It's not a pretty sight and lots of ramblings and musings on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - I hope you had a lovely Christmas... mine was very nice and it isn't even over yet... after giving Elliott three Christmas present opening days (Elliott is supremely blessed with great parents and grandparents...IMHO) ... the adults haven't found time to exchange their gifts... but we will get around to it.

As for this post...when I started to write this I thought it would be short and sweet...insert hysterical laughter... I'm rarely... probably never short and sweet...wait I take it back I am short... the sweet part is certainly debatable ... anyway I have definitely rambled today... just a heads up for you... 

Yesterday my dear son  helped me put away all the Christmas decor... well almost all of it ... as I looked around the room I forgot to take Olive, the other reindeer to the basement... I think I'll let her hang out a little while longer.  And when he was done toting everything back to the basement, he turned around and toted upstairs all the snowman and winter decor... and here is the evidence... not a pretty sight... but I'll get there...

Keeping it real... and offering my sincere gratitude to whoever perfected the Sterlite plastic bin ... especially the 66 qt size... it is my favorite!  LOL... good for storing quilts and all kinds of decor.. . you'll never see me blocking traffic and protesting oil... I'm  old...but not stupid... 

I have today and tomorrow to release all these quilts and knickknacks and get them displayed... I'll be watching Elliott on Tuesday and while I'm sure he'd be happy to "help" me I think I'll pass on that offer. 

With the Christmas festivities behind me I have done a little  winter stitching...  nothing is totally finished  yet... I did another Prairie Schooler Snowman.... this one from the book  Holly Days No. 157... I need a quintet of snowman for the centerpiece tray for my dining table... hopefully I still have some of the same fabric I used for the other 4... I know I have the tinsel trim... 

And I stitched  this Snowman sampler from Tra La La  called ABC Bonhomme  de Neige....

I didn't stitch the border or the snowflakes... I have some snowflake buttons I think will fit in the empty spaces and without the border I think it will fit in a frame I found in my picture frame stash... yes I have a picture frame stash... I pick up frames that are marked down or on sale when I see them... mostly the smaller sizes ... and I don't care what color they are because I can always paint them...which is what I plan for the one I want to use. 

I also spent a couple of evenings working on The Red Bird Sampler by With Thy Needle & Thread... this was a New Year's Day  start in January of 2022... whoa... I didn't think it was that long ago ... anyway.. I got some more stitches in it... completed the satin stitch band...my spin on the piece along with the addition of the alphabet which I completed... now there isn't an alphabet on the chart, but in my world a sampler always has a alphabet. Sorry for the wrinkles and the not great photography... everything today is just a little on the rough side...

Earlier this year I was going to put in my initials in the bottom right space and the year  2023...wishful thinking on my part... but I plan to made a bold move and stitch in 2024 to motivate me to finish this one.  It really isn't a big sampler... those birds and baskets are spaced out quite a bit... and I love the turquoise fabric I dyed for this one and the red threads...not sure why I kept putting it on back burner. 

And while working on this I got to thinking what I want to stitch in 2024... and what I want for a New Year's Day start.... so let me start with New Year's Day... I have several good sized samplers I want to start... but not yet... cause I have several good sized samplers I started in 2023 that I  need ... no WANT to  finished... and right now I'm in a finish them up mood... let's see how long  this mood lasts... So my starting point is The Red Bird Sampler... making myself look good here... and then  there is Prairie Schooler Garden Sampler  chart No.  45 (this was part of my 7 for 70th that got blown out of the water when I got sick this Fall)...

oh and then there was also Every Opening Flower by With Thy Needle & Thread... also a casualty of my September I don't want to remember...

and Fragments in Time 2022 by Summer House Stitche Works... I think this one was a July 2022 start... gosh I LOVE LOVE LOVE that  center band with the alphabet and the colors in this one...

So that's 4 good sized samplers... and then these two are on my radar too... Prairie Schooler No. 64 Christmas Alphabet...

all the cool kids are doing this one... the flosses are Lori Holt's picks which you can see here... and while the cool kids have been stitching this one vertically I think I'm sticking with the horizontal orientation... I have a plan where it would fit...

And there is this one calling my name... La D Da Peacock Band Sampler...

I really like the "To thine own self be true" verse  and the vertical orientation of this one...however I'm not as thrilled with the called for flosses... kinda dark and a bit too much beige... I need to sit down and pick my own palette for this... thinking of doing the beiges in greens, making the bird a bit more turquoise...

oh...  getting back to what I want to do for a new start on New Year's Day ( you thought I forgot didn't you?  actually I did and came back to this when I was proofing it...sheesh) ... anyway I think I will start a piece from Pinker n Punkin Quilting... probably A Cold Winter's Day which you can see here... I want to change the color of the house but I love the cardinals and the snowman... and I hope to do 6 of her saltboxes in 2024 for the hashtag #pnpsixhouses2024SAL and I need to figure out how to post my choices... and I need to kit this up today!!

As for quilting I have a couple of quilts I'd like to do... the Dorothy pattern with the Momo fabrics I showed a couple of weeks ago is on my design wall. I thought the fabric for the alternate plain blocks was still in production... it was when I looked a couple of months ago but it appears it isn't now... so I don't know that I have enough to make it a bed size quilt... which it probably doesn't need to be... and I'll take this as a sign it should just be a throw... see ...sometimes I do pay attention when reality comes calling... 

There a new Christmas pattern from Lori Holt  called Home Town Holiday Decorating the Tree. ..you can see it here...  I may order this as a kit... and there is  Millie's Dresses...I like a small version of this over my cutting table in my sewing studio done in American  Jane fabrics... and I'd like to do a quilt with the Layer Cake Loop pattern, which you can see here... it is a free pattern...  thinking of this in low volumes... nice and summery...and I'd like to so something with that bin of Tilda fabrics I've been aging... and there's a tulip quilt  by Coriander Quilts  Tulip Market...that's been calling my name... I have the background for it and plenty of tone on tone yellows and greens in my stash... and that Christmas quilt I started 2 weeks ago with Basic Grey's Jolly Good... I put a reminder in my phone to get back to it in July 2024... and I'm still in love with the GIANT Disappearing 9 Patch quilt... so far I've made a version in plaids for my son, a version in American Jane fabrics for me and another using Momo fabrics which is on my bed right now... I'd like to do a Christmas version with one of my many many layer cakes of Basic Grey Christmas fabrics and a Fall one with one of my many many layer cakes of Sandy Gervais Fall fabrics ...she does the best Fall IMHO... 

Well that's quite a list isn't it?? ... and there probably isn't a snowball's chance in hell that I'll get all those done... I checked to see how many quilts I finished this year... by my accounting I finished 9 tops and 7 got quilted. Actually, that more than I thought... as for cross stitch I did 41 pieces...lots of seasonal smalls and there were 5  BIG samplers... click on the blue links for pics!

O Joyous Day by Blackbird Designs...

Primitive Lady by Ewe & Eye & Friends...

1889 Alphabet by Needlework Press...

Sunnyside Sampler by The Drawn Thread... oh good grief I finished this back in July...  I need to get this one framed ASAP...

and

Remember Me by Teresa Kogut which is at the framers. 

So overall I guess it was a decently productive year...  I do feel like I totally lost September and October and even part of November with my bout of diverticulitis and C-diff... yuck yuck yuck... and more than just being sick the amount of time it took to recover certainly kicked my butt and left me feeling truly old for the first time... I've been very good at deluding myself that age was only a number prior to this... it certainly gave me a heightened insight into my mortality ... I'm not fond of the view...

Well I was certainly long winded here today... I'm still discombobulated as to what day of the week it is... I kept thinking Christmas was a Sunday... which it wasn't... so while today is Sunday and I was thinking it was New Year's Day it isn't... maybe next week I'll get back on track.   My plans for New Year's Day are the same they've been for many years... no resolutions will be made... all the projects I listed are goals ... some I'll meet ... some I won't... I will spend the day doing the things I want to do ALL year... I'm going to cross stitch starting with a new project... I'm going to sew on a quilt a bit, that Dorothy Momo has some pieces cut and sitting by my machine... I'll pick up a sock and knit a bit... we will go out to eat (cause I don't need to cook any more than absolutely necessary) and I'll do a little shopping... probably online... and I'm going to relax and try not to stress over what might be... that part is hard to do.

So if you've hung in there till this part I want to thank you for coming and reading my musings... and I wish you health and happiness in the year ahead... the world is a crazy scary place right not... it needs lots of prayers and understanding ... I hope it gets that...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... always fun stuff to read there... oh, I wanted to point out that with this post I have posted for the last 4 weeks in a row and even had a Design Wall Monday post... don't know what has gotten into me but I will say I do still enjoy having a blog as well as posting on Instagram... so much more opportunity to ramble... and I like to ramble...LOL... this will make 28 posts for this year... a definite improvement over a pitiful 18 in 2022 but no where near the years of 2011-15  where I topped  over a 100 posts a year... I don't think I'll ever get back to those numbers but I will try to do as many as I did this year... maybe even more... it isn't that I don't have any to talk about (insert eyes rolling back into my head and hysterical laughing)... I find the thing that curtails posting is the difficulty in getting pictures to upload from my phone to my computer... there probably is a better way than I do it, but I'm an old dog and an unless someone can show me another way I'll muddle on as I have... thanks again for reading my blog... and have a Healthy and Happy 2024!!

happy stitching,

carol fun