Scattered surprises on a Slow Sunday

 Hello - well that was an interesting week... lots of things happened that I didn't expect... starting with last Sunday when I woke up to 2 inches of SNOW... what the??? Saturday my phone sounded off constantly about a Flash Flood warning as it rained all day... but NEVER was the word SNOW mentioned... NEVER... I knew it was going to get colder ... and it did.. but the weather guys certainly messed up on this one... I've gotten to be a weather junkie in my old age... hey, not a lot goes on in my world... and I have TWO weather apps on my phone that I look at numerous times a day... NEITHER one said anything about 2 inches of SNOW... you'd think that might be something people would want to know about, wouldn't you?

Anyway we stayed home all day on Sunday... I ventured downstairs and sewed a bit...I put a new light strip on my Juki... WOW this is bright!!! and I like it! I have plenty of projects that are WIPs but first I wanted to play with that Lori Holt tablerunner block I mentioned last week... I broke open a bunch of Lori Holt pre-cuts I've been collecting... a layer cake, some charm packs and even a fat quarter pack of backgrounds... and I made these blocks... and surprise I like them A LOT!!

Here's a link to the tablerunner and you can see where I added some connector corners to the "Petals" making the "flowers" more roundy... my blocks came out 10" finished and if I set them straight with a little sashing I would need 64 blocks for a bed size quilt (and no need to remind me that I said I didn't need to make anymore bed size quilts... I don't NEED to but I WANT to)...

but if set them on point (which I'm liking a lot) and make the sashing between the blocks about 2" finished I'd need less blocks... although I haven't figured out exactly what that number is....

now I'm using a variety of Lori Holt backgrounds here and I have a bunch of FQs that would be great for setting triangles for the sides... and maybe a small scrappy border that blends in... and I already have that 108" wide backing I showed last week... oh I like this idea... so far I've been cutting one block out at a time... I pick 2 different charm squares for the petals and a background fabric and then I'm cutting all the centers from a layer cake of Lori Holt Bee cross stitch collection. Lots of different fabrics, very scrappy. 

Then I turned my attention to the American Jane quilt with the honeybun blocks that has been waiting around to be finished for a while... and here's where I left it... along with other stuff on my design wall...

There are 2 more rows and then borders... a throw size ... surprised that I kept it that small...LOL

And then I played with the American Jane spool blocks I started back in July...

Close up of a couple of the blocks and the cornerstones... 

this is going to hang above my cutting table so the dimensions are about 50 something inches wide and about  45" tall... I used my treasured tape measure fabric as the cornerstones and  I'm going to bind it with some of that same fabric ...I have been hoarding this for quite some time... oh I wish they'd reprint this one... 

 and all of these project were surprises because I thought my sewing mojo had left the building... LOL.. I spent a lot more time this week on sewing than I did on cross stitch and that hasn't happened for quite some time. 

I had my last appointment with the orthopedic doctor on Monday... he was pleased with my recovery and released me to do out-patient physical therapy which I started on Tuesday... while in his office I mentioned that in the past I'd been getting steroid shots in my knees for my arthritis and that any pain I was having seemed to be more  from arthritis than the  fracture... he asked if I'd like to get shots today... would I??  I'd love to get a little relief so that was a good surprise!  And my knees are feeling a bit better... 

On Tuesday I did my first PT and I went again on Thursday... the surprise from this was not so much that my knees hurt the next day, but how tired I was the next day... both Wednesday and particularly Friday I was a total slug... need to work on my stamina.

As for cross stitch, I think I'm calling this one done... Bower Birds by Liz Matthews...

I could add in 3 more thistles but I'm not feeling it...

And I could have picked up Quaker Samplings... but I wasn't feeling it either...

So instead I picked up this piece... Vibrant Flowers from Kathy Barrick... 

Big dress to fill in and lots of little flower motifs... will be cute in my Spring or Summer  display... and I'm itching to start something new... maybe something small for Easter... I think I'll start packing the snowmen away late next week ... I'm ready for some new decor... I'll start with Easter and by the time it rolls around I'll be ready to move onto Spring with birds... and I'm happy that I'm pretty sure I can do all the decorating without help... well except for Nick moving the boxes up and down the stairs...

Oh and I had another nice surprise... the  power recliner I ordered from Amazon came... Nick and Chris assembled it for me ... and I LOVE IT!!!  It is a good size for me.... the arms aren't too high... and I love the chenille-y upholstery...

now several friends commented on how I was going to keep it clean... and I will be careful... and I'm going to Scotchguard it... it is very cozy to nap in... and I did quite a bit of napping Wednesday and Friday... which surprised me... but in a good way.

I called to have the rental power chair and the ramp removed ... took an email, a phone call and a text message to get a response which was "we'll get back with you"... sigh... hopefully this week. I sent out some emails to get estimates on a deck/landing for by the front door... when the weather improves ... and fingers crossed the next 10 days are looking promising... I'm hoping we've turned the corner and Spring will arrive soon... officially 25 days till Spring... 

Oh and another surprise... a GOOD one... I popped into Costco and they had the bags of dahlia tubers!!! I've checked back on the blog and the first time I bought them there were a dozen in a bag for $10... they are up to 8 in a bag for $14 but that is still a steal... I got a few, a couple, a whole LOTTA bags...

By my calculations I got 80 dahlias, 9 elephant ears and 100 gladiolus... I read where you are suppose to plant the gladiolus sequentially... plant a bunch one week, then come back the following week and plant some more and then do that again... Glads only bloom once so if you do it that way you'll have a stream of flowers... I'm going to try that... and I saw a couple more YouTube gardening videos and I have to go check out Home Depot and Lowe's and Walmart as I saw goodies each store had that I want to check out... and I have to break the news to my lawn and landscape guy that I want him to assemble the 2 raised beds that are in the garage... I bought them last year so I could get all the raised beds to match... didn't want to miss out and my OCD needs them to be matching... I know it isn't a job he's gonna love but he'll do it... two more bed would put them almost out to the side walk but they will get so much more sun. I think I'll plant the back 2 beds with more shade loving stuff or maybe some veggies that I can cover to keep the local wildlife at bay. And out of the blue (another surprise) I got a bid for the sprinkler/irrigation system I'm interested in.  I first contacted this company back in November... and I contacted 2 other companies too but I haven't heard back from them... guess I'll try some other places. 

Next week looks kinda quiet... PT Tues/Thurs, dinner with friends on Monday and my cleaning lady on Tuesday... weather doesn't look too cold... couple of days flirt with upper 50s... which should preclude any snow... but one can never be sure... I hope to surprise myself and get some more sewing done... perhaps get a binding on one of the half dozen finished quilts that are waiting for me.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts  and Quilting is More Fun than Housework since I have some sewing to show... 

Here's hoping the we all have a productive week... and a nice surprise or two!

happy stitching-

carol fun