Happy Mother's Day on this Slow Sunday...

 Hello - Happy Mother's Day to all of you lovely ladies!  I hope that you get to spend the day exactly as you wish. I'll be going to my older son's home... he coordinates the event with a brunch spread from a local restaurant so that his wife and mother of their child, and her mother and her grandmother and me can enjoy the day... it will be lovely...

And afterwards I intend to come home and plop myself in my comfy chair out on the sunroom porch and stitch on my selection for my guilt free Mother's Day start...which until about 10 pm last night I thought was going to be this piece... Live Simply by With Thy Needle & Thread...

And I will get to it... but I was watching Flosstube videos as I was sewing last night and this chart popped onto the TV and I HAD TO HAVE IT! Well my first Google search for it had it at 123 Stitch, my fav online store, but then I found it as a PDF from the designer, which you can see here...

 it is stitched  all in DMC which I have... and I found this piece of bluey-greeny linen in my stash... now I'll only have an 1" margin on 2 sides but I can make that work... this one just struck a chord in my heart. Lately I've had lots of cardinals at my bird feeders which I watch while I sit in my chair on the sunroom porch... and when I see them I think of my departed family members and say a prayer for them... for the male cardinals I think of my Dad and my brother, James... for the females I think of my Mom and my Grandma... I saw a video on IG yesterday and the lady was asked what she wanted for Mother's Day and she replied, "I'd like one more hour with my Mom"... oh my, oh my goodness... wouldn't that be WONDERFUL??  So I'm gonna stitch on the fancy schmancy redbird and think of my loved ones.... 

Okay ... a change of mood...Didn't get as much cross stitching done this week as I had hoped... made some progress on the Double Eagle Sampler from Prairie Schooler No. 8 American Primitive...

I have every intention to finish this up before the week is over. 

Did get a bit of sewing done... finished this top which I'm taking to Delinda for quilting tomorrow...

I am very happy with how this turned out...although I might  re-do those side borders and make them a bit shorter... they went on really easy but  I didn't expect that much waviness. Anyway I'm  proud of myself for fulfilling my objective of doing something with all the Tilda fabrics I have... The spool block is from the Sew Emma Book Simply Jelly Rolls. This is a charm quilt in that every piece in the spools is a different fabric. I think I did a pretty good job in getting  a gradation in each spool... here's some close ups of the blocks...

And since I had my Tilda stash strewn all over my sewing room  I got an idea for another quilt project using this same spool blocks... but this time I'm going to use the layout for the Biscuit quilt which used this block. here's how that looks...

But instead of doing strips in the center I'm just going to use one piece of fabric... it is a great opportunity to show off some of the larger prints... I'm going to do this one with a Grunge background in the Chiffon colorway as I have about 5 yds in my stash (I really like this color... LOL) ... the plan is to make it big enough for my full size bed.  Here are some of the fabrics I cut and I'm going to pay attention and have the fabrics for the  vertical and the horizontal spools be orientated in the  right direction... there's a bit of an optical illusion in the pic below ... it looks like the spool is yellow and the background is the taupe... but in fact it will be just the opposite... hopefully by next week I'll have more blocks made and you'll see what it more clearly... it will definitely read as a yellow quilt... my fav!!

And I played around with the bow tie blocks and did a unit made up of 4 smaller sized bow ties... I picked these fabrics from bits in my scrap bin ...

I like the one with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... both of my boys were fans of that show and now Elliott likes it too. Who would have thought it would be a classic?  I can still sing the theme song as I've heard it a million times...LOL

I'm going to add more units like this to the quilt... making the little ones is fun but I don't want to commit to an entire quilt of 4" bow tie blocks... at least not at the moment... but it could happen... some day... 

More gardening was done... more pain was inflicted...thanks goodness for ibuprofen...  Things are shaping up and I'm feeling good about how much has been accomplished.... last Sunday Nick helped me plant over 100 little zinnias... and we did about 25 cleome and I want to get more of them... we did  about 8 one gallon perennials and an assortment of dahlias and other bulbs and tubers I picked up at Costco and bought online... now I will say that I was disappointed in some of the tubers I bought online and at Costco... I ordered stuff early in January because of FOMO... and I got delivery like in the beginning of April which was waaay too early to plant dahlias... and  when I went to plant them several had no discernible eyes, so I doubt they will grow... and lately I've been getting tons of emails that all the companies I ordered from still had stock and the prices are reduced and you get delivery in a couple of days... so I succumbed and ordered some more tubers.... and now I'm thinking next year I should just wait to order... I'm not real picky about specific varieties as there are so many I like... at the beginning I was big into the dinner plate ones but now I'm a bit fonder of the pompom varieties... oh well live and learn. 

Speaking of dahlias... the ones I left in the ground seem to overwinter very well... lots of them are over a foot and half tall and this one has several buds and will be my first bloom of the season... probably by mid week. I don't think I've ever had dahlias bloom this early. 

I'm still battling with the squirrels... resorted to putting cayenne pepper in my window boxes which will hopefully deter the little varmints from digging up the geraniums... the boxes are just starting to fill out...

and then I spotted this guy in my neighbors back yard... watched him hop over their chain link fence effortlessly...

so I proceeded to spray the nasty smelling deer repellent on anything I thought they might feast on... 

Nick helped me attack a big issue in my garden... I've had this grass plant for years... it has gotten HUGE... I referred to it as Cousin It and thought it was cute... but this year about 2/3 of it decided to die... so from the driveway side it looks okay, but from the yard it looks bad... I came up with the idea of placing a tall pot there to divert your attention... and it is working well as you can see below... however before I could stage it there the dead parts needed to be dug up and it was one hell of a job... I could not have done it without  Nick... luckily the day we attacked it the ground was super soft from all the rain we had and the temperature was a breezy 60 degrees...  we added some top soil to fill up the resulting hole and here is the pot...

and a close up of what I planted... I think the purples contrast nicely with the green grass plant ... and isn't the little guy adorable? I got him last year when the garden center marked him down 20%...

I got the  pot locally at Natorp's Outlet... it was the only one they had like this, it's resin and I was told they weren't getting in any more like it ...however it was gray... not my color, but no problem... I have spray paint... and I'm happy that it  now coordinates with my other brown pots. 

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Next week is busy... going to see Delinda on Monday,  spend the day with Elliott on Tuesday and my quilty lady friends are coming on Wednesday... we are hoping to sit out on my covered patio and have lunch there if the weather cooperates... forecast at the moment  varies depending on what website you look at... one has 72 degrees and an 8% chance of rain... I like that one... but another has 68 degrees with a 50% chance of rain... guess will have to wait till that morning to make a decision.  Last Tuesday there were tornadoes not too far north of me... scary stuff... and I've become a weather junkie... I watch a lot of guys on Youtube who do forecasts for the US going out a week or so... they are predicting an active weather pattern for the Spring and Summer... and then I found guys who do storm chasing... I find it very interesting and it since they live stream you feel like you are in the car with them... kinda like someone taking you for a drive... LOL... I like that as in real life, I'm almost always the driver, and its nice to have someone else do the driving ,now and then....I can watch/listen and stitch... which I couldn't do if I was actually in the car... and yes this is crazy old lady territory... but I'm fine with that.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and with Quilting is more fun than housework,  to share my quilting projects... I hope that today and every day is a good one for all of you!

happy stitching-

carol fun