Starting off fine on a Slow Sunday...

 Happy New Year!!  I am so hoping that 2022 is waaaaay better than 2021 or 2020... I'm working on keeping a positive attitude even though my nature is to be skeptical...highly skeptical.. of what is going on in the world... I ask too many questions... and I think about stuff... My youngest son had the fantastic guidance counselor in high school and with my son being autistic we had almost daily conversations. Numerous times we would be discussing a situation and he's say to me, "there you go, thinking again...that will only get you into trouble"... so true...

I assume that many of you, like me, spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home... which was fine... and I spent my New Year's Day doing the stuff I LOVE to do... start the year out right... I did a little knitting... 

a pair of socks for me!!

I started a new cross stitch project... The Red Bird Sampler from With Thy Needle & Thread....

So I love the color of this fabric... I think it is Jobelan... its 32 ct... I dyed it and I haven't a clue what dyes I used to get the dusty turquoise... and yes it may be reading more gray here... but it is turquoise IRL...  I really should write things down... and while I love the called for  "red" threads ... DMC 817, 351 and 352...however,  they aren't red... they are coral... see the berries?... they are 817... see the flowers?... I stitched them in 816... more of a muted red... I like it much better... I'll change the other "reds" too...  And I'm going to change the initials P.H. to P.F. for my mom, Phyllis Funicelli... and I have an idea to add a two line alphabet at the bottom, because for me it isn't a sampler unless it includes the ABCs!  Well this will certainly have my personal stamp on it when I get done... It is a reproduction piece circa early to mid 1840's but no known provenance... so I don't feel too bad changing things. I wouldn't do that on a reproduction with provenance... which is why I don't stitch reproduction samplers because I would want to change something up... 

And I did some sewing and I got a project finish... now that would be a good omen for the year... I got the binding on my newest quilt, Mummville... my version of the Suburbs pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew that you can see here... 

LOVE the panto... it is called West Wind... and it mimics the swirls in that white on white fabric...

And I'm looking back on my past and the many Debbie Mumm quilts I've made... 

This stack is the result of at least 25 years of loving Debbie Mumm fabrics. I did a little research and Debbie took her first patterns to a Quilt Market in 1986... and her first book was published in 1991... and I think that is around the time I found her and fell in love. I think the first pattern of her's that I made was this Santa wall hanging... most but not all of the fabrics in this are DM.

And here is a little peek at some of my DM quilts... several of these are one block repeats like the dimensional bow ties, the cats, and the hexagons and the squares ... and EVERY SINGLE piece is a different DM... I told you I have a BIG stash...LOL... 

This isn't all of my DM quilts... I have one more with Delinda, she finished quilting it Friday... and I have one at my older son's house, and I have another cut out and ready to sew, and I have another I'm planning for my younger son.  And I'm still loving her stuff. I also have a lot of her decorative items... plates, candy dishes, teapots, cookie jars... I think her stuff is timeless...

I remember going to the big quilt show in Paducah around 1995... by that time I already had a nice sized stash of DM and I vowed NOT to buy any more, but every place we went into had beautiful DM fabric and it was so inexpensive... remember when fabric was only a couple of dollars a yard?  Heck I even remember bargains at 99 cents a yard!!! Anyway I bought sooooo much more DM... and I don't regret it at all. In my experience it isn't the fabric I bought that bothers me... it's the fabric I didn't buy!!  My friends still hear me whine about a quilt kit I saw another year at Paducah... it was fabric by KP Kids... animals, mostly pigs dressed up as farmers... The kit was a barn...and they were dancing... WHY DIDN'T I BUY IT???  It has haunted me for YEARS...LOL

So I'm happy I'm starting my year out doing the stuff I like and accomplishing something (but there are about 6 more quilts waiting for bindings...yikes!)... I'm working today to get the Christmas stuff put away and then I'll get the snowmen out... and I use the word "I' euphemistically ... by I, I mean, my younger son will tote bins up and down the stairs... he is such a good kid!

Fingers crossed that by the end of the week I'll have things put back together...  we have a chance of a bit of snow on Thursday... I'm okay either way... I don't have to have a snowy winter when I have my snowmen indoors... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... and starting Monday I think my routine will settle in. The holidays are nice but those 2 weeks of Christmas and New Years always get me discombobulated... good thing my phone tells me what day it is!!

happy stitching-

carol fun