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...
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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
I hope you get your finishing mojo back soon. All those pretty cross-stitch pieces are going to make great little pillows. When I used to have window boxes I put wrapped presents in them with a little bit of greenery. It was easy to do and took very little time. Now I put the boxes in a sled on my front porch. Happy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteYears ago when I had the eyesight I loved working the Prairie Schooler designs. In an earlier post you said you were going to work the angels in turquoise and I thought "uh oh" but it's PERFECT.
ReplyDeleteI love cross stitch as long as someone else does it. I mess up the stitches everytime. I love the little santa's. Oh and the bright colored chickens are awesome. I need something like that in my yard. We need to get the Christmas stuff out of the attic this weekend.
ReplyDeleteHope you had a blessed Thanksgiving