Sunday, October 31, 2021

Where I don't listen to a darn thing I tell myself on a Slow Sunday...

 Well Happy Halloween everyone!!  Remember when I said I didn't think I was going to put out my Halloween decorations... oh.. that turned out quite differently... my sweet friend Barb, left me a comment that some people just switch out Fall decor for Halloween decor instead of re-doing the whole display... GENIUS!! Why have I NEVER thought of this before??? I have some pumpkins in my displays that have faces that were turned around, easy to switch that... and taking the Fall cross stitch pieces out and replacing them with my Halloween cross stitch pieces was easy peasy. Then I sprinkled the smalls here and there... added some glizty spiders and some witches hats and I re-did my displays in about 90 minutes!!  And it turns out that LOTS of people do it this way... start with a Fall base in September, switch out stuff for October, and then return the Fall stuff and add some turkeys for November... perfect strategy!!!  So here are the pics of my  Halloween decor... let me inundate you with pictures...LOL!!

The big shelf unit... I didn't move a single pumpkin... just worked around them...






And the smaller shelf unit... now here I did completely re-do the top ... I have several large pieces that just won't fit anywhere else  but it went together quickly... and on the shelves below I just popped in some spiders and witch's hats and a bit of cross stitch...




Doing it this way was so quick ... and it re- enforces that smalls are the way to go... easy to find a place to tuck them in... 

Oh here is the tier tray... again just switched out Fall for Halloween...and isn't that stack of pumpkins adorable??? My dear friend Stephie got that for me for my birthday... she was cruising the aisles of Homegoods and said she immediately popped it into her cart as it had my name written all over it...and it even lights up... I LOVE IT!!! Thanks Stephie!!!



 and  the biggest job was to take down the Fall bird quilt and put up the giant spider... I had to press the creases out from where it had been folded... but I have a new strategy I've been using with quilts I hang on the wall... Instead of folding them I've been wrapping them around one of those foam pool noodles to store them... I picked up several at the end of this summer... my tip of the day...LOL




As for sewing I got all the blocks done for my Log Jam quilt, and I posted 3 design variations on IG (which you can see here )  and asked people what their favorite was... all the while telling them that their choices were not binding on me... pretty magnanimous aren't I?  LOL ... anyway I went with the layout I showed before... Why?  Two reasons...one, this one seemed the calmest of the layouts ... and two, there are waaaaaay less seams to match. Several people like the zigzag setting ... and it is quite striking... but it would require me to match a seam every 2" across every row... too much work for me... I want my sewing to be easy!!! 



As I was sewing the rows together I kept wondering what these fabrics reminded me of... because they were talking to me ( and you have to be very very quiet to hear them...LOL)... and then it hit me , "Old Gold and Black"... the colors of my older son's alma mater, Purdue... Boiler Up!!!... and with a bit of that orange in there I remembered how the campus looked in the Fall, soooo I named it "West Lafayette in October" since Purdue is located in West Lafayette, IN... can't wait for Delinda of The T-Shirt Quilt Company to work her magic on this one....

I do like the pattern which is Log Jam which you can find here from Pieced Just Sew,  and will make it again... maybe with scrappy low volumes for the lights and other scrappy stuff for the darks... 

The weather here has been all over the place... some lovely gorgeous Fall days and some ugly rainy ones... I took advantage of the nice day on Wednesday to clean out some of my flower beds... and OMG did I suffer from it... I have arthritis in my left knee and I've gotten a couple of cortisone shots in it... and it hasn't been bothering me, until I spent about 90 minutes pulling up dead flowers... I'm no where near done but I had to stop as I could hardly hobble back into the house  for my ice pack and a couple of ibuprofen...  sheesh... getting old sucks!!! Hopefully since I've rested it for a couple of days I can get back out there again this week... not only do I have stuff to pull out but I have bulbs to be planted... daffodils and some more alliums... they were so pretty last spring and I got lots of compliments on them... it makes me happy when people stop and tell me how much they like what I do with the yard... twice when I was out there cleaning the beds on Wednesday someone stopped and thanked me for what I do... wow... that really touches my heart... 

So the weather should be pretty good for the trick or treaters tonight... I got 2 GIANT bags of candy at Costco... in good weather we can get more than 100 kids.... I know that the majority of them don't live in the neighborhood because I know the area well, but it is a great place to trick or treat... the streets are mostly flat, there are sidewalks on both sides of the street, it is nicely lit and the houses are close together... you can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time... it is fun to see the little ones dressed up and in recent years lots of adults that accompany the kids are dressing up too. 

Hope you have fun with Halloween... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and see what everyone else has been up to... and I'll leave you with the BEST Halloween wreath of all time!!! I say that because it was the most labor intensive wreath I've ever made... and I LOVE IT!!

happy stitching  and make sure you get to eat some of the good candy... I'm keeping the Almond Joys and Mounds for ME!!

carol fun

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Looking for my "get up and go" on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello all - well there has been a bit of a change in the weather and I am loving it... bring on Fall.. cooler temperatures, pumpkin pie,  a chance to wear wool socks and shawls, pumpkin pie, chrysanthemums, pumpkin pie... you get the picture... I love having all my Fall decor out... it is my favorite season and has all my favorite colors... harvest gold, olive green, chocolate brown, burnt orange... all the colors my Mom painted our house in 1970... good memories... 

It has been a bit crazy here the last 2 weeks... things did get done, but I didn't do them... my handyman Dan was available for a couple of days and got my "to-do" list pretty much knocked out... fixed the spring on the back storm door, fixed the  dryer vent, inside and out, closed the little opening in the roof flashing where there was a bird's nest ... I didn't mind the birds but was afraid a squirrel would take up residence, painted the walls and the baseboards of my back hallway... this is where EVERYONE comes in and out of my house. When I bought the house I just assumed you'd use the front door... but it isn't near the driveway, so anyone I want to see uses the back door... and the entry is small and it has gotten nicked and scuffed and dented... a fresh coat of paint made it look brand new!! And the last thing he took care of was painting my cutting table... I bought this piece, a kitchen island when I moved in 8 years ago.. they don't make this exact one anymore ... this one, the Vadholma is pretty close...anyway it was black and since I've replaced all the rest of the black Ikea stuff with white I wanted it repainted...but not white... I had him use a gorgeous turquoise and I LOVE it!!



The paint is Behr Marquee and the color is Mammoth Mountain... it look a factory finish and is just the right pop of color!!

Along with having Dan here I also dealt with 2 other repair guys... first I was having troubles keeping my cute outdoor yard inflatables, inflated... turns out the GFCI, ground fault circuit interrupter, (aren't you impressed with my technical expertise... LOL)  keep popping on the outside outlet. Weeeelllll,, it was doing what is it suppose to do. I called an electrician and he immediately diagnosed the problem as water getting into the extension cord plugs and then it would trip the circuit ... just as it was designed to do... to keep me from burning the house down...okay maybe not that catastrophic... the solution??  Electrical tape and plastic sandwich bags... cover the connections with a plastic bag and then tape the whole thing up ... costs pennies... the solution, not the service call...but it was good advice and he was very nice and even fixed the cover on the outside outlet so it closes better. 

Then I had a guy come to resurface/reglaze the tub surround in the bath room. I've been here 8 years this month and this is the 3rd go round for this... luckily it has a warranty and this is covered... anyway small cracks have appeared in the grout lines where the glaze split... to fix this the tile had to be sanded and cleaned and then a new coating applied... nice guy... in observing him work the job is about 95% prep and 5% glazing... anyway I was told he'd be here between 8 and 9 am... and those who know me, know that I am NEVER awake that early... but I set my alarm for 7:30 and he was here at 8:15... he was efficient and had the job done by 1:30...not bad... except... he sprayed the wrong color of white on the tile... yikes!!! Now he couldn't tell it was wrong until it set up and dried a bit and he had followed the work order he had which said "regular white" which has a bit of a gray cast , but what is on the walls is "BRIGHT WHITE"... and there is a noticeable difference... sooooooo, he will be returning in 2 more weeks to do it again... they are losing money on me hand over fist.. 

Anyway the purpose of that rambling saga was to say that having people in the house curtails my getting much of anything done... when Dan is here we spend too much time talking... he's more than my handyman he has become  like family so we have to catch up on lots of stuff. In talking we think we might have a distance relative in common... my god mother and an aunt of his may be the same person... small world!!  And then after I got done with the repair guys I got a cold... which ticks me off since I'm taking Vit C, Vit D, zinc, quercetin... which are all suppose to boost your immune system... a phlegm- y cold with a sore throat and then as always happens when I get a cold, the finale is laryngitis... arghh... if you know me you know I LOVE to talk.. and I couldn't make hardly a sound for 2 days followed by a couple of days of croaking which went into the husky voice and now finally after about week I can talk again... but it made my "get up and go" relocate for about a week... so I don't have much to show...

I did work on this sampler from Blackbird Designs... it is Feliz Navidad... I'm stitching it on 36 ct linen I dyed with Rit Apple Green... I LOVE that color... I'm using all the called for flosses but I'm using 2 strands instead of the normally called for 1 strand.... I started with one strand and it was delicate but I like the boldness and the coverage of 2 strands... it looks more festive to me... 


This is the 2nd in the series of BBD Christmas samplers... I stitched the first one a couple of years ago... and I plan to stitch the other two... I have to say I'm really really really enjoying stitching a sampler again... they were my first cross stitch love and I have a few,  a couple several , oh who am I kidding...  a TON of samplers in my home... by my count (and I'm probably undercounting)  I've probably stitched 100 samplers...I have 75 on the walls right now... and there are a bunch of more seasonal pieces in the storage room... when I began stitching 35 years ago I could tell from my first piece I was gonna LOVE this... so to keep my obsession  in check, I told myself that I would only stitch samplers with houses and that would curtail the number of pieces... ROLFMAO... obviously that curtailed nothing... and it never will... and I broke my resolution and have lots of samplers without houses...

I was very happy that the border met ... now to stitch a bajillion little leaves and lollipop flowers... I LOVE the red cardinal and can't wait to get down to the script-y letters... 

As for quilting I started a new project... I got a kit from Sisters Quilt Shop in Chehalis WA... here's a link to their website....the kit I purchased is called Lucky Log Cabins... you can see it here... ohh, it is out of stock ... I LOVE the mix of fabrics... that cheddar and those taupes that have a reproduction feel to them...not fabrics I would ordinarily buy... anyway the kit came and I whacked the FQs into 2.5" strips and I started the pattern... 

but I didn't like how it was turning out... I was having troubles with the very first strip set... first it was too small, ripped it out and resewed it, then it was too big... arghh... so I switched gears and went with a different pattern... Log Jam  by Pieced Just Sew... you can find it here ... I paired the fabrics with my current favorite Basic Grey Grunge Elafin... and here are the blocks I've gotten sewn...


This is half of what I plan to do... easy peasy stitching and when you go to sew the blocks together you won't have to match anything except the corners block to block...

Now this is just one of 3 layouts you can do with this pattern... not sure that this will be my final choice but I'm sure I'll be happy with whichever layout I chose. 

As for Halloween decorating inside I've done nothing... just can't get motivated...and I'm seriously thinking of just moving on to my Thanksgiving stuff. However, I have a bunch of Thanksgiving cross stitch I need to get FFO'd and I'm not feeling that either... I picked up 2 quilts from my long armer and both need to be bound... I'm going to have to go out and clean out the dead annuals very soon... and I've been dragging my feet to get my kitchen cabinets cleaned out for months...  I'm sitting here thinking of stuff I should do and it is not the stuff I want to do... so even if I do get something done, I'll feel guilty that I didn't do what I should do... I drive myself nuts!!  

So for the moment I'll just spend some time with Kathy's Quilts and see what ever one else is up to... hope you are having good weather and working on stuff that makes you happy!!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Sunday, October 3, 2021

Getting some stuff done on a Slow Sunday...

Well another couple of weeks have passed and I'm still not sure what crafty direction I want to go in... so I bounced around like a BB in a box car (my sainted Father's most accurate description of me, even as a child... and I don't seem to have outgrown it... sigh)... I did some Fall themed cross stitch... I knitted some scrappy monster socks... I sewed a Fall quilt top and I did some decorating...which is all fine and dandy but it is now Halloween and I've done nothing for Halloween inside... but I did "decorate" my house outside... pictures are included in this post... 

Let's start with pictures of stuff that I did do and then we'll talk about what I'm going to do... or what it is I think I'm going to do, which is subject to change... arghhh...

Fall themed cross stitch... everything I stitched was on 32 ct I dyed myself ... various shades of gold... tried to reproduce something I did a year ago... didn't come out the same but it is pretty... I'm in awe of people who dye for retail sales... I suppose if I actually measured stuff and kept records I could possibly duplicate a color... but that's not how I roll... LOL... it is always a surprise for me...anyway...

Give Thanks by Threadwork Primitives... I actually finished this about a month ago...forgot to post it here...


Ever so Grateful by Threadwork Primitives... I subbed in smyrna crosses for the blocks of 4 stitches... I like the texture...oops I just realized I cut off the z... trust me I stitched it...


I think I'm going to finish both of these Threadwork pieces as thin pillows... maybe with some pom pom trim...

Waiting for the Harvest by Blackbird Designs... this chart in found in the book Winds of Autumn... 

 

 I changed the colors... left off the initials... left off top border as it wouldn't line up with my crows because I stitched all 4 of them one row short... argghh...  made the piece symmetrical... again I'm thinking thin pillow that I can tuck into a display or maybe a dough bowl or basket....hmmmm....new display idea??

And I did 2 little pieces...and I do mean little... from the Pineberry Lane pattern called Cats & Jacks ... this one is Jack... I left off the top part...


And this one was called Nasturtiums... less than 2" tall on 32 ct...

And as before... small pillows... and I found 2 pieces I stitched a couple of years ago ... need to spend an afternoon or two making this stitching fully finished ....

Scrappy monster socks... I haven't done a pair like this for quite a while and oh I really really enjoy this... I made this for the IG .... #monstersockkal2021... . I think this pair is particularly ugly/pretty... all Opal yarns...


Got my Jelly Roll Whirl top DONE... I started this in 2020 for the Sew a Jelly Roll Day... got it out again this year...these are my FAVORITE colors in the whole wide world... I am a child of the 70's... avocado green, harvest gold, burnt orange, coppertone... I have vivid memories of my Mom repainting every room in the house in these colors ... I think if social media had been around back then she would have been into it too... she was quite crafty... taught me to sew ... I was doing hand work at  6 years old and by the time I was 7 she let me sew on her beloved Kenmore sewing machine... anyway here is the top...


Its about 72" square... numerous Fall collections from Sandy Gervais... background is Elafin Grunge...hard to get the colors right... fabrics are green, olive, brown, turquoise, purple and light prints... I tried to scatter the fabrics and my plan was that no 2 same fabrics could touch and no 2 of the same color family could touch... I think I succeeded ...but if you find a spot where I didn't I don't want to know about it... as I was assembling the 35 block of this quilt it occurred to me that I could have arranged the fabrics so that there would be a row of "dark" whirls and then a row of "light" whirls made just from the light prints... but since I didn't think of it until it was waaaaay too late, it didn't happen... but it might if I make this pattern again... very easy... oh here's a link to it... its a freebie... Quilt Jane's   Jelly Roll Whirl... right here... and if you go here she has lots of other freebie jelly roll patterns. 

As for decorating here is my big shelf display... I color blocked the individual shelves and I like the look... lots of BBD pieces... Feast of Friendship is one of my all time favorites... 


Feast of Friendship is one of my all time favorites... 


These two - Patchwork Pumpkin and Bittersweet September were club pieces when I stitched them... they both appear in the Winds of Autumn book... great book... 

A bit of Barbara Ana and some Lizzie Kate and lots and lots and lots of pumpkins... 

And this might be my favorite wall quilt... it started with a panel from the Sandy Gervias collection Tranquility... I wanted to use all 6 birds...filled in the extra spaces with improv pieced blocks... LOVE it!!


I did get a new tier tray..this is from Target... I like that it has no lip on the edge so you don't have to prop things up and it is tall... you can put bigger things on the bottom... 


So that's where things are... maybe today I'll work on getting out my Halloween stuff... I do not know where September went to but I assume October will fly by just as quickly and then I want to do a nice Thanksgiving display... cause I've already purchased a couple of new Jim Shore Thanksgiving pieces that I can't wait to display... and then there will be Christmas... acckkk!!!  There need to be more time to enjoy and savor all the seasonal stuff, doesn't there??

As for what I think I'm going to do next... I have started a new BBD Christmas sampler... and I have a Prairie Schooler Christmas chart I started last December... I think I'm going to move on to those pieces... and I have a Christmas quilt top I started last year too that could use some attention... and there are a couple of samplers calling my name... I found 2 BBD ones kitted up in my stash... temptation abounds... and another pair of scrappy monster socks.... and who knows what else... I really should sit down and make a list... maybe putting everything down on paper would give me some direction... or just a headache...LOL

Hope you are having a nice Fall season... we are finally getting some cooler weather. I've worked in the yard and cleared out some spent zinnias... filled about 10 yard waste bags... the yard looked bare, and the resin pumpkin idea I had hit a snag as they are still only 40% off everywhere and that's more than I wan to pay... soooooo,  I went to my local feed and garden store (the Big Lots of garden centers) and bought a few, a couple, a bunch... okay okay I bought  50 pumpkins to decorate the window boxes and the yard... I love that pumpkins don't need to be watered... I sprayed them with Repels All... here's a link... it stinks ... but it dissipates... seems to be keeping the squirrels and deer from snacking on the pumpkins... fingers crossed...and I picked up about 10 mums... they aren't bloomed out yet but should be pretty when they do and will add some color to the yard... and my son helped me get out my Halloween inflatables ...so I guess I did do some Halloween decorating...LOL




I've already had a couple of nice comments on the yard from neighbors... the kids really like it and that make me happy!!


Okay I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts and checking out the eye candy there... you take care... find something to do that makes you feel good... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 



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