Thanksgiving Decor wrap up on this Slow Sunday...

Well I had  plans to post this last week... but we all know about the best laid plans... the week got away from me... finally went to get the oil changed in my car...dealership was crazy busy ... got it done and not an hour later got a "low tire pressure" warning light... darn it... ended up taking to the place I bought the tires from in February... luckily covered by warranty and get it fixed for free...yeah!!  

Spent more time prepping food on Wednesday than I had anticipated. Thursday rolled around and I was in full klutz mode. Chopped a cup of onions for the stuffing. I hate chopping onions as I always cry... cup was sitting on counter next to sink... turned around and bumped the cup into the sink... arrgghh... luckily I had another onion I could chop. 

Then I went out to the garage when I have shelves with extra canned goods, etc. to get some chicken stock for the stuffing. Picked up a box and knocked a bottle of teriyaki marinade on the floor... where it exploded all over my pajamas (hey it was still early) and my socks and sandals (cause I'm classy that way) and the garage floor... sticky sticky sticky... if I still had the outside hose connected I would have squirted it off ... but I already put the hose away for the season ... so I mopped it up the best I could.  From then on that day I had someone else handle picking up stuff that I could possibly drop...like the prime rib roast...yikes it was pricier this year than last...and while I wasn't surprised I wasn't happy with the cost but it is my fault that I introduced my family to it years ago... and now the family has gotten bigger so one needs to buy a bigger roast... oh well ... it was deee-licious!!

And if you hadn't notice yet...I am quite chatty today... this is a looooog post...  LOL... maybe get a cup of coffee or a nice cuppa tea... 

As things stand now I have all my Fall decor back in the bins and awaiting my son to cart them back to the basement...  of all the seasons the stuff I have the most of is Fall... I chalk it up to pumpkins taking up so much space. I thought I had gotten it all back into the same number of bins but then I found a bunch of stuff in the basement I had forgotten about... sigh...need to do a bit of culling... there is a bunch of stuff I haven't used in years... and  when that stuff gets put away then we can start all over by bringing up the Christmas decor... which I'm looking forward to putting out.   Not sure my son is looking forward to all the lugging of stuff up and down the stairs but he does like the decorations when I get done... he is a very good boy!

FYI... I had a lot of trouble uploading pictures for this post... so if you want to see some better shots of my displays go check out my Instagram account.... here's the link... I'm carolfun53. 

Here are some pics of what I did have displayed...let's start with the wall quilt... this is my version of the Pumpkin quilt by Cluck Cluck Sew... I call mine Grungy Gourds as all the fabrics are Moda Grunge prints...

the tier tray has a great turkey from Stone Street Stitch Works  and  the little pillow in the bed of the truck is Pineberry Lane's Fruits of our Labor.

My large display has The Drawn Thread's Welcome Fall  at the top... on the first shelf  that dynamite goldy coppery turkey... got him last year at Hobby Lobby ..  with a little pillow with a tiny turkey from Bent Creek at the base... Blackbird Designs Feast of Friendship is always front and center in the Fall for me!

next shelf down has a new finish for this year ( I think I actually stitched it 2 years ago... procrastination is my forte).... this is Gather from Pineberry Lane... just found that arched frame this year... it was white so I ended up giving it a prim paint job...started with an olive green and then did a messy brown over that... I like it being imperfect...and on the other side November from Prairie Schooler... I love how the linen came out for this piece... looks like a Fall sunset IMHO.

Bottom shelf of cross stitch has Autumn Alphabet by Lizzie Kate and Ever so Grateful by Threadwork Primitives.

Small side display has my favorite Jim Shore Thanksgiving piece... a gift from my younger son... it's called Gather and Be Grateful... in front of it is a cornucopia snippet from Prairie Schooler No. 146 and that pumpkin pillow is Waiting for the Harvest by BBD.  Another new finish this season is the turkey in the hoop... it is from With Thy Needle & Thread called Holiday Hoopla Thanksgiving.... I like the little hoop finish... I got the hoop at Hobby Lobby and "painted" with an Copic marker... I have a bunch of them ...happy to use other craft supplies in my stitching.

Middle shelf has another new seasonal finish... the tiny turkey from Lizzie Kate Autumn Alphabet Sampler and a pair of BBD pieces... Bittersweet September has the alphabet and Bittersweet Lane doesn't... on the bottom is Autumn by Lizzie Kate attached to a wooden box from Target a couple of years ago... I "painted" it with Rit dye... and on the other side I have I Love Fall Most of All by Calico Confectionary.

I put together a couple of small displays too. 

The one has a Prairie Schooler turkey on the top and a turkey from Emily Call Stitching on the bottom in another hoop finish...  

And in the phone niche I have Ewe & Eye & Friends Turkey Hill Farms and  the Autumn chart from Prairie Schooler No. 50... and below that Thankful String by Lizzie Kate...

I told you I have LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of Fall decor... its my favorite season!!

Here's a couple of close ups of the stuff I got FFO for this year... 4 new pieces... I still have some other Fall stitching that needs to be FFO'd but that is a job for another Fall... here are individual pics of  my trio of turkeys and the new framed piece...

Oh and I forgot to show you the Prairie Schooler Autumn Sampler... got it back from the framer and I'm very happy with this...

And I had one very productive sewing day last week... I got the binding  and sleeve sewn on a Christmas quilt, I got a  sleeve sewn on another Christmas quilt and I got the binding done on this blast from the past...

This is Pickety Sticks from the Anka's Treasure book call On a Roll 2... the fabric is Blossom from Urban Chiks and this quilt was started approximately 15 years ago!!   Don't know why it took so long because I really love it... I love the fabrics... I love the BIG cabbage rose print on the border and I love the panto that Delinda used on it... 

Well like I said at the beginning of this epistle I'm done with Fall and ready to move onto Christmas... I have an idea for a new kinda big display I want to do... fingers crossed it works out as I envision it... I have about 9 Christmas small pillows I want to get FFO'd and every day I keep finding new small Christmas pieces I'd like to do... I may be able to get a few more done before December 25... I'm always optimistic... perhaps not realistic but definitely optimistic... LOL 

I am still more in a cross stitching mood than a sewing mood and I'm just gonna roll with it. Already thinking about what I want to do next year... like I said last month I'm kinda into doing a couple of long band style samplers...and I want to get back to the 7 samplers for my 70th birthday that got left in the dust because of the September I don't want to remember. I'll never run out of stuff I want to stitch... and that's good thing,

 right??  

So plans for the upcoming week... get as much Christmas decor out as I can today and tomorrow... then I need to stash any open bins out on the sunroom porch and keep the door locked so Elliott can't "help" me ... goal is to have the tree up (that's an easy one as it is already decorated and waiting in the basement to be brought upstairs)... and get the yard and window boxes decorated.  I got a couple of new inflatables and some stuff to put in the window boxes... I need to stop stitching and switch to FFOing for a bit... and there are some tough (LOL) decisions that need to be made as to what Christmas quilt to hang on the wall in the living room ( I have several choices) and what Christmas quilt to put on my bed (again I have several choices)... I'm quite lucky that way.. and while I have more Fall decor I definitely have more Christmas quilts than any other season. So far this year I have a new wall sized Christmas quilt and a new Christmas panel wall quilt and I have one more lap size Christmas quilt on my design wall... I think I can get it sewn together but not certain I can get it quilted by Christmas... but that's okay... I'll have a head start on next year!

If you got through all of this go reward your self with some Christmas goodies... cookies, candy, fudge... fudge is my choice... my younger son is going to make some today!  

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and sneak in a little blog reading in between decorating... hope you are having a good day and will have a great week ahead!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Crossstitching my way to Christmas on a Slow Sunday...

Hello... so what have you been up to?  I've puttered and putzed and played around and I have a bit of stuff to show for my time... but not as much as I want to have done, but then there never is.  My sewing mojo has been very weak.. I did get a binding on a quilt and gave it away. Stitched up about half of the blocks for a lap sized Christmas quilt.  Doing a bit of knitting... seems like I've been working on the same pair of socks for a month. Cross stitching calls my name for the most part and I'm in a Christmas mood. Several little pieces that all will need to be fully finished but at the moment I don't the have the motivation or energy to keep up with my good intentions to sew them into little pillows... sigh... hopefully I'll get my butt in gear soon... very soon... 

Here's a peek at what I do have stitched... 

Five little Santas from Prairie Schooler No. 215 ... A Merry Mini Surprise ...

notice the  balanced layout... 2 face right, 2 face left and on for the center... I want to make them into little pillows to be part of a display on my dining room table. I even found a cute new tray to display them in online at Walmart... here's a link...  I'm going to add some little bottle brush trees and some other filler... maybe even a string of fairy lights... oooohhh... ideas!

And then a shiny object ran past me about a week ago... there is a hashtag and SAL for Emily Call's new pattern Quilted Christmas...  so cute...  you can see the whole pattern here... and since I was doing my best to avoid going outside and cleaning out my flower beds, I stitched this up in a day...

I made the tree kinda ombre... used DMC 167, 704, 703, 702, and 700 ... added some scotch stitches to the edge of the tree stand too Again I'm hoping for a small pillow... perhaps some red trim on the edges.

Then since I was still without motivation to do anything else I went back to Prairie Schooler... got this angel done...this is chart No. 42 appropriately called Angels...

hmmm...looking at the picture I wonder if I should fill in the bird wings... the chart had the piece stitched on a black fabric ... maybe I go back and fill it in with a gray.... and  I didn't do the backstitching for her face as was charted... I felt it made her look old and kinda stern... so I jut added a bit of a mouth, some eyebrows and a little dab of white in the corner of her eyes ... I think she looks young and angelic... I started a second angel  from this chart... the one with the flower... and same tune again...finished as little pillows perhaps with some gold trim... maybe... 

While the motivation to actually finish anything has been missing my shopping motivation has been strong...  I ordered fabrics for Christmas quilts that don't have a snowball's chance in hell of being done this year... and purchased more Prairie Schooler charts... for stitching that won't get done anytime soon... but I have them when I do get around to them. I found these two charts I don't think I've ever seen before when I was looking at a different designer...

 You know they are old as they are printed on card stock... No. 33 Christmas Collection has a copyright date of 1991 and a price of $5.00.... No. 53 Santa Moon has a copy right of 1995 and a price of $6.00... I paid $12 a piece for them and I'm okay with that price... had a gift certificate for Etsy so in my befuddled mind they were free!  

And when these arrived I decided to figure out just how many Prairie Schooler charts I have... and by my count I have  62... at least I think that is all of them that I have... 

now there may be some in other groupings that I didn't find... which leads me to the dilemma of how to organize charts. I have the majority filed alphabetically by designer... but then holidays come around and I like to gather up lots of charts for that theme... Halloween, Patriotic, Christmas... and then charts get "lost" in the shuffle... not entirely lost but misplaced... I don't think there is a perfect organization method as there is so much to choose from and I get in moods for different stuff.  Right now I'm in the Christmas mood but I'm already thinking about what to stitch for next year and I'm enamored with long narrow vertical samplers as they would fit in several places in my home. I ordered a couple of new to me charts and I have a couple in my stash... there should definitely be a New Year's Day start to kick the year off right!

I did get the flower beds completely cleaned out... you know the tall brown paper lawn waste bags they sell at the hardware store and Costco... well with my son's help we filled 30 of those bags!!  You plant stuff a little here a little there...the perennials come up early and late ... and while the garden looks great in June, July, and August ...September and October roll around and everything DIES ... sheesh... and yet that doesn't deter me in the least to think about what I want to plant next year...LOL  

I was happy to get my window boxes spruced up... I really dislike empty window boxes so I fill my with a combo of real and fake greenery for the winter... I'll add some decorations for Christmas and the winter later... went with an easier fix of stuff this year ... some of the fake stuff looks like boxwood or asparagus fern and some looks like pine garland... it should stand up to the weather and annoy the crap out of the squirrels. And I was going to insert a picture of the window boxes but I forgot to take one... sigh

I did get my Spring bulbs planted with the help of my younger son... I realize more and more that I can't do the gardening I use to do by myself... I need a little help... well maybe a lot of help... he dug holes and I stuck the bulbs in and covered them up. We planted 64 hyacinths, 50 daffodils and 48 alliums.  Now I'm ready for my lawn guy to mulch.... yeah!!

And since the weather was lovely this week (right up until Friday) I took advantage of it and spray painted some stuff ... an adjustable rack I'm planning on using for a Christmas display... I'll take pictures when it is done... and I spruced up some metal chickens I had in my flower beds...

They didn't show up much before as they were black metal ... they really POP now... and they look so cute I might get a few more... the crazy lady with the "chickens" in her yard... that's me!! LOL

Had some house issues this week... kitchen sink drain refused to drain... called Dan the handyman and he tried to clear the clog but it was too far into the pipes so I had to call a real plumber... rang up my regular guy but he was super busy and told me to call another local guy which I did... it took 2 trips as he had to correct a renovation mistake of my contractor (from 10 years ago) and then he could clear the clog...   so nice to have my kitchen sink back... but then... the dishwasher refused to work... we had to shut off the water after it had started a cycle and I think that messed up a sensor...which is what the repair guy replaced...not a cheap repair but cheaper than a new dishwasher and less hassle and aggravation than getting rid of the old one and having a new one installed. Glad to have the kitchen back in shape as Thanksgiving is next week... where does the time go?  We are having a big family meal at my older son's home... he has a big dining room table that seats 10 people comfortably... as requested I'm bringing prime rib, stuffing, pasta salad and marinated tomatoes... other side of the family is doing turkey and lots of side dishes and dessert... I'm sure we will all eat quite well... and I hope that you do to at your feast! 

Been thinking about Christmas decorating... and on one hand I love Christmas decor... on the other hand it is a lot of work... gotta get myself in shape for it and remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day and I can't get it all decorated in one day... or even two or three or more... 

Hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving... I just realized I haven't posted any pics of my Thanksgiving decor... I'll see if I can get that done later this week... I did get 2 smalls finished ... but have a couple of other pieces that are waiting... always something to do isn't there? 

And with that I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... go check out the lovely projects over there... 

happy stitching-

carol fun