Hello - well I had every intention of posting here last week but life intervened... I got sick last Friday... the erpping, messed up bowels, achy all over kinda sick...and it hung on ... Friday, Saturday, Sunday and even a bit Monday... I willed myself to feel better by Tuesday since that's my day to watch Elliott ... and I felt okay ... not great... not energetic ... but he wasn't a problem... he kept himself occupied with a Phillips head screwdriver, un- anssembling several toys and the extension table on my Janome sewing machine... nothing was irrevocably damaged and I put most of the stuff back together so he can take it apart again this Tuesday.
I did have a couple of productive spells in the last couple of weeks to offset the days where I got absolutely accomplished... so let's talk about some things I did do...
I got a couple of new Fall -ish cross stitch pieces done and I got some Fall decorating done too. I started out on the porch... the weather's been nice and I LOVE sitting out there, stitching and watching the birds at my feeders and napping... its a great spot for napping...LOL
I have a squirrel theme out here this year...that large tree on the green linen is an older piece by Barbara Ana Designs... and the newest cross stitch is these adorable squirrels from Brenda Gervais... Autumn's Acorn Gathering... I stitched them on 32 ct that I painted with Lemon Yellow, Tangerine and Apple Green Rit dyes. I love that these critters are dressed up ... that necktie kills me!
Another piece I got totally finished is this one from Calico Confectionery called Fall Most of All... you can see it here.... I love the colors in this piece and the sentiment... I DO love Fall most of all!!
I dyed this linen too and I think it is the first time I did a fairly neutral piece... don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before... mostly I think about dyeing a painting linen as a way to get more colorful stuff, but this works great for this piece... and I got creative with the frame too... this was in my stash of frames... yes along with a stash of fabric, yarn, thread, linen, floss I have a stash of frames... mostly I pick them up when they are marked down and this had a sticker saying $4.25.... it looked like this before I painted it...
It is a lot brighter in real life... kinda screaming yellow... and it was very slick and shiny... I probably should have sanded a bit before I started... and as I began I thought it was going to need a couple of coats of paint... but then I twisted my foam paint brush as I was laying on the paint and ooooooohhhh.... I like this!
More of it got covered than I anticipated... but I still like the end results. I'm going to use this piece in my large shelf display.
In the living room I went with my Pumpkins quilt from Cluck Cluck Sew on the wall and my latest Fall quilt, Jelly Roll Whirl...
I LOVE all my Fall decor ...and I have a TON of Fall stuff... you can see a little video I did of what how the decorating process started here... now for all of you who are thinking I do this all on my own, think again... I could not do it without the help of my younger son, Nick, hauling stuff up and down the steps... I store all the decor items in the basement and the quilts on the second floor, so everything has to be moved up and down... I guess I could do it on my own, but I'd have to half unload every bin, get it up or down the stairs and then go back for the other half... and it would take FOREVER... and that is just the logistics of the process... it takes me a day or two or three to get everything arranged... I work for a while ... then I sit and admire what I've done... then I end up moving things around ... and the process repeats itself till my knees scream "enough"... I'm always amazed how many steps I take when decorating... I can walk a mile and never leave my living room!
I'll show you more of what I've done in my next post...
As for quilting I finally got all the blocks together on this quilt...
The pattern is French Vanilla from the book Perfect 10 Quilts, and the fabrics are from the collection Cheer & Merriment by Fancy That Designs. I love the palette of this collection... the muted reds, the aqua, the deep teal, olive green and that brassy gold fabric... LOVE IT!! I bought a FQ pack so I have enough to make a second quilt with this line... and I will!! Now I will admit that using the gold fabric with the snowflakes does make this a busy quilt... maybe too busy... but I'm re-defining busy to mean "sparkly".... very very SPARKLY!!! I still need to get the borders on it... my goal for today.
As for the gardening... well feeling puny and not watering stuff for about 5 days took a toll on several spots... I ended up tearing out ALL the marigolds... I think this is the earliest I've ever done that... and I cleaned out the short zinnias around the bases of my 4 trees.. I'm okay with it... it gave me a head start on the clean up I'll have to do with the whole yard... there is still a METRIC TON of vegetation that will have to be pulled up and stuffed in lawn waste bags ... as it is I filled about 7 so far.
Luckily the dahlias hung on for me... I did have lot of spent blooms I needed to cut ...and the wind and the deer broke a couple of my really tall plants... insert frowny face... but I do still have some gorgeous blooms...
I love how showy dahlias are and how they come into their prime in late summer when other flowers are getting a bit faded... this year they have bloomed every where I planted them. Now I really should have pinched and staked them better... I'll work on that next year... and the garden centers are full of chrysanthemums .... and I also LOVE mums! I picked up a couple and I'm going to go back today for a couple more... this first one is a color I have never seen before... the tag called it apricot but it is truly a beige color... and it was so pretty I bought 2 big plants....
And my lady pot that my son gifted me for Mother's Day got a new do....
and the pyramid is sporting one pot of petunias and a couple of mums...
Well I hope that you are feeling fine... I have high hopes for this upcoming week... want to get some stitching and some sewing and some knitting and some gardening into my week. and they all look like possibilities at the moment. I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and check out what everyone else it up to... doing a dim sum lunch with my family today... and then I want to hit Joanns and see if I can find a wide back for that French Vanilla quilt and I'll be driving past one of my favorite garden centers so I think I'll stop and pick up a couple more mums... why do I think after all of that I'm going to need a nap?? More big plans...LOL
happy stitching-
carol fun \
