A pitiful puny post for a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - so this is a pitiful puny post as I've been trying to get pictures to upload with no success.  And I didn't even have that many pictures to show as this last week has had practically no productivity... I suppose that it matches up with the week I got a lot done, you mush them together and everything is average... like temperatures.

Quick weather whine... it was gorgeous for most of last week... low humidity, highs only in the 70's .... I opened the windows and turned off the AC... take that Duke Energy. Change came in on Saturday... forecast for the upcoming week 90's and not a drop of rain in sight... insert frowny face.

It was a week filled with stuff to do and annoying interactions with customer service. Pharmacy calls to tell me they only have 10 of the generic pills for my son's meds. I want the generic because the brand name is almost $200 more ... and that is not a typo.. anyway they can't sell me just 10. So why even bother to tell me this?  They have no idea when they'll get in the generic. We are playing a waiting game hoping that by Monday some generic will arrive. Son will still have a little cushion of pills at that point. I'm having to play this game almost every month now and it is getting old, really old.

Car dealership told me my car would be ready on Monday. Waited ALL day for  a call... at 6:30pm  I tried without any success to speak to someone in the service department. Since no one answered the phone and I was close by having dinner with a friend I drove over. One poor woman working trying to field calls and get people checked out. She can't find out anything about my car.  I retrieved the car seat I needed to transport Elliott on Tuesday, which I had left in the car as I thought I'd have it back in time.  Called bright and early on Tuesday to speak with the Service Manager who also has no idea when my car will be ready. Finally get call that it will be done on Tuesday and go and pick it up. Bright and early Wednesday I emailed the General Manager. He apologizes and says he'll look into it and get back to me. As of Saturday, not a peep... oh and the kicker. I got 3 emails this week from this dealership trying to get me to trade in my 2021 model for a new 2025 model. Obviously car sales are hurting, but I'm in no mood to buy anything new. I only have 39K miles on this and I will drive it till the wheels fall off. 

On a lighter note, I got an email last week from a sweet blog reader who's also named Carol. She informed me that while Sandy Klop of American Jane is no longer designing for Moda she is designing for Riley Blake... yeah!!!  Here's a link to her new line which is out now.  I'll be adding a layer cake of this to my collection. 

Also spent a lot of time watching videos about new charts being released... found a bunch of cute Fall-ish ones. Check out 123 Stitch and you can see  a ton of them.. I have clicked that NOTIFY ME button numerous times. 

Didn't  move a single stack of fabric... rethinking it again. May not move the Debbies but still want to put the brights in storage. 

Also didn't turn on my sewing machine. I did get a little cross stitching done... very little. 

So I'm not linking up with anyone today. Just thought I'd let you know I'm not dead but I got nothing crafty to share. I shall consider this a Summer hiatus post... not exactly a re-run but definitely a clip show!

Hope the upcoming week is good for you. Fingers crossed I get something done... not looking real good though... have something on my calendar for Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday... need to make good use of the time I do have.

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Fan girl confessions on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello ---how was your week?  Mine was pretty good...nothing earth shattering happened and I got some odds and ends taken care of. Now this post is a little light on creative content but big on some pondering I've been doing this week. This is my 33rd post for this year... already 5 more than all of last year ... doing it once a week is the best I can do these days... I don't know where the time goes but it sure moves fast in my world... and yet if you looked at my days there is a lot of time spent kinda doing nothing... I spend way too much time online reading articles, looking at pretty pictures and going down rabbit holes... and trust me it take a lot of time and energy to do that...LOL  There is so much going on in the world and I have a  great fear of missing out... so many issues are way more important to me now they when I was younger... so much to do and the older I get I know there is a finite amount of time... so there is some of the pondering I've been doing. 

 And more pondering, that brings me to a confession ... I'm a fan girl... I've been a fan girl for a long time... my first infatuation was with Debbie Mumm... I discovered her just when she came on the scene in the quilting world and was so smitten with all her fabrics and her decor items... along with her many collections of fabrics I acquired decorative plates and little teapots and cream and sugar pitchers and knickknacks... I loved them all and I still do.  But as with all good things eventually she retired from designing and now I hoard little bits and pieces of prints that  have become vintage fabrics. One of my big thrills on IG was a day I showed a quilt done in all her fabrics and she saw it and left me a lovely comment... so nice!!

So when I could no longer get new DM fabrics,  I moved onto Sandy Klop of American Jane.. bright primary colors with a vintage nostalgic vibe... and again I jumped in as she came into the quilting world and I have  healthy stash of her fabrics particularly  Layer Cakes and Fat Quarters.  The introduction of precuts has radically changed the way I buy fabrics these days... and if this had been the situation when I started quilting almost 40 years ago I believe my stash would be much smaller... and the size of my stash is something else I've been pondering. Now it appears that Sandy has also retired from designing fabrics. I've checked back to the beginning of 2024 on the United Notions website for catalogs which you can find here and she doesn't have any collections listed... sigh... I've made some lovely quilts with her fabrics and I have plenty of fabric to make a few more.

And with this realization that another fan girl idol of mine was retiring I turned my attention to Lori Holt... and at the moment she certainly is a hot commodity... she has tons of fabrics and books and knickknacks and accessories but I'm trying to keep my interest strictly to fabrics. I've made several quilts using her patterns but only one using her fabrics...and  since I didn't jump on her bandwagon till recently I don't have as much of her fabrics....yet... LOL... but I'm working on it.

 Here's the quilt I made back in August of 2017...I used 2 layers cakes of her fabrics for this Puss in the Corner quilt... you can read how nostalgic these fabrics made me back on this post. 

And if you've lasted this long you may wonder why all the rambling about fan girl fabrics ... well I've been pondering about how I'm storing these objects of my affection. The Debbie Mumms are all in bins in what was the root cellar of my basement. In my old house I had twice as many shelves as I do now and they were out on display.  I have 3 shelves devoted to American Jane fabrics but the Lori Holt's were just in bins as were my collection of Tilda... yes another fan girl infatuation ... it is a good thing my obsessions are not immoral or illegal... they are however not inexpensive but as Meatloaf crooned 2 outta 3 ain't bad. 

I spent quite a bit of time this week re-folding fabrics and staring at my shelves and my stash and I realized that I don't use the majority of the fabrics that are on the shelves... here's a pic I took back in March of 2021 when I had the new white shelves installed...

There are tons of brights and novelties and a variety of stripes & polka dots and black/white fabrics I was so into when I moved here 10 years ago... but they aren't my style anymore... I haven't made a truly BRIGHT quilt in years and it use to be my go to palette. The fabrics I like are stored away in bins and while these do make a lovely display they are pretty much just decorative... sigh... so I decided that some of the fabrics on the shelves could be relocated to plastic bins to make room for the stuff I do want to play with like the Lori Holt fabric and the Tilda's ... and that's what I did!

And I also got all my Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner fabrics reunited too. Nowadays I tend to group fabric by designer rather than by color. I still grab yellows and lately greens but the other colors just sit there... and now I'm pondering whether to do a major rearrangment of my stash. Put the brights in bins in the root cellar closet and bring out my Debbie Mumms and maybe my Kaffe Fassetts...  and an maybe my Grunges too... of course I have no way of knowing if this will work unless I actually do it... I've counted stacks and I've counted bins and I might have more fabric in the bins than stacked on the shelves.   I haven't done a purge of my stash since the new bookshelves were installed ... and perhaps it is time for another one.  When I'm in the right mood I can be ruthless in what I get rid of. I'm obviously not a Marie Kondo because while I am organized EVERYTHING I have does bring me joy... until it doesn't...LOL... Stay tuned to see how this turns out... I'm pretty sure I'd like to have my Debbies and my Kaffes out on the shelves but I'm not sure I want to do the work it will take to make it happen.  But the more I think about it the more I know I'd like a new look. An organization and decorating mash up! However , just redoing those 5 shelves took me almost all day... realistically this project will take at least a solid week... probably more... I'm talking myself into this bit by bit...

Okay... thanks for hanging in there as I rambled ... I did get a bit of cross stitch done. I focused on the Summer House Stitche Works Fragments of Time 2022 ....

and the house block completed and the one below is almost  done!  

My goal is to have this done by the end of August and that does seem doable. Unlike last September I'm not going to start 7 samplers for my birthday... but I am going to start another BIG one  to celebrate... and I'm not going to think about the 2 or is it 3 or is it 4 BIG samplers I've already started this year... not gonna do that!! LOL

As for sewing  not much occurred... I tossed one of the blocks I  had done for the American Jane Honeybun quilt... so  still I need 5 more...  

perhaps this will be the week this gets done... I want it off the design wall so I can play with other projects.

And while I was doing all that pondering about rearranging my fabrics I got an urge to make a new Fall quilt... I know I know I have plenty of other stuff to do but I am longing for cooler Fall weather ... I like to watch weather videos on Youtube and several that do long range forecasting are predicting an early Fall ... I'm good with that! So,  I got out a bin of Sandy Gervais Fall prints...she does dynamite Fall prints and yes I'm a fan girl of hers too as evidenced by these quilts I've made with her fabrics...

This one started with a panel from her collection Tranquility... loved the birds and boy I still miss that chonky boy!

And this one will be gracing my bed the beginning of September...

And there was this little quilt... a Schnibbles pattern called 4 Corners...

Another Schnibble called Speck...

And this one called Jelly Roll Whirl... the colors are a bit bleached out here... it had a nice warm golden tone  in real life...I used Elfin Grunge as the background.

And this mini quilt...the back ground is deep purple even though it looks brown here. 

And a table runner...

And another table runner..

And this scrappy Churn Dash that is a completed quilt but this is the only pic I could find of in on the blog...

I want to do something easy but I want it to have a bit of style and not be a pattern I've already  made. I looked through my library of books (and it also needs to be tidied up and some stuff shipped off to Half Price Books) and came across this pattern called Marbled Cheesecake... and I do like cheesecake!

It is in the book Jelly Filled by Vanessa Goertzen. 

And I found some very pretty Grunge in my stash... as I recall this color is called Curry... nice orange-y splotches and I made ONE block!!

Oh this is right up my alley... simple piecing...no intersections to match in the block... sews up quickly... interesting design and I've never made a quilt like this before... it checks ALL the boxes... I'm feeling cooler already...LOL

So next week is momentous in that Elliott starts kindergarten... he went to a back to school night with his Mom  and Dad to meet the teacher and see the classroom. I asked what he liked about the school and he told me they get TWO recesses and at the  back to school night he got Oreos and a pencil...but the pencil wasn't sharpened...  a precaution I'm sure that was necessary... LOL    Plan is for him to take the bus to and from  school. The district has the policy that kindergarten kids are picked up at their driveway and dropped off there too.. door to door service. I've watched the bus drop off the kids and sometimes it means stopping at 2 or 3 houses in a row which is great for the kids.  Fingers crossed that he adapts to the new routine... he's going to be the kind of kid that teachers remember... and not because they were the quietest or the most easy going... he will leave his mark... of that I am certain.

Well next week is still up in the air... I have dinner plans on Monday and oh did I mention my car is in the shop. Was suppose to be a simple repair of a cracked oil pan... but like these things usually go, it got more complicated. I dropped it off on Thursday... hope I get it back on Monday... fingers crossed.  They gave me a lovely  free loaner but I want my car back.  I'll have Elliott for a bit of time on Tuesday...we need to adjust our previous Tuesday routine to a new one. He eats lunch at school but still wants to go to McDonalds. He told me school is "early lunch" and McDonalds is "late lunch"... not sure how much he'll eat but there is always cookies or an ice cream. 

And at the moment (and every decision is subject to change) I do think I'll try moving more fabric around.  I definitely will need to label the boxes even though you can see through the bins, as I'm pretty sure I'm not going to remember exactly what I put in them.  I know if I get into this project I won't want to stop... I'm a binge worker... I want to build Rome in a day and once I get going I don't like to stop till the job is complete but while my mind says "you can do it Carol" my body says "what in the h3ll are you doing?  you're not young anymore... heck you are even 60 .... slow down!!"  The spirit is willing but the body is weak and getting weaker...LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and Quilting is more fun than Housework...  and I'll leave you with a  pic of some dahlias from my yard... I have no clue what variety these are but they sure are pretty!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

It was inevitable on a Slow Sunday...

Hello all... well it was inevitable that after the above average productive week I had previously, this week  is a bit sub-par so overall things are just average... such is life.  Nothing got finished but lots of stuff got piddled with. The week was busier than I had anticipated several lunches and dinners with friends and family,  which was quite enjoyable... no rain so plenty of watering ... and just a bit tired and unfocused... a week I bounced from project to project. 

I was definitely in a cross stitching mood this week. I've read on several blogs people were gearing up for Sampler September and some had remarked that it really should encompass more time so they were starting and working on sampler projects in August too...weeeeellllll... that's a bandwagon I can get on... so I got out several samplers I have started and put a little time in on a couple of them... as my sainted Father always said "you bounce around  like a BB in a box car"... and he was right on the money...LOL

First,  I picked up Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor and gave it an evening or two of attention while watching TV... last time I showed it...

and its current form....

Those Valdani threads are so pretty and I'm pretty sure this is 28 count so it is easy on the eyes. And yes I do own an iron but I didn't bother pressing any of these to take pictures... lazy and tired... oh well.

Then I bounced over to another Rosewood Manor piece, Red Rhapsody .. and no there's nothing wrong with your computer screen, my version is not red at all... 

My tiny start before...

and how it looks now...

I love the color of this linen... Rit dye... a new color called Sage... the floss is from Gentle Arts called Something Blue... the linen is showing up blue-er than it is in real life... in real life it has a more turquoise green look. 

And after a evening of two of that I bounced again, this time to Fragments in Time 2022  by Summer House  Stitche Works....I LOVE the floss colors in this one... I'm doing the DMC conversion...

Before...

And now...

And some close ups...

The linen color is truer in the first pic... and I'm very pleased with that satin stitched tree... great dimension. 

My current plan is to stick with this one till the end of August. I think I can complete it by then. The border is half way finished ... so is the center with the alphabet... I LOVE LOVE LOVE that there is an alphabet in the middle... and 4 out of 8 blocks are done... Now I will say there is a lot of stitching in each of these 51 x 51 blocks... and each block is a separate little card. The border stitching and fill in leaves and flowers part is good work for watching TV or Youtube videos... which when I'm tired I like to spend time doing. 

As for sewing I got some more American Jane Honeybun blocks done...

I will probably move  these around a time or two more before I sew them together... and I'm not completely sure I have enough of that yellow block print for the border, but I'll figure something out. I want to make this entirely  out of my stash. I think I even have a piece that would make a funky back.  I have enough fabrics to 6 more blocks so I can pick and choose for the 4 I still need... maybe get them finished today... maybe...

My thoughts have wandered to a couple of Fall projects, but my decor is still chickens... here's the big shelf display....

Other than the Sunnyside Sampler at the top from The Drawn Thread, this is an ode to Pineberry Lane... love all these gardening and chicken feeding gals...

This one is Sister's Farm Fresh Eggs... I made her dress rosier...

This one is Mrs. Maguire's Hen House and again I brightened up her dress, and gave the hen house some satin stitched clapboards...

This one is Mrs. Maguire Bee Charmer again with a more colorful wardrobe and a satin stitched bee skep...

This one is Mrs. Maguire's Garden... same story about her dress.

And this little pillow is a snippet from Tansy, Yarrow Rue...

I LOVE the primitive style of Pineberry Lane but not all the browns... so I used a light yellow and green 32 ct linen for these to brighten things up and gave Mrs. Maguire and her friend pretty pink dresses! They deserve pretty clothes... IMHO... 

I'm liking this arrangement of chickens and plates and cross stitch on the big shelf display... the white and green look cool and calm for the hot month of August....

However, I know once September 1 rolls around it will be hard  to hold back from Fall decorating even though I'll bet the temperatures won't be Fall- ish at all... September is always warmer than I want it to be... I LOVE FALL MOST OF ALL... always have... and while it is barely mid August it kinda feels like it is Fall as I think all the school districts are back in session starting this week. Elliott starts kindergarten by going one short  session and one full session this week and then full sessions starting the week of August 19th. I'm not sure what time school starts but Elliott is out by 1:45pm... my older son drove me by the building and I think I've got it figured out where to pick him up. He's riding the bus to school, but I think he'll be picked up a couple of days a week... we'll have to see how it all shakes out. 

No big plans for the upcoming week... have a dermatology appointment that was made like 6 months ago... not my favorite exam, as being blue eyed and fair skinned and of the generation that thought baby oil and iodine was great for tanning, there's always a chance of something suspicious that needs attending to.  I also think Delinda may have the quilts I dropped off a couple of weeks ago finished. I have the Jolly Good Fat Quarter 4 Patch ready to go except for the backing... fingers crossed it comes in soon... I can always drop off the top and mail Delinda the fabric or even have it  just delivered to her house ... good idea... so proud of me...LOL...

 So I'd like to finish those 4 blocks for the AJ Honeybun quilt and I'm gonna try to buckle down with Fragments in Time 2022 ... and if my focus strays there are always plenty of other projects that I can work on... I never have a lack of projects... sometimes a lack of focus, but I never run out of projects.

 I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and Quilting is More Fun  than Housework today...  Need to go out and water some time today and want to spend time on the porch stitching... a quiet Sunday....

Hope your week is a good one!!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

An above average week for a Slow Sunday...

Hello ... well it last week was an above average week in many many ways... first off, my favorite topic to rant about, the weather... drum roll please... I have NOT WATERED for an entire week!!  First time for this event all year... it started with rain last Saturday night and has continued to rain at least once a day through today (I'm writing this on Saturday)... my garden is happy, my lawn is happy, I'm happy for my hopefully smaller water bill... now it has been hot and steamy as my frizzy hair and my aching knees can attest to, but with the help of good hair products and ibuprofen I can soldier on... LOL

And not having to water gave me extra time in my week for crafty stuff and I took advantage of it... let's recap it day by day, shall we?

Started off the week by FFO'ing (that fully finishing) not one, not two but three little cross stitch pillows. First was The Bee's Knees by Notforgotten Farms... he's a cute little guy...

front -

back-

display- 

he has a lovely social circle of cute salt and pepper shakers from Cracker Barrel... I found some new ones the other day at lunch that will show up in my Fall displays...

Second and third were my couple of chickens  from Lori Holt..

front- that's Myrtle on the left and Hattie on the right...

back- my hens lay brown eggs dontcha know?

display - 

aren't those roses pretty?  A bargain at Krogers, a dozen for $7 and the color is somewhere between a pink and a lavender.

Great way to start the week off... 

On Tuesday I had Elliott and bribed him to go to the basement with a new Lego... he was happy and in return I was able to get the binding on my Scratch quilt using the Sew and Sew collection from  Chloe's Closet. To refresh your memory the pattern was called Scratch and is in the Schnibbles 2 book. I started this quilt back in 2016... here's the post... and then it languished until June of 2023 when it  broke out from it's plastic bin... but it wasn't totally sewn together until August 2023... and now a year later it is totally done!!

I'm putting my neighbor's new fence to good use as a quilt rack...

close ups of some of my favorite pieces in the strippy parts... 

On Wednesday I ventured into new territory for me... I altered a judicial robe for my older son... now he ordered this online from a company with no pictures of the many different style of sleeves and I don't believe I've ever seen sleeves like this...

now that left sleeves is just bunched up, ignore it... the right sleeve show the wing-y hangy down piece... your arm comes out above that  and the whole assembly only had one seam... I have no clue how they did that... anyway those wing-y hangy down pieces had to go... and there was a ton of extra fabric in the back of the robe... I think I took out at least a foot and a half... 

Finished robe...

Looking much better, son is happy... he is starting a new job in 2 weeks where he will preside over his own courtroom as a Magistrate for the Hamilton County Ohio Court of Common Pleas. I am sooooo proud of him. He's been working toward this for 12 years. It has been a dream of his since law school to sit on the bench and he got his position through his hard work and his intelligence... he's a great trial lawyer... and like in any city there is a lot of nepotism that occurs to get this kind of job...except my son is no one's son, or nephew, or cousin... he doesn't have any of those connections ... he got this position on his merits... and have I said before how proud I am of him!!!  

Moving on to Thursday... my friend Stephanie came over as her sewing machine was giving her fits and she needed to get the binding on a quilt she had made to take to a birthday celebration this weekend. I was able to help her out and got the binding on it pretty quickly... we went out to lunch and I came home and I finished sewing all 36 blocks together for my Fat Quarter 4 Patch quilt done in the Basic Grey collection called Jolly Good...

this is BIG... about 90" square... I've been searching the internet for a Christmas-y wide back and I found these on Fat Quarter Shop's website... click here... debating between the  print with the Christmas carols or the red one with the little motifs.... as soon as this is available I'll be ordering it for the back.

On Friday I had a lovely clean design wall and I found another unfinished quilt project done is American Jane fabrics... what's that make 3? 4?  oh who's counting? not me!!  Anyway  this was another free pattern from FQS which you can find here... this is the only project I think I've done using the honeybun precut... 

I started this one back in May of 2021... I have 16 blocks finished... and two more partially done ... and a tray of strips left to play with...

This is my favorite blocks so far.. I like the randomness of it... the one strip of fabric had a bunch of different prints on it. I might make a couple more like this one using stuff from my stash... 

This would be a small lap quilt... I auditioned some sashing strips... 

this one is a bit dark...it is an AJ fabric

this one is a bit busy...this one is from Benartex as I remember..

and I think this one is just right...

close up ... it is a very pale yellow dot that has a bit of a greenish cast... 

I need to see how many blocks I can make. The pattern said you could get 20 blocks from one honeybun, but looking at that pile I think perhaps I had 2 honeybuns to begin with... 

Saturday wasn't quite as productive... had errands to do... wanted to go to Hobby Lobby as fabric is 40% off and there is a sales tax holiday here in Ohio until August 8. Picked up a couple of pieces of wide back fabric for my stash. 

So what's the plan for next week?... well I sincerely doubt I'll get that much done again ... Sunday evening I'm attending the Days in the Park celebration for my little town and I'll be getting my prize for the Beautification Award... the last couple of years it has been a $100 gift card to a local plant nursery... hope that is what it is as I LOVE free plants!!

Not a lot on my calendar for next week... have Elliott on Tuesday and a hair appointment on Thursday... I hardly cross stitched at all last week so maybe I'll get back to it. There will definitely be watering of the gardens as there isn't a drop of  rain in this week's forecast...  the summer seemed to have raced by... kids go back to school around here mid-August... Elliott's first day of kindergarten is August 13th... he is an intelligent and curious child... sometimes too curious... he will be the kind of student teachers remember for years... and will see what it is they remember... LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and Quilting is more fun than Housework today... hope your upcoming week is creative and fun... 

happy stitching-

carol fun