Where I rant about DST and bop along to a 70's classic on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello... it is Spring Forward Day... I shall reserve my rant for the end of this post so you don't have to listen if you don't want to.... but it's a pretty darn good rant if I say so myself... and I do!!

 Well the week started out with great weather... 70 and sunny on Monday... but it trended downward the rest of the week... gray and rainy... hoping to see some sun today.  I'm itching to get out in the yard, but it is waaaaay too soon for planting any annuals... although I did poke some marigold seeds into one of my new raised beds... they are "free" seeds as they are left over from last year's flowers... we shall see if they sprout. I want to have marigolds all along the edges of those raised beds this year... I think it will be very pretty around the base of the dahlias.   

And speaking of dahlias, I was looking forward to the arrival of the bags of dahlia tubers at Costco ...but it wasn't as I expected. They had some bags of dahlias, but not a huge selection like in the past. However they did have a lot of other varieties of flowers and plants and I ended up with a pretty good haul... excuse the darkness of these pics, I took them out in the garage...where it is dark... makes sense, right?

I got a dozen bags in total... lots of new stuff to add to the garden! Like elephant ears and caladiums...

some  tall phlox and clematis... love that deep rusty red color of the clematis...hope it grows, I haven't had much luck with clematis in the past...

Some crocosmia and hollyhocks and  kniphofia (red hot pokers)...

There were only 2 bags of dahlia tubers that weren't like ones I already have... but I'm happy to get the collarette ones!

As for creative endeavors this week, I had more time this week,  but somehow I don't feel I have more to show for my time... I did spend more time than I thought I would with the  Summer Schoolhouse series by WTN&T... 

right now I'm having to make a lot of guesses as where to position motifs as I'm not exactly following the charts but trying to mimic Kim  The Contented Needleworker's version. But I'm really enjoying stitching on this... it kinda has a Blackbird Design feel as it is imperfectly perfect... I re-checked my math as I had a fleeting thought that I mis-calculated how long this will be on 32 ct... it should be around 31.5" and I have 36" of linen so I should be just fine. I also calculated that if I did a section approximately 50 stitches wide each month I could complete this by the end of the year. Now that's a great plan but I know me and this will go off the rails ... I'll end up working on it in fits and starts and that's okay because other shiny objects till pop up... or hop up... like this did...

This is Hoppy Easter by WTN&T... oh my goodness there is a lot of bunny here... I find that when I stitch with white thread I have to cross every stitch as I go along, which is not my normal method... and while I can get into a rhythm when I stitch from left to right I can't seem to do it when I'm stitching right to left...however when I'm stitching vertically I have less issues... so that's what I'm doing here and I'm turning the piece at the end of every column so I'm stitching down vertically...does that make sense?    

Anyway this is taking a ton of floss ... glad I'm using DMC as I think I will just eke this out with one skein.

Oh and more interesting charts managed to sneak into my house... these are from the Nashville Needlework Market and I'm impressed by how quickly these pre-orders were filled.

I got both of the Blackbird Design books because you buy ALL the Blackbirds, right?  These are Moments of Glad Grace and Thy Love More Strong.

And while I doubt that I will stitch either of the cover sampler both books have several smalls that I definitely would like to stitch... several crazy looking birds I'd like to add to my displays.

I got another one of these pear charts, Spring Green Pears...It think this makes the 3rd one in my stash....

need to get around to stitching one...LOL

And I find the typography of this Benezet Alphabet Sampler very intriguing...

I won't be grungy-ing it up ...might use a floss with lots of color changes. And I also found the word "Benezet" intriguing so I did a bit of research and there is a St. Benezet... here's a link. and there was an abolitionist  Anthony Benezet... here's another link... he was a Quaker educator, born in France, emigrated to London and then to America and settled in Philadelphia. History is fascinating!

Oh this one is so pretty and speaks to my gardener's heart... Pollinator's Garden by October House Fiber Arts...

I'd like to stitch one version of this as a long pillow and then maybe some smaller versions too!

And I couldn't resist this Heartstring Samplery piece, Home is Where your Heart Is...

As for sewing, well I looked at those Vintage Soul  Layer Cake Loop blocks for quite a while,  and decided they just weren't going to work the way I wanted...  I had cut the fabrics so 4" square in the corner of each block  was either navy, green or pink colorway out of the collection and that was too "regular"... it needs to be a variety of fabrics so the busy-ness is cohesive... I know that makes no sense at all when you say it out loud but I think that's the problem... anyway I ordered 2 packs of charm squares and I think that will help... they'll be here next week..

So in the meantime I was rummaging through some plastic bins and I came across these blocks...oh my goodness, why did I ever walk away from these?? I love them!!!  Pretty yellow spinning flowers!!  For some reason the song  "Build me up, Buttercup" popped into me head when I put these on my design wall... and it's been bopping around in my head all week... and here's a link to 3 minutes of classic 70's fun... enjoy!  but I take no responsibility for this becoming an ear worm...LOL 

They are from the Kim Brackett book Scrap-Basket Sensations and the quilt is called Flower's for Nana's Girl...I dug around here on the blog and realized that these blocks only appeared once and it was back in November of 2011... almost 12 years ago... insert hanging head in shame...  When I went looking for a link to the book Amazon popped up and told me I had ordered this book December 29, 2010... that was a while ago, wasn't it?  

I spent a day cutting more tone-on-tone yellow fabric for more blocks... when I started this I planned on it being a double bed sized quilt, it is now going to be a nice size throw... 4 blocks across, 5 blocks down, set on point... I need 32 blocks and they are super easy to make. 

I really like the sashing... that bit of green just pops and boy is this fabric old... Pat Campbell Fossil Fern... I loved those fabrics. I thought they were out of print but I was mistaken. Benartex is still producing this collection and I think there are almost a hundred colors.  And speaking of old fabrics, that tone on tone print with the tulips... I bought that in Modesto CA... I haven't lived in Modesto in 30 years.... everything old is new again, right??

I'm not sure if I have enough the random polka dot fabric I have pinned up to do the border... fingers crossed.  I got a few blocks and some sashing sewn together last Tuesday when Elliott was here, perhaps I'll get some time this week too.

No big plans for the upcoming week, which is fine with me. I do want to stay home stitch and sew...oh I did get my Easter decor out... here's a pic of the small shelf unit display...

I'm happy with  where things ended this year. I look at pics from previous years and I don't want to  repeat the exact arrangement but some things are so big they only fit in one place... like the little tulip quilt and that tall turquoise vase... I do see where I could tuck in another small cross stitch piece or two... and I have a couple of small bunny charts in my stash... I might get one stitched, we'll see, we'll see... 

oh a tangent thought... when my boys were little and wanted something when we were out shopping, instead of saying "no" I would say "we'll see, we'll see"... and then one day my older son told the younger son, "that means no"... LOL... but really I'll see if I get around to stitching more bunnies...

Hope you have a great week ahead with plenty of time to indulge in all the fun stuff. I'll link- up with Kathy's Quilts... always fun stuff to see there.

happy stitching-

carol fun 

PS... my rant about Daylight Saving Time... JUST STOP IT!!  Pick one... leave the clock alone!! Studies, from Harvard no less, have shown that the one hour change can wreak havoc on a person's mental and physical well being.  A person can feel exhausted, drowsy and less focused and crabby... definitely crabby (oh that wasn't in the scientific study... that was me being... crabby!)

A University of Colorado study found a 6% increase in auto accidents after the Spring time change.  Be careful out there!!

The change upsets the circadian rhythm  with less morning light producing lower amount of serotonin which elevates one's mood, and with more evening light delaying the production of melatonin which promotes sleep... What about either of these situations is a good thing???  DST makes you crabby and sleepy...again my observation which is equally as valid as any scientific study...(lack of sleep makes me crabby extremely sure of myself...LOL)

I looked into WHY we keep doing this and the reasoning when it was first enacted was to "conserve energy resources"... not sure what you conserve if in the morning when you get up you have to turn on the lights to see things, rather than when you would have use those same lights in the evening...  

So who benefits from DST... it has been speculated that retailers benefit because more daylight in evening entices customers to shop longer... which may have been true before covid , but it is painfully obvious from the many many many brick and mortar store closings that people aren't doing a lot  in store shopping. 

In fact, as of 2023, consumer spending online for the US was almost double that of in-store shopping... 63% online to 37% in store. Also younger people, millennials and Gen Z overwhelmingly prefer online shopping and except for fabric shopping, this old geezer boomer prefers online shopping... don't know what I'd do without Amazon and all the cross stitch and fabric sites I have bookmarked. 

Sooooo I can't think of a single reason to keep changing the clocks... I don't know why Congress doesn't stop this ridiculous dog and pony show, except that I figure someone somewhere is making money off of it...

and that concludes this semi-annual rant on DST from this sleep deprived, crabby baby boomer with more sense than 99% of Congress.