Death by gardening on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello...  lots of gardening talk today... well I haven't actually killed myself but I've inflicted some pain in my pursuit of getting my gardens shaped up... It has been HOT... over 80 degrees... and that has curtailed when I should go out and work ... and for the most part I've heeded that warning... I did plant up 2 of my 3 raised beds on Wednesday as I was able to retreat to the shade under my patio awning and sit at the table and have a cold drink... and I was quite happy with myself... I planted about 60 dahlia tubers and edged the beds with marigolds... then on Thursday I went out to admire my accomplishment and found this... direct your eyes to the upper left corner by the solar light... that tuber shouldn't be on top of the soil...argghhh

the damn squirrels or maybe the chipmunks had dug up a bunch of tubers... I didn't think to take a pic until I had most of them replanted... so how to deter the furry little varmints??   I remembered I had a roll of netting you can put on plants to keep the birds away... so I cut some and stretched it out and anchored it with the stakes I use when I put inflatables in the yard... now I'm not sure if I'll have to cut this away as the dahlias get larger but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

And this morning I looked out on my window boxes and found several places where some varmint had dug holes and relocated several of the geraniums and petunias.... arggghhh!!!   I replanted them and sprayed some repellent... it's too late to put this kind of screening in the boxes as the plants are getting pretty established ... need to look online for other ways to deter them... sigh...

I did go to the garden center with the fancy petunias... lots and lots of Proven Winner varieties ... and they did not disappoint.... here is my etagere of petunias...sounds classy doesn't it?  LOL... I used to have a pyramid  style plant stand, but there are more varieties I want than will fit on that stand, so I moved on to this last year... got the shelf unit, oops excuse me, etagere at Hobby Lobby... the shelves fold up so it is easy to store over the winter. I do LOVE petunias ... I have fond memories of planting them with my Grandma and my two great aunts, Lucy and Kate ... and  in my crazy mind, petunias are the fat quarters of the gardening world... you can't just get one, they have to travel in pairs or groups... so that's how I got to this  current display...

on that top shelf I have PW Latte...  I'm not a big fan of brown ...nor do I drink coffee/latte... but I love the brown veining in this petunia...

and I have a new to me PW Silverberry, it is the palest pink... so pretty.

then there is this purple speckly one... I see tiny yellow polka dots!   The tag says it is called Cherry Sky Burgundy  and it  is from a company called Selecta..  I liked this one so much I sprang for a bigger plant...

and then there is this mutant beauty...it is from Danziger and is in their Amazonas line... the name is Plum Cockatoo... there was only 1 left when I was shopping last Monday so I know I'm not the only person smitten with this one!

and I always pick up a Queen of Hearts... I got it at Walmart... and the petunia in the back is PW Pink Lemonade... some of the blooms are pink, some are yellow and some are both... 

now I included links so you can see the flowers more clearly but I got all of my locally.  And you can see that I've arranged the plants by color ... so I get to decorate outside with flowers!!  I'm having an issue again this year with some animal knocking the little plants off the etagere at night... don't know if it a deer or a squirrel... last couple of nights I pushed them further back on the shelves and sprayed some varmint repellent... that stuff stinks!! But I don't like going out in the morning and finding broken pots... 

I only got 2 small sections cleared of daffodils ... and I've reconsidered my plan of attack... it was backbreaking work and I really should let them die back more... sooooooo for the rest of them I'm just going to chop off a bit of the leaves... just enough to make room to plant stuff around them... and then I'll deal with the  dead parts later. Because  I'm not seeing as much growth as I would like to see,  I purchased 4 new Pretoria cannas... you can see them here...  I tucked the pots in among the alliums... and I'll give it a bit more time to see  where I need to plant these.  

And Thursday evening after it cooled down a bit from 87 degrees I went out and planted up 4 large pots and got carried away and planted 60 marigolds... omg... dug 60 holes, sprinkled fertilizer in 60 holes, put marigold in 60 holes... and paid the price for it on Friday... my hands hurt, my back hurt , my knees hurt... trying to learn from this experience and I'm getting Nick to help me plant the little zinnias... there are way more than 60 of those. As for my FOMO, I'm glad I got stuff when I got it... the garden centers still seem to be lagging in getting in more inventory. I've found fancy stuff, but the run of the mill things like pompom marigolds and salvia and coleus are still in short supply.  I haven't even thought about perennials ... my plan for now it to put I more dahlias. Of all the stuff that I left in the ground they've done the best... most are already a foot and a half high and one plant has buds on it!! Right now I consider them the "perfect" plant... the deer don't bother them, they overwinter nicely and give me lots of showy flowers.  I ordered some more tubers last week and I'm just going to plant them randomly through the beds... 

As for stitching, there hasn't been a lot this week. Several nights I was just too pooped to pick up a needle. I did stitch a tiny bit more on the Teresa Kogut Faith, Hope, Piece and Love, that I got off of Patreon,... (side tangent... I think when Teresa releases this to the public it will have a slightly different title as she already has a chart called Faith, Hope, Peace, Love  you can see it here.)   However,  I wasn't feeling it so I picked up Prairie Schooler  American Primitive... this was my unicorn chart...  it is book No. 8 published in 1985 (that's 39 years ago!)... there are 5 patterns and I LOVE ALL OF THEM!! 

 I started with Double Eagle Sampler... 

32 ct linen dyed with Lemon Yellow Rit dye... I'm doing the BIG letters in smyrna crosses... gives it a bit of dimension...and stitching Prairie Schooler is always comfort stitching. 

And it just occurred to me that next Sunday is Mother's Day... and I have a tradition that on Mother's Day I start a new sampler guilt free as my gift to myself... but I want to have it all kitted up and ready to go. Soooo I started perusing my stash... and that lead me to trying to sort some charts and file them... and then I fell into the drawer of long ago started  and still unfinished projects and after a couple of hours, I decided several of them are never going to get finished. I salvaged some of the linen and pulled out the flosses and tossed the rest... made space for new charts that are started but  not finished...lather, rinse, repeat. At the moment I've narrowed my Mother's Day start down to 2 charts that are already kitted up and ready to go ... and 2 that aren't... and I still have time to change my mind... again and again and again... I have an embarrassment of riches... so many cool charts I want to stitch!

I didn't get much quilting/sewing done... I did hem 4 pairs of pants for my older son... however, the bow ties are increasing...I'm cutting 4 at a time and stitching them up...

these two are cute... the chickens are from American Jane and the mice are from Heather Ross. 

and I had a thought about making some smaller bow ties too.. maybe making a block of 4 small ones here and there... need to work out the math... 

As for decorating, this is my display out on the porch... I'm spending as much time as possible out there... 

on the wall is the Spring ABC's by Little House Needleworks... I stitched every season of this series and love all of them.... this one is stitched on my go to 32 ct and I dyed it with a concoction of Lemon Yellow and Coral... the resulting color is kinda cantaloupe... that little screen behind it was from Darice Crafts... don't know if they make it anymore... it was unfinished wood and  I "stained" it with Aquamarine Rit dye... I've been able to paint/stain a lot of wooden items with Rit Dyes... 

on the top of the little apple Green shelf unit is Sampler Hill  by With Thy Needle & Thread... as I recall there are like 99 tulips in the border... 

next is The Magic Garden by Shakespeare's Peddler and the little pillow is Birdhouse Alphabet by Little House Needlework...

now I  I think The Magic Garden is the first piece I dyed linen for... and then I changed almost all the colors in the pattern... and I'm very happy with my interpretation of this chart... as for the little pillow, I stitched this on 28ct over 1 thread... I like the look but don't enjoy the process. 

At the bottom I have a piece from  Spring Smalls by Lizzie Kate... I mounted that on a little box I got at Target years ago. 

 All in all it is a nice display for me to enjoy when I spending time on my sunroom porch... which is the BEST room in my house!! I'm so glad I enclosed the porch... best home improvement project I have done!  I'm sitting out here as I type this ... I can watch the birds and enjoy the breeze ... very peaceful... and it  is going to rain any minute ...I'm writing this on Saturday... looks like rain on an off all  day ... I think I'll postpone gardening  today, the humidity is horrible....  but the  ground will be soft for planting on Sunday... 

So far it looks like a quiet week ahead... Elliott on Tuesday and dinner with friends once or twice... no other engagements... should have time to work in the garden and maybe stitch a bit more. That would be very nice.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today...Hope your week ahead is one filled with time to do the stuff you want to do! Now to keep myself from wasting time on the internet and pacing myself on the garden work ... lately ibuprofen is my best friend...LOL

happy stitching -

carol fun 

FOMO and trying to pace myself on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello... well I do believe the weather has kicked into planting season... today it going to be 80 and the garden centers are finally getting in their inventory of annuals... marigolds, petunias, geraniums, cleome, coleus, etc etc etc... I didn't get a lot of stitching or sewing done this past week but I sure did a lot of shopping!!  I've made at 7 or 8, I've lost count, separate visits to some of my favorite garden centers and this is what I've brought home so far... not everything is in these pics as I already had the window boxes planted up when I took the pictures...

 a rough estimate of what I've hauled home is  2 flats of petunias, 3 flats of geraniums, 1.5 flats of asparagus ferns, 2 flats of marigolds, 4 flats of zinnias, 3 perennials salvias, 18 cleome,  8 different coleus, about a dozen fancy petunias, 2 Prince Tut ferns and assorted fillers.. and even with all of that  I'm experiencing a big case of FOMO... fear of missing out... None of the places I went was fully stocked... I think this later arrival of warmer days has delayed shipment of plants... I know more will be coming it, but I want EVERYTHING ...and I want it NOW!!   I am not a patient gardener... LOL  What I've gotten so far will do my flower boxes, the edging on my beds, and a couple of other areas. I  gotten very little  for my assorted large pots and I haven't gotten anything planted in my new raised beds, but I do have stuff to put in them. 

The alliums  in the garden beds are going gang busters... they've naturalized and I don't think I'll be buying any more. The daffodils are dying back and I'm dying to get in and clean up the beds...but they really should be left alone for a while longer... but I've cut back a bunch as I want space for annuals. You can see some of the alliums in the pic above... and this is what I planted in them.

these pale yellow petunias with salmon colored gerniuums.  

My peonies have a ton of buds on them and I have dahlias that are up almost a foot... yikes... I should definitely pinch them back a bit. I wish I saw more shoots from my cannas, I'm a bit worried that they aren't going to come back. If not I will go buy more as I loved the "wall" they made for my yard last year. 

Now I need to pace myself...not only do I want EVERYTHING right NOW... I also want it all planted RIGHT NOW!  My son helped me with the window boxes on Friday... and I got a pot of coleus planted up and some fancy petunias and did some clean up in the beds...  we have more to plant today... and tomorrow I have a trip to another garden center planned which usually has a very nice assortment of the fancy petunias... I can hardly  wait... 

As I said there was a lot of shopping in last week but only a bit of stitchy stuff... I spent Monday afternoon sorting all my Tilda fabrics into color ways... this will help me doing the gradations for the spool blocks but I didn't get anymore of them cut out. Elliott wasn't interested in playing downstairs on Tuesday so I only got  a couple of bow tie blocks done.  Didn't touch the yellow sawtooth stars at all... and I have another Tilda scrap quilt in mind but I only cut a couple of pieces for it.   

There is a bit of rain in the forecast for mid-week which may give me some sewing time. I know as long as the weather is nice I'm going to be out working in the yard... or going to other garden centers!

As for cross stitch I did get a little bit more done on the Teresa Kogut's  Faith Hope Peace and Love...

I'm still undecided on the color for the alphabet... went back to the called for color for this block... but it's the block with the fewest letters so I'm not sure it's a good example...

Now I did get some FFO-ing done last Sunday... first off I did this little pillow with Queen Elizabeth II and her corgi... it is a called Corgi Love by The Snowflower Diaries and you can see it  here... I stitched this sometime last year ... but last Sunday would have been the Queen's 98th birthday and it seemed appropriate to finish this...

now I didn't have enough of those yellow pompoms to go all the way around... but this little pillow will just sit on the shelf in this display so it doesn't show much ... and if I can find more of the trim I'll add  it ...

and aren't the little figurines adorable?  An online friend sent me a link for them... you can see it here... and I had to have them for this display.

And I FFO'd the pear from Annie Beez Folk Art Spring Green Pears...  it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be ... the stem came from trimming a hydrangea bush in my yard... I forgot the leaves...and I don't think I'll add any...oh and there are suppose to be some stitching on the side of the peart... I may get motivated and do them...

And I finished the Pinker n Punkin Quilting Tulip House....  I'm very happy with the pink chenille trim on this one...

 Here it is in the tier tray display...

And here's the wall quilt display....

I made this BRIGHT tulip quilt back in 2017... the tulip is my version of the Tulip Patch quilt in Lori Holt's book Quilty Fun.  I haven't hung this one in a couple of years but I got the urge to release several older quilts from their plastic bins and enjoy them.

So next week will be BIG on gardening... but if the rain in the forecast does materialize that would be a good thing in several ways... it would water in my new plants ... and keep me from over doing it... which will happen otherwise... LOL  My younger son is a BIG BIG help ...he totes the bags of potting soil and the flats of flowers around the yard ... and he digs the holes for the marigolds and the zinnias... I put in some fertilizer and drop in the plant and give it a little pat down... it speeds up the process.  I can do the raised beds and the large pots myself... I really do enjoy putzing with the flowers. 

However some time spent with needle and thread will be a rest for my arthritic knees ... I know Rome wasn't built in a day but I sure would like to see my yard all planted up in a week!  LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... last week I read several blogs that had me online shopping... bought some older Jardin Prive charts from 123 Stitch and some fabric off of Etsy... just trying to do my bit to stimulate the economy!  

Hope your week is filled with the activities you want to do!! I'm off to play with some more plants, right after I take a couple of ibuprofen!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

A case of Spring-y startitis on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello... well last week was a good week... the weather overall was lovely...we had a couple of stellar days and now are having a weekend of seasonal temps - upper 50's, low 60's -  and the forecast for this week is mid-60's and no rain... we still aren't past the cut off for no chance of frost... which keeps me from buying annuals... well that the fact that I haven't seen anything more than a hanging basket of petunias  for sale, as far as annuals go. I expect lots of inventory will come in starting this week as Mother's Day is in  3 weeks ... and I can hardly wait to buy petunias and marigolds and coleus and cleome and sedum and lavender and you get the idea.

However, I don't have a  lot of open space in my garden beds yet. The daffodils need to die back and the alliums  are coming on really strong... they definitely mutliplied and they are taking up a lot of space.  But that won't keep me from filling up my window boxes and other pots and those new raised beds. There will be lots to do... in the meantime my energy has been bouncing around in my basement sewing room and a bad case of startitis developed... I started not ONE, not TWO, but THREE new quilt projects... and here's where it all is right now.

Let's break it down... first we have these 8 spool blocks all done in Tilda's... the block is the Biscuit quilt,  from the It's Sew Emma  book called Simply Jelly Rolls... except I'm not using a jelly roll, I'm fussy cutting  each 2.5" piece and trying to gradate the colors...

I have 10 blocks done and I want to make 20 for a nice size throw... so far I'm not having any trouble  making gradations, but there may be some fabrics that get repeated.. and I'm having all my spools in a vertical orientation so the directional prints are right side up... makes my OCD happy!!

Here's some close ups...

I was putting away the fabrics from the Kim Brackett quilt I'm calling daffodils and I got to thinking how much I like to make yellow scrap quilts. The daffodil one is scrappy ... 32 different yellow fabrics... and my stash of yellows is pretty substantial... and I want to play some more with them and with my low volumes... 

I was laying in bed one night thinking about this and came up with the idea of 10" sawtooth stars in a positive/negative configuration... oooooohhh  I like this.... I like this A LOT!!

So far I've only done 4 blocks... currently I envision this as a quilt for my full size bed... 9 blocks wide and 9 blocks long... 81 different  blocks... I may revise this idea but in the meantime it is FUN and gives me an opportunity to go visit a couple of quilt shops to add in some new yellows and low volumes.

And then I was just minding my own business when I got an email from FQS talking about an upcoming SAL with the new Fig Tree Quilt book, Strawberry Garden. They are going to be doing the bow tie pattern...now I have no idea what size their block is but I'm happy with an 8" finished block...and I'm making it scrappy and green!!

I may post these to IG for the SAL but it depends on how long my enthusiasm lasts... I'm awful at SALs ... I start out all excited and then another shiny block comes along and I'm off on another tangent... there are just so many many many many many many many many things I want to do!!!  Every bow tie will be a different green fabric but the background fabric will be the same as I have 5 yards of that white with the little green flower. Don't remember why I bought 5 yards of this... maybe it was on sale??  Who knows... but my current plan (always subject to revision...LOL) is to do 56 bow ties... 7 across and 8 down and then a nice border of the background fabric. So far with just these 10 blocks I have several wildly different styles of fabrics... there is a bow tie in Tilda fabrics (it was sitting on my cutting table with the stash I'm using for the spools)... and there is a piece from Lori Holt, those little scissors on green... and some really old fabrics... one from KP Kids and another from a collection by I think Cheri Saffiote... I'm going to do at least one bow tie with Kaffe fabrics and one with Debbie Mumm and one with American Jane and one with Momo and one with Cathe Holden and one with Jen Kingwell  and on and on and one... I love rummaging through my fabrics  and remembering all the wonderful fabric collections I've gotten a piece or two of... 

 I'm feeling virtuous as 2 of these projects I only plan to do a throw size quilt...fingers crossed I can stay virtuous... I have my doubts... LOL

As for cross stitching I had plans to get the pear and the little house from Pinker n Punkin FFO'd...but it didn't happen... maybe today... I only stitched on one project (perhaps this was to balance out the startitis down in my sewing room)... I finished the top square of Faith, Hope, Piece and Love from Teresa Kogut...

it is so hard to accurately capture the color of this linen... think DMC 470 ... 

 I like the additions of the peach flosses for the flowers and I filled in the house. I frogged the letters and restitched them in 842... not sure but I may frog them again and go back to the called for 841... just got a bit of stitching in on the second block... I'm feeling a bit antsy so I may start another chart... we shall see.

As for decor, well I'm still tweaking my displays but I did change up the quilts on my bed... 

I moved the tulip quilt to the foot board and put on my American Jane quilt from the pattern Simple Pleasures by Brenda Riddle... now each block is comprised of 49 squares and the pattern is written for strip piecing with a jelly roll but I individually cut all the squares so I could make every square a different fabric... and yes I never do anything the easy way... LOL

Some of my favorite squares are yellow (surprise surprise surprise) and   include a teddy bear...

and an elephant  in the little yellow square...

and letters and chickens and a cat and paper doll clothes and polka dots on yellow... as Julie Andrews sang... these are a few of my favorite things!

 

I hope to have some sewing and stitching time this week but I never know how the days will play out until they do. I'm babysitting Elliott  for our regular Tuesday and on Thursday evening so his parents can to out to dinner and celebrate their wedding anniversary. I have an appointment to get my hair cut and colored on Wednesday. And next Saturday we are doing a dim sum brunch for my younger son's birthday ... he'll be 34... time flys exceedingly fast... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and then spend some time reading blogs as I sit out on sunroom porch... no plans to go anywhere except maybe a trip to our favorite soft serve ice cream place... flavor of the week is a cherry Dole Whip... I have them add those mini chocolate chips... sooooo good!! Hope you have a great week ahead filled with time to do the stuff you want to do!!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Busy busy busy, but not a bunch to show on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello ...well I knew last week was going to be a busy one ... lots of social times... several lunches and a birthday party... along with babysitting... which I also knew that meant there wouldn't be a lot of time to do crafty stuff... and there wasn't... however the upcoming week looks promising for crafty time... fingers crossed.

Monday was the solar eclipse day... Nick and I opted to just stay put and see what we saw from our front porch... we didn't get 100% totality but it was pretty close... it didn't go totally dark but it was definitely "dusky" and the temperature dropped... it was exciting to see. My older son took his family a bit north of here and they did get to see the totality and the corona... Elliott was suitably impressed... they spent several hours waiting for the event in a lovely park which had anticipated lots of visitors and had set up an inflatable obstacle course for the kids to play on and there was free water and cupcakes ... they had a great time and avoided most of the traffic by keeping to the back roads which my son is very familiar with. By about 11am here the expressways going west were already bumper to bumper and the eclipse didn't start till after 2 pm... glad I didn't go  anywhere...

Tuesday I had a lovely time ...lunch with friends and a trip to Delinda the long arm quilter... I picked up this quilt... 

I'm calling it Kaffe's  Spools but the pattern is actually titled Banana Split from the book The Cake Mix Quilt book by Sew Emma... I love the grunge background..it  is the color way Pear... and the panto is called Whirling Swirls... 

 and get a load of this back fabric... it was a 108" wide and has a very sateen quality.

Wednesday was spent with Elliott... we went to  McDonalds and then spent the afternoon watching Number Block videos... it's his current fav and was the theme for his birthday parties... there were 3... one a school , one with family, and one with some neighborhood friends... he is a very lucky boy... 

Thursday I thought I had nothing on my agenda but then my neighbor Sylvia asked if she and her daughter Cecelia could come up and would I help them with a table runner project  that is going to be a retirement gift for one of Cecelia's co- workers... and this is what we collaborated on...

yes I see that there is a HST turned the wrong way on the right side... I'll fix that before added some sashing in the middle and down the sides.

Friday I went to lunch with my quilty lady friends and then they came back to my house so we could talk and eat pie... Stephie brought a Key Lime pie... it was delicious!  Then the evening was spent celebrating Elliott's 5th birthday... 

I've started a tradition of wrapping his birthday and Christmas presents in a themed pillow case ... this year I chose Star Wars as I've found several cool Star War Lego sets...this is a quick way to wrap multiple gifts and he likes pulling things out of the "magic" pillowcase as he call it...

and this pillow case has some history too it...

now the Star Wars fabric came from Hobby Lobby last week but that red cuff with the shooting stars... that is about 35 years old... a VIP Cranston print ... and I used it in the first quilt I made for Elliott's daddy... I still have the quilt... it was a train and the pattern came from Quilter's Newsletter... do you remember that magazine?  At the time it was the premier quilting publication and I anxiously awaited ever monthly issue... sigh... I miss good magazines... I don't have any subscriptions anymore... I occasionally pick up a magazine at the grocery  but lots of times I flip through them and put them back on the rack... 

So that brings me to Saturday and I'm writing this as I sit out on my sunroom porch... the weather this week was primarily gray and dreary... except for the eclipse day which was 70 and sunny... thanks for the little gift Mother Nature... today it appears we may have turned the corner on weather... sunny, very breezy but upper 60's and a forecast for 70's for the rest of the week... along with some crafty time I will be scoping out the garden centers... I can't wait to plant up my window boxes and some big pots... I will restrain myself from putting stuff in the ground as I'm not safe from frost till mid May... 

As you can tell there wasn't a lot of crafty endeavors... I did stitch a pear from the Annie Beez pattern Spring Green Pears... 

now the kinda bumpy lump is a test run of how to assemble this... there should be a stem and some leaves which I didn't bother with at the moment.  The instructions on the pattern left me scratching my head but I was able to find these great instructions on the blog Jo's Country Junction... you can find them here.  I was hoping to display the fabric pear but I'm not sure now...  I'm thinking part of the problem is that fabric is too busy for this ... hard to see the outline of the pear... but I do get how to put it together...

And I couldn't resist starting  the Teresa Kogut Patreon piece Faith, Hope, Peace and Love...

This isn't a great capture of the color of the linen... the green is pretty vibrant...not washed out... very close to DMC 470... if I get this square done  before next Sunday take a pic in daylight and  I'll post a pic to IG... 

Anyway, I'm very happy with my additions of floss... love the peachy pink and I think the called for blues pop nicely against the olive green linen... it is hard to see but in real life there are splotches of tan which go well with all the tan/beige flosses.  And can I say that I really really really LOVE stitching on 32 ct... the pear was one ply of silk on 36ct... it does give nice coverage but I have trouble seeing the holes even with strong magnification and I didn't enjoy the process... 32 ct is my sweet spot... and I'm gonna stay with it. 

I was surprised when I watched Teresa's latest Flosstube... she showed my finish of her chart Remember Me and had some very nice words to say about it... you can watch the Flosstube here ... and my sampler shows up around the 37 minute mark.  Here is the sampler again in case you missed it...

As for decor I did get all of the bunnies back into their plastic bins and I broke out the birds... and I also brought out some brightly colored quilts that haven't seen the light of day for a while... it is nice to change things up...  here's the small shelf display unit... right now it is the only display that I feel is totally complete... I have little things I still want to add to other displays ...

Up top I have a sunny yellow table runner ... all those squares are different tone on tone yellows... I'm still displaying that little tulip quilt as the tulips are just coming up here is SW Ohio... the cross stitched bird pulling the cart is from Homespun Elegance...

 and the little beaded alphabet pillow is  Hello Spring from Sub Rosa Designs.

The two shelves below are loaded with cross stitch... front left to right is Good Deeds from With Thy Needle and Thread, in the middle is Welcome, dear August from the Blackbird Design book In Friendship's Way and on the right side is the very first cross stitch piece I ever did!!

On the bottom shelf I have Brite Birds by Kathy Barrick is is a freebie you can find here... in the middle is the tulip pincushion from the book Thank you Sarah Tobias  by Blackbird Designs and  Bobbin' Along by Not Forgotten Farms. 

I would have stitched this piece in 1985... it came as a kit... and true to my habits of never leaving well enough alone I changed out the Aida for a sage-y green color and added the word Nesting... I had just given birth to my first child and I was deep into nesting...

Hopefully this week I'll get the Tulip House from Pinker n Punkin FFO'd and the Annie Beez pear... I'm itching to start a new quilt project... actually 2 new quilt projects... I want to play with my Tilda fabrics and right now I'd like to make a bed sized quilt with the pattern  Coffee Quilt., from the It's Sew Emma book  Perfect 10 Quilts and I'd like to make a throw size quilt, again with my Tilda fabrics, using the pattern  Biscuit Quilt from the It's Sew Emma book Simply Jelly Rolls. I have yardage of a pretty low volume fabric I picked up at Hobby Lobby this week that I want to use as background on both quilts. If you look back at the picture of the pears you can see the fabric I'm talking about.   I'd like to have the bed sized quilt on my bed...duh... and the throw to throw over the chair in the corner. I really like having multiple quilts using the same fabrics ... similar, yet different...

And after dithering over whether to add borders to the blocks from the Kim Brackett book, Scrap-Basket Sensations, that she called Flowers for Nana's Girl and I'm calling the daffodil quilt ... (pause take a breath ..LOL) I decided to forgo them... now it probably would look a bit better but I want to display this on my living room wall next Spring and if I add borders it will be too big to fit the display space. Instead I will do a wider binding... maybe with a little flange... I'm very happy with this top but I'm ready to move on to something else. 

So other than watching Elliott on Tuesday ... and making several visits to my neighborhood soft serve ice cream stand that has pineapple Dole Whip on them menu this week... I don't have any definitive plans for my upcoming week. The weather forecast is wonderful... sunny... temps in the 70's... the kind of weather you can open the windows and air the house out... and turn off the furnace and deprive Duke energy of a few pennies... my chair out out here on the sunroom porch is quite comfy...and the lighting  is great to stitch by... and I can watch my bird feeders... just saw a cardinal which always makes me think of my loved ones who have passed... and I say a prayer for them and me and you...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I've discovered a couple of new to me blogs that are fun to read... I even figured out how to add one to my side bar... LOL... I really should try to clean it up and post a new header but I'm terrified of messing it up and not being able to get back into the blog... I'm just tech savvy enough to get myself into trouble but not out of trouble... and now that I've checked on my blog format somehow I messed something up... it is only showing 10 blogs and when I click on "Show All" I'm not getting any more to show... drat drat drat... 

edited to add - this morning when I hit "Show All" it shows all of the blogs on the list...yeah!

I hope you have a lovely week ahead... good weather makes everything better for me... my mood improves and my aches and pains seem to subside a bit... and I truly love seeing all of the flowering trees right now... so many pretty pinks and creamy white and peachy ones... I'd love to have more trees in my yard but I've run out of yard! I have fantasies of purchasing the house next door to mine so I could garden in that back yard along with what I have now... they are the kind of neighbors that mow the grass but don't do much else with their yard... and I'd love to have a couple more raised beds ... oh I can dream...

happy stitching-

carol fun