tree done by the end of the month...that may be a bit ambitious... when I get the tree done I'll take a break ... I did get the fibers I needed and after pulling out the background yarn I had already purchased I decided it is the right color after all... happy to put that decision behind me...

Okay I've rambled long enough... now to some pretty pictures... let's start on the sunroom porch... on the wall I have a vintage sampler... well maybe semi-vintage... I stitched this one 26 years ago...

It is called My Favorite Things and it is by The Drawn Thread and she still has this pattern for sale which you can see on her website ... the background is a pale pink to the mauve-y side... I don't know if I changed these colors or not but I suspect that I did as the mauve-y pink and turquoise were in my bedroom back then. There were decorative stitches ... of which I was quite fond of back then... and little gemstone hearts and that cute scissors charm... I put my boys initials at the bottom... at the time one was 10 and one was 4... now they are 36 and 30... where does the time go???

Oh if you go and look at her website I hope you have more will power than I did... I ended up purchasing a new sampler, the one called Little Birds... it has birds and an alphabet and it would look smashing right where this sampler is now... and since I change up what hangs here, maybe next year  it will grace this wall (and yes I'm totally getting ahead of myself.)

And here is the little bookcase  just below the sampler... 

on top is my latest finish... this is a portion of the chart Bobbin' Along by Not Forgotten Farms which you can see  here... 

I was enamored with the robin on the spool of thread and the scissors... so I put those two motifs together... I used a piece of 32 ct linen I dyed that had been in my stash for a while... I'm pretty sure it was Rit Apple Green but I may have added some Taupe to it... I used  DMC No. 5 perle cotton for the spool and put a real needle in the robin's beak... the little pillow is my only foray into over one...Birdhouse Alphabet by Little House Needleworks which you can see here... and I'm loving that scale... picked it up at At Home a couple of weeks ago... I thought it would be a fun piece for displays and I could not pass up that color!!!

And here's a close up of the cross stitching...

The shelf below has an another Drawn Thread oldie... this one is called For the Birds... I did this one probably 20 or more years ago too.. it is strategically place to cover the electrical box from my view when I sit in my chair... and the bottom shelf has a Target Dollarspot watering can from a couple of years ago along with other knickknacks I've gotten here and there... 

As for the living room wall quilt and tier tray... the quilt is the same as before... my Jam & Jelly version of the Fig Tree pattern ..

as for the tier tray I went with this 2 tier one from Hobby Lobby... 

I like that it has no post on the top tier so you can use bigger pieces ... a piece from Homespun Elegance and a little pillow from Pineberry Lane...  oh on the back of the couch...which I think of as a big quilt hanger... is a Stack n Whack done with Phillip Jacobs Brassica fabric... I LOVE Stack n Whack and I LOVE this quilt... now Brassica means cabbage and since I cut up the cabbages I call this my Coleslaw quilt... I love how several blocks look like roses ... this is a great print... it comes in several colorways and it still available which is surprising since I made this quilt back in 2012!!  

And I've scattered some smaller pieces of cross stitch about the room... on the TV stand... some little pillows that are snippets from  A Saviour's Praise by Kittenstitcher which you can see here... some day  I want to stitch some more snippets from this sampler... the border is to die for!!

And a couple of small pillows on my favorite yellow tier table...

Well the last 4 days in a row I have been super productive...not sure how long I can keep this up but I have plans to day to tackle one of those projects I've been putting off for months... Friday and Saturday I spent in my sewing room, almost all day... I made the back and the bindings for 2 quilts I want to send off to the long arm quilter this week... and I started a new quilt... a bed size quilt... even though I told myself that I don't need to make big quilts any more I couldn't stop myself... it is a different style for me... kinda improv... check back tomorrow... I should have a rare Monday Design Wall post ... I only have one more row to add and it will be a top... gonna finish that before I jump into the next project. I've really enjoyed the time I spent in my sewing room ... the new bookcases make the room seem bigger even though there is one more than before... don't know if it is because they are white or because they are shallower...probably both... like I said at the top of this post I have several quilt ideas I want to play with ... and I want to change up the wall quilts I have in my sewing room...they've been up for 7 years... I need a re-fresh... fingers crossed my sewing mojo stays a while...

My week ahead has  plans several dinners... looking forward to that... the weather last week and this week is nothing to talk about... there is another COLD Wednesday in the  forecast... maybe snow flurries...ugh... but it does keep me from buying annuals... which is a good thing. 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and tomorrow I'll link up with another blog or two for Design Wall Monday... haven't done that is FOREVER!!

Hope your week ahead is a good one and that you get done whatever it is you've planned... as that's what I want for me too!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Some stitching progress on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well last week certainly flew by for me... I had an appointment or obligation out of my house every single day... and the older I get the more difficult it is for me to come home after being out and jump into a project... and I find that I don't start things because I know I won't have time to finish them. I don't know how I ended up like this as when my boys were young I was constantly jumping from one thing to another and I feel like I got waaaaaay more accomplished. Now I blame it on old age and the internet... it is way too easy to sit and look at pretty pictures or videos or read articles than to actually accomplish something... I tried to take a little break from my computer this week... and I was semi-successful. I read two books, something I haven't done for eons... one on the pandemic and how it has been handled and the second one a trashy memoir by someone I had never heard of before who purports to have been a good friend of Lucille Ball. I LOVE Lucy and was sucked in by the great pictures in the book. After reading it I think this woman (a probably B -list Broadway/Hollywood actress) made herself out to be more she was. She can certainly name drop, I will say that. Anyway it was a good distraction from other issues. 

As for crafty stuff, I spent a lot of time on the needlepoint stocking... I'll show you and front and the back so you can gauge my progress.

I need to go to the needlepoint store and pick up some more of the fiber I used for the candle glow. I only got five out of one card and there are 16 candles. Also I think I'm going to go with a more blue turquoise for the background. The aqua I purchased doesn't contrast enough for my taste.  Need to look at some other options.

The needlepoint is hard on my hands to I gave myself a break and worked on the cross stitch piece I told you about last week... Because It's Spring by From the Heart Needleart by Wendy Peatross.

I really love this piece... simple and Spring-y...now my stitching of the nest isn't exactly how I planned but it will do. As I said before I've changed all of the colors to suit this linen I painted. I'm itching to banish the bunnies and get out my bird stuff... I have a lot of bird stuff ... but I didn't have the time or the energy last week to get started. Anymore it takes me a whole day to put things away and then another day or two to put things out.  I hate to admit I'm slowing down but I am... getting old sucks.

Today we are doing a birthday party for Elliott... he will be two on Monday... the dump truck Easter basket was well received ... and today he'll be getting a companion bulldozer... and the party has construction themed plates and napkins and decorations... should be fun!!  He's very verbal and has a great memory and it definitely showing some terrible twos behavior, but I know it will pass. And the good part is I can watch him and spoil him and then go home... 

There were several beautiful weather days last week... this week seems just so-so... I would like a rainy afternoon that I can play down in my sewing room... I have several projects I'd like to get to... and I'm hoping Dan the handyman will return soon to finish up the trim work on the bookcases and cut the shims that stick out and put the shelf and trim on the water meter bump out. I want to replace the ceiling fan/light fixture ...need to do a little shopping for it... maybe this week... fingers crossed.

I've seen flats of annuals showing up at garden centers... keep telling myself it is too early to plant anything. I saw a long range forecast that has us back into the 50's... I know I should wait till mid May to be absolutely sure of no frost... don't know if I can wait that long... cooler weather is the best deterrent for me. 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I have a couple of hours to play before the party... and I do need to wrap up the gift... now where did I stash that cute gift bag I bought weeks ago??

hope your week is fun and productive...

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Happy Easter!!

 Hello -- just popping in to wish all of you a very Happy Easter!!  Mine is quiet and peaceful ... celebrated yesterday with my family... did an Easter Egg hunt with Elliott... and gave him a themed Easter basket...

I filled a dump truck with Easter goodies... he's really into ALL construction vehicles... diggers, bulldozers, excavators, dump trucks...  it was a big hit ... and next week is his birthday and I have a companion bulldozer to go with the dump truck.

As for the last of my Easter decor... this is my back hall way... the one every one comes through...

As I remember the bunny was a Debbie Mumm pattern... it is done with Debbie Mumm fabrics, that rare collection that she did with pastels.

Here's the display in my kitchen... I really love styling this chicken wire box...

I have a nice collection of Rae Dunn Easter stuff.. 

In a couple of days I'll pack up the bunnies and the eggs  and replace them with birds... I'm ready for Spring... this week the weather has been all over the place... started off with a day in the 70's...things got gray...and then cold...and then it SNOWED... okay flurried ...and now it is back up to 70... I'm itching to  go to the garden stores... one of my favorites opened up last week... need a shopping trip there... might not buy anything yet but will scope it out. Got some ideas for new plants I want to play with. 

I spent some quality time with the needlepoint stocking this week... actually got a callus on my thumb and forefinger from pulling the needle through the canvas... and seeing some real progress... and to reward myself I took a break and started a new sampler piece (lets not talk about all the WIPs and UFOs lurking in their nicely sealed plastic bags, okay???) 

Ok - I was going to show you a picture of what I'm working on but for some reason I can not get them to load... here's a link to the chart...

https://www.etsy.com/listing/847140055/because-its-spring?ref=shop_home_active_26&sca=1

This is Because It's Spring by From the Heart Needleart by Wendy... now I changed all the flosses because I'm stitching on 32 ct I painted with Rit dyes... Lemon Yellow and Apple Green...  I'm using all DMC... I like how variegated the nest is, but I don't seem to have an overdyed like that in my stash.... soooooo, my plan is to make it tweedy using 2 different strands of DMC at the same time... 

My plan for the rest of the day is to sit out here on the sunroom porch and stitch... doing prime rib sliders for dinner... using left over prime rib from I think Christmas... the rest of the week is filling up... babysitting, haircut, appointments.... nice temperatures predicted... hope they are right... 

Hope you have a lovely Sunday and a happy and productive week ahead... I know that there are more things on my list of things I want to do than I could ever get done in one week... or two... or three... or forever...LOL

happy stitching-

carol fun