Easter Decor and more on a Slow Sunday...

 Well I anticipated that last week was going to be busy... and it was even busier than I expected. Lots of time spent with friends talking talking talking... that was fun... got my hair cut and colored...always enjoyable... and then there were the unexpected house issues.  Last week I talked about replacing the AC and I am going to do that...I'm thinking in May... and I'm still having an a bathroom sink problem... Dan my Handyman will be by this week to see if he can remedy that... and then my dishwasher died... oh great... now it is 10 years old and we have very hard water here which takes a toll on appliances that use water. Last year I put $200 into this dishwasher when I had the problem with the backed up kitchen drain... in retrospect I should have just gone ahead and replaced it then... cause I'm ending up replacing it now.  Did some research on line about the life span of dishwashers and 10 years is about average. It wasn't a top of the line model when I bought it, so it isn't worth putting any more money into it.  Compared models and prices online and went off to Lowe's to see them ... took Nick along as he is the one who spends the most time with the dishwasher... he loads it and runs it and unloads it. He liked the unit with the 3rd rack and I liked the stainless steel interior and it is a Samsung which is what the broken unit is, and the styling is similar ... so we bought it... it will take about a 7- 10 days to arrive and get installed and they will take away the broken dishwasher...  fingers crossed the fridge and stove I purchased at the same time,  hang in there a while longer.

Since I was busy busy busy doing social stuff I didn't get a lot accomplished in the crafty areas.  As for quilting I was able to sew up all the blocks for the quilt I'm now calling the twirling yellow flower quilt.

I rearranged a bunch of the blocks in an attempt to gradate them from light at the top to darker at the bottom... I think I'm happy with the arrangement. I figured out how big to cut the setting triangles on the side so they are straight of grain. I like them a bit bigger so I can trim everything down. Oh the blocks are 8.5" unfinished... the pattern is Flowers for Nana's Girl from the Kim Brackett Book Scrap-Baskets Sensations... here s a listing on Amazon.. whoa... I didn't realize this was out of print... if I was looking for a copy of this I'd check out a Half Price Book place... you might have better  luck there... 

As for cross stitch I'm trying to get the WTN&T Red Bird Sampler done before the end of  the month...

here's where I was last week...

and here's where I am today...and yes today's pic is ironed... makes a difference doesn't it?  sheesh

I completed all the flowers along the bottom... and I LOVE the little vignette with the church inside the bower...

What's left to do?  I have the big pot of flowers on the left  and a bird and a couple of small pink  flowers, and I think I'll put my initials and the year in the space that open to the right of the alphabet... oh I added the alphabet... for me a sampler isn't a sampler if it doesn't include the ABC's!  I think finishing this by March 31 is very doable ... and that would have me completing  a sampler every month this year!! ... now 2 of the 3 were already started but I still think that's being pretty productive... and I've already got my eye on another WIP sampler I'd like to get back to. 

Don't know what has gotten into me lately but I'm really into finishing up projects, quilts and cross stitch, that I've previously started and then somehow walked away from...  makes me feel virtuous for finishing up... LOL... and since the projects are already started it doesn't take as long to finish them... yep, back to my long held philosophy that UFOs or WIP are GOOD THINGS... 

And I worked a little on the WTN&T Summer Schoolhouse... 

framed in the windows and doors and got started on the roof... found a mistake in the house... I made it one row taller than graphed... not frogging this... just moving on... I'm going to do a band of satin stitches as the "grass" and then do some birds and flowers beneath that. I will wait to do the satin stitch until the end so I don't keep rubbing the floss... I did a row of satin stitches at the bottom of the Red Bird sampler and I love the look but I can see where in some spots it has gotten fuzzy  from my handling it... lesson learned. 

And where did the month go???  Easter is next week ... we are doing dinner at my older son's home ... already hit Costco and picked up the prime rib... will pop into Krogers on Thursday for the veggies ... same holiday menu we did for Thanksgiving ... don't see a need to change it as every one seems to like it just the way it is... along with the prime rib I'll make a pasta salad, marinated tomatoes, asparagus bundles wrapped in prosciutto, and deviled eggs. My DIL's side of the family will provide a ham and some other sides and desserts... there won't be any lack of goodies.

And I realized that while I've had my Easter/Spring decor out for weeks I've only shown one display... so today I'll give you a tour of the rest of it... sorry some of the pics are a bit hazy... the sun was coming through that big picture window and no matter how I positioned the blinds it didn't help. 

Here's the yellow tier table... I surprised myself in how much I could display here  and I like the  primarily pink theme... up top I have a little chick in a field of tulips from Jelly Bean Jubilee by WTN&T and the tiny tulip pillow was a riff on the tulips in another WTN&T chart.

Below is Easter Rabbits from Stitchy Princess Black... you can see it here... I brightened this one up quite a bit  and it goes nicely with the pink ceramic bunny and other pink knickknacks.

On the wall ... well I keep talking about doing a new Spring wall quilt, but all I've done is talk sooooooo I  went with the same quilt I've used for several years... the pattern is Jam & Jelly from Fig Tree Quilts and the fabric was the Kate Spain Verna collection. 

The tier tray is a new purchase this year from Michaels.. I could not resist a yellow tray!! Up top I have Be Hoppy from Emily Call ...such an adorable pink bunny, and below in the round tin is Holiday Hoopla Easter from WTN&T.

On the TV cabinet a cute bunny shaped tier tray from Dollar Tree and a trio of smalls from Prairie Schooler No. 178... along a a freebie bunny from Pinker n Punkin Quilting and a giant bottle brush carrot... that was a recent purchase from Hobby Lobby. 

As for the big display a very green and yellow theme emerged... 

from the top and left to right... a little pillow with a sweet gal from Pineberry Lane,  a Blackbird Design piece from the book "Thank You, Sarah Tobias' and WTN&T Sampler Hill...

 I love how the alphabet is "hidden" in the grassy hill.  

Next shelf March from Prairie Schooler... another piece where the alphabet is "hidden" in the grass and 2/3rds of the Blackbird Design called Breath of Spring and the sampler pillow with the daffodils is called Hello Spring and is from Sub Rosa... 

Moving down... another bunny shaped tier tray, as I remember this one came from Target a couple of years ago... it is sporting some cute little pillows from WTN&T Jellybean Jubilee and the  monochromatic green sampler is from the BBD book called Women of Grace & Charm...the book is primarily quilting but this chart called Tribute is included and was the reason I bought the book. I dyed this with Apple Green Rit dye and used up a ton of bits and bobs of Gentle Arts Dried Thyme floss... it is my favorite overdyed green ... and having purchased it for years and years and years left with with a collection of many many many different dye lots... but it worked out perfectly for this piece. A note: this BBD book is OOP ... I paid more than list price for it a couple of years ago but not as much as I saw it listed on the web... 

Here's the little phone niche... 

The pink bunny on the wall  is Egg Hunt from Emily Call... it is charted in brown but she had done Be Hoppy the year before as a pink bunny (he's in my tier tray) so I just subbed in those coolers... the egg with the bow dazzled frame was a gift from a sweet friend... and the long pillow on the ledge is Lizzie Kate's Spring String.  I was trying to include links for these charts but Emily Call's Etsy shop is temporarily closed... she posted she was going to be out of town till April ... and it appears that the Lizzie Kate chart is kinda OOP... I did see some Etsy and Ebay listings.

Now I have one more display on the porch but I'll save it for next week as I want to add the bunny head piece from WTN&T that I finished stitching last week, but I didn't get around to FFO-ing it.  And I don't know what else I may have to post next week... not a lot of new stuff on my agenda so I hope you don't mind seeing the bits of progress on the stuff I already started.  As much as I'm itching to get out in the yard Mother Nature is NOT cooperating... temps for the upcoming week are seasonal and 50 to 60-ish... I don't know about you but I still keep a paper calendar along with the stuff on my phone...and in my paper calendar I made all kinds of notes about stuff and when I start a new calendar in January I include details I think I'd like to remember...I have a note that before the end of March I need to get back to Natorp's Garden Outlet and get a replacement shrub for the one that is dead... and I have a note that I planted my window boxes on April 1 of last years... what??    There is no way that is happening this year... I remember I planted purple petunias and marigolds, a mix I hadn't tried before. and they looked great... but that means that it had to be warmer for a week or two before that for me to even contemplate that and that the garden stores had petunias... I haven't seen anything but pansies ... which I love but the deer eat them so I'm not wasting my money. They can easily reach 2 of my 5 window boxes and it would just be a buffet... I'll pass. I thought we had global warming... I'm all for some of that right now... 

So this upcoming week  should be a less hectic than last week... but one never really knows... I see a doctor's appointment one day and dinner with a friend another day and of course Elliott on Tuesday.  Now to see what I can muster up in motivation to get things done... I'm going spend time today with the Red Bird Sampler... my motivation is I want to work on something "new" and by "new" I mean something I've already started. And I want to get more done on the twirling yellow flower quilt cause I found some other already started  projects I like to play with. More time spent doing stuff and less time just looking at stuff... not easy to do with all the temptation on social media... and I have to say I'm finding reading blogs very enjoyable again... more space to chit chat and it seems more personal than Instagram and I have no interest in anything on TikTok... I like the routine I've gotten into posting once a week... I know these posts can be long but I don't know how I use to find time to post several times a week like I did in the beginning. 

Thank you for coming and reading my ramblings... I hope that you have a pleasant and productive week ahead!  I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts so I can sit on the sunroom porch, read some blogs and do some stitching... now that's what I call a good day!

happy stitching-

carol fun