Moving along on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - so how was your week?  Mine was nice... things are moving along... I didn't get a lot of crafty stuff done but I did get out and about several days which made me very happy. Now I can maneuver with a cane from the house to the car and into a restaurant fairly well. I went into Krogers and hung onto a cart for stability and did the same thing another day at Hobby Lobby. I haven't worked up enough stamina to walk around a store with just a cane so far... but I believe I'll get to that point. It has only been 3 1/2 weeks since I was able to put my left foot on the ground... and I've progressed from a walker to a rollator to a cane... final goal is to walk like I did before the fall... I go back to the ortho guy on Monday and have an appointment with the outpatient physical therapist on Tuesday. Have a scrip for 6 weeks of PT twice a week... have high hopes that at the end of that I will be walking without any assistance. 

Trying to get my house back into order... lots of stuff got moved around when the ramp got installed and I got the lift chair ... the chair is LARGE and while it is super comfortable I don't like the look or the upholstery... it has a definite man-cave vibe and it is  faux leather,not my cup of tea... I always thought I didn't want a recliner in my living room, but I've changed my mind. I've ordered one in a creamy linen-y upholstery that should come Monday... and when it comes I'm calling the mobility business that did the rental for the lift chair and the ramp and having them come collect their stuff. Then I can get the living room and the porch back in order... which will make me HAPPY!. 

As for crafty stuff, things moved along there too... this is where I got on the Quaker Samplings piece...

All of the alphabet and the 2nd big Quaker element on the bottom... and these are some of the best captures of the mottling and color of this linen that I've been able to get... IRL it is still a little pinkier/rosy..

Some close ups...

I ordered more of the Vintage Lace floss and of the 4 skeins  I got, 2 will work well with what I have and that might be enough to finish this... I still have 1 skein of the original floss so I can kinda blend and mix the old with the new. My plan is to do all the elements in the perimeter and work my way to the big element in the middle... which if I need to can be stitched with the floss that doesn't have much pink in it. 

And while I was waiting for the Vintage Lace floss to arrive, I pulled out another project that only used one color of thread... this is Bower Birds by Liz Matthews....  here's the chart...

and here's where I am...

And it was my lucky day on Friday to take pictures because this is also a great capture of the color and motting of this linen that I dyed... a yellowy Springy green!

Here's one where I pumped up the contrast so you can see the stitching better... because the contrast is low between the floss (Cosmo 8016) and the linen there are ghosty areas and that's what I wanted!

I started this back in April of 2020... I pulled it out in February of 2022 and I know I worked on it one time in 2023... and it has languished since then. I picked up this piece because it is soooo close to being finished and it will look good when I get out all my bird stuff this Spring... but it has given me fits... first it is 40 count... I can do 40 count but I don't like doing it... it is hard to see and doing this as basically tone on tone low contrast it requires concentration... I LOVE the look but it is work... the Cosmo thread I'm using has a multitude of  lovely different shades of green. 

Now along with it being 40 count my counting is off... and it just kept getting worse. I decided that I would shorten the piece and leave off the bottom 3 sets of leaves... there are plenty already... and I started with the thistle on the right hand side... and I got the whole motif stitched when I realized it is off by 2 stitches...which impacts all the rest of the thistles so I'm scaling back the number I'm going to stitch... at least that is the current plan. I have one more on the left and then I might go back and add in another one or two IF I can squeeze them in... we shall see... 

Some more fabric snuck into the house... this is a 108" wide back from Lori Holt... 

I have a plan for a quilt I want to use this with... a scrappy Lori Holt pattern that I saw as a kit... the kit is called Pretty Petals and you can see it here... but I don't want to buy the kit, I'd be happy to just buy the pattern but that's not the way it is being released...  I envision this bed size... so I'm going to wing it... I'm pretty sure I know what  size to make the block... stay tuned.

I'm still waiting on other fabric I ordered the beginning of the month... the post office seems quite slow at the moment.

Oh I did get this new chart... it kept the floss I ordered from 123Stitch, company on the trip from Texas to Ohio... this is A Winter's Day by Crocette a gogo...

and I'm going to stitch it on this piece of linen I dyed with Rit Sage dye....

now I left this sit for quite a while... because I got sidetracked and forgot about it... but I'm glad I did... I LOVE how it turned out... and the piece calls for just  DMC ... 

I wasn't going to start anything but I really wanna put some stitches in this... I know I won't get if finished this season, which is fine... I need to put a reminder in my calendar to pick this back up in say October so it will be done for next January... just a couple stitches won't hurt, right?? ...  and then back to Bower Birds which I definitely think is only a day away from a finish and Quaker Samplings... which is still a ways from the finish line... and I perhaps I'll pull out a small Spring piece... I'm thinking I'll  pull out my Spring and Easter decor the 2nd week of March... 

I saw more offerings for the Needlework Market next month... so far I had 3 charts on my "Wanna Buy" list... however that number more than doubled this week... oh well...  I like American White by October House ... you can see it here... and of the 7 new charts from With Thy Needle & Thread I want 6 of them... which you can see here...  now I know I don't have to buy them right away... but since I can't decide which one I want to do first I may have to ...LOL... I chalk it up to the fear of missing out... FOMO is real...

And speaking of FOMO I've been stalking Costco since last Sunday for the bags of dahlia tubers and other plants that they sell every year. I've seen several YouTube videos where people are showing their haul of dahlias and I can't wait to get my hands on them... I've been to my Costco twice and called once on the phone Kand they still aren't in... I checked back on the blog (another reason I have this blog and record such mundane things) and in the past I've bought them the end of February - the beginning of March... so I probably have another week to wait... but that won't stop me from calling or perhaps making another trip. 

I'm soooo ready for Spring but Mother Nature is NOT cooperating here... weather forecast for  the upcoming week has highs in the twenties and lows in the single digits... brrrrrrr... but at least I don't see any snow... I got the seeds I ordered in the mail so I have a nice stash ... and since Costco has me waiting I may check out the garden sections of Lowe's and Home Depot... one never knows what goodies one will find...LOL

Like I said my plans for next week are ortho on Monday and PT on Tuesday and there will probably be another day of PT too... other than that no firm plans... might venture downstairs and sew ... there's a American Jane quilt that I think is close to being done... I'm in the mood to get something finished... and there are about 5 quilts waiting for a binding... that might be the ticket for a finish... we shall see...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... Nick making some pasta stuff for dinner and we may stay put all day... Chris is suppose to come and get some stuff out of my garage and house but that depends on how he and Elliott and Jenny feel... they were all sick last week... different variations of the flu... I love them but they can keep their germs at their house... 

Hope you're week is a good one...

happy stitching-

carol fun